Welcome to Our Vanderkloot Family web pages!

The focus of Our Vanderkloot Family web pages is the genealogy and history of Adrianus and Maatje van der Kloot of the Netherlands, their children, and their children's children.

At the head of our clan is Adrianus van der Kloot, born in 1798 in Oud-Vossemeer, on the island of Tholen in the province of Zeeland, the Netherlands. Adrianus married Maatje Dominé and they settled in Middelharnis, Zuid-Holland where they had six children. In 1836, Adrianus and Maatje and their children moved from Middelharnis to De Cocksdorp on the Island of Texel with the opening of the Eijerland polder. Adrianus was one of a number of founding familes of the town.

Adrianus had two sons, Marinus and Matthijs. Marinus married Meise Koning in 1849. In 1868, Marinus and Meis with their children emigrated to Chicago where Marinus started the Vanderkloot Ironworks.

Matthijs married Trijntje Smit in 1851 and stayed in De Cocksdorp where they raised a large family. In the early 1880s, three of their sons, Adrianus, Marinus, and Peter emigrated to Chicago to work for their Uncle Marinus in the Vanderkloot Ironworks. By 1886 most of the family, including Matthijs and Trientje emigrated to Chicago. Only Klass and Maatje remained in Holland.

The photograph above of Kikkertstraat shows the Dutch Reform Church in the town of De Cocksdorp, Texel. It is said that Matthijs Vanderkloot cast the bell in the tower and various Vanderkloots have reported that his stamp can still be seen on the bell. Kikkertstraat translates to Frog Street.

Various families within our clan have used alternate spellings such as van der Kloot, VanderKloot and Vanderkloot. However, for consistency, Vanderkloot is used for these web pages. At times van der Kloot will be used when referring to ancestors who spent their lives in the Netherlands as that is the Dutch spelling.

Through exploring Our Vanderkloot Family web pages you'll understand the origins of our Vanderkloot family. We'll do this through family charts, letters, maps, photos, records and family recollections. And then all these pieces are brought together in The Vanderkloot Story.

Adrianus and Maatje van der Kloot's children and grandchildren married into a number of other families such as the Dros and Tanis familes and Our Vanderkloot Family web pages provides some information about these families also.

Your primary author and webmaster for Our Vanderkloot Family web pages is Dave Jordan, a ggg-grandson of Adrianus and Maatje Vanderkloot and a gg-grandson of Matthisj and Trijntje Vanderkloot of Cocksdorp, Netherlands. Dave's been researching his Vanderkloot line since 1975.