The September issue of the Paterje has arrived and I thought I would share with you the type of information that is contained in each and every issue.

The magazine usually starts out with (Foto uit de oude doos). That is a photo out of the old box. In this issue was a map of the market area of Amsterdam on behalf of A. Pater who was in the textile business. A. Pater was of the family group Westkwartier and he lived in Amsterdam.

The next article is about the 25th anniversary of the Family Organisation of Paters (F.O.P.). A reunion is being planned to be held on the 10th of April in 2010 at the prison museum in the city of Veenhuizen. Plans are being made and ideas are being tossed about to make the celebration a success. Usually the annual meetings are held in an area where there is access to information on the Pater families and no doubt some of the family may have spent a little bit of their lives in this facility. They are of course counting on a large turn-out. I for one would love to attend since the odds of me being around for the 50th anniversary are getting slimmer by the day.

Then comes the article by the President of the F.O.P., Hans Pater. He is writing about how many members traveled and added to their knowledge of the family tree. Bram is mentioned for his travels to our own 100th anniversary reunion. Hans then talks about the beginning of the F.O.P. at Flevenhof 25 years ago and the fact that we have progressed into such a respected organisation. He thanks all of the members for their input to the records over these years. He mentions the 25 year reunion being held in a prison as maybe a connection to the Paters who have been left behind, and he invites all to attend and make it a special day.

Then of course is the article from the editor, Froukje Ekelmans-Pater. She is writing about how she has been busy with so many things and this issue of the Paterje had to be put on the back burner for a short time. Many called and wrote wondering if their issue had been lost. (Yes, yours truly was one of them.) I often wonder though that with all everyone is this organisation is involved with time is so quickly found to answer my e-mails when there is a problem. She states that there is a new website design in the works and of course the receipt of daily updates on family information has to be kept up with. I do hope they consider putting a translater on their website much like the one I have on my blog. They did take my suggestion of putting a PayPal link so that I could renew my subscription at a much lower rate than through Western Union. I hope others in the other countries served by this organization give it a try.

There you have it so far. A very condensed form of what has appeared on only the first 3 pages of the Paterje. I will continue to post a few pages at a time until you have an idea of what can be found in a typical Paterje. There was not an article this time on our family group but that was due to Bram being on a excursion to Poland. I am sure there may be an article on this in a later issue. In the meantime I enjoy the family picture of our family appearing so many times in this magazine.

http://www.fam-org-pater.nl/ Check it out and check with me for membership informaion.

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.