My name is Dave Twyver and I am descended from van Twuijvers in The Netherlands. I created this website to collect information about my ancestors in Noord Holland and their descendants in North America.
It began as a retirement project in early 2006, followed by a trip with cousin Dennis to Holland that April to find achterneven (distant cousins). You can read my journal of that trip here. Cousin Linda organized a reunion at my house on Vancouver Island in September, 2006 for our extended Canadian van Twuyver family. I returned to Holland in 2010 with my sister and brother and our children to introduce them to my Dutch cousins and to celebrate the restoration of our family windmill.
Much of the genealogical data on this website is extracted from a booklet by J.H. Geertzenwijk of Delft who researched a number of Noord Holland families 25 years ago (). Other information has been contributed by current van Twuyvers from across Canada and the US.
Our name has been spelled various ways over the centuries: van het Weiver, van 't Wuiver, van Twuijver (most common in Holland), van Twuyver and van Twyver. "Wuiver" is an archaic Dutch word for pond or swamp. So the name literally translates as "from the swamp". Netherlands means "low lands" and much of the country was once underwater or swampland. One of my ancestors, Klaas Pieterzsn van Twuijver (1720-1781) and his sons operated the Ooster-N windmill for over 50 years that helped drain the swamps in the Zijpe area to create "polders" or fields. He is also the ancestor of many of the van Twuyvers in the US.
If you have any questions or comments about the information on this site, please contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.
