|
The Sri Lankan family
But there were two separate Dutch families of V/van Dorts that founded the Sri Lankan chapter of V/van Dorts. Anthonius van Dort sailed from 's Gravenhage on board of the "Erfprins" to Cape Good Hope. Then he sailed further to Sri Lanka on board of "De admiraal de Ruiter" in 1767. He was a drummer (tamboer) and later a soldier. Descendants of this family sign with van Dort 6). And then there was another van Dort in 17th century Sri Lanka, probably unrelated to the previous. His name was Leopold Immanuel Jacob van Dort and he was a converted Jew. He was appointed professor of Hebrew at the Christian Theological Seminary at Colombo in 1758 (he studied at the University of Leipzig in 1744 Hebrew and oriental languages) and although he was converted, he was still interested in his Jewish background. He had contact with the Jewish comunity of Cochin in India and copied some scrolls from the patriarch there, unknown to European Jews. He translated them and gave them in 1757 to Marcellus Bless who worked as a clerk for the VOC in Sri Lanka. He left the seminary in 1760 and nothing is known about his activities since. There must be more info on Leopold or Marcellus in the VOC archives in The Hague. 15)
|
Births, marriages and deaths were recorded in the official genealogies of the Dutch Burgher Union in Sri Lanka. People needed to register their births and mariages: full citizenship and the ability to work for the VOC was only given to people, who could prove they had at least three European grandparents. In addition most of the Van Dorts were registered at the Dutch Reformed Churches in Galle and Colombo. Only 900 families of the VOC people elected to stay in Ceylon when the British took over in 1796 after bribing the commandant of the mercenaries hired by the VOC. Most Dutch colonist went back to The Netherlands. The Dutch Burghers were very active in government, business and professions in the Dutch and British colonial periods. 6) The church in Wolvendaal Colombo was built because the old church in the fortress of Galle was getting dangerously old. It is built on a hill and once overlooked the sea and city. Today it's in the middle of Colombo 6).
|
|
|
|