The Ruitersporen Foundation is committed to preserving the family heritage of the (De) Ruiter / Ruijter / Ruyter family, originally from Muggenbeet and Blokzijl.
Much of the collected material can be found on this website. Unfortunately, due to privacy legislation, only about 1,700 members from our extensive family tree with almost 3,000 descendants of our ancestor Peter Ruter, who must have been born around 1490, can be shown.

The majority of the family has always lived in the Dutch provinces of Overijssel and Friesland, especially in the former peat areas - roughly the area between Blokzijl and Drachten.
Their stories and history form an important part of this website that I would like to dedicate to:
"the toilers in the peat"

Since 2016 I have been researching a possible relationship between our family and a Ruyter family from the city of Zutphen. Strong indications for this have now been found.
At this moment (2024) it appears likely that our ancestor Peter Ruter is a son of Henrick Henricks Ruyter from Zutphen.

The history of the Ruyters from Zutphen goes back to the 14th century, with Henrick Ruyter as ancestor, who was born around 1380. He is heading a family of Hanseatic merchants/beer brewers, several members of which also served on the city council (as aldermen and later as mayor).
For the time being, this family has its own section of the website: "De Hanze Ruyters".