van der Fluit – Page 8 – A Deck of Ancestors

52 Weeks – Week Ten

Worship

In what seems a bit of a change of course, this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge is “Worship”. As the only mayor I’ve found in our family tree is my wife’s third great grandfather, this week I’ll be writing about three men and women of the cloth on my father’s side of the family. My grandmother had a brother who was a priest and a sister who was a nun, while my grandfather had a sister who became a nun.

Born in 1932, Marie Adriana “Riet” Komen was the youngest of child of my great grandparents, Adrianus Komen and Elizabeth Bakker. On my reading of the funeral card and “familieberichten” (“family message”, something akin to an obituary) my cousin sent me after she died, Tante* Riet entered religious training when she was 17. Tante Riet took her vows as a Roman Catholic nun in August 1954, when she was 22. She belonged to the order “Zusters van ‘t H. Hart”, which translates as “Sisters of the Sacred Heart”, which was a teaching order. Tante Riet served as a missionary in Metro Lampung, Indonesia for many of years. Tante Riet also spent time in Finland, where her order also served. By 1997, Tante Reit was Mother Superior of her order, in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Later, she spent several years at St. Bernadette Monastery, in Maliskamp, Noord-Brabant before retiring to Nijmegen.

When I was in grade ten, Tante Riet came to Canada to visit my grandmother in southern Alberta. My grandparents and great aunt made the drive to visit us in northern British Columbia. During that visit she gave me a hand-painted silk bookmark from her time in Indonesia. During my last visit to the Netherlands in 2017, my dad’s cousin drove me and my parents to visit her. We literally drove across the country, going from Langedijk in Noord Holland to Nijmegen on the German border in a matter of hours. Compare that to Canada, where driving across the whole country is much longer than three hours! I wrote to her several times afterwards, but she found corresponding more difficult in her last years.

Tante Riet passed away last year, in August 2021. Funeral services were restricted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While a funeral home in Den Bosch, Noord-Brabant handled the services, while writing this it only just dawned on me that I do not know where she was interred.

Cornelis Jan “Kees” Komen was the middle child of my grandmother’s family, born in 1928. Oom* Kees was a Roman Catholic priest. I do not know what order he belonged to. In his teens, he attended Het Klein Seminarie Hageveld in Heemstede, Noord Holland, Netherlands. Hageveld was a grammar school and “minor seminary”, a secondary school that prepared boys for eventual enrollment at an actual seminary to prepare for the priesthood. Oom Kees was ordained in May 1958.

Oom Kees is buried at St. Barbara Roman Catholic Cemetery in Haarlem, Noord Holland. He shares a grave marker with two other priests. Kees’s colleagues are named as “Pastoor” on the marker, while he is identified as a “Kapelaan”, suggesting that he had been assigned to work in a secular institution such as a hospital or school.

I never met Oom Kees, who passed away in 1987, so I do not know much about him personally. Until a few years ago, the only photos I had ever seen of him were of him and the Pope.

Oom Kees certainly liked to see the Pope. On the left is Pope Paul VI. The other two photos show Pope John Paul II.

*Bidprentje* (Prayer Card) – Cornelis Jan Komen

“Grateful Memory of Chaplain Cornelis Jan Komen Born in Langedijk on April 10, 1928, ordained a priest at the Cathedral of Haarlem on May 31, 1958, he died after an active and meritorious life in Haarlem on January 8, 1987 and was buried on January 12 at St. Barbara Cemetery“

Tante Marie (Zuster Melania) in 1954, shortly after taking her solemn vows.

Turning to my grandfather’s side of the family, my Tante Marie van der Fluit was an Ursuline nun. Born in 1925, she likely entered the convent sometime around 1951. Tante Marie took her vows in 1954 and went by the name “Sister Melania”. As far as I have been able to learn, she spent most of her years of service in Bergen, Noord Holland. I met her once, when I was a kid, when she came to Canada to visit my grandparents. I remember being excited to meet her, because she was the first of my van der Fluit relatives living in the Netherlands who I ever met. Tante Marie passed away in October 2016 – three days before her youngest sister who lived in Canada, Anna “Anny” van der Fluit.

