Our Family's Journey Through Time
We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am, and why I do the things I do.
So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before.
Bill Nijhuis
The Nijhuis Clan:
Our family's forebearer, Joannis Niehuis, was born in Weerselo Holland in 1767. He married Hermingildis Oonk in 1793, and after she died
in child birth, he remarried Geertruid de Wender in 1802.
Here it was that in the past 200 odd years the family grew.
Nowadays, the Nijhuis clan has spread over Europe and even Australia.
My own branch emigrated to Australia in November 1952.
My brother & sisters still live in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.
The Dik clan.
Our family's forebearer, Johann Hermann Diek, was born in Westernkappelen, Germany
in approx.1766. He was married to Elisabeth Schneiders. Thier son, Gerhard Heinrich was born in
1799 in Altenberg Germany. He married Anna Fenslage in 1831. He was a carpenter by trade.
The family (then named) Dik moved to Holland before 1900 due to the fact that he had been conscripted
into the Prussian Army & refused to fight for the Kaiser.
The Dik family has also spread it's roots through the world. We have cousins in Germany, Holland , Australia, USA, & .......
We Hope You Enjoy Them
We strive to document all of our sources in this family tree. If you have something to add, please let us know.