Apologies for the post in English. I thought about translating my post into Dutch, but I'm not sure how readable/accurate  that would be, so I thought it best to stick to English. Please let me know if I should attempt to post in Dutch in the future.

I'm looking for details of my great x2 grandfather, a mariner born in Amsterdam, who first arrived in Sydney Australia under the name Jan van Bork in 1865 as crew on a ship that had arrived from The Philippines (I believe he was working on cargo vessels so those boats were in and out of ports everywhere). 

He  seems to have been in and out of port in Sydney a few times over the years (we don't have many surviving departure records from those times,  mainly only arrival records, so it is difficult to track all of his movements), but he married my great x2 grandmother in Sydney in 1872 and appears to have stopped working as crew then. However, his origins are a bit of a mystery,

On the marriage certificate dated 8th May 1872, he states he is 32, born in Amsterdam  and the son of Wilhelm van Bork (a joiner) and Sophia Hartoe (that's what the handwriting appears to read).

Many years ago, I was passed on information from a very distant Australian relative who I no longer have contact details for, stating that his parents were Wilhelm van Bork and Sophia Hartog, and that Jan's birth name was actually Johannes Wilhelm van Bork and that he was born in 1839.

I had no easy way of verifying this information beyond Australian records at at the time, and given that Jan eventually anglicised his name to John William Bourk, it all made sense. I will note that on the records in Australia, Jan's age changes, but from what I have, it appears he was likely born between 1839 and 1842. Only his age is listed on these records. No date of birth is given. 

I have located the 1821 marriage of Sophia Hartog and Willem van Bork online. Willem is listed as a timmermansknecht by profession, which I believe translates to carpenter/joiner, matching the profession of his father on Jan's Australian marriage certificate.

Through searching the archives, I have found the following children of the marriage, though not all through birth/baptism records. Some I have only found via their marriage records where the parents are listed, and one I only linked back via a military conscription record.

The children are:

1. Anna Maria van Bork b. 07/07/1821, Amsterdam, Netherlands m. Arie den Bruijgom 
2. Jacobus Johannes van Bork b. 01/10/1822, Amsterdam, Netherlands m. Elisabeth Lambrechts
3. Johanna Cornelia van Bork b. c.1825, Amsterdam, Netherlands m. Gerhardus Franciscus Flierboom
4. Jacomina van Bork b. 18/12/1826, Amsterdam, Netherlands m. Johannes Looten
5. Willem Jan van Bork b. 20/06/1831, Amsterdam, Netherlands m. Frederika Wilhelmina Moers 
6. Sophia van Bork b. 01/09/1833, Amsterdam, Netherlands m. Hendrik Hagedoorn
7. Jan van Bork, b. 03/01/1836, Amsterdam, Netherlands m. 1. Antonia Tibbe, 2. Frederika Christina Doijer
8. Jurrianus van Bork, b. Amsterdam, Netherlands 19.08.1839

My great x2 grandfather Jan is definitely not child 7, Jan van Bork, b. 03/01/1836 as he remarried in The Netherlands during my gx2 grandfather's time in Australia.

I think there is a slight possibility he could be Willem Jan van Bork b. 20/06/1831, Amsterdam, Netherlands m. Frederika Wilhelmina Moers.
He seems slightly too old to be my Jan, if I believe his approximate age on Australian records. A quick look reveals sufficient gaps in the birth of his children in the 1860s to account at least for the one voyage to Australia that I definitely know was my Jan's. If this is him though, it would mean he sailed back to the Netherlands at one point, which is possible. Willem's last child that I can find in The Netherlands was born in 1869, and I can't find a death record for Willem, so it is possible that he is my Jan van Bork who settled in Australia. I may have to look up his childrens' marriages to see if he signed their marriage certificates as that would indicate that he was in The Netherlands at the time of their marriages.

However, the most likely candidate appears to be this Jurrianus van Bork, b 1839. That birth date fits in with the age range of my Jan. I cannot find a birth, baptism marriage or death record for him in The Netherlands. The lack of birth/baptism record isn't too unusual for this family. Some of the children were only linked back to their parents via their marriage records, and the fact that there is no marriage or death record for Jurrianus could be explained by him settling in Australia.