My father with Tante Marie (Zr. Melania) in 2009

“Tante” means “aunt” in Dutch. German and French as well.
“Oom” means “uncle” in Dutch.

52 Weeks – Week Seven

Landed

I’m starting to realize that when I choose a topic for the theme of the week for the 52 Ancestors Challenge, I should look ahead to see what other topics are coming up. That way I can avoid getting to a topic like this week’s, “Landed”, and seeing that I’ve written on the topic before. Then again, a little repetition here and there won’t hurt.

If I had approached this topic a few hours ago, I would probably be sitting here casting about in my mind as to what “landed” means to me. Fortunately, our eldest son inadvertently gave me a focus to write about. During dinner, out of the blue, he asked “besides Opa, did any of our ancestors come to Canada on steamships?”

The *Sibajak*, which brought my father and his family to Canada.

Opa is my father, the Dutch side of my family. I’ve already written about his coming to Canada on the Sibajak. He and his family came in early May 1954, travelling from Rotterdam to Halifax. They landed at Pier 21, which could be described as the Canadian equivalent of Ellis Island. My father’s aunt and uncle came over four months earlier, in January 1954 on the Groote Beer, while another aunt and uncle followed in late May 1954, on board the Castel Felice.

While it was a Holland America ship during his crossing, built and originally operated by Rotterdam Lloyd, along with other ships that they mainly used to go to the East Indies. Built in 1927, the Sibajak served as a troop ship during World War II. After the war, the Sibajak was one of a number of ships operated by Holland America that were used almost entirely for Dutch emigrants, along with the Grote Beer, Waterman, and Zuiderkruis. It was sold and scrapped in Hong Kong in 1959. When I was in Hong Kong in 1996, while travelling around the harbour and between its islands, I wondered how close I might have come to what scraps of it might remain.

This is a fascinating short documentary about a voyage the Sibajak made to Australia carrying Dutch emigrants. The video is in Dutch, but the images convey a lot of meaning.

In the late 1990s, my parents went on an Alaskan cruise on a Holland America ship. During the trip, my father, who loves to talk to people, fell into a conversation with one of the older hands on deck. My father mentioned having come to Canada on the Sibajak. After a few questions from the crew member, my dad learned that the man had been on the Sibajak during my father’s trip, in his first year or two of service.

On my mother’s side, the most recent ancestor to arrive by steamship was my great grandmother, Emelia Anton. She came to Canada at the age of nine, with several of her siblings and her parents, Jacob Anton and Margaretha “Margaret” Heck. They were Germans from Russia. The family sailed out of Hamburg on June 18, 1912 aboard the S.S. Pennsylvania. They arrived at the Port of New York (Ellis Island) on July 1, 1912. Their declared destination was Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, to join Emelia’s older brother, Rochus. The passenger manifest stated that Jacob paid for the entire family’s transport, other than that of one of his daughters-in-law, whose passage had been paid by her father.

The Anton family, circa 1910. Likely taken in Selo Suchoi, Veronesch, Russia.

Emelia had not had much schooling before coming to North America, but was very religious. She said that she was frightened and nervous during the journey, as she did not know anything about where she was going and did not fully understand what was going on. However, on reaching New York, she said her fears subsided when she saw “the Madonna”. When she saw that, she knew she would be safe and all would be well. Of course, the “Madonna” was the Statue of Liberty. As she had never heard of it before, she thought it was a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Passenger list for the *S.S. Pennsylvania* showing the Antons.

