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.