Genealogy of the family van Dort

Coat of arms

While digging in the archives and contacting people several coat of arms of the van Dort families came up. Because the right to carry arms is a privelege attached to a certain branch of a family, a genealogy must proof a family relationship, before you can claim a certain coat of arms. Below are 8 different coats of arms, so this must be an encouragement to do a genealogy study! Of course it's just fun to know that there are coats of arms of different families. More info about heraldry can be found on Heraldry on the Internet. The coat of arms of the descendants of Cornelis Jansz Van Dort

The left image comes from an unidentified book. The shield and motto are for certain from the family Van Dort from Sri Lanka, the descendants of Cornelis Jansz Van Dort. The right image is reproduced from the photo below by Peter van Dort.
Tree standing in sea, with a star on top. The motto means "We hope for better". According to David Van Dort the coat of arms is simular of that of the VOC coat of arms for the province in which the early Sri Lankan Van Dorts lived. The VOC divided the country in different provinces and each province had a coat of arms. The VOC coat of arms contains the tree and the sea. It still has to be checked with the Lapidarium Zeylanicum by L. Ludovici, Colombo Ceylon 1877. This book is a collection of monumental inscriptions of church yards of Sri Lanka.

The coat of arms of Johan Joseph van Dort and Gerret van Dort-Kroon

Johan Joseph van Dort, baptised in 1784, was a "gouvernements-solliciteur". He wrote petitons for people, who could not write or read. He probably used a signet ring to mark his letters with een seal stamp. In the collection Musschart (CBG) a certificate can be found that Johan Joseph wore this ring on 2 february 1852 in The Hague. A stamp of his ring can be found in the archives of Arnhem.
A possible explanation of the origins of this coat of arms is: up left: anchor, signifies his grandfather from fathers side, a skipper. up right: dolphin, signifies his grandfather from mothers side, a fisherman. below: wheel topped with a horn, signifies his father, a traveling merchant.
Since Johan Joseph had no children, his ring was probably heritated by Gerret Willem Christiaan, the son of his brother Willem Christiaan. Gerret Willem was a chemist in The Hague. Gerret Willem van Dort was granted permission by the queen to call himself van Dort-Kroon. Kroon is Dutch for crown. Hence his children are all called van Dort-Kroon. In the collection of Steenkamp-Damstra (CBG) a stamp of his seal (Waddinxveen, 1880) can be found.

The coat of arms of Constantia van Dort and Lijsbet Jansz van Dort

This coat of arms is attributed to Lijsbet Jansen van Dort about 1699 (here date of mariage) and to Constantia van Dort (d 28 july 1658). Lijsbet van Dort lived in Delft. It also has a crest gold and red, mantling gold, red. Source collection van de Minne and Rethane-Macaré, collection Steenkamp-Damstra, CBG. Lijsbet Jansen van Dort was married to Jacobus van de Minne. Here you can find a copy from there mariage certificate.
The coat of arms can also be found on the gravestone of Constantia van Dort, second wife of Marcelis van der Goes. She was burried in the Nieuwe Kerk in Middelburg, Zeeland, The Netherlands.

The coat of arms of D. van Dort

Attributed to D. van Dort, Beesd, 21 december 1775 and J. Kleijz, Beesd. Crest emerging man with sword in right hand with tip on left hip. It comes from a testament Beesd. It can be found in the rijksarchives in Arnhem. Source Steenkamp-Damstra, CBG.

Unknown origin

Another signet ring attributed to a van Dort(h) married to a van de Beke. It comes from the collection Fenema, Steenkamp-Damstra, CBG. Crest clovers. On the card something is said about a similar coat of arms of Zegers (?).

Unknown origin

This coat of arms comes from Heemskerck (WAPB-R-V-Heemskerck). Collection Steenkamp-Damstra, CBG.

Unknown origin

This shield is mentioned in the book Armorial General from J.B. Rietstap (1884-1887). It is attributed to the family van Dorth. Rietstap was Dutch and published several books with descriptions (blazons) of coat of arms of European families. However according to the Armorial Bibliography Rietstap's book is "nearly useless for our purposes, since nothing is nothing is dated, nothing attributed, and Rietstap wrote his own blazons in French which are frequently incorrect."

Unknown origin

Probably a German coat of arms. Source Hamb(urg?), Wappenrolle, Steenkamp-Damstra, CBG.
Mantling gold and red, crest 1/2 dog.

More? According to the mother of Anton van Dort there must be a shield with a shaft of light. I haven't found more information about this shield yet.
As interesting as a coat of arms are the signatures fisherman made on crates of fish. These carvings were used to identify the crates. In the archives of Bergen op Zoom there are pictures of signatures of several van Dort's.

Funny story There is a anecdote attached to the way Koos van Dort came in posession of the coat of arms of Constantia and Lijsbet. He came into the posession of this armorial when he was on holidays in the UK. He visited a heraldry shop because they wanted to have a tablet made for their legion. When they stumbled across a list of family surnames Koos declared: "If my surname is in there, I'm a lord". To his utter surprise his surname was on the list. Because they didn't believe it to be true, one of his friends asked the shop keeper about the origins and made a phone call to London to a heraldic association. This association confirmed the authenticity of the shield, so Koos decided to order this arm. However his friends hadn't forgotten that he had said to be a lord. Because they were in army uniforms, they now declared to be body guards of the Dutch lord van Dort. They cleared the stairs for him and also the coffeeshop. People had to leave because "the Dutch lord wanted to drink coffee". Even his wife was not allowed to approach him without having her bag searched. He and his english friends had a lot of fun that afternoon. A tablet with this arm is hanging in his living room.21)

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