Genealogy Highlights of 2013

This year, I made some good headway, genealogically speaking. On my wife's side I found a couple caches of pictures and documents that revealed new information. Unfortunately some of these discoveries were made as a result her grandparents passing away. I wish we had asked them just a few more questions about their history, before we were no longer able.


Also this year I got to connect with a long sort-of-lost relative on my wife's side. She is my wife's grandma's cousin, and we didn't know who she was, or that she lived 25 minutes from our house! Not only that but she has been doing genealogy for many years and has lots of great info.


Also this year we got to celebrate my wife's great aunt's 90th birthday. She is still going strong. We have been able to visit with her a few times this year and also as a result have came across a treasure trove of old pictures that we had never seen before, and that revealed new information.


One big highlight for my side of the family was being able to visit the Netherlands with my dad. We drove through just about every town we could that we had ancestors from.


In one of those towns, in the church tower, was a dedication to a Broersma that laid the first brick. We haven't been able to connect this Broersma to our direct line yet, but it certainly was exciting to see the possibility since our family live in the area.


Also while visiting the Netherlands, I got to visit with relatives and get more family stories and pictures to bring back with us. One of the visits was with our cousin that is one of the only living people in the world that has met my great great grandpa Broersma, and had some stories of him and what he was like.


With some new information that he gave us, we were able to drive to another town and find the exact spot where a picture of my great great grandpa Broersma was taken.


Overall it's been a great year that's has expanded our knowledge of our family. I hope to have more great finds in 2014.

Jetze Broersma in Makkum

While on our trip to the Netherlands we were able to learn a little bit more about my great great grandfather Jetze Broersma. Me and my dad visited with Theo Wip, who is our closest Broersma relative that we know of still living in the Netherlands, and also his wife Hinke. He is my grandpa's cousin, which would make him my 1st cousin once removed. Theo's mother was Dieuwke Broersma, daughter of Jetze.


After talking with them for a while and hearing a lot of great family stories we started showing him some pictures and asked him about Jetze Broersma. Theo is probably one of only 3 people alive who have actually met my great great grandfather, and not only that but he also spent some time with him and had some great memories to share.

We knew that Jetze used to peddle petrol around on a cart and sell it because we have a picture of him doing it from the 1940s, or maybe the 1950s.


We showed this picture to Theo and he said that this was during the time that Jetze was living in the town of Makkum, and that this was probably taken on the main street. So a few days later we drove through Makkum and tried to find the spot where the photo was taken. All of the buildings look very similar, so after looking for a while I didn't think we were going to find it.

My dad had a copy of the photo on his phone and started comparing the roof line on the main street and saw some similarities. He then narrowed in on the exact spot where the picture was taken. The buildings look pretty similar, some of the window coverings have changed, but if you look at the roof line you can see that it's a match.


It was tough to get the same perspective, but I think we got pretty close. Also with cars diving through it made it a little more difficult to stand in the middle of the road and try to take a picture. We were getting a few funny looks, but we looked like tourists so I think we were ok.

Birthday Bio - Dieuwke Broersma (1898-1958)

Dieuwke Broersma was born 114 years ago today, on 6 April 1898 in Friesland in the Netherlands. She was one of the 2 children of Jetze Broersma and Luitske van Gunst that stayed in the Netherlands and did not move to America. Her other siblings Lawrence and Thys emigrated to America and eventually ended up in Washington state. Jack and Peter ended up in Canada.


Dieuwke married Jisk Wip (also known as Julius) on 1 May 1922 in Sneek. I do not have a whole lot of information about their life together, but apparently they enjoyed sailing as I have a few of pictures of them doing that. Perhaps they used that summer activity to celebrate their birthdays, as their 3 sons we all born in the summer:
Jules Hildrbrand b. 12 Jul 1923
Jetze b. 19 Jun 1926
Theodorus b. 12 Jun 1932


The boy sitting is not one of Dieuwke's sons, and there is no mention on the back of the picture as to who it is. All 3 sons grew up and were married. Jetze appears to have joined the navy based on a couple of pictures of him. Perhaps he served in some capacity during World War II? Maybe the sailing he did as a child prompted him to try it as a career? I don't really have any other information on their children at this time.


Dieuwke lived to be 1 month shy of 60 years old, and passed away on 6 Mar 1958 in Sneek. You can find a few more pictures of their family that I have scanned on my Flickr page.