Genealogical Working Group: Jan Auke Walburg on 'Friezen op zee'

About Friezen op zee

Friesland is more than just an agricultural province. For centuries, the prosperity of Frisian villages and towns has been determined by their shipping industry. This Frisian contribution to merchant shipping did not come out of nowhere. Between 750 and 900, the Frisians experienced their first period of prosperity in trade from the Frisian/Frankish royal city of Dorestad.

Walburg's latest book, Friezen op zee: De gouden eeuw van de koopvaardij in Friese steden en dorpen (Frisians at sea: The golden age of merchant shipping in Frisian towns and villages) tells the story of twenty-six Frisian municipalities: how tens of thousands of ships set sail from Friesland through the Sound to the Baltic Sea, how farmers' sons built ships on their own land that took to the sea, how entire families focused on shipping, often in collaboration with their relatives in Amsterdam and the Zaan region. How Wadden Islanders built their prosperity on whaling, how market towns in the middle of Friesland grew into international ports, how the inhabitants of peat bogs dug up their peat and transported it to Amsterdam, how many a Frisian town became a centre of shipbuilding, and also how merchant shipping declined.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Frisian merchant shipping experienced an unprecedented boom that brought prosperity to virtually the whole of Friesland. It is no coincidence that the Frisian Golden Age is inextricably linked to the Golden Age of Amsterdam. That city owes much of its growth and development as a trading city to trade with the Baltic Sea.

It was mainly the Frisians who fed the people of Amsterdam with grain from the Baltic Sea region, supplied Amsterdam with the wood needed to build the city, and later provided the citizens of Amsterdam and the industries of Amsterdam and the Zaan region with peat as fuel. This “lifeline” of Dutch prosperity developed largely from the Mennonite networks that connected Amsterdam and Friesland. In this religious community, they worked together in trade and shipping: the people of Amsterdam as shipowners and the Frisians as transporters.

About Jan Auke Walburg 

Emeritus Professor Jan Auke Walburg was director of various healthcare organisations during his working life. His recent book Friezen op zee: De gouden eeuw van de koopvaardij in Friese steden en dorpen (Frisians at sea: The golden age of merchant shipping in Frisian towns and villages) was inspired by his Frisian heritage, his extensive sailing experience in and around Friesland, and his field of expertise. At this intersection, he focused his interest on the circumstances under which Frisian communities flourished.

Walburg immersed himself in this history by studying the available literature and conducting numerous interviews with experts in the field of Frisian merchant shipping. His research reveals the extent to which the prosperity of Amsterdam and Friesland are intertwined, the significant role played by Mennonite family ties, the extent to which Frisian sailors brought prosperity to Friesland, and the price they paid for it. Walburg is chair of the Maritime History Working Group (Wurkgroep Maritime Skiednis).

About the lecture on 7 March

Every year, the Genealogical Working Group organises a series of meetings. The lectures are held in Tresoar and are free and open to everyone. This joint meeting is scheduled for 7 March, organised in collaboration with the NGV and the Maritime History Working Group of the Fryske Akademy.

Location: Tresoar, Bûterhoeke 1, Leeuwarden (NL).
Date: Saturday 7 March 2026
Time: 1:30pm
Admission: free

Note: this lecture is in Dutch. 

Activities

The activities of the season 2025-2026:

• Saturday 7 March 2026: Joint meeting with NVG and the Maritime History Working Group, with lecture by Jan Auke Walburg on 'Friezen op zee. De Gouden eeuw van de koopvaardij in Friese steden en dorpen’.;
• Saturday 4 April 2026: Presentation of the 75th Genealogical Yearbook