We visited home countries of 18 of my ancestral families!

In visiting The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland on the cruise, we visited the home country or temporary residence of 18 different ancestral families. Estonia, Russia and Finland were the three that none of my ancestors called home.

The Netherlands were the leader with 11 families. The Titsoorts were from Amsterdam, as was the Lies family. Wilhelm Rittenhouse lived in Amsterdam for awhile before sailing for Pennsylvania.
Claes Bording may have resided in Amsterdam as well, at least his mother lived there. Records list him as being a Dutch resident.

Leiden [which we were unable to visit] was temporary home to the Brewster, Billiou and DuBois families. The Pralls were from Heerde in Gelderland. Other families native to The Netherlands or temporary residens of the country were the Swarts and Christoffels. Rotterdam [which we passed by enroute to Antwerp] was home to the van der Linde clan.

Belgium, or at least what became Belgium, was home to the Santken [St. John, Sension] family. In fact, Antwerp was home base. Families fleeing the territory for refuge in Holland were the Billiou and DuBois families. Also hailing from Belgium were the Dally and Jermonius families.

Denmark was home to the Obee family. The Bordings may have been from Denmark as well.

Sweden was the home of the Blom family - in fact, they hailed from Stockholm.

Switzerland, Zurich Canton, was home tuf of the Rinker and Schultz families.

All 18 families were in America by the end of the 17th century.