A Trip to Ellis Island

My kids on the ferry to Ellis Island

Last summer, my family took a trip and visited Ellis Island. I was interested in seeing this place because a number of my ancestors would have come through these halls, including my direct Broersma ancestor, Lawrence Broersma (or Laas, as he was named in the Netherlands).

My great grandfather Laas Broersma immigrated to the United States on his own when he was just 19 years old, in June of 1920. We don't completely know the reasons why he left, but it most likely because they were very poor in the Netherlands and America was still very much the land of opportunity.

He wasn't going to completely start off by himself though, his older brother Thys had already been living in America for about 6 years. Even still, that must have been an adventure getting on a boat and crossing the Atlantic by himself about 7 months after World War I had ended.

He sailed on the SS Noordam.

Here is is entry on the passenger list (I edited the list since his name was on the very bottom, and not near the column information).

When he arrived, he would have disembarked here, at Ellis Island in the New York harbor.

After getting off the boat, this is the building he would have entered.

Then he would have had to pass through these halls, standing in a long cue in order to make it through immigration and customs.



After standing in line, he would have had to present his passport and get his visa to enter into the country.

It's now been exactly 100 years since his immigration to the USA. It was really fun and interesting to see this place where so many immigrants have passed through.

The Village of Dedgum - Still Small

In the small village of Dedgum, there lived some Broersmas. Dedgum is a small village today, but it has always been small. The first references to Dedgum (aka Deddingaheem) are from around the year 855. Yes, that's right, 855 (I didn't forget to put a 1 in front of the 8). In the 1200s they built a small church. This drawing above is from 1790, and is how the village looked for a long time, probably centuries. Most of the small villages in Friesland all look very similar, they are small, have a few houses and barns, and also have a church in the middle on a hill, or a terp. 

By the late 1800s this church was beginning to fall a part, as you can see in this other picture. They rebuilt it and that church is still standing there today. 

I went to go visit this village because in the mid 1700s, Allert Broers Broersma was a school master there. He was born and married in a nearby village of Wons. In 1732 he moved to Dedgum where he became school master, and later a village judge. He may have lived here the rest of his life, but I have not been able to find a death date for him.

So how big was Dedgum back then? Probably around 40 or 50 people. That's how many were registered in 1744. You can see all the families on one page. Mr. A Broersma is about 2/3rds down the page. 

As you can see he has a wife and 2 children. In the far right column you can see the number of people in each household, and at the bottom is the total of all people: 46. That's how small the village was then, just 10 households. Over half of the population were kids, so most of them were probably attending his school. 

Unfortunately, the school is no longer there. When we visited the village in 2013, we asked. Someone told us that there used to be a school house, but it had been torn down. Now it's someone's backyard. We took a picture anyway though.

We grabbed a couple pictures of the church. I liked the fence. 

And I went ahead and stole this picture so you can get a birds eye view of how small the village is.

God's Surprises - by Delmar Broersma

Delmar Broersma, son of This Broersma and Gertrude (Wichers), just published a book of his memories and how God has been a part of his life. He also talks about his heritage and how God has been a part of that as well. He includes some nice pictures and stories from the Broersma family.

You can buy it online if you are interested:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077DZ8JTP/

Thys Broersma Family Portrait

Thys Broersma was the first Broersma in the family to leave the Netherlands and come to the USA. He settled down, and married Gertrude Wichers, and lived the rest of his life in the USA. I recently was able to see a copy of this portrait for the first time. This photo was taken around 1950, of his an Gertrude's 6 kids.


Thys Broersma (1895-1978)
Gertrude (Wichers) Broersma (1901-1955)
Jeanette Broersma (born 1927)
Julian Broersma (1927-2003)
Marion Broersma (1931-1965)
Chester Broersma (1933-2004)
Delmar Broersma (born 1934)
Marcella Broersma (born 1938)

Tombstone Tuesday - The Broersma Brothers

Recently, I've been trying to find out more about the Broersma brothers that left the Netherlands and ended up in Canada: Jack and Peter. They were brothers of Thys and Lawrence Broersma. Both Jack and Peter ended up in Ontario near Toronto, with their wives. Both couples never had any kids though. After many years of searching we finally know which cemeteries they are buried in, and here are their gravestones, thanks to the community of FindAGrave.com

Such A Nerd...

Well, I think I might officially be a genealogy nerd, if I wasn't already.

I was searching some newspapers for anything I could find on the Broersmas. Yeah, that's kinda nerdy, but I wasn't searching newspapers in the US, I was searching Netherlands newspapers on this site: delpher.nl. I don't speak Dutch, or really read it either, so that makes it a little difficult. So that took the nerd factor up a notch.

Then I came across this mention of my great grandparents, Lawrence Broersma and Grace Wichers, and it was their marriage announcement.

This announcement was printed on 8 April 1926. They were married on 4 April, which was Easter Sunday. I was excited because I thought that this was a mention of their marriage in a Dutch newspaper. Turned out that was half right. This is from a newspaper that was printed in Dutch, but is actually published in Iowa. It's called "De Volksvriend". Since parts of Iowa have large Dutch populations, as a result from immigrations during the early 20th century, I guess there was enough people that spoke Dutch and got their news from this source.

