Jan Verdijk

Interview with: Jan Verdijk

24 June 2014

Introduction

“My name is Jan Verdijk. I took early retirement about 4 years ago, which really suits me. I have hobbies and activities and I’m really busy doing things around the house. Before I took early retirement I was the Deputy Director for the Tax Information Line for the Tax Office. It was a really interesting job, but I don’t miss it for a moment!”

Why Heritage Helpers?

“I came across Heritage Helpers through the NGV, the Dutch Genealogical Society. It was in a mailing from the  NGV. I started doing data entry for the military registers, which I really enjoyed, then I saw that Nijmegen was also going to be done, so I carried on with Nijmegen. I also want to give something back. I investigate the family trees that interest me. I’ve often been to the archives, but I also frequently use data on the internet. That’s when I thought that all that information has to be typed in by someone, so I just found it really good to be able to give something back that we can all enjoy. That’s how I got started with Heritage Helpers and I must say I still think it’s great!”

When do you work on Heritage Helpers?

“Actually I work on Heritage Helpers every day. In the evening if there’s nothing on the television I like to spend an hour or so typing. I never work for very long periods, but on average about an hour a day. When it is nice weather I enjoy working in the garden so I do a bit less.”

What have you learnt?

“As I said earlier I really like seeing the professions, and also the family structures. When I can’t read something properly then I look it up in WhoWasWho, so I learn from there too.”

What could we improve?

“That when you press enter by mistake when you’re entering the data the scan disappears straight away. I would prefer it if there was an in-between stage. That way you could be sure that the person had really meant to press enter. It’s happened to me several times now that my scan has been entered before I’ve finished it.”