The Christmas Flooding of 1717 in Vliedorp and Wierhuizen

This article discusses which people actually died in two parishes because of the famous Christmas night flooding of 1717, when large parts of the province of Groningen became covered with at least 2 meters of water, resulting in nearly 1.000 casualties (22% of the population) in the Marne in north Groningen. It argues that especially poor people living in relatively vulnerable small houses in two small villages drowned (Broek and Houwerzijl), while the more wealthy farmers in their well-established farmsteads nearly all survived this natural disaster. Proven is also in opposition to many references in popular publications that the Christmas Flooding of 1717 did not destroy the whole village of Vliedorp, as before 1717 this place also only consisted of one house and a church.