Page 42 - Poat_to_Poot_Engels

For many years the English and the French had tried to destroy the Dutch
economy by capturing their foreign colonies, blocking Dutch international
trade, and destroying the Dutch shipbuilding industry. As a result, the first
half of the 19th century was filled with economic difficulties. The Dutch were
burdened by heavy war debts. The theft of much of their wealth by the
French reduced the amount of money available for investment and rebuilding.
Heavy excise taxes on food and fuel slowed the economy.

When Jan Poot was a young man, probably in the early 1830s, he left his
parents, Job and Ingetje, and moved east to the city of Deventer in the
Overijssel province. This was an unusual move because Poots rarely moved
outside of the Delfland area. There were apparently only two old families
named Poot in the Overijssel Province. Jan's journey was probably motivated
by the desire to learn a craft or skilled trade. There were always more young
men seeking training or apprenticeship than the number of openings
available. Ambitious young men often traveled to any community where they
could find the opportunity to receive training. The Overijssel province was
one of the first regions in the Netherlands to begin to industrialize. Textiles
and metals related industries were showing the most activity here. These
changes created economic opportunities in non-farming jobs.

Jan's first training appears to have been as a cap maker ("pettemaaker"). This
is the occupation recorded when he was 23 and he married Lammerdina
Karmiggel, age 25. They were married in Deventer on 29 July 1839.
Lammerdina was born in late 1813 in the Wilp area of the city of Voorst.
Voorst is located in Gelderland, not Overijssel. But Voorst is only a short
distance, about 6 miles, south of Deventer. (When Lammerdina died in 1880,
her birth place was incorrectly recorded as Deventer.)

Lammerdina's parents were Jan Karmiggel and Elizabeth Donkers. (See the
chapter about names for information about the many variations in the
spelling of their names.) Her family was originally from Brummen, Gelderland
but had moved to Voorst between 1809 and 1813. They later moved to
Deventer sometime after 1830. Her father held the modest, yet respectable,
position of "veldwachter". His job was to guard the fields and orchards,
protecting them from theft and preventing their use as a hiding place for
criminal activity.

The Karmiggel name is extremely rare in the Netherlands and is spelled
differently in almost every public record. It is the Dutch equivalent of
Carmichael, a name of Scottish origin. There is information that a Robert
Carmichael arrived in Holland from Britain about 1610. He was a
weaponmaker with the Scottish Brigades that assisted Holland in the 80-Year
War against Spain. The Poot's verbal family lore indicated that Carmichael
was non-Dutch, but was from Spain. This could have been an error of
confusion about his arrival to help in the war against Spain. The name is
currently spelled Karmiggelt by the handful of remaining family members.

(revised 09-2005) - JW Poot - - page 2 -