Stamboom van Rienk en Bettie van der Beek

Romke was my great-grandfather.
Romke was a worker. He was rejected for military service because of physical defects, below you see the details of the inspection. Apparently he missed one or more fingers, that was lack No. 76 at the militia.
He was not tall either, he was 1 el 530 stripes, and you should read that as 153 cm. His grandfather Pieter was even smaller, because he was rejected for military service because of lack of length.
 


Romke was convicted on 3 April 1872 for ill-treatment, together with his brother Doeke. So they were not sweeties. They were then sentenced to 8 days in prison (see a section from the police archive below).

The children Gerardus and Tjipke van Romke and Jiskje were in 1889 in court when they were 11 and 10 years old.
They had only taken some branches from the forest. That was in the winter, probably their parents needed the wood to burn the stove.
They were sentenced to 2 days in prison! You can see the court record below (G.R. v.d. B. is Gerardus Romkes van der Beek and T.R. v.d. B. is Tjipke Romkes van der Beek).

Romke died of tbc on 19-02-1900 in Oenkerk, at the age of 56.
After he had died, everything he had been in touch with in the house had to be burned (see the report of the municipal authorities at Jiskje below).

after reading it was signed by us with the Comparanten and the witnesses, with the exception of the bridegroom and the bride, who stated that they could not do this since they never learned to write(see below).

 
Click here for the marriage certificate of Romke and Jiskje.
Romke later on learned to write. For the first four children, the birth certificate always stated that the father could not write, but from that moment on he started to sign the birth certificates. Below you can see, for example, the birth certificate of my grandfather Jan, with the signature of his father Romke underneath.
 

 

Romke and Jiskje went to live at Flokhernepaad 4 in Molenend when they were married. Around 1880 they moved and they went to live on Dr. Kijlstraweg 50. That is next to the house where later son Tjipke went to live (Dr. Kijlstraweg 48) and two houses from the house where later son Gaatze and grandson Rom went to live (Dr. Kijlstraweg 54).

Flokhernepaad 4, as it is in 2020

In the house at Flokhernepaad 4 a sister of Romke was living: Trijntje van der Beek. She was married to Sierk Martens Piekstra and they lived there until 1883. Then Trijntje died, she was only 31 years old. Half a year later Sierk married Martens Piekstra again and moved. Then Romke and Jiskje went back to Flokhernepaad 4. They lived there until 1900 until Romke died.
A brother of Romke has also lived in them, you can see that from the population register below. That was Gerhardus, he lived with them from 1874 to 1877.
Opposite them was a sister of Romke at Flokhernepaad 1: Antje van der Beek; she was married to Doeye van der Woude.
 

Romke died on tbc on 19 February 1900.
After he had died, everything with which he had been in contact with the house had to be burned (see the picture opposite).
Six children had already died of them, Jan in 1879 (6 years), Gaatze in 1888 (1.5 years), Akke in 1893 (17 years), Antje in 1894 (1 year), Jantje (died very young) and another Akke in 1896 (14 days). A few weeks later their daughter Grietje (14 years old) died and a year later their son Gerardus (22 years old).
After that Jiskje stayed behind with four children.
 
She had to peddle with bread to get money, she was “bôlekoerrinster“.
Furthermore, her daughter Hinke died in 1913 at the age of 21 from an accident: Hinke walked two and a half months after she was married to a house when a wall fell over because of the strong wind. She came under the wall and died.
 
Jiskje lived, after her husband died, in many different places, often with other people in and near her birth house. She was born on Dr. Kijlstraweg 67 in 1854.
In 1869 she went with her father to the house next door (which has been demolished and therefore no longer exists).
In 1872 she married and her father moved shortly thereafter, he married again and now with Tjipkje Pieters van der Beek (he was the fourth man of Tjipkje, and Tjipkje was an aunt of Romke, the man of Jiskje), see 1.1.4.
From 1918 to 1928 she lived in a part of the house on Dr. Kijlstraweg 75, then she went to the house opposite, Dr. Kijlstraweg 66. She had one room there in the old “skoallehûs” until 1930.
In 1930 her son Gaatze bought the house from the Dr. Kijlstraweg 54 (where later Rom van der Beek went to live). Jiskje then went into the southern part of that house, and until her death in 1940 she lived there.
 
