Noord Brabant is historically a food and textile-producing province. However whilst it boasts fertile soils near the river Maas (Meuse) its northern boundary, elsewhere the earth is mainly sandy in texture and nature. Wheat and sugar beets are grown with reasonable success; cattle are raised with dairying being intensively pursued. On the industrial front the province manufactures textiles, motor vehicles, electrical appliances, shoes, and pharmaceuticals.

The history of the Noord Brabant has always been aligned to that of Belgiums Flemish Brabant of which until at least until the late 16th century Noord Brabant was a part. It was then, between 1701 & 1717 in the War of Spanish Succession (1), when the north of the then duchy of Brabant revolted against the rule of harsh Spanish masters.  The larger part of Brabant was eventually divided into the Spanish (later Austrian) Netherlands and the United Provinces of the Netherlands. North Brabant, the smaller northern part of the former duchy was initially only occupied by the United Provinces to their Protestant north and remained Catholic. Noord Brabant was not granted a seat in the States-General of the Netherlands until 1795, when finally the remains of the former duchy became a province of the Netherlands. During the 19th century a number of heath lands were slowly reclaimed and intensively settled; after 1900, rural settlement subsided and today nearly 50% of the population have become urban dwellers

            For those of us who live many of thousands of kilometres from the origins of our van Zoggel roots, just gleaning a rudimentary understanding of the nature of our homeland is a mind-boggling exercise. We are of course, if the Dutch language is to believed and according to the descriptive information contained within our name, from Zoggel   . van Zoggel. So the obvious starting point in our search for our roots is to ask, Where on earth then is this place called Zoggel? Not so simple a question to answer however even in this the 21^st century!

There are clear and concise records dating back to the 19^th century locating the hamlet of Zoggel in Noord Brabant - the gemeente of Heesch, indeed Zoggel lies due southwest of town Heesch itself. Cartographic evidence (see above) indicates that there were some sixteen or so permanent dwellings within this hamlet and that a road called the Zoggelsche Weg  (Zoggels Road) ran roughly east to west through and just to the south of it.

The hamlet of Zoggel has (to date) however not formally featured in the results of genealogy research conducted into our branch of the van Zoggel family. Rather the family for the past 450 years appears to have been firmly rooted in Berlicum and its immediate environs. It is worth noting though that the hamlet of Zoggel, as the crow flies, lies a mere 6 - 8 kilometres north east of Berlicum, so if nothing else as the New Zealand Maori would say, ..weve always been .. fairly close to our bones!

In the family tree that follows reference is frequently made to many municipalities and townships in and surrounding gemeente Berlicum. Names such as Heesch, Heeswijk, Uden, St Michielsgestel, Rosmalen, sHertogenbosch, Nuland, Erp, Veghel, Den Dungen etc. in actuality mean little to us here in New Zealand and unless one has actually travelled to Noord Brabant to see for oneself such place names, far from sounding enticing or romantic simply project as being little more than foreign sounding  gobblety gook. Yet in terms of understanding even the most rudimentary aspects of our ancestry a basic knowledge of the topography of Noord Brabant, particularly that surrounding Berlicum, is rather essential. 

            In order explain the geography of that north east corner of Noord Brabant, where Berlicum is situated, I will use a visual metaphor namely that of cartwheel with the axle at the centre representing Berlicum, and the spokes radiating from the axle the various municipalities surrounding Berlicum.  

There are then a total of six municipalities on our metaphoric cartwheel that share/or have shared a common border with Berlicum. In addition four significant municipalities close by that have had a direct influence on our family tree are also included.  

Each of these municipalities then has its own unique cultural character including customs and dialect peculiar to a very small and defined area. Indeed locals can tell by dialect alone from where a person originated often from villages only kilometres away! In their book on Brabant(2), Cor Swanenberg & Andre Riether in quoting from Dr Jac van Ginneken (Handboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 1937) remark as follows; For the dialects of East Brabant we only have very few reliable texts, which is the more unfortunate, because the differences in dialect between villages are so conspicuous.  This quirk of language is something that to even we 1^st generation descendants living in a foreign land has always been quite self-evident especially when our community (as it often did in the early days) gathered as a group. The man from Den Bosch spoke quite differently to his fellow Brabanter from Mill, who in turn had a different intonation to one from Uden, or Veghel, or Tilburg, or Oss  

