My American Connections

[Kai Vanuffelen]

I am starting this topic to tell you something about the history of my family. It has nothing to do with framing.
My father's mother was nine years old when her father left for the United States after separating from his wife. This was in 1929. He told my grandmother's brother Koen Rosman who had the same first and last name as his father, that he will not be coming back. My great grandfather was working in the engine-room of ships shoveling coal etc. and they lived in the city of Schiedam.

Not surprisingly they lived in a working class area of Schiedam. At first he kept contact with his wife and sent her money for the upkeep of his two children from the US, but at some stage he broke off all contact and my family never heard from him again. This was hard upon my grandmother and great grandmother financially. My grandmother married, had children and grandchildren. All without the presence of her father. My grandmother's brother emigrated to Christchurch, New Zealand in the sixties, and died five years ago without knowing what happened to his father. He did remember flying kites with his father when he was young. Apart from that, he disliked his father for losing contact.

Years later I found out my great grandfather's Social Security-number in the US. On it he claimed to have been born in Chester, Pennsylvania and changed his name to Conrad Rosman. He died in 1987 in New York at the age of 95. So we arrived in New Zealand in 1985 while he was still alive. It is likely that Conrad remarried and had children - we do not know. Finding out about these things cost money and neither my grandmother, not her brother were interested. What happens if he died a pauper and we have to pay for his funeral-costs was their comment. Koen's daughter, who still lives in Christchurch was not interested as well, so I left it at that. I am actually more interested in my father's side of the family and we traced that back to the town of Zingem in Flanders as far back as the 1700's.

 

[Kai Vanuffelen]

Following on.
In the beginning of the 1950's my mother's parents had serious plans about emigrating to Canada. They placed money into the account of a traveling company that would sort out all the documentation. They had a family-photo made with the four children and they were on their way soon. Unfortunately, the company they invested the money with went bankrupt and they lost all their money. As a result, they decided to stay in The Netherlands and set up a flower-shop. That is what happened to them and my grandparents always regretted not being able to emigrate to Canada. My mother would never have met my father if they did go to Canada.

That is not the end of the story. My mother's father had an elder brother, who did emigrate with his wife and three sons. The eldest son got married to his sweetheart and she traveled as well. A groupsphoto was taken just before they left with extended family including my grandfather and my mother as a child. They emigrated about 1952 to Canada. In 1966 Marten Pal, the father and his wife traveled by boat back to Friesland and saw how well the area they had left had developed economically. In the 1950's western Europe was struggling to recover from the effects of WW2 and that is what they tried to escape from. They were diappointed with their decision to emigrate to Canada, because they had to struggle as new immigrants.

Learning a new language, new culture. All these things including a tight purse. On the way back on the boat back to Canada, Marten died of a heart-attack. It was the middle of the Atlantic and his widdow had no money to keep the body frozen on board. A funeral was held at sea. Early in the morning the ship stopped and the engines ceased and Marten was dropped in the ocean inside a weighted coffin with holes drilled in the sides. The captain said a prayer and soon after the ship went on its way. Back in Canada the three Pals were waiting at the shore to see to their mother. We know every detail of Marten's funeral, because as it happened a famous Dutch writer by the name of Simon Carmiggelt was also on board and wrote everthing down. This article was published in a Dutch newspaper of 1966.

Marten's wife went back to live in The Netherlands in 1970's and died there an unhappy woman. The three sons who are now grandfathers still live in Canada. The eldest lives in Rockville (?)/ Brockville (?) on the Hudson River just across the border from the US. The middle one lives in Calgary because he and his wife love mountaineering. Unsure about the exact location of the youngest, but he also lives in Canada.

 

[Ellen Collins MCPF]

I love family stories! My family has a strong oral tradition, and we had our share of wonderful and not-so-wonderful people. My favorite thing is when customers bring in old family photos and tell me their history.