The letter "z" at the end of a name means "zoon" ("son" in English),
so Jan Thaddeusz would be Jan, son of Thaddeus.

With this, the Zijm/Zym saga begins.

Nederlands circa 1590

I'm starting this with our last unknown Zijm ancestor. He was born in the mid 1500's, all we can know is that his name was Cornelis, because... we know his son was Simon Cornelisz, birth date unknown, and we know Simon had a son. Cornelis Simonsz, born in 1615. Cornelis had 2 sons. Dirck and Jacob. Remember their names.

Our line is from Dirck, who was baptized September 3, 1650

Dirck Cornelisz Sijm married Diewertje Frans Schoen.

"Sijm"? This is not official but it is believed by some that the name Sijm (later Zijm) stems from Sijmen, which in turn is a Dutch equivalent of Simon.

Dirck and Diewertje had at least one son,
Cornelis Dirckz Sijm.

His birthdate is unknown,
but he was baptized October 4, 1683.

Cornelis Dirckz Sijm married Trijntje Siomns Eijder.

Cornelis and Trijntje's second son, Simon Cornelisz Sijm,
was baptized January 19, 1706.

Anecdote Seems to me that either our ancestors felt that Baptism was more important than birth, or the church records are the main sources for information.

Back to Simon Cornelisz, who has had 3 wives.

His third wife was Trijntje Teunis Visser.

In 1757, Maarten Simonsz Zijm was born to Simon and Trijntje.

Maarten married Guurtje Jans Smit.




Maarten and Guurtje had 6 children.

Tijs Maartenz Zijm was born in 1790.

Tijs (Matthias) married Antje Cornelis Smit,
with whom he had 8 children.

He later married Diewertje Hendriks Verberne,
with whom he had 4 more children.



The youngest of these, born February 8, 1846,
was Lammert.

We will get back to Lammert.



Think back, I told you to remember Dirck and Jacob.

The historic information above comes from
one of Jacob's descendants,
Henk Zijm.

How exciting to have found a cousin
4 centuries removed!

Thank you again, Henk, this means so much to us!



Miriam Klaassen has given me the information that follows,
and I am so delighted that she found me!

How are we related...this could get confusing,
but isn't that half of the fun?

My Grandfather's brother, Great-Uncle Maarten Zijm,
was married to Marie Klaassen;
Tante Marie's Great Grandparents are Miriam's
Great Great Great Grandparents.

Miriam also has a fabulous site of Dutch Geneology
in both Dutch and English.



I return to Lammert Tijsz Zijm, who has been waiting patiently.

Lammert was married 3 times.

August 22, 1869 he married Antje Witte.(d.1878)
They had 5 children:
Tijs in 1870
Dirck (Uncle Dick) in 1872
Dieuwertje in 1874
Pieter in 1876
and Maarten in 1878. (d.1882)

January 15, 1880 he married Jantje Maas. (d.1888)
They had 3 children:
Willem in 1882 (Grandpa)
Maarten in 1886 (Uncle Mart)
and Johannes in 1887 (Uncle John).

September 7, 1905 he married Hinderika Elizabeth Brouwer.
There were no children from this marriage.

More information about the wives of Lammert Zijm here.



Of course, while all this was happening,
the Dijt and Schrama families were also building up.

Sadly, I have precious little information about the Dijts and Schramas
because my grandmother was the only one to come over here to the USA.

If anyone can shed any light on this part of the family,
I welcome any information I can get.

May 6, 1875
Jacob Gerritz Schrama married Dirkje (Theodora) Hendriks Dijt.
They had 11 children, one of whom was Theodora.

Grandma.

That's pretty much the background
of the Nederlands part of our history.
There are lots of pictures throughout this site,
so who can say?
You might find someone you know!


The picture at the top of the page is from
The History of Costume by Braun & Scheider