During Floralia, a celebration in Trynwâlden that was held once every two years, Jiskje was depicted as a “bôlekoerrinster” by means of flowers in Stania State, see below.
 
More about my great-grandparents Romke and Jiskje can be found under Mijn verhaal/Mijn overgrootouders

Oepke was een neef van mijn vader, hij werd Oepe genoemd.
Oepke was a cousin of my father, he was called Oepe.
Oepke van der Beek was a cattle farmer and cattle salesman in Roodkerk. He came to my parents very regularly to see if cattle had to be sold on the Friday cattle market in Leeuwarden.
He was also active in the social field: he was among other things on the supervisory board of the Savings and Advance Settlements, sat for almost 20 years in the school board and was an elder of the Reformed Church.
He did not name his father, Oepke and IJtje called their eldest son Piet after the mother of Oepke: Pietje Bil.
In 1938 Oepke went with Ietje Greydanus to Dr. Kijlstraweg 48 live, they came from Dr. Kijlstraweg 55 (the house in which my grandparents later went to live).
In 1951, Oepke and Iet went to Roodkerk.

Jan and Sepkje, my grandparents, lived at Jelte Binnesweg 11 from their wedding day in 1910.
You see that house in the picture below, below left; that house they first rented from (clean) father Jan Douma, later they bought it.
That house stood behind the house at JelteBinneswei 5, where the parents of Sepkje lived when she married (who lived there from 1910). Later Siebe and Afke Rekker lived in that house.
In 1922 Jan and Sepkje went to Jelte Binnesweg 31, the farm where Ate Visser later lived (see the picture below, in the middle below). This farm was bought by Tjipke Romkes van der Beek, a brother of pake Jan.
This brother Tjipke also lived with them for another year, from January 1932 to May 1933. He had just been divorced.
The father of Sepkje, Jan Douma, also lived with them for a number of years, until May 1922. His wife Imkje Faber had died in 1916, but he remarried in 1922 with Doedtje Pietersma.
 

In 1940 they went to Kaetsjemuoiwei 15 (they exchanged with Gosse Visser), the farm where later Douwe van der Heide lived.
In 1941 Jan and Sepkje went to Dr. Kijlstraweg 55, see the picture below, bottom right. Their son Jan, my father, was just married and stayed at Kaetsjemuoiwei 15, and pake Jan then went back to work in the flax factory. On the picture below, at the top right, you can see the staff of the flax factory. Pake Jan is circled in red.
 
More about my grandparents Jan and Sepkje can be found under Mijn verhaal/Mijn ouders en grootouders (My story / My parents and grandparents)

Jan, my father, was born at Jelte Binnesweg 11 in Molenend. In 1922 he moved with his parents to Jelte Binnesweg 31, the farm where Ate Visser later lived.
In 1940 they went to Kaetsjemuoiwei 15 (they exchanged with Gosse Visser), the farm where later Douwe van der Heide lived.
After Jan and Trijntje were married they stayed at Kaetsjemuoiwei 15, and the parents of Jan went to Dr. Kijlstraweg 55.
In 1946 Jan and Trijntje moved to Douwelaan 59 in Oenkerk (see the picture below, bottom right).
 
Jan was in Wons in May 1940 (in the Second World War). He was taken to Germany as a prisoner of war. He stayed in the Lückenwalde camp, but came back after about a month.
Sergeant Hofstra was prisoner of the same place and kept a diary. A few sections from that diary can be seen below, at the bottom left.
 
