Website of Franciscus van Britsom and Amelia de Broeck....and descendent families

It all started in 2007, when i decided to make a family tree from my greatgrandfather Petrus bernardus van Britsom on down. The reason behind it being that the family through out the years has grown apart. This is logical of course, but still..... My daughter would hear me talking to an uncle/aunt of mine and she would ask who was that...I would draw it out on a piece of paper and she would understand where he/she stood in the family.

As I progressed, one surprise after another. At one certain moment I was talking to Rob van Britsom about the family tree and we decided to go to the Noord-Hollands Archief in Haarlem. This is where all the records are kept. We found a lot on the "van Britsom's". However one stuck out...this being that I was raised in the "Good Old US of A"

A certain "Hippolytus van Britsom" immigrated to the USA on 23rd of September 1923.....So coming home I started to surf on the web and I found the following

I thought let me give her a call. She was the first on the list and i could not find Hippolytus on the web. I called Bonnie and I intoduced myself and said that I'm from Holland and asked her if she was a descendent of Hippolytus van Britsom...It turned quite and after she finished stuttering...She made me stutter..She said "well you would have to talk to his son, because he knows more about the van Britsom family than me". My response was very diplomatic "He's still alive!!"

To make a long story short..I talked to Carl van Britsom in New Jersey and i found out he was searching for his dutch family for over 40 years. Carl had all the pictures of the family... we talked for hours on end including the time differences and work. Last year the wife and me went and visited the American branch of the van Britsom's. I have met/talked with just about every branch (Delorenzo, Horack, Sas, Tulen etc...) of the family. Last week I met Ton Jansen, he is the grandson of Christina van britsom. He also brought pictures and stories with him. This was the last branch of Franciscus and Amelia.

I think the most interesting was meeting Amelia van Britsom or Tante Willy...bless her...She was born 16th of July 1920 and to this day the oldest living "van Britsom". i talked to her for hours on the phone. She was telling me stories about the family which happened in the late 1920 and early 1930's and she can laugh!!....the best story was that she and her mother would go to Tante Tonia on a sunday afternoon and they would have "jonge jenever" and she would have tea. Tante Tonia is my greatgrandmother.

This is how Tante Tonia looked the last time Tante Willy saw her

and this is how tante Tonia saw her for the last

The below pictures were taken last year (2010) with Divine (my wife) Carina (daughter of Tante Willy) and Teri (a great cuz)

The story within the "van Britsom"family is that Petrus Bernardus van Britsom was born as Petrus Bernardus de Broeck. His birth certificate confirms this. When Franciscus married Amelia, he adopted both Petrus and Carolus. Carolus is thought to be his child, he was born two months before they got married in 30 Jan 1890. Now Oma de Broeck had of course a very good explanation of how things happened and who the father was of Petrus. --Quote-- "Het was een sterke man van de kermis" --Unquote-- translated "It was the strong man from the circus". Now we all know that the strong man in the circus always has a "Dumb-bell" The dutch translation for that is "Halter" (remember this for later in the story).

When Carl and Bonnie were here and when Divine and me were in the States, we started to notice that there were a lot of similarities between all of us. Even though we came together by Amelia de Broeck. So we started to wonder if Franciscus might be the father of Petrus, but being in the 1880's they thought different about un-wed mothers. They kept it silent. We decided to have a Paternal 46 Y-Chromosome DNA test done. Carl, Martin and myself took part in it.

For me it was easy. even though i have the name (from my mother) my actual paternal line goes thru the Denee line (please don't tell anybody). So i ended up of matching (within 7 generations) with somebody in England named Eric Silva Jones or his forefather, Griffith Jones died 1754. It's highly likely that Eric Silva Jones and me have the same great......greatgrandfather. For Carl matched with a certain John Presson within 12generations. It's highly unlikely that they are related. Now it was Martin's turn. he matched with someone within 5 generations. This is a match!! That would put it around 1880 where the two families join. The person name is Patsy L Halter (her maiden name)living in the USA. She had her brother do the DNA test. Now the Halters come from Belgium/France in the neighbourhood of Oma de Broeck and they immigrated to the USA around 1880-1890. Thru DNA we now know who Oma de broeck liked, at least his last name. So a lot of persons who are named "van Britsom" today, should actually be named "Halter". So oma de Broeck did actually name the father, it just took 130 years and DNA to figure it out.

Mr. Halter at least did respond once to Oma de Broeck never to be heard from again......OH YES I almost forgot to mention, Patsy Halter did respond once or twice to Martin and never to be heard from again either... who was it that said that history repeats it self.

Now that i have all of the descendent of Franciscus van Britsom and Amelia de Broeck , i decided to build this website. There are about 12000 persons in it. All are family members, one way or another. Either married into the family or there is a blood line. The line goes paternal and maternal.

When you start to go thru the history and start to find papers, you also come against some sad history/stories....one example Amelia de Broeck's maternal grandmother Anna Coleta Dierickx had a statement drawn up by a lawyer to see if her parents would give their permission for the marriage with Jan Bernard Willems....they refused....Anna Coleta Dierickx got married anyway on 27 January 1835...she gave birth to Clementia Sophia Willemse (mother of Amelia de Broeck) on 15 March 1835.....Anna Coleta Dierickx died on 1 April 1835 at the age of 33...don't you know that Anna Coleta's parents had a good feeling on the 2nd of April. Click here to read the documents (in Dutch)

Please note that the site is under MAJOR construction and that it will take some time to put all the info into it (+/- 5000 pictures/documents). Any comment is welcome..i consider this site a family site, please do give comment.

