2014-03-12 International Museum for Family History

Family Museum will open soon

International Museum for Family History

The Internationaal Museum voor Familiegeschiedenis (International Museum for Family History) is a new museum, located in a former Ursuline Convent in Eijsden, that will open soon. The organsiation understands that the official name is rather long, and often shortens it to just family museum.

Eijsden is a place in the Dutch province of Limburg, not be confused with the nearby Eisden in the Belgian province of Limburg. That's far from a central location for a Dutch museum, but the museum is within walking distance from train station Eijsden, and the museum is profiling itself as an international museum.

Ursuline convent

The convent dates from 1849 and is cultureel erfgoed, a Dutch culture heritage site, mostly because of the impressive front of the main building, designed by Petrus Josephus Hubertus Pierre Cuypers (1827 Jun 16 - 1921 Mar 3), whose best known works are the Rijksmuseum and Central Station in Amsterdam.

The former convent does not only house International Museum for Family History. The Ursuline Convent exploits a café and restaurant, and the location is available for weddings, conferences, meetings and banquets. Now that the family museum is housed there, it may well become a prime location for family reunions.

Rijksmonument Ursulinenklooster

The Ursuline convent in 2005. Photo bij L.M. Tangel, provided by Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, Imagebank reference 20406702.

exhibitions

The museums aims to increase knowledge of the history of humanity, with particular attention for family history, culture and tradition. To do so, the museum creates and offers educational material.
The museum offers permanent and temporary exhibitions. The permanent exhibitions are The DNA Plaza, The Human Journey, Eugène Dubois, Mythology and Religion, Archeogenealogy, Carolus the Great (Charlemagne), Iconography, Heraldry, and Culture of Life.

Few genealogists will recognise the name Eugène Dubois, and that isn't surprising at all, as he wasn't a genealogist.
Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois (1858 Jan 28 - 1940 Dec 16) was a Dutch anatomist and geologist, known in paleoanthropology circles for his search for the Missing Link, and his discovery of Java Man. Eugène Dubois did not investigate family trees, he investigated the Tree of Life, and he was born and raised in Eijsden.

The first temporary exhibition is Daguerreotype, about Louis Daguerre and his invention.

study room

The museum does not merely offer exhibitions, you can also do research in the study room, which was created together with the Central Bureau for Genealogy (CBG) and naturally provides access to the growing number of CBG collections that are online.

DNA test

The museum does not just provide information about DNA, visitors can buy an DNA test to determine their haplo-group (deep ancestry) in the museum. The tests are offered in a collaboration with the Stichting Genetische Genealogie (Foundation for Genetic Genealogy, no website yet), and The Maastricht Forensic Institute.

visiting

The following my sound a bit confusing, but it is how it is; the museum opens its doors to the public on 2014 Mar 23, and the official opening is on 2014 May 16.
The museum will be open almost every day, on working days as well as weekends, from 10h00m till 17h00m. The only planned closures are December 25 and January 1.
Entry tickets are € 7 for adults, € 5 for children and students. Children below four get free entrance, and groups over ten get discounts. A guided tour is available for € 75 an hour.

extra

The family museum struck a deal with MyHeritage; every visitor gets 2 months of free access to MyHeritage with the purchase of their entry ticket. That's all the information there currently is on that deal. I feel sure there will be further details and a FAQ with answers to some obvious questions about how this deal relates to current subscriptions, expired trials and so on, but it seems a better deal than the regular MyHeritage trial, as that one lasts just 14 days.
That said, I do not doubt that it isn't the visitor or the museum, but MyHeritage that's getting the sweet end of this deal, nor that the marketroids of a few other vendors are kicking themselves right now, as the family museum is doing MyMarketing for them by extending this offer to all their customers.

web site

The museum has both a Dutch and an English website. The English website is www.internationalmuseumforfamilyhistory.com. Although the museum owns the domain museumvoorfamiliegeschiedenis.nl, they prefer to use the short name for their website's domain name, the Dutch website is at domain hetfamiliemuseum.nl.

The Dutch and English websites look different different. The Dutch web site lets you switch to English - and when you choose to do so, it does not switch you to the English site, but to an English translation. You should be able to find most of the information in this article on the Dutch site, but unless you read Dutch or are willing to suffer Google translate, you can't - yet. Most English pages merely offer up the text Sorry, this entry is only available in Nederlands., as most of the content on the Dutch site has not been translated yet.
The site includes an online shop, but it is empty for now.

funding

The family museum is a private initiative, started and led by genealogist Leo A.F. Barjesteh van Waalwijk van Doorn. It does not receive any government subsidies, but it has been awarded Cultural ANBI-status, which, among other things, makes gifts to the museum tax-deductible.
A gift of € 5000 or more will make your family a Founding Family of the museum, included in the museum's gallery of honour.

The price of your ticket is for the upkeep of the museum, and the museum only. There is a board, there is a small management team, there are curators and guest curators, but non of them get paid, all of them are volunteers.