Welcome to our Home Page. A lot of the information in the beginning came from the following unpublished family books: "Our Schans Family From Smilde", by Henry Boersma which is a portion from a larger "Boersma" book; "A Brief History of the Marten Jans Schans and Grietje (Klok) Schans Family and Genealogy of their Descendants", by Pauline (Karsten) Bos (1976); "They Left a Mark, a History of the Koob Brouwer Family", by Florence Schaver, Bertha Dykstra, & Loren Dykstra (June 1, 1970) and "The Riemersma Genealogy" by Linda Wilson. The first two books refer to my wife's family, while the last two are for my side. Several other people have also contributed, so my thanks to all. I have split my files, one for my family of 4992 names, and one for my wife Shirley's family. This site will be for my family.As this FamilyTreeMaker site only allows up to 2000 names to be uploaded automatically in the "My Family History" section below it shows less than half of my family. There are two sites for Shirley's family (2606 names). Please see the 2 related links below for her family (Bishop, Mennega & Schans) in the 2nd & 3rd "Related links" below. Please feel free to browse through these reports, and get in touch with me if you have any information or corrections for me or if I may be able to help you out somehow. A NOTE ABOUT DUTCH NAMES- Many Dutch names contain a "Tussenvoegsel" such as "van","van der" or "de", etc. For example, "van" means "from". For example, "van Rheenen" means "from Rheenen". In the Netherlands you will find Van Rheenen in the "R" section, not "V". The tussenvoegsel is not capitalized in the Netherlands. If you are searching in a Dutch web site such as www.genlias.nl you will not want to use the tussenvoesel as part of the surname in the search. When these people came to the USA they often used the tussenvoegsel as part of their surname, capitalizing parts of the name such as, "Van Der Veen", or Vander Veen". My files contain tussenvoegsels when I found them in some kind of documentation. In the USA (and USA Census records) the tussenvoegsel is usually part of the surname. Van Rheehen will be found in "V" section of the US Census. In my files the"tussenvogsels" sourced in the Netherlands will not be capitalized, while their descendants in USA will be capitalized. My Family Tree Maker program seems to have a hard time alphabetizing some of these sur-names with a space in them (or maybe it's just me). If you are looking through my alphabetized files (Report) for someone with a tussenvoegsel check somewhat before and after where you might expect to see the name. Update of January 2006 includes a lot of new Wierda descendants, thanks to Dan Wierda. Update of September 2006 has more early Reitsma (Rietsma) names. Seems we have been spelling our surnames wrong! Update of April 2008 has more Rietsmas & Geerds thanks to Andy Vos of Plano, Il Update of 23 Oct 2009: Seems I can't upload & post on this site a report of all names I have on file for my family, or post some outline family trees like I had before. I suggest you click on the 5th "Related Link" for my RootsWeb site for the most current information. Have fun!Ron
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- My Grandparents Veen (19 KB)
Albert Veen & Hattie Jansen. Wedding 1920; and 10 Apr. 1966 - My Parents (26 KB)
Florence Veen (1924-2001), Walt Rietsma (1922-2003). Married 10 May 1943. Now together in Heaven forever! - Evert Mennega Family, late 1930's (50 KB)
L - R Standing: Ann, Hilbert, Grace, Herman;Seated: Hermina, Johanna, Edward, Evelyn - Hendrik Riemersma (37 KB)
In back: grandsons Walt Rietsma & Bob Riemersma; great grandson Richard Leenhouts & Hendrik in front - Aaltje DeVries & Cornelius Veen Family (54 KB)
Aaltje DeVries & my Great Grandfather Veen's family - Arthur & Minnie Rietsma family about 1904 (943 KB)
My Great grandparents. Photo from Andy Voss and his wife's sister, Anne Ofsink, Feb. 2008 - Jansen / Johnson Family (37 KB)
Back Row: Hattie, Bert, John, Jerry, Ida; Front Row: Emma, John (Jan) Flora, Anna - Roelof & Trintje DeVries (62 KB)
Trintje Bilstra, 26 Aug 1830 - 3 Mar 1904 andRoelof Wiegers De Vries 5 Mar 1832 - 25 Feb 1904 - Simon Rietsma Family 1936 (119 KB)
Back Row: Virginia, Arthur, Russel, Walter;Front Row: Simon Rietsma, wife Gertrude Riemersma
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