Michael Lerner (1862-1947) and Barbara Schmidt (1865-1936)

Emelia’s husband, Heronimus “Jerome” Lerner, was born to parents who were also Germans from Russia, Michael Lerner and Barbara Schmidt. Michael and Barbara came to the United States in May 1893 aboard the S.S. Lahn, with the five children they had at the time. They landed at Ellis Island and made their way to Clay County, Texas. Jerome was the first child born to Michael and Barbara in the United States. They had seven other children in Texas after Jerome was born. Jerome moved to Saskatchwan in 1917, preceded by an older brother. Jerome’s parents followed a year later. Other siblings came north at other times.

Passenger list for the *Lahn* showing the Lerners

The ancestors furthest back in time that I can find who came to North America on a steamship were my great x3 grandparents, Robert Nelson and Elizabeth Joseph. They were both born in Muff, Donegal, Ireland in 1818 and married there in 1842.

Joseph Nelson (1818-1902) and Elizabeth Joseph (1818-1902)

Sometime in the early 1840s they had moved to Linwood, Renfrew, Scotland. They were there at least by January 1844, when their first son, Samuel, was born. By 1850, Robert was working at Brown’s Sugar House, on Roxburgh Street in Greenock, Scotland as a sugar baker. Sugar bakers usually refined muscovado sugar, an unrefined brown sugar imported from Barbados.

On September 3, 1850 Robert and Elizabeth, along with their three children, departed Liverpool on board the ship “North Atlantic” bound for New Orleans. For a long time I had been confused by references I had seen to them coming over on “the north Atlantic”, thinking it meant the route they travelled. It wasn’t until I came across the passenger list that I realized that “North Atlantic” was the name of the ship. Having a name like that makes it difficult refine a search to distinguish the ship from where it sailed. However, while I have not found very good sources, it appears that the North Atlantic was a steam powered ship.

Passenger list for the *North Atlantic* showing the Nelson family

The records show that there was at least one other family headed by a sugar baker from Brown’s on the same voyage. Robert and Elizabeth were part of a company of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) converts travelling from the United Kingdom to Utah. The family spent a short period of time in Missouri, where in 1852 Elizabeth had her first child born in America. By late 1854 they were in Farmington, Utah, where my great great grandfather John Alexander Nelson was born.

Looking at my pedigree for this post, I realized I might have one other ancestor who might have travelled from the United Kingdom to the United States by means of a steam powered ship. That would be my great x3 grandmother, Maria Hadlond, who was born in Cheltenham, Gloucester, England in 1838 and who emigrated sometime in the 1850s. I have not really researched this branch of my family beyond collecting names and basic vital stats. For whatever reason, it has never caught my interest.

I also have a great x3 grandmother, Susan Turple, whose family had been in Nova Scotia since the 18^th century, who would have travelled by means of a ship with sails. In 1849, Susan joined the Mormon church in 1849. In 1852, she went from Halifax to Boston to join a westward migration of Mormons. It is most likely that the initial part of Susan’s travels was by means of steam powered ship.

Before these people, any ancestors I have who crossed the Atlantic would have done aboard ships with sails.

Speaking of looking ahead, I see that next week’s theme is “Courting”. Since I am writing this on February 14, I wonder if that should have been this week’s theme!

52 Weeks – Week Four

Curious

The theme for this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge is “curious” – a term that has been left up to our own interpretation!

There are many things that keep me curious about my family history. They say you are never finished your family tree – because you aren’t. However, if I ever ran out of questions, my family tree would be done, and not in a good way.

For decades I’ve been curious about my maternal grandmother’s first marriage. Last year I was finally able to get their marriage record because it was finally old enough for public disclosure. Despite that, I still have a lot of unanswered questions.

I’ve previously mentioned my great grandmother, Emelia Anton, who was a German from Russia. She was born on New Year’s Day, but I’ve never been able to confirm whether it was by the Julian or Gregorian calendar. Another mystery: I have a copy of the passenger ship on which Emelia and her family came to Ellis Island. The family came straight to Canada from there; however, despite scouring countless records, I’ve never found where they crossed into Canada.

Come to think of it, my Germans from Russia are the most mysterious branch of my family tree, given how little I know about it compared to other lines!

