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| The father of my great-aunt also known as my great grandfather Gerrit |
After a short foray in English, Irish and Canadian genealogy (not finished just yet), I felt it would be nice to get back to my own family again as well. Using a different host to my tree (Ancestry instead of MyHeritage) might give me some new insights.
Well, so far, so good. I knew a great-aunt of mine had married her former employer. The age difference was quite big: 18 years. But the thing I hadn't found before was the fact that he had been married before. In that day and age, marriage nearly always ended by the death of one of the partners, so it came as quite a shock to see that his first wife outlived him by several years! Which led me to try and find their divorce records.
I found them and found that he had filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery: she was practicing carnal relations with somebody other than himself. I especially loved that word practicing. As if she was just trying out something to be used later with her own husband. But that may just be me. Anyway...
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| The mother of my great-aunt also known as my great grandmother Fetje |
Not only was he married before, he also had two children with her. A boy, born in 1916 and a girl, born in 1922. When I put the boy's name in, all of a sudden, there was a link to his date of death and the place of his death. Indonesia in the middle of the war.
More research was required and when I had done that, I found that he actually died somewhere in Birma in 1943. At the height of the Japanese occupation and in the middle of that madness they call building a train line! You may have heard of all the British, Australian and American soldiers stuck in Asia, but the Dutch had a presence there as well. Indonesia had been one of our colonies for years and quite a few Dutch had made their home there or had been sent there as part of the Royal Dutch Indonesian Army (KNIL).
Of course I need to verify a few facts now. Plus I want to know what my family knows about their step-cousin(?), if anything. Most of my immediate relatives were born during or after the war, but were there stories?
Another mystery to be solved....
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteOh that is interesting stuff Mara! History coming to life once more. YAM xx
It is. Being away from everything for a while and using another host seems to have given me a relative I didn't know anything about before. Now it's just fingers crossed that he actually is a (step) cousin once removed...
DeleteDad is into genealogy and has traced his Finnish and Cornish ancestors back hundreds of years. He says it's hard to trace the Finns so far back because they often changed their names when they moved. To answer your question, ghostwriter has an Oma because she's half German. The rest is Polish with a bit of Russian and Swedish. Good luck with finding your ancestors!
ReplyDeleteI've gone back all the way to the first millenium on my mother's side, my father's side is back to about 1400. His is the easy family: nice and in one place and lots of records to sift through. My mum is another matter: several different provinces means several different archives, but even then there are several locations (online as well). Really really difficult. But quite good fun to do and I do find some interesting things.
DeleteHow interesting! Of course in this Mormon heavy state genealogy is a big thing. Mom loved that practicing word too but we don't know why.
ReplyDeleteYour Pals,
Murphy & Stanley
We will tell you when you are a bit older...
DeletePractice makes perfect, or so they say.
ReplyDeleteSo interesting. Glad you had some luck in your research.
ReplyDeleteThe search is so intriguing! Happy hunting!
ReplyDelete