There a conscription record for him under the spelling of Jurrianus that lists him as born in Amsterdam on 19.08.1839 and the son Willem van Bork and Sophia Hartog. I can't quite make out the handwriting to get a lot of other details aside from the basics that were provided in the English record translation on WieWasWie, but I know there are more details there. I'm not sure I have his occupation correct, but I think it might say scheepstimmer, (ship's carpenter) which would be a good transition between Jan's father being a  timmermansknecht and Jan eventually being a mariner.  Off the top of my head I believe Jan may have also worked as a carpenter in Australia later in his life.

I have also found bevolkingsregister entries for Jurianus (spelled with a single R) living with members of the van Bork family, including his father and stepmother Elisabeth Mulder and some siblings, including the Jan born in 1836.

I'm finding it difficult to get accurate dates on these bevolkingsregisters or the conscription record based on the scans and information available online. Is there a trick I'm missing that may not be obvious to a non Dutch speaker? I know the ones with his stepmother would have to be 1850 or later, but that's as far as I can get. 

Interestingly, one of the bevolkingsregister entries for Jurianus appears to have  been originally entered as Johannes and then crossed out and changed to Jurianus, which could indicate that Jurianus may have been known by the name Johannes/Jan, even back in The Netherlands.

At the moment, my theory is that Jurrianus is my great x2 grandfather who moved to Australia. Does anyone have any other tips/information that I may be missing in the records as a non Dutch speaker/reader? Perhaps emigration/departure records might be useful. Google translate can only get me so far when looking at hard to read handwriting, especially in a language I don't know. I have a limited knowledge of German, which has helped decipher some handwriting as some of the words look similar to some German ones which helps with the likely meaning and then figuring out the word, but it's still a bit of a struggle.

Many thanks,
Kerry





      

Apologies, I can't work out how to edit, but I should also add that the information from the distant relative which I couldn't verify, also gave my great x 2 grandfather's year of birth as 1839.

Hi,

I also think that Jurriaan is the one. His birth certificate is shown below. In some publications (militieregister) the occupation of his father is scheepstimmerman (marine carpenter).

His brother Jan is (cole?) stoker (I do not know the translation).

Both occupations are related to the sea.

17 october 1828 another Willem Jan van Bork was born. Father Willem van Bork, mother Sophia Hartog, see link, left side:

https://archief.amsterdam/inventarissen/scans/5009/1.3.5.57/start/120/limit/10/highlight/10
 

Thank you! May I ask how you found that birth record? I couldn't find anything when I searched a  few of the online archives. Perhaps there's a trick to it that I'm missing?

Jurrianus certainly does seem to be the most likely candidate to be my great x2 grandfather.

Thank you. I will double check the records I have for the Willem b. 1831 to ensure they're definitely correct and that the 1821 Willem is indeed another child.

Sorry, I meant the 1828 Willem, not 1821 :)

The Jan Willem who was born in 1828, died May 1829, in Amsterdam, see 10 years table:

https://archief.amsterdam/inventarissen/scans/5009/4.1.3.1/start/150/limit/10/highlight/3

Thank you

Registratie Willem Jan van Bork op 16 juni 1831 » Open Archieven

His profession was "liqueurstoker", which means: "distiller". Later he worked as a stable keeper

@Kerry,

for editing your post click on Bewerk 
and to save your post again click on the appearing Sla bijgewerkte bericht op

Thank you. Yes, that Willem Jan was.

Thank you. I even had the page translated to English, but somehow just didn't see it. I have edited my main post now.

Hi,

His birth record was found on: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-65NN-FZ?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQ2H6-G55W&action=view

Familysearch shows the most likely results with different name variations. I always click the option "show document details".

The marriage of his parents can be found on https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-65NN-FZ?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQ2H6-G55W&action=view

I can imagine that translations of handwritten documents are difficult. Send me a BP if you wish the documents to be translated.

Greetings from Sandra

Thank you Sandra,

I've gotten in touch with another researcher on this line, so I should be able to get the information I need now.