When Chris Verstraete and his wife, Cornelia Verstraete (VanDam) uprooted their family from the City of Zwolle, The Netherlands, this stately City was over seven centuries old, with a year of birth in 1230, and had over the course of many years become a centre of commerce, industry, fine arts, education, and provincial and regional governments. The well known reclaiming of the Zuiderzee had been directed from Zwolle.
The modern city was founded around 800 A.D. by Frisian merchants and troops of Charlemagne.[4] The name Zwolle is derived from the word Suolle, which means "hill" (cf. the English cognate verb "to swell"). This refers to an incline in the landscape between the four rivers surrounding the city, IJssel, Vecht, and Zwarte Water. The hill was the only piece of land that would remain dry during the frequent floodings of the rivers. Zwolle was established on that incline.