Another mystery that intrigued me for years was an occupation my great great grandfather, Nicolaas “Klaas” Komen held in the 1920s, “brandstoffelhandelaar”. It literally translates as “fuel dealer”, although it took me a long time to figure that out. Here’s a helpful tip. I’ve found that when trying to translate a difficult foreign word, type it into Google Image Search. Sometimes a photo really is worth a thousand words. However, what kind of fuel was Klaas selling? How and where was he selling it, and to whom? As far as I’ve been able to figure out, it likely involved hauling peat or coal on a wagon or truck.

Marriage registration for Adrianus Komen and Elizabeth Bakker, which identifies the occupation of Adrianus’s father, Klaas, as “brandstoffelhandelaar”

My most recent discovery was learning the sailing on which my father’s aunt came to Canada. I’ve pretty much always known the date on which my father and his family left the Netherlands and the ship he came on, the Sibajak. His aunt, Anny van der Fluit and her husband Jac Beers came on the Groote Beer a few months earlier, but I never knew when. Less than a fortnight ago, the Rotterdam Archives posted Holland America Lines passenger lists up to 1969 on its website. I finally learned that my great aunt and uncle left Rotterdam for Halifax on January 20, 1954. I then realized that I was missing information about one of my father’s uncles, Johannes “Joop” van der Fluit, who came to Canada a couple of weeks after my father. I knew the date on which he sailed, but it crossed my mind that I didn’t know the name of the ship. Ta da, there he is, in the archive, sailing to Canada with his family on the Castel Felice.

However, the greatest curiosity to me revolves around my 4x Great Grandfather, Petrus Pieterszoon “Pieter” van der Fluit, who was born in Voorhout, which is just outside of Leiden. His direct ancestors had been in what is now Zuid Holland (South Holland) for several generations, mostly around Leiden, although the surname traces to a village outside of The Hague.

Visiting Fluitpolderplein in Leidschendam, Zuid Holland in 2017. It may well be that this is the polder after which my surname originates.

Pieter was the oldest of 11 children, four boys and seven girls. He was still in Voorhout in May 1800, when he married Maria Woutersdr (“Maartje” or “Marijtje”) de Vlieger, who was born in nearby Lisse. Pieter and Maartje have their first child, Elisabeth, in Voorhout in 1801. The next time I see Pieter and Maartje, it’s in November 1804, in Nieuwe Niedorp, in what is now Noord Holland (North Holland), where they have their second child, Pieter.

What has always had me curious is why Pieter and Maartje moved almost 70 kilometers to start a new life away from their family. Based on the time I’ve spent in the Netherlands, a trip of seven kilometers seems overwhelming for the locals. For most of my Dutch family lines, the generations never strayed far, so this strikes me as an astonishing move. After Pieter and Maartje moved to Nieuwe Niedorp, the next five or six generations were all located within a very short distance. My father was born less than four kilometers from Nieuwe Niedorp.

Marriage registration for Pieter van der Fluit and Maartje de Vlieger

Almost all of Pieter’s siblings stayed in Voorhout. One adventurous sister moved all the way to Leiden, less than seven kilometers away. Pieter’s youngest sister ended up in Antwerp after moving to what is now Belgium with her husband. There are many descendants of the original van der Fluits still in the Zuid Holland area.

It is not only the distance of the move that has me curious. Usually it was the younger siblings who move away from home, with the eldest staying behind. I have nothing more than speculation as to what drew Pieter and Maartje north.

My working theory was based upon the fact that by 1800, what is now the Netherlands was essentially a French puppet state known as the Batavian Republic. In the time leading up to its creation and during its existence, the Dutch economy was in dire straits. Between it being wartime in Europe and a poor economy, perhaps Pieter went north looking for work. Many years ago, someone suggested that during the time Pieter moved north there was a great deal of work going on with the construction of new polders and waterworks. However, my investigations indicate that most of the polders of the area were constructed well before and well after Pieter arrived on the scene.

