I am researching my family tree. My parents and grandparents are no longer with us so I can't pick their brain.

I grew up understanding that a round photo on my parents wall was a picture of my great (many times) grandfather in his Dutch military uniform. The story/legend that accompanied it was that he was Queen Wilhelmina's personal assistant and had to ask her for her permission to come to the new country to settle with his family. I have found that he, his wife and two daughters (my grandmother) at the time, came over on the Rotterdam in 1899.

My question is how can I verify this information as truth or fiction? I do not speak Dutch, so it has been hard for me to search the Dutch websites for ancestry information and documents....

Any help would be greatly appreciated. His name was Gerrit Beyer.

Carla