52 Ancestors Week 1: First

Although I am a little late beginning, I thought I'd try the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge this year. Briefly speaking, in this challenge, created by Amy Johnson Crow of the Modern Genealogy Made Easy blog, each week has an open-ended prompt to inspire that week's blog post. The prompt for Week 1, which was actually four weeks ago, was "First." Since four weeks doesn't sound like an inordinate amount of extra work, I am going to try to catch up.

Apart from tulips and wooden shoes, what represents Dutch culture (at least to an ignorant American like me) more than a windmill? This one is located in Boekel.
Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Joannes Gres or Henkels or Hendres (all three surnames appear in records) is the first ancestor I have found to have likely been born in what is now the Netherlands. He is my 6great-grandfather, through one of my Luxembourg lines:

•  Joannes Gres / Henkels / Hendres (father of:)
• Anna Maria Gresse (mother of:)
• Jean Nicolas Schmitt (father of:)
• Barbara Thines (mother of:)
• Harry Stroesser (father of:)
• Grandma Rose (mother of:)
• Mom (mother of:)
• Me

My discovery that he was born in what is now the Netherlands came embarrassingly late. I located the church records of his children quite some time ago, and he is described therein as "ex Boekolz." But it wasn't until late last year that I finally got around to figuring out where "Boekolz" was. Finally, one day on my lunch break at work, I decided to solve the mystery. After some searching on Google, I determined that "Boekolz" most likely referred to the town of Boekel, located in the province of North Brabant in the southern Netherlands. 

As far as I can grasp from a cursory examination of the quite convoluted history of the area, Boekel was already a part of the Netherlands at the time of Joannes' birth, estimated to be in the mid-1720s. However, it was something of a disputed area or a buffer zone at the time.

The discovery of this first Dutch ancestor is both surprising and exciting. Perhaps it should not be as surprising as I found it; Luxembourg and the Netherlands are geographically very close to one another, and historically have been parts of the same political unit. Yet somehow I hadn't expected to find anyone in my tree born there. However, according to my quick overview of the region of North Brabant, it did remain predominantly Catholic at the time of Joannes' birth, which strengthens its cultural ties to Luxembourg. I also find it exciting to be entering the realm of research in an area of the world in which I have no experience. I will have to learn a whole new set of records, written in a whole new language. Daunting, yes, but a challenge I look forward to tackling! ...when I have enough spare time to dedicate to it.