Dirke Zijm was Saint Willem the Grandfather's half-brother.

His mother was Antje Witte, Great Grandpa's first wife.

I knew nothing of Uncle Dick.

I didn't even know his name wasn't Richard
until I started looking up my ancestors.

I remember one thing only, his funeral.
It was freezing cold.
I was a little over 2 years old.








With thanks again to Miriam Klaassen,
I do have some information about the elusive Uncle Dick.

He was born April 12,1872 in Eierland Texel,
the second child of Lammert Zijm and Antje Witte.

On August 14 1901, Uncle Dick left the Nederlands
and came here to the USA.
January 5 1904, he returned to marry Adriana Schoenmaker,
the daughter of Arie Cz Schoenmaker and Jannetje Gd Mulder,
born March 14 1876 in Den Burgh, Texel.

They were married February 5 1904.

They boarded the Rotterdam
and travelled to the USA with Uncle Dick's brother,
Maarten Zijm (Uncle Mart), arriving here March 1, 1904.

Imagine sharing a honeymoon trip with your brother-in-law!

Definitely not what one would plan.



This picture of Tante Jana and some of her children
was probably taken in either Paterson or Clifton, New Jersey, USA.

It's not the house that I remember her living in,
which was in Clifton, on Barclay Avenue.


The little girl with dark hair to the left of Tante Jana could easily be my granddaughter Nicole.
They look so much alike it's scary!



ANECDOTE!

My mother would not use barley...
HATED barley..
because of Tante Jana.
Or so she said.

The way I heard it was that Tante Jana often had Mom and Aunt Ann over because she had daughters around the same age.

However, when it came time for dinner
Tante Jana added a lot of barley to the soup
instead of meat, potatos, or vegetables.








Uncle Orrie and Tante Jana?



I am identifying this as being Tante Jana holding her grandson Johnny,
with his father, Uncle Orrie, to her left.

Reason?  He looks like Uncle Orrie in one of the pictures down below.

That's it.  That's my reason.

Plus it was in one of the old albums
and it looks like around the right time.

Did I ever say this was going to be scientific?

No, silly, of course not!



Uncle Dick and Tante Jana

with their grandsons, Johnny and Donald,
and Baby Mickey.



Family Zym

Willie, Mom, Aunt Bert, Aunt Rose,Uncle Orrie
Baby Carol (me) and Baby Mickey
Uncle Dick, Johnny, Tante Jana, Donald, Johanna?
Johnnie and Donald are Uncle Orrie and Aunt Rose's boys,
my cousin RoseAnn wasn't born yet.








Tante Jana and her family

I remember some more than others

The back row is:
Johanna, Willie, Lambertha (Aunt Bert).
Aunt Bert was married to Uncle Mike;
when I was very young, we used to visit them often.
I loved to play with their boys/my cousins, Mickey and Bobby.
(Yes, very subjective, but it IS my website)  *grin*

Front row is Uncle Orrie,
Tante Jana holding the picture of her daughter Gertrude, and Onnie.
Uncle Orrie was married to Aunt Rose,
their daughter RoseAnn was another cousin I played with when we were kids.

Tante Jana died August 11, 1956.



ANECDOTE!

This might be a terrible thing to say but
I never liked going to visit Tante Jana as a kid.
First of all, she was intimidating.
Second...she had that little Scottish Terrier.
Rinky.
Nasty, evil little yappy dog.
He terrorized us.