Week 38 - Unusual source - Jan Peelen's passport

Passport of Jan Peelen issued to him in 1861 
by the Consul of the Netherlands in Alexandria, Egypt.

For the week 38 prompt I have chosen Jan Peelen's passport issued to him when he left Egypt in 1861 with his family. I have already written about my 3x great grandfather's time in Egypt in a previous post and this continues the story.

It is all in French, though the passport is issued by the Netherlands. I don't really know why,  but it seems that French was an official language at the time. I've noticed French in other Dutch official records of that period.

So in the left column we can see that the passport is valid for a year and it was issued in Alexandria, Egypt.  Then we get a description of Jan Peelen - signalement.  He was 35 years old, had brown hair, brown eyebrows, blue eyes, ordinary nose and forehead, round chin, brown beard, medium mouth, oval face and a clear complexion. No special characteristics were noted either. His profession was given as Civil Engineer.

The top features the Dutch national coat of arms with the motto Je maintaindrai - I will maintain.

The right column confirms that Jan Peelen was accompanied by his wife, his child and one chamber maid and the passport was issued on 24th June 1861 in exchange for an earlier passport issued in Amsterdam on 7th April 1858.

On the back are a couple of stamps and notes, one from the French Consul in Alexandria who signed it on 25th June 1861 and then the stamp from Marseille stating that the family disembarked on 3rd July.

This document doesn't tell me anything new really, except probably the date of arrival in Marseilles, because I have the file of letters written by Jan Peelen during his life in Cairo.

It does confirm though that their maid servant came back to Holland with them. I know from the letters that she was called Daatje and I got intrigued by her and her quite dramatic story that emerged from the correspondence.

Daatje had been hired in Holland to join the Peelen family in Egypt and so travelled independently, as far as I can tell,  sometime in early 1859.  Daatje gave birth quite dramatically at the feet of her mistress in August of 1859, so it seems she was already pregnant when she came to Egypt. Her child lived for a few months, to about nine months old, when it passed away. The Peelens did their best to provide her and her child with appropriate health care, even getting a wet nurse in but there was also conflict, such that there was mention of sending Daatje back to Holland. Now I know that she came back to Holland with her employers. What happened next? It will be a challenge to find out if ever, but there are registers for domestic servants and their employers, so who knows. Maybe I can track her down.