Egbert Geerts van der Veen

Egbert Geerts was born January 14, 1870 at the Nieuwe Streek in Feanwâldsterwâl (formerly: Veenwoudsterwal), on the same day as his twin brother Pier. His birthplace does'nt exist ynymore I guess, but was located on the site of the current address Nieuwe Streek 21. In 1870 the number was 151. Feanwâldsterwâl does not have the status of a village. Officially the street belongs to the village of Hardegarijp.

His father Geert Theunis is a fisherman, he also owns a few plots hay and reed beds, of which he sells the produce. The house and the fishing he took over from his father Teunis Piers, with whom he has long shared the house. Six months after Egbert becomes 11 years old, his life changed dramatically. On July 10, 1881, at night at 1 pm, his father dies suddenly. A day later, at seven o'clock in the morning also his mother dies. The children, all of whom are still minors, are housed in different places with host families, often close relatives. Egbert then comes to live in Veenwouden, where he is admitted to the family of Foppe Jansma. Foppe is married to Trijntje, the eldest sister of Egberts mother. Egbert is separated from his twin brother Pier, who goes to the Kooten, nowadays: Kootstertille, coming into the family of Aldert Hietkamp. A son of Aldert, Luitzen, is widower of Antje Annes van der Veen, a cousin of Egbert and Pier. Two years earlier Antje deceased at the age of 24.

Egbert's ancestral home, bought by his grandfather Teunis Piers in 1827 for 60 guilders at auction, and where his father has lived his entire life, is auctioned at the end of 1881, after previously the fishing gear and the furniture is sold in auction.

Egbert lived for 10 years in Veenwouden until 1991, the year when Foppe Jansma dies. Between 1881 and 1891 two other children from the family came to live with Foppe, namely Egbert's twin brother Pier and his younger brother Hendrik. After the death of Foppe, Egbert goes to his sister Antje, she was married in 1882 to Kornelis Sijes Jeltema. They have two daughters, Sytske and Hiltje, and live at the Rietveld under Rinsumageest. Egbert remains here until his marriage with Sytske Klazes Bouwer in 1894. And although there is no record in the civil status of Dantumadeel, I have reason to believe that even in the years that followed they have lived with Kornelis and Antje. Sytske Klazes worked before marrying for P.J. Boelstra in Stiens as a maid. Only a year after their marriage, two months after their eldest son Geert was born, Sytske is officially transferred from Stiens to Rinsumageest. There they inhabit the same number as Kornelis and Antje, and we may assume that Geert Egberts was born there, at the Rietveld. And possibly also the second child, daughter Jitske. In her birth certificate it says she was born in Veenwouden, and that her parents live in that village, but in the archives of the civil registry nothing is found. What is certain is that the family with two children moved on June 6th, 1897 to Hardegarijp.

There, in Hardegarijp, where Egbert probably works as a seasonal laborer on a farm, they are sharing a house with Frans Wiegers Hoekstra and his wife Trijntje Zandberg. Here their son Klaas Egberts is born in December 1897. The Hoekstra's also have a son born in the same month. The next year, August 1898, the family moves to Lekkum, near Leeuwarden.

In April 1900 daughter Sytske is born in Lekkum. Then, four months later, their eldest daughter Jitske dies, only 4 years old. In January 1902, again a girl is born which is named Jitske. She will become only 4 months old, and dies in May of the same year. Five years later, in the summer of 1907 Sytske Klazes Bouwer dies. Help comes into the family in the person of Antje Jacobs van Dellen. Egbert Geerts decides then to outplace his eldest son, Geert Egberts, to his sister Antje in Rinsumageest. Geert Egberts is then nearly 12 years old, and history seems to repeat itself; just like his father at that age, he is placed with relatives as an 'orphan'.

When in August 1908 Antje Jacobs leaves as a housekeeper, Egbert has to find someone else. Thus, in October 1908 Jantje Nammensma comes into the family. Apparently, they got along well because 10 months later, in August 1909, they are married. The couple then moves from Lekkum 110 to Eigen Brood Bovenal 66 in Leeuwarden. Their new house is owned by the Protestant Diakonie, and one of the first examples of social housing in the city of Leeuwarden.

In this house Egbert and Jantje get two daughters, Aafke and Anna Petronella. In 1922, the children of Sytske Klazes then all have left home, they move to the Jacobus van Aken street 1. The years there after they move several times, in 1932 to the P. de Swartstraat 14, and in 1939 to the 2nd Saskia Dwarsstraat number 6. The profession of Egberts Geers at that time, is indicated in the registry as a 'bloemist'. This is not, as some may think, a trader of flowers, but a gardener, someone who maintains ornamental gardens and parks. Egbert worked as a gardener at the st. Anthony Hospital in Leeuwarden.

In 1948, Egbert Geerts deceased in Kollum, at the home of the family van der Horn. It is said that he spent part of the war in the reformed resthome at the Hoeksterkerhof in Leeuwarden. During the war, the resthome had to be evacuated. The residents are moved to private homes. In this way Egbert Geerts must have landed in Kollum. After the war, he would have remained in Kollum because he was seriously ill. But I have found no documents which confirm this story.