Don't forget it's very easy to find the trail of the family and it's much easier to get lost in the trail. If you want some of pictures or help, just shoot me an email.

With all the wars and turmoil going on in this world. I found something which i wanted to share. It's from a distant cousin of mine "Richard van Britsom" He was with the Belgium resistance during WWII. They found a letter which he wrote 2 days before he was executed by the Nazis.

We must not forget what happened and what can happen again

first part is in dutch second English

NKB-Iid Richard Van Britsom in een brief aan zijn echtgenote vanuit de gevangenis van Sint-Gillis, opgesteld op 16 februari 1944, twee dagen voor zijn executie:

"Allerliefste Vrouw. Zie niet naar het geschrift, want ik heb een potlood gekregen om te schrijven, dat juist groot genoeg is, om vast te houden: Ik heb reeds de kramp in mijn vingeren van 't nijpen. Nu Poesken, ik heb een pakje gereed gemaakt met vuil goed, dat afgekookt moet worden want ik heb het zelf al te dikwijls gewasschen in 't koud water en kan het niet meer proper krijgen. Poesken, stuur mij eens wat geld op a.u.b. dan kan ik hier kantien bekomen. U kunt het geld opsturen meteen mandaat. Gij schrijft er mijn naam op, m�n geboorten datum en 't adres van hier, zoo zal ik mijn nummer bekomen van mijn konto. U moogt gerust geld opsturen dat komt altijd terecht. U moogt mij ook opsturen in mijn pak, een kaartspel want wij mogen hier met de kaart spelen alsook met andere spelen.

Nu Poesken zoet hoe is het zooal met U en met ons lieve kindjes zijn ze wat braaf en gehoorzaam, doet Jozefken goed zijn beste in de school, gaat hij wat vooruit in 't rekenen? Ons Annieken wat steekt di�n deugeniet uit in de school, heeft zij altijd nog altijd haar punten op alles, kan zij al zwijgen in de klas. Poesken vergeet niet van mijne beste groeten te doen aan Papa en Rapha�l, [alsook] aan heel de Familie. Zeker aan dokter L�o en aan Mr. Georges en aan al de vrienden. Vrouwken zoet hebt goeden moed, vriend want eens komt de dag dat wij wederom te samen zullen zijn, onze lieven Heer wil niet dat christene menschen gelijk of wij gescheiden blijven. Ik bid veel en bidt Gij ook veel en zoo zuIlen wij nog te samen zijn, Poesken, kom mij veel bezoeken hoor! Dat doet mij telkenmaal veel goed, met mijn nieren kan het beter zijn, natuurlijk 't voedsel dat mankeert, maar dat zal wel goed komen, naar lijden komt verblijden zegt het spreekwoord en dat is de waarheid. [ ... ]"

NKB (Resistance) Member Richard van Britsom in a letter to his wife from the prison of Sint-Gillis, writen 16 Feb 1944, two days before he was executed bij the Nazis
"My lovely wife. Don't look at my handwriting, because i got a pencil just big enough to hold. i'm having cramps in my fingers just holding on to it. Now Poesken (nickname of his wife) I have prepared a package of my dirty laundry, that need to be cooked, because i have washed it plenty of times in cold water, but i cannot get it clean anymore. Poesken please send me some money that i can live here a little bit normal. You can send the money ASAP. Just write my name on it with birthdate and address here. It will come into my account here. You can send money with no problem, i'll recieve it. You can also send me a suit and cards...we are allowed to play cards even other games.

Now my sweet Poesken...how are you and with our sweet children.. are they good and obediant. Does Jozefken do his best in school and is his arithmatic better? Our Annieken who is the rebel in the school....is she getting it together and kan she keep her month shut. Poesken don't forget to give my best wishes to Papa and Rapha�l and to the family For sure to Dr Leo and Mr Georges and to the friends.

Wife have good faith because there will be a day that we will be together, Our Lord doesn't want us christian people to be seperated. I pray a lot and you must to pray and then we will be together. Poesken come to visit me alot . Each times it does me good. my kidneys could be better , but the food could be better also, but that will come.

the saying is that after suffering comes the salvation and that is the truth!!!!!

THE BOROUGH HALL TELEPHONE SYSTEM: Main Office Telephone Number: (908) 879-5361
Ext.	Dept.	Name
3200	Mayor	Hugh D. Newman Jr.
3204	Council Member	Stan Quintana
3201	Council Member	Valle Schloesser
3205	Council Member	Robert Davis
3202	Council Member	Jerry Schammas
3206	Council Member	Robert Finnesey
3203	Council President	Don Storms Jr.
3003	Construction	Bonnie Van Britsom

Art

African Tribal Art

Novembergruppe

Rare Earth

Donia

Descendents walking through time

Introduction

Franciscus van Britsom and Amelia de Broeck

Origin of the "van Britsom" name

Martin van Britsom's Reflection on