Issue 3, March 2001
In this issue of Bin
ie d'r één van Nekkers ? :
From the editor
The family meeting
Who are we looking for?
News from the USA
E-mail service, later this year a website
Take a subscription
_______________________________________________
Soest, March 2001
From the editor:
This is the UK-English version of the third issue of ‘Bin ie der één van Nekkers?’. Some two-hundred families will receive this issue, a growing number. And, from now on, in two languages.
In the year 2001 we ask our Dutch readers to support the
editor by paying a small contribution for printing and mailing. (By the way:
this sending a small amount of Dutch money will not apply to you,
overseas-reader! The cost will be higher than the benefit, so we will have to
come up with a better solution).
The first readers subscribed already on our family meeting in September 2000.
Enjoy reading,
Peter Nekkers
Vredehofstraat 16, 3761 HB, Soest, The Netherlands, Tel 0031356023350
_______________________________________________
We can enjoy this first family day three times. First the preparations. Then the event itself and now during looking back. We can admit now, that there is more work involved in such an event than originally thought. Suddenly we have more than a hundred participants (oops), where we (Jan and I) project some thirty or forty. Since our meeting room can handle about hundred people Jan allows that number to come.
For each participant a family tree is drawn on the backside of wall paper. These wall papers are attached to the walls of the cosy meeting room of the pancake house, owned by Jeanet and Eric Kemperman-Nekkers in the village Kranenburg (near Vorden, Achterhoek of Gelderland). Also shown at the wall papers are documents of ancestors of the participants. By doing this, all Nekkers participants can trace back their roots, until Pieter Neckar, who married Maria Smidts from Bredevoort in 1682 in Zutphen.
Some problems arise when we prepare the wall papers: mrs. H. van Det-Nekkers from Terborg does not fit in the schemes. Further research learned that her father Johannes Wilhelmus (now 85 years old) is not known in our archives. By exchanging information with mrs. van Det we succeed in tracing his roots, and on Sept. 23 Johannes Wilhelmus discovers, that he has even more sisters than the ones he knows. From Jan Heico Nekkers from Gennep we learn, this his great-grandfather had a son heeft (Berend Willem) from his third marriage and that Berend has two siblings. He is the father-in-law of mrs. Nekkers-Abbink and the father of mts. Meinen-Nekkers, both present in Kranenburg. Just in time we can assemble their family trees and then everyone has his or her correct location in the family tree. No loose ends for this moment….
The complete archive consists of
some twenty binders, and the information is accessible today. Each Nekkers has
a paper record (one page) with, when available, extra documents on birth,
marriage, military services, death, etc. And we show Jan’s ingenious
presentation of the family-tree in a special designed book. Alle generations,
all families and their relation is shown in one view. And, of course, the
computer archive is available for access, update etc.
Last but not least, a copier will help us today for copying important old
documents.
The agenda for this family afternoon session is simple: a brief presentation on “how we got sofar”, “what is in the archive” and “who built it”. For the rest it is easy to entertain some 100 Nekkers-people….they do that theirselves. Coffee with ‘krentewegge’ (a local version of currant-loaf) is available and drinks and , at the end, the pancakes (remember we are in a pancake restaurant).
The afternoon itself. From 13.30 hrs the participants enter the meeting room, from everywhere and of all ages. The youngest is one year old, the oldest 85 years. All of all ages in between. Each of them gets a badge in the coluor of his/her tree. For each descendant of the three sons of Harmen (he had more children, but those three gave him descendants with a Nekkers-last name) there is a specific background colour for the badge. Furthermore, the badge has the person’s name (of course), the generation number and the family number within that generation. On the basis of these codes it is rather simple to look into the archives. And when you meet people with a badge in the same coloured as yours, it is easy to chat, although you see them for the first time in your life. To be honest, most of us know only a few relatives in this room…
Time flies when we chat, look in the archives, consult the “genealogists” and play with the available information in the computer files. We meet old and new cousins, aunts, uncles and their familes. From time to time, groups of 20 participants leave for the restaurant next door, to enjoy their pancakes (Jeanet and Eric serve delicious pancakes.). And, in the meantime, the oldest start drinking small and strong drinks.
At about five o’clock the first family members leave. The youngest children get a nice doll, which can be put on the safety belt in their parents car (you see, we care for the next generations) and all the others get a give way with a Nekkers-inscription (a key fob). The event-team clean up the room and decide to make an evalution while drinking a beer.
What is the yield of this first family meeting?
q appreciation from the participants (nice, a wonderful initiative, what a huge number of Neckers relatives!…);
q immediate new input for the archive (copy of marriage certificates, a photograph of a grandpa);
q additional info for the computer (in the meantime, I married and have children, I divorced from that guy…);
q Geralt brought in computer output from a website, on which more than 150 relatives were mentioned. They live in the USA with last names “Neckers” and are descendants from emigrants, leaving Winterswijk between 1840 and 1850;
q some appointments were made for new meetings on smaller scale;
q many of the participants are willing to spend some money for activities like these newsletters. So, this show can go on.
The hospitality of Jeanet and Eric makes it easy to think of a next meeting…
_______________________________________________
Who is missing?
We are still looking for Bea en Esther.
Bea marries mr. Frans Wittenberg on Oct. 8, 1999 in the Ruurlo Castle, after living 5 years together in Lochem (Rosmolenstraat 40). We got that information for the wedding announcement in the newspapers. Who is Bea? And who are her parents? Who knows?
