The Constable family’s known history begins in the Netherlands in 1640, two decades before making the voyage to America.

Our home was the city of Meppel.

Information is limited, but the general history of the time period and a handful of local Dutch Reformed Church records can give us a glimpse.

In the 1600s, Meppel was a small but growing inland port in the County of Drenthe, which was the poorest and most sparsely populated region of the Netherlands at the time.^[1] It was so poor, in fact, that it was exempt from paying taxes to the new Dutch Republic and therefore did not have representation in the national government.^[2]

The region was primarily known for its agricultural production, especially peat moss, which was loaded at the docks in Meppel and shipped to other parts of the Netherlands.

It is here that our story begins. On Feb. 7, 1640, Egbert Pauwels married Lemmichen Gerrits at the Dutch Reformed Church in the city of Meppel.^[3]

Egbert was a resident of Almelo in the neighboring county of Overijssel, while Lemmichen lived in Nijeveen, a short distance outside of Meppel.

Egbert and Lemmichen are our oldest known ancestors.

In the years that followed, they settled in Meppel and had at least three children according to the church’s baptismal records:

• Gerrit, son baptized on Apr. 4, 1641^[4]
• German, son baptized on Dec. 21, 1649^[5]
• Pouwelien, daughter baptized on Mar. 2, 1652^[6]

The Dutch people did not use surnames at this time, so all three of Egbert’s children would have adopted their father’s first name as their last name (called a “patronymic”). His children would have been known as Gerrit Egberts, German Egberts and Pouwelien Egberts.

Sadly, Egbert appears to have died while his children were quite young.

In 1656, Lemmichen Gerrits of Meppel married Claes Hermens of Cockange.^[7] The marriage record indicates that Lemmichen was the widow of Egbert Pauwels of Meppel, which tells us he died some time between 1652 and 1656.

Little else is known of Egbert and Lemmichen’s lives, or the lives of their children German and Pouwelien.

Our family’s story continues with Gerrit, Egbert’s eldest son.