This concludes the January 52 Ancestors theme of “Foundations”. February’s theme is “Branching Out”. In the meantime, don’t worry about the cat, it’ll be okay, stay curious!

52 Weeks – Week Three

Favourite Photo

As expected, I found this week’s 52 Weeks challenge to be particularly difficult, as I am lucky to have so many photos that I cherish. So I am going to cheat a little and post more than one, as I really do not have one photo that I favour above all others. With one exception, I’ve had a copy of all these photos for a very long time. Some of these photos were what helped kindle my love of genealogy.

On her Facebook group, Generations Cafe, Amy Johnson Crow suggested telling “the story of a favorite photo: who is in it, where and when it was taken, and why it was taken. What was the event?” I have to admit, for some of these photos I never thought of who took them or why they were taken, even though I had known of them for years.

This is a photo of my great great grandparents, Jacob Anton and Margaretha (“Margaret”) Heck. Given the attire, this was likely the confirmation of their daughter, Elataria (“Lottie”). My great grandmother, Emilia, is the girl on the right holding flowers. She was about 7 years old here. She lived to be 94. I visited her many times. She is the one who I mentioned at the outset of this blog, who surprised me by speaking fluent German when I thought she was of English heritage.

While this photo was taken in Russia, the family was German. Their forebears were amongst the many Germans who migrated to the Russian Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. My family settled in the Beresan region of what is now Ukraine. A few years before Emelia was born, the family migrated to Russia. They stayed there until 1912, when they emigrated to Canada.

The next few photos all relate to my father and his family.

My father and his father, Adrianus (“Arie”) van der Fluit, Schagen, Netherlands, circa 1951.

This photo is definitely a contender for my absolute favourite. While I know when and where it was taken, it never crossed my mind to wonder who took it or why. I have no idea why they would have been visiting Schagen, but there they were. They certainly were dressed very fine and are looking very dapper. My grandfather was a farmer and a labourer, and they’re a bit of a way from home, so it must have been an important occasion. Looking through the family timeline, I can’t find an event that occurred in Schagen at this time.

I was in that same square with my father a few years ago. I should have recreated this photo with him, but I couldn’t quite figure out where in the square this had been taken.

This is a photo of my grandparents, my father, and his siblings being dropped off by a family friend at the port in Rotterdam. The family is about to board the ship that will take them to Canada.

Unlike the other photos, this one only came into my possession relatively recently.

My paternal grandfather had seven siblings. He is the first person seated in the front row on the left side of the photo. My grandmother, Christina (“Tiny”) Komen is standing behind him. All of my grandfather’s siblings are here, except for his youngest sister. She might have been absent because this might have been taken after she emigrated to Canada, sometime in early 1954. My grandfather and grandmother left for Canada later in the spring of 1954. An older brother, Joop, seated immediately beside my grandfather in front of his wife Agie, left for Canada a fortnight after my grandfather.

However, this might have been taken in 1951 to mark the ordination of my great aunt, as an Urseline nun. She went by the name Sister Melania. I considered whether this might have been the occasion for which my grandfather and grandfather were dressed so fine in the above photo, but as far as I can find she was ordained in Bergen, not Schagen.

Finally. this set of photos of my mother’s maternal grandmother, Hazel Nelson. It’s the photo on the left, taken when she was about four years old, that is one of my favourites. It’s an amazing photo. I added the others because I thought it was a nice idea to see her progressing through life.

Hazel was born in December 1899. She and her sister Irene were the first twins born in the town of Cardston, Alberta, where her parents were amongst the original settlers. Irene only lived a month, but Hazel lived to be 67. I also have a copy of one of the last photos taken of her, around July 1967. Hazel died only a couple days before I was born. My mother practically went from the funeral to the hospital.

Next week: “Curious”. I wonder what that could be be? 😉

Worship

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Landed

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Curious

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Favourite Photo

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