The Dutchman's Puzzle was chosen for all my Dutch ancestors. In one of those funny little things God likes to do, he plopped me down in the middle of the Netherlands. That's where we were when our son Zach was born . In the very town of Amersfoort that almost 400 years earlier his own ancestors lived and died. Wolphert Gerrets Van Couevenhoven married his wife Neeletje in the church who's shadow we rested in on our trips into town, indeed I have the tower of that very Church worked in Cross stitch tucked away somewhere. We greeted Sinter Klaas at the Koppleport where the Couevenhovens owned a bleaching camp. I lived there for 3 and half years never realizing that I was about as Dutch as a person could get! I wish I had known then that I shared in the history of that amazing little country. We were quite at home there and as with Germany I felt an instant affinity to the people and the food. I also felt a strange connection with the place too. There were times, when I would be overcome with such a strange sense of de ja vu that I found it unsettling and inexplicable! Now I know that maybe it was the hum of genetic memory stirring within. While we have personal reasons for loving Amersfoort, we have links all over the Netherlands, in Utrecht, Gelderland, Friesland too. Our Dutch names are many...Banta, Terhune, Brickers, Fonda,De Ruine,Van Der Stratton,Van Arsdale, Van Houten,Van Der Beek, Van Nuyse,Voorheese, Hegeman and many more. I must not forget our Huegonot forebears who fled to The Netherlands from France, Denyce, Demarest and most notably Jan DeMandeville who was a Doctor in Seventeenth century Nijmegen who eventually succumbed to the plague he was battling. So beloved was he by the town that after he passed they payed to put two of his sons through college and they were named Town Physicians. Our Dutch roots in America run long and deep, over 15 generations ago our ancestors came with Bedford Stuyvesant and helped him settle New Amsterdam. I like knowing that. I like knowing that my American heritage is my Dutch heritage and vice versa. I wish I had known it while I was living in The Netherlands!
God has truly been good to you, allowing you to live in your ancestors countries Not knowing at the time will give you all the more reasonto go back.
ReplyDeleteLove, Oma
Good point Omar! Kellie, I am so glad that you had the desire to find out so many things about our ancestors! I think it absolutely fascinating, I did not develope my love of history until late in life. Now it is my favorite subject to teach. I really am greatful for all the work you put into researching our ancestors. I had to write a paper in one of my psychology classes about my family cultural identity, at the time I was in a real panic because as far as I was concerned I had not a clue, your research answers a lot of questions and if I had to write that paper over again I feel I good do a much better job now! It is nice to know where you roots are!
ReplyDeleteOmar,
ReplyDeleteGod is still putting me in my ancestral homes, your own Ancestor William French, a Revolutionary war veteran was living in South Carolina before the war broke out!
Jamie, there are many more such stories out there, maybe I will wait till October then post the sad tale of the Ingersolls and Rices and their role in the Salem Witch trials!
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