The book about the Van Dyke family

Information:

Maartje van Sluis-Poortstra
Hoe de familie Van Dijk vertrok uit “De Bjirmen”;
How the Van Dyke family left “De Bjirmen”.
Berltsum, Van Sluis, 2015. 142 pages.
ISBN 978-90-809696-0-5, Hardcover (dust-jacket),
interior ink black & white, about 100 photos,
dimensions (inches) 6 wide x 9 tall.
Price € 22,68, about $ 32,46

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Content:

This book tells the story of Taeke Tjerks and all of his descendants up until now. Taeke Tjerks was the ancestor to the Van Dijk family, a small family from an area between Sexbierum and Oosterbierum in the North of Friesland called De Bjirmen. The  two most important themes of the book are emigration and resemblance or the lack thereof. By combining information from archives, photo’s, letters and stories from descendants, this family history gives us a view on our ancestors as well as the stories of these families. Through this book we learn to know our ancestors as well as the family members on other continents. The book is written in two languages: Dutch and English. The genealogical information is in Dutch, but the family stories are told in both languages.

It has become a beautiful hardcover book. By doing much myself I have managed to keep the price low. 

Click here for the same information in Dutch. 

More information in English about the Van Dyke family.

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The origin and the branches of the Van Dyke family

The surname Van Dijk is a very common name in The Netherlands. It is a so-called origin name, referring to a place of origin. The name means “living near a dyke”, in this case the Frisian seawall.
In 1811 and 1812 the name was adopted 162 times in Friesland across several municipalities. At first, I expected that the name would be adopted in coastal municipalities only. However, this is not the case. The explanation for this unexpected find is that an origin name was often taken by people who come from a particular place, but no longer live in that place.
The name Van Dijk is taken by two men from the same family. On March 27, 1812 by Tjerk Taekes, residing in Sexbierum and in 1811 (date not mentioned) by Sijbe Taekes, residing in Oosterbierum . Both are sons of Taeke Tjerks (+ 1799) and Sytske Sybes(1795)  who probably lived with their family near the seawall (dyke) between Sexbierum and Oosterbierum. Taeke Tjerks is the oldest known ancestor of the Van Dijk family.
His sons Sijbe and Tjerk are the two forefathers of the family Van Dijk (Van Dyke). Tjerk is the ancestor of my own grandmother: Marijke van Dijk. There are several other descendants of Tjerk alive who still bear the name Van Dijk (the emigrated descendants are called Van Dyke or sometimes VanDyke). The branch of the Van Dijk family which descended from Sijbe died out in the early twentieth century.

The branches

Taeke Tjerks had two sons: Sijbe and Tjerk. They both adopted the name Van Dijk.
The eldest son, Sijbe, had a son called Simon who, for his part, sired a son called Sijbe. Grandson Sijbe had two children, of which only Froukje survived infancy. In this branch, Froukje was the last to carry the name Van Dijk.

Taeke's second son Tjerk had four children. Tjerk's son Klaas continued the name of Van Dijk. Klaas had a son Tjerk (George) with four children. Two of them continued the name Van Dijk. The first son Jacob van Dijk (1856-1924) had eight children. The other son Feike van Dijk (1861-1911) had ten children.
I see those two men as forefathers of the Van Dijk (Van Dyke) family. From both men pedigree several people with the name Van Dijk or Van Dyke who are still alive.

Emigration

Census 1930: family Herman and Emma Van Dyke

Notably, many members of the Van Dyke family emigrated to the United States in the beginning of the twentieth century. Within Jacob van Dijk’s family, the eldest son Harmen emigrated. He took the name Herman in 1913. The other children Sybrigje, Maaike, Tjerk, Marijke, Klaas and Dirkje  stayed in the Netherlands. Within Feike van Dijk’s family six children emigrated: Pieter - Pete (in 1913), Tjerk - George (in 1914), Anna with her husband Siebe Dykstra (in 1920), Jan - John (in 1920), Jacob - Jake Van Dyke (in 1920) and Hein - Henry Van Dyke (in 1927). From that family only Lijsbeth, Jorritje and Rintje stayed in the Netherlands.

The book

What has happened since the book was published

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