Dutch and German Immigrants The Prins Family - Pier 21

Aunt Annie went with Aunt Jo to Amsterdam to celebrate QueenWilhelmina’s birthday on August 31. Here she met her future husband,Uncle Jacques. Slowly a relationship developed with weekend visits, oneweekend un Ijmuiden, the other weekend in Amsterdam (knowing Oma,she must have things checked out before she gave her permission forthose visits). When saying goodnight to each other upstairs, you couldn’ttake too long, otherwise Opa would be standing at the bottom of stairswarning you that that was enough smooching for one night!Memories of Uncle Klass de WitThese are some of the memories of Uncle Klaas, as told to me at a visitwe had with him on Thursday November 2, 2000, printed with hispermission.As I noticed when looking at his family papers, first names were kept andgiven to the next generation. Klaas being the name of his grandfatherfathers side; Grietje being the name of the grandmother mothers side.His parents lived in Sliedrecht, a town in the vicinity of Rotterdam wherehis dad had a wallpapering and painting business. He was born there,the third one of four children. However, the first child, his oldest sister,Grietje, died at the young age of ten years, when Uncle Klaas was sevenyears old. The second child, a boy named Klaas lived for a few weeksonly. His youngest sister, the fourth child, Griejte Janna, was born whenhe was ten years old.His oldest sister then, suffering from cancer, was treated and cared for inthe Anthony van Leeuwenhoek hospital in Amsterdam, known for itstreatment of cancer patients. Without Medicare, this hospitalizationplaced a heavy burden upon his parents; beside the financial costs it wasat that day and age very time-consuming for his dad to visit hisdaughter, but often he went there. His dad’s brother lived in Ijmuidenand he, as it was easier for him to go to Amsterdam, went to visit as well.In the end his dad was forced to give-up his business in Sliedrecht andhe and his family moved to Ijmuidenm where his brother, being themanager of the gas and water department, had a job for him. They livedin the Lagerstraat, Velserduinweg and in their later years in theVissershuis in the Rijnstraat.The elementary school he attended was school D. This is the oneadjacent to the sports field of the high school he later attended. The highschool days came from 1928 til 1933, in the middle of the depressionyears. Money was scarce so Uncle Klaas had to make sure his averagegrades were a seven or better to obtain assistance in the purchase of