My father Jan was a cattle farmer, he owned 13 cows and had a horse. With that he could maintain our family.
He was also an elder in the Reformed Church for years (see below, the overview in the middle right).
 
Trijntje was, before she married, costume seamstress (see the picture below, in the middle). My mother did not work much on the farm but she did the accounting and arranged everything.
 
More about my parents can be found under Mijn verhaal/Mijn ouders en grootouders (My story / My parents and grandparents)

Jiskje was a sister of my father, she was called Jit and later (in Canada) Jessica.
Jelle and Jit emigrated to Canada on 12-03-1948.
Jelle grew up with Dr. Kijlstraweg 6 in Molenend.
After Jelle and Jit were married they lived at Douwelaan 59 in Oenkerk, the house where I grew up.
In the war Jelle was in the resistance, he was a member of the NBS (Dutch Domestic Forces).
In the book “Tekens van toen in Tietjerksteradiel” there is a piece of him and his nephew Siebe Rekker about their experiences during the war, you can read it here.
In 1945 they went to Oudkerk and my parents came to the house at Douwelaan 59.
 
Jelle could very well “dammen” (a kind of check), see the competition stand from 1937 and the game against Rinsumageest in 1938.
 
Jelle and Jit first lived in Smithfield in Canada, which is about 10 km away. west of Trenton. After half a year, Jelle became a cattle farmer in Grafton, which is about 60 km away. west of Trenton. After their house in Grafton was burned, they went back to Smithfield.
After that Jelle went to work in a car factory and they went to live in NewCastle. Uncle Jelle then built a house in Courtice in which they went to live. Finally they went to Bowmanville , which is located on the north side of Lake Ontario .
 

 
Jelle has written two books about his life, the first about his experiences in Friesland (A Journey I), the second about Canada (A Journey II). You can see the covers below.
Two brothers and a sister of Jelle left for Canada in September 1947, that was Jurjen, Gerrit and Pietsje.
They they sold their belongings with the three of them, see the advertisement below on the right.
Jurjen wrote a letter in 1948 to the newspaper Friesch Dagblad about his experiences, which you can read here.

The first time Jelle and Jit returned to Friesland was in 1970. On June 18, 1970, John and Patricia married in London. There they went then, and then they also went to the Netherlands for a few days.
 
On the pictures below: top left the engagement photo of Jelle and Jit. At the top of the middle of a visit to Rienk and Bettie in the Netherlands in 1976. At the top right of the visit to the Van der Beek family in the Netherlands.

Gaatze was a brother of my grandfather.
Gaatze was a machinist from the flax factory until 1948, when she lived at Halligenweg 7 (the machinists’ house, see the photo below). Next to that photo you see Gaatze and Trijntje with their son Romke at the flax factory.
In 1930 Gaatze bought the house to Dr. Kijlstraweg 54. His mother, Jiskje Popma, lived in the part on the south side, his son Romke in 1936 on the north side.
In 1940, when Jiskje Popma died, Rom and Akke lived in the whole house. They lived there for 40 years, then Akke another 14 years with her son Durk.
Durk now lives there.
Gaatze (the owner) and his wife Trijntje came to live in a part of the house in 1948.

Tsjip was a cousin of my father.
Tsjip was a machinist of the flax factory from 1948 to 1961, when they lived at Halligenweg 7 (the machinist house).
Then they moved to Jelte Binneswei 32 (see below, right). Tjip then became a plumber in the Diaconessen hospital.
In 1955 Tjip and Sjoerdje got a motorcycle accident, see the article below. That motorcycle accident has had a significant impact on the family. Sjoerdje has been in hospital for six weeks. She had come under the motor, they have long thought that she would not make it.
He could not use the left arm of Tjip for a long time, the doctors gave him a 5% chance that things would turn out well again. By practicing a lot, it has almost come true. But with 50 years, Tjip ended up in the WAO (labor disability law). Then he did a lot of jobs at home and in the area, because he was very handy. If my father’s milking machine broke, Tjip came by to repair him.