So to recap - I was searching newspapers for genealogy info, on a Dutch website in the Netherlands, and looking at newspapers that are actually in the USA that are printed in Dutch. AND I was getting excited about it, cause I was finding some tidbits of info on some other family members from this same newspaper.

I am a nerd.

Genealogy Info...from Facebook

I had posted a picture up on the family Facebook page for "Throwback Thursday" a while back. It was a picture of my grandpa Lloyd Broersma and his brother Marv, riding their bikes on the farm when they were younger. Here is the pic and the caption I had put with it:

#TBT early 1940s, Lloyd and Marv Broersma on the farm in Lynden. In their free time they liked to chase goats on their bikes...or maybe they were just on their way to work. Anyone know which farm this was? The one on the Lundy Rd or on H Street Rd?

I was joking about the goat, and was really more interested in the farm, but got a great response from Marv.

I got a bunch of information about the goat! And it was interesting too, and it added context to the picture and about his life.

So, in the future I hope to use Facebook to get long distance information about family history.

The S.S. Noordam

My great grandpa Lawrence (Laas) Broersma left his home in the Netherlands when he was 19, for the USA. I wonder what life would have been like to make him leave his home and move to another country? I think even today it's a big deal to move overseas, but he did it in a day when you still had to take a boat.

Here is a page from his passport. As you can see his hair was dark blond, his eyes were blue and his nose was normal, so that's good.


His family was very poor, and at the time (1920) they were living in the city of Sneek where Lawrence was working as a barber, and lived not far from the famous waterport.


His brother Thys had already moved to America to Iowa, and so Lawrence followed a few years later. I wonder if Thys was doing really well there, or if Lawrence thought that America would be the land of opportunity as so many thought? In Iowa there are a number of Dutch communities, so the transition would have been some what easy I would imagine. I don't know if he could speak English at that time.

He left from the port of Rotterdam on 9 June 1920, and then passed through Ellis Island on 21 June. Here is the passenger list with his name. I cropped it because his name was all the way at the bottom.


So he would have been on the ship for a good week and a half. I wonder how much passage would have cost? He crossed 8 years after the Titanic sank, but his ship I'm sure was not as luxurious. I looked up a little history on the ship he came over on, the Noordam, and it was in service from 1902 til 1927. Apparently during WWI it had hit a mine or 2 on a couple occasions and was in the shipyard for a while. Also, according to Wikipedia, the Noordam had alerted the Titanic to ice early on in Titanic's maiden voyage.

Recently I was looking on Ebay and bought a postcard of the ship. Someone else had written on the back and it was dated 1910. There are many versions of this same picture, but I liked this one because it had windmills in the background. They may have been painted in the background to make it look more Dutch.


I had found another nice postcard and framed it and gave it to my dad for Christmas. In this one you can see that the ship looks very similar, but it's been colorized and the flags are flying in a different direction. Also It looks like there are some more life boats, probably as a result of the Titanic. The note written on the back says this was mailed in 1916.


Anyway, I thought it was cool to imagine a little bit of what the journey would have been like, and these pieces helped put the story together a little for me.

Wedding Wednesday - Common Ancestor

My grandparents, Lloyd and Catherine Broersma are 5th cousins. That means that they have the same 4th great grandparents. My grandparents were married in 1951. 183 years before their marriage, their common ancestors were married on 5 March 1768, in Paesens in the Netherlands. Their names were Sybe Jans de Jong and Dieuwke Dirks.

I recently got to visit the church that they were married in, in Paesens. It was built sometime in the 13th century originally as a Catholic church. Later during the Protestant reformation in the 16th century, most churches in Friesland were converted to the Dutch Reformed church.


The church is still in use today and I got the chance to go inside and look around. It has been remodeled inside, but still has a traditional look similar to what would have been over the centuries.


I thought it was pretty cool to see where these two family lines met in history. Another interesting thing was that on the wall it had the names of the pastors of this church through the years. So in 1768 the pastor who married my 6th great grandparents would have been Jan Adam Kesler.

     

Newspaper Record for Laas Broersma's Birth

I found a resource that I didn't know about that has scans of newspapers, and they are searchable! The website is http://kranten.kb.nl/. It also allows you to download images of the newspapers. I was able to find my great grandpa Lawrence Broersma's birth, which was pretty cool. He was born on 4 February 1901 in Piaam, in the Netherlands. He changed his name to Lawrence when he came to the USA, but before that his name was Laas. This clipping is from the Nieuw Advertentieblad on 13 February 1901. Happy 113th b-day!

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.

Luitske van Gunst Heirlooms

When visiting relatives in the Netherlands, me and my dad discovered that my Great Great Grandma Luitske van Gunst (Broersma) had made a cross stitch sampler when she was 12. I don't know if she made a lot of them, but 1 still existed and it was given to one of my aunts. When we got home my dad called her and asked if she still had it, and she did. She said we could have it, and also something else.


