Before we left the town of Heusden we entered its little harbour, which was once of important to the region. In 1357 the harbour received the rights as a fish market. No one in Holland was allowed to transport fish past this market, giving the city full control of the fish trade and taxes.
At the turn of the previous century, the Maas river received extensive works opening up traffic to Rotterdam Harbour. With the rerouting of the Maas, the difficult to reach harbour of Heusden became a backwater and in 1904 the harbour was filled in. A total restoration in 1968 brought this harbour back to life.
The tiny picturesque harbour is quaint and Zonder Zorg made it through its small opening with ease. She looked at home as went ashore for more photos and to absorb the atmosphere.
Through the City of Rotterdam's Digital Archives I have traced my fathers' family "Heusdens, from the town of Heusden" back to the mid 1600s to Antwerp. I stopped my research there, thinking this was Belgium, not realizing that at the time Antwerp was still a part of the Netherlands. I will need to take more time and patience to search the Belgium Archives. As more archives, church records and town registries are steadily being added to the Internet, some records which had once been inaccessible, have now been digitalized and added for public viewing.
As for Michael, I released him, cleaned him up and he is now back with me on Zonder Zorg
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