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De Coster

family name

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 12, 2022
Entity authorityQ56546721 ↗
Source-derived summary

De Coster or Decoster is a Dutch occupational surname, most common in Flanders. Coster is an archaic spelling of modern Dutch "koster" (parish clerk). People with this surname include:

Adam de Coster (c. 1586–1643), Flemish Baroque painter

Charles De Coster (1827–1879), Belgian novelist best known for his Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel

Dominicus de Coster (c.

Editorial summary

“De Coster” enters the record as family name. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Coster, family and name can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1586, 1643, 1827, 1879—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Coster, family and name.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“De Coster” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Coster, family and name provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 12, 2022. The linked authority identifier is Q56546721. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1586, 1643, 1827 and 1879.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “De Coster”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow De Coster primary sources, De Coster archive and Coster research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “De Coster”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “De Coster” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.