It says: Luitsche van Gunst, 12 years old, 1882. We hope to have it framed. I've seen some of these come up on Antiques Roadshow and can be worth a lot, but those are really old and have a lot of detail. I like this one though because it's from my family.

Included with the sampler was a church book that also belonged to Luitske.


This church song book almost everyone would have from that congregation, and would bring it each Sunday to church. Most of it is songs, but it also has the New Testament and catechisms. This one was printed in 1881. Another cool thing with this book is that is says it belonged to Luitske.


It says: Churchbook of Luitske Thijses van Gunst, born in Piaam the 11th day of October 1869. Luitske would go on to marry Jetze Broersma in 1890.

Broer Pijtters & Orseltje Pijtters 315th Wedding Anniversary

Broer Pijtters, the oldest direct Broersma that we have been able to document, was married 315 years ago today in Schettens, Netherlands to Orseltje Pijtters. That would be on 7 August 1698 if you don't want to do the math. I had the opportunity to visit the church and took some video.

Four Generation Friday - Nicholas Broersma

10 years ago today my first child was born - Nicholas Broersma. It has been fun (for the most part) to watch him grow. In the picture you can see that he was still in his drooling phase. We went through multiple shirts daily back then, but he eventually grew out of that phase (for the most part).


Lloyd Broersma (b. 1927)
Ron Broersma (b. 1954)
Luke Broersma (b. 1979)
Nicholas Broersma (b. 2003)

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.

Broersma Family Crest?

I recently got to take a trip to the Netherlands with my dad to visit the towns and villages where our family was from. On one stop we were looking around in the church in Allingawier, which is in Wonseradeel in the province of Friesland.


Inside the church in the entry way, up on the tower was this coat of arms and inscription:

Alsmen schref 1634 en een
heeft Jelle Tiercks Broersma van
Allinvier aen dese toere geleyt
den eersten sten tot momory
van het heeft hi sin wapen hier
boven geset den 3 Yulyo
1635

It basically says that on the 3rd of July 1634, Jelle Tjerks Broersma laid the first stone in the tower when it was being constructed. Now we haven't been able to connect this Broersma to our Broersma line. Our Broersmas did live in Allingawier and the neighboring villages, but if this Jelle Tjerks is a part of our line, then he would be at least 2 generations further than we have documented in our direct line, and more likely 3 generations back.

I would love to connect to this Broersma, but I kinda think that we won't be able to. You would probably have to be rich to get the privilege of laying the first stone in a tower and getting an inscription about you. Also there is a coat of arms which would be awesome to have.

Photo Comparison - The Backdrop

One of the cool old pictures that we have of my family is if my Great Great Grandpa Jetze Broersma's family, taken in the Netherlands probably around 1911.


This portrait has some unique stuff. Everything looks pretty symmetrical as far as people go. My GG Aunt Dieuwke Broersma on the far left has her arm on an empty chair. They might have been able to do without that, but it does seem to balance out the rail on the opposite side that my G Grandpa Laas Broersma is sitting on. And behind him are some bushes and trees that seem to fade away towards the left, and what looks like a river flowing nearby. Maybe the studio has a few different backgrounds painted and depending on what type of picture you wanted they would move you to the left or right. Since this was a wider portrait I guess they just got everything from a curtain on the left, to blank in the middle, to a forrest on the right.

One thing that you can say about it is that it makes for a unique picture setting. I didn't think much of it until I saw another one that had a similar pose and furniture.


This photo of the Tjeerd Harmens Andringa family is out of the book "Andringa" and I believe it is from around 1902. It has the same rail on the right side. And the chair in the far left looks extremely similar to the one that Jetze Broersma is sitting in the other one. Just look at the knots in the legs and the diamond shape on the cross bar. To me this looks like it could be in the same studio based on the furniture.

Then I was forwarded this portrait that has another Broersma in it, Antje Broersma (cousin of Jetze Broersma, center with white hair covering).


This one has the same background as the first one, with trees on the right and curtain on the left. The chair that Johannes Werkhoven (man in the middle) seems to be the same style that Dieuwke had her arm on in the first one. Based on the the 2 sons having wives, I would estimate this picture was taken around the same time as the others, somewhere around 1914. The youngest son Klaas (on the left) was married in 1914 and this might even have been taken on that occasion.

This last one was taken in the same place as the first, almost certainly. Most of the people in it are the same, Jetze Broersma's family at Tjerk Broersma's wedding in 1916. See the trees on the right and the river? I don't see the curtain on the left, but the exposure on this one doesn't seem to be as good so I don't know what's going on on the left. Also the bench on the far right seems to be the same as in the previous picture on the left


So anyway, I thought that it was pretty interesting that these photos could possibly be from the same studio. Now what would be really awesome is if that studio was still in business and someone could go there and look at the archives of photos from way back. I'm guessing that there were not a lot of photo studios in that part of the Netherlands so many people would use the same one.