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I'd pronounce it like NEES-yuh (the -je being a diminutive ending, therefore the s and the j are pronounced as different letters and not as /sh/).

Like Quill already mentioned, the name Niesje is a diminutive form of Agnes in the Netherlands. However, in some cases, it can also be a diminutive form of Dionisia / Dionysia. Both are names that are in use in the Netherlands, although neither are common (with Dionysia being the most common out of the two):

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- http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/naam/is/Dionysia

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- http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/naam/is/Dionisia

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In Dutch, both names are pronounced as: dee-aw-NEE-see-ah.

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By the way, would you mind terribly if I ask why you believe that your ancestor was Dutch instead of Belgian? Not that Belgium and the Netherlands actually existed in their current form back in the 16th century, but still. At the time, Dutch was widely spoken in what is now Belgium - and it still is today, albeit predominantly in a specific region called Flanders. As a result, the Dutch spoken there is often referred to as Flemish.

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- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanders

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- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemish

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So, your ancestor having a Dutch first name doesn't necessarily have to mean that she or her family were originally from any area that is now part of the modern-day Netherlands. :)

This message was edited 9/27/2015, 9:42 PM

If it was Dutch I think it would be Nee-st. Sorry if my Dutch is a little bad I was a Russian major in college and my roommate was Dutch.

I think the closest (English) phonetic spelling would be NEE-shə. The "s" is more part of the first syllable than the second, though (As a Dutch person, I see the name divided into the syllables Nies and je, -je being a diminutive suffix)

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See also
http://www.behindthename.com/name/niesje/submitted
http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/naam/is/niesje (in Dutch, but I can translate if you want)