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.

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.

     

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)

Four Generation Friday - The Clock

I want to keep this tradition going of taking a picture of sons with the grandfather clock in the background. This clock was built by Lawrence Broersma and Ron Broersma, and will be passed down through the family.

Four Generation Friday - Firstborn Sons

Lloyd Broersma (b. 1927) 1st of 12
Ron Broersma (b. 1954) 1st of 5
Luke Broersma (b. 1979) 1st of 2
Nicholas Broersma (b. 2003) 1st of 3

Laas Broersma turns 111

My Great Grandfather, Laas "Lawrence" Broersma was born the day after his son was born, at least on the calendar. He was born 111 years ago, on 4 February 1901 in Piaam, in the Netherlands. His son Lloyd was born yesterday, as you can see in the previous blog entry.

Laas was the immigrant ancestor for me on the Broersma side. This picture was taken most likely before he left the Netherlands to come to the United States.

Happy 85th Birthday Lloyd Broersma!

Today my grandpa turns 85! He was born on 3 February 1927 in Ireton, Iowa. His full name is Lloyd Julian Broersma. In Dutch tradition the names of the children typically are after the grandparents. Usually the the first son's first name is after the paternal grandfather, with the second name after the father. The first daughter is named after the maternal grandmother, and so on. One time when I was visiting with my grandpa he told me that his first name Lloyd (starting with the letter L) is for his paternal grandmother Luitske, and his middle name Julian (starting with J) is for his paternal grandfather Jetze. When he was growing up they were a pretty poor family, and the women told Lloyd's mom (Grace Gertrude Wichers) that she couldn't name her son such a fancy name since they were poor. She didn't care.

Here's a picture I recently found of him from when he graduated from 8th grade.

Four Generation Friday - The Broersmas

I have a small collection of pictures with four generations in them, and I was thinking that It would be cool to feature those in a daily blogging prompt and maybe call it "Four Generation Friday." But I know I have at least 1 picture with 5 generations in it, so I thought maybe it could include pictures with 4 or more generations in them.


Lawrence Broersma (1901-1984)
Lloyd Broersma (b. 1927)
Ron Broersma (b. 1954)
Luke Broersma (b. 1979)

Happy 60th Anniversary Lloyd and Kay Broersma

60 years ago today, my grandparents Lloyd Julian Broersma and Catherine Stap were married at 3rd Christian Reformed Church in Lynden, Whatcom Co, Washington. That would be on 12 Oct 1951 if you didn't feel like doing the math.


On a side note, they didn't know this at the time of their marriage, but they are actually related. Lloyd and Kay are 5th cousins. They have the same GGGG Grandparents: Sybe Jans and Dieuwke Dirks. Sybe and Dieuwke were married on 5 Mar 1758 in Paesens, Oosdongeradeel, Friesland, The Netherlands. When we discovered this tidbit of information a few years ago, we showed my grandparents how they were related on a pedigree we printed out. They got a kick out of it and now they are the life of any party they are invited to.