Esther Hurkmans-Nekkers is a trainer in Personal Effectivity for the company Schouten &
Nelissen.
Who knows these ladies? Please inform us. Next time more (we still miss some people).
_______________________________________________
Support our activities
We ask the Dutch readers for sending us 5 guilders per year (about Euro 2.27) for the coming issues of this newsletter. We pay the printing and distribution with that money. Following families committed already:
· A.J. Nekkers, Zwolle
· J.A. Nekkers, Apeldoorn
· J.G. Nekkers, Zutphen
· D. Nekkers, Zutphen
· M. Kroon-Nekkers, Tiel
· F.J. Schoonbergen-Nekkers, Ane
· M. Huetink-Nekkers, Borne
· J.H. Bouland-Nekkers, Roswinkel
· L. Nekkers, Hilversum
· M.N. van Bodegraven-Nekkers, Wierden
· G. Nekkers, Almelo
· J.W. Heerink-Nekkers, Almelo
· M.D.G. Nekkers, Utrecht
· M.G. Jansen-Nekkers, Almelo
· J.A. Nekkers, Amsterdam
· A.J. Nekkers, Hengelo(G)
· J.W. Nekkers, Lochem
· H. van Det-Nekkers, Doetinchem
· G.J.A. Nekkers, Warnsveld
· G. Nekkers, Warnsveld
· H.J. Nekkers, Nijmegen
· G. Nekkers, Hengelo(O)
· D.J. Brilman-Nekkers, Winterswijk
· J. Nekkers, Winterswijk
· J.H. Nekkers, Gennep
· R. Nekkers, Beverwijk
· D.J.G. Nekkers, Winterswijk
· G. Nekkers, Zutphen
· J.H. Nekkers, Winterswijk
For the non-Dutch readers I suggest a complete different
solution. My proposal is to send a softcopy by email to a central contact in
the USA/Canada. Then printing and distribution or e-mailing can happen in a
quick and cheap way.
Question: can I ask Douglas Neckers
for initiating this activity?
_______________________________________________
E-mail service and website
My email
addres is now even more simple and we are preparing a website.
·
From
now on: send your questions / remarks / news to: PETER@NEKKERS.COM
·
This
is the most simple address… Or, you can visit the website and send email to
us through the mailfunction on that site.
·
The
website is under construction now. It works technically, although the information
is not complete yet. This year we (my daughter and I) will continue this job.
The name of the website is: www.nekkers.com That is simple, isn’t it?s).
_______________________________________________
Some months ago, there was a
presentation in the wonderful “Burger” hall in Zutphen on the military history
of Zutphen, and since some of our ancestors were soldiers, I visited that show.
It was a pity to find no track of famous Nekkers-generals or such things.
However, I discovered an important source of information for our family, the
municipal archives of Zutphen. This department is located in one of the oldest
buildings in Zutphen, the former Hospital (13 Spiegelstraat = Mirrorstreet). One week later, I visited
the municipal archives, to find out what is available there...
On the basis of a letter, received by Wouter Sonderen (son of a Nekkers) in 1995 from the same municipal archive, I further discussed and found information. It appears that:
- our forefather Harmen in fact Hermen Neckers is. He married Berendina Straatmans on May 20, 1716 in the “Broederenkerk” (church of brothers) in Zutphen (a beautiful building, at present in use as public library). No parents are mentioned in the records.
- there exist precise registers of all marriages from (for instance) the years 1608-1811. In those registers you can find: Berendina Nekkers (1795), Dora Nekkers (1789), Harmina Nekkers (1784) and Peter (Pijter) Necker (4 juni 1682).
- that the wife of the last mentioned Peter (Pijter) Necker lived in Bredevoort before her wedding. There her first husband died. And therefore the announcemnet of the wedding was done both in Zutphen and Bredevoort.
- that there are several reasons to assume that Peter is Hermen’s father. The name is rather unusual in Zutphen, and we see the name used for Hermen’s children.
- that there came a Henrick Necker (later improved to Necken) to Zutphen already in 1481 (Jan. 12). This record in is the “burger” book (citizen book) 1478-1715. People who want to execute a profession or want to trade had to become a citizen. The citizenship had to be paid and after that, they had to pay taxes. Our Henrick was registered in the citizenbook, with some others, for one “schild” (shield), an old coin, originating from France (before the Revolution of 1789).
Jan Nekkers from Amersfoort found out:
· a shield is a golden écu (“écu d'or” in French, popular since 1337) from Filips VI, king of France from 1328-1350. The year 1337 is the start of the Hundred-year-war.
· a shield is a silver écu (“écu d'argent” or “écu blanc” in French), popular in the days of Lodewijk XIII (1610-1643) We assume that Henrick payd with a golden écu.
Note: the exact value of a shield is unknown to us.
What is the result of this? In fact:
1. there is a very old trace of Nekkers (1481), which can not be connected to our family tree;
2. the role of the location Bredevoort in our history could be overestimated, and maybe Zutphen needs to be highlighted.
_______________________________________________
The Americans
As said earlier, Geralt found a web-site (named: www.geocities.com/rduggan2/58550-r.txt),
on which more than 150 members of our
family, living with the name Neckers in the United States. They are descendants
from the group of people who left Winterswijk between 1840 and 1850.
These children of emigrants are now in our files and “fit” into the family tree.
In the near future, we have to find a way to make contacts (there are some, already) and to share information and to combine activities. Maybe a family meeting in the New World? Maybe someone has a pancake-house?
The list of 150 Americans is too long for publishing here. Maybe next time.