A Family Legend?

Record of Thomas Nagel's employment on the VOC ship "Schagen"

Week 2 prompt for 52 ancestor's challenge asks: Is there a family legend or story in your history.

This story is about how fame and success of a relative helped me find out about unknown origins in the family.

Some years ago, I can’t remember exactly when or how, I found the Dutch version of the tv-program “Who do You Think You Are” (Verborgen Verleden). The episode was about a popular Dutch actor and his connection to Prince William the First of Orange as well as his roots in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). We share a great great grandfather, Reinier Scherius, who was the resident of Menado and I have featured him in previous posts.

This episode also inspired genealogist and researcher R.C. de Neve to write "De Indische roots van Waldemar Torenstra" about the specifics of the East Indies connection which also includes Ceylon (Sri Lanka). De Neve traced the lineage of my great great grandmother Carolina Charlotta Nagel to Thomas Nagel, Regent of the Wanny, North Ceylon from 1783 - 1795. His grandson, Infantry Captain Willem Frederik Nagel, was Carolina Charlotta Nagel’s father.

Thomas Nagel, was born in Brunswick on 5th February 1740 and registered on the VOC ship “Schagen” in 1763 which brought him to Jaffna on the northern tip of the Island of Ceylon. He climbed the ranks and in 1783 he was appointed head of the Wanny in the North of Ceylon and carved out his own little virtual kingdom as it were. Thomas Nagel had a very large family, having married three times but nothing is known about his children and grandchildren except for one daughter. However, it is believed that the father of Willem Frederik Nagel was offspring from the first union with Hendrina Philipina Vos. Thomas Nagel died in 1823 at Jaffna, aged 84.

The Journal of the Dutch Burgher Union of Ceylon, vol 23, no. 3 devoted an article to the Nagel of the Vanni, which tells us a bit about him:
“But he proved to be as wise an administrator as he was a successful soldier, and he soon won the allegiance of the Vanniyas or chieftains by leaving them in peaceful possession of their private property.”
The death notice that was published in the Bataviasche Courant on 1 November 1823 by T. W. Nagel (should be F. W. Nagel) and C. Nagel geb. Van Naersen, the parents of Carolina Charlotta Nagel, identifies Thomas Nagel, captain and commandant of the Wanny, as their grandfather.  

Fast forward to the twentieth century and descendants of Thomas Nagel left their footsteps on Ceylon too, This time we came by plane and left by boat, as our family travelled back to Amsterdam from India in 1954.



























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