I have made great progress on interpreting the file from Bram. It is mostly all of the information that has been sent to him by Edwin Plantage, Cozette and myself on our family so it is going quite fast. There was some information on my great-grandfather that I did not have so that was interesting. I have had for a long time the dates and names of family members older than that time frame but no pictures and very little personal information on their lives. I don’t know if more information is even available. My records will never go into the detail that I imagine will be in the book Bram is working on. Hopefully it will go into more detail of events of the past. Many people are not interested in reading about their family when it goes back beyond a few generations but I have great interest in their lives. What diseases did they have in their health history, is their something important or noteworthy they have accomplished in their lives or were their hobbies and talents related to the hobbies and talents of our current generation. So the file came and now it goes into the to do drawer for a short time to attend to later because the Paterje has arrived in the mail. Once again our family picture is on the cover thanks to the hard work of those in the family that have given information to be passed on. We have been written up many times in the quarterly magazine and I have had a couple articles in it. Anyone wishing information on how to join the organization can contact me and I will be glad to help you out any way that I can.

When Bram and Coby were our guests he presented me with a file that was in both English and Dutch although the English translation was not the best. I am slowly picking away at it trying to pack all this information into my brain and records. This file was how our family will be presented in his book when it comes out. I noticed that some families did not have much coverage and others were filled out rather completely.

One part of the file was really done up nicely. It was done by the grand-daughter of our Grandfathers youngest sister. I have only exchanged a couple e-mails with this woman and would gladly enter a more regular exchange with her if she desires. I couldn’t believe how complete it was. Of course when it got to mentioning Gerrit and Elbert the information she had stopped but some was passed on to her by her grandmother and it was very interesting. I finally found out who Drekus was. A man I met when I was quite young but had no real idea where he entered into the family picture. Many of the family members had extensive musical background and of course mechanical aptitudes were scattered throughout their occupations. Some things never change.

I have had a few inquiries as to where my blog has disappeared to. To address this question for them and future vistitors to my blog let it suffice to say that due to my lack of confidence in the political scene in the United States It will be back in full swing when the Constitution appears to be gaining some ground or the revolution is over. Whichever comes first. In the meantime the blog will concentrate more on genealogy and updates on Brams’ progress on his book on our heritage as he passes that information on to me. All sections of the site are working and I will be glad to address questions on the site pertaining to genealogy. I am sure the traffic count will be down on the blog but that is to be expected and that is not why I started the blog in the first place.