One of the delights of genealogical research is that one learns a great deal about what people actually did from day to day to earn a living and to just simply survive.  We also learn from how many were identified and a great deal about social standing and prominence (or lack thereof) within their own community. We gain a tiny glimpse of how harsh life was for some, of hardship, of difficult childbirth, large families, and of often an early death. In our family tree we find such romantic sounding labels as, landbouwer (farmer); landarbeider  (agricultural labourer farm worker); weduwnaar (widower); jongeman (young man-youth); jongedame (young lady); arbeider (labourer or workman); spinster (spinster); dienstknecht (servant); bouwman (builder); boerenknecht (farm worker); strodekker (?); &, agrarier (agrarian worker). Clearly our family is not of the aristocracy or even generally speaking of the middle class. It would appear that for generations we van Zoggels worked on the land, usually for others and were what in England would have been referred to as working class country folk in early times perhaps even serfs.

            In more recent times the population of Brabant, indeed the world, has become far more upwardly mobile and class distinction counts for nowhere near as much as it once did in these more affluent and enlightened times. Children i.e. offspring, tend today to move beyond the immediacy and sanctuary of village and family, and so what has always been a historical truism in that regard for the van Zoggel clan of Berlicum has now begun to breakdown in this our branch of the family. Indeed we have even found another van Zoggel, quite independent of ourselves, migrated to New Zealand to settle in Wellington about the same time as did my parents(3). It was my grandfather; Petrus van Zoggel (b. 1900, Berlicum - d. 1945, Veghel) started the trend for us by moving from Berlicum to Veghel in the early 1930s. His son, my father Albert Theodorus van Zoggel (1928 Berlicum), was raised in Veghel but migrated to New Zealand in 1953. I, Peter Frans Maria van Zoggel (1954, Christchurch New Zealand) have two children also, Sonja Johanna Maria van Zoggel (1974 Christchurch) now domiciled permanently in London; and Michael Peter van Zoggel (b. 1977, Wellington New Zealand) who migrated to live in Sydney Australia in 1997. Ah, having been let off our leash we have suddenly become such wanderers!

Currently, those of us living in New Zealand can now trace back our roots 14 generations. Beginning with my son Michael Peter van Zoggel (1977-) and my nephew Karl Albert van Zoggel (1993, Christchurch); to Christianus van Soggel? (Circa 1525 -1530 Berlicum, Noord-Brabant Holland). Twelve of our ancestors, including Albertus Theodorus van Zoggel (1928 -) were born in and around Berlicum, Noord Brabant Holland.

Thus we begin our travels through the family tree starting a journey that will span some 450 + years, involve 769 individuals of whom 385 are male (341 deceased), 384 are female  (334 of whom have passed away), and 277 marriages that have been influential in perpetuating the family name. Little comment other than general historical annotations will be made with regard to the descendants of generations preceding my great grandfather Lambertus van Zoggel (Berlicum, 1851 1929) as little of a factual personal nature is currently is known about these folk.

 The tree has been divided into three distinct branches beginning with (the trunk) our common ancestor Christianus van Soggel born in the first third of 1500s. His direct line is followed until mid 1600s when the tree splits quite naturally with the arrival of two brothers (1) Lambert Dirkx van Soghel (1647 - ?) and (2) Rut Dirc Soggel (1664 - ?). We follow each of their branches of the tree independently from this point forward. The branch headed by Lambert Dirkx van Sochel is that which will eventually take us to New Zealand it is our branch of the family. The other, the Rut Dirc Soggel branch remains in largely in Berlicum.

Want to know more? Just ask. Feel free to contact me by email and I will be happy to assist you in your journey through our family.

Peter van Zoggel 2003

(1)       KOSSMANN-PUTTO & KOSSMANN E.H., The Low Countries, Rekkem (Flanders)1994. (p60-61)

(2)       SWANENBERG C. & RIETHER A., Brabant is Another Cup of Coffee, Delft 1992. (p70)

(3)       VAN ZOGGEL P.F.M, Onze Pap, Christchurch 1998. (p3)