Well you know you are a sick pup when on your day off in the Netherlands you kick around the Olde Sod looking for the origin of ancestors.  In this case I had gotten some insight from David Hoogakker, who is Catalog Librarian at the National-Lewis University in Wheaton, Il., and who is related to Weidenaars.  He told me that he thought the town of Oosternijkerk in Friesland was the orgin point of Weidenaars. 

So, while on business for Dordt in Zwolle, I took Saturday morning to drive up to Oosternijkerk to check out the cemetary of the local Protestant church.  I don’t know why the cemetary, maybe I just didn’t want to talk to the living Weidenaars, if any, or perhaps I thought this was a good screening device to check out Hoogakker’s suspicions.  So into the graveyard of Sint Cecilia’s Protestant Church with my ever present 3×5 card to record the results. 

Well it was a treasure trove-which did confirm the sick pup theory.  Treasure trove to the extent that I found 10 dead Weidenaars but also a bunch of other names familiar to Covenant.  Such as:  Johannes Holwerda, Sibje Postma, Siemkje Westra, Harmke Veenstra, Jan Hibma, Klaaske Klaces Rosier, Wijtske Kamstra, Aafke Zwart, Pieter Bakker, Pietje Boelens, Geertje Postma, Renske Boersma, Sieger Kloostra, Willem Visser, Pietje Hofstra, Orseltje Visser, and then I ran out of room on my 3X5 card. 

I did stop by a local bakery to pick up a custard filled e-clair (that was wonderful) and to identify myself as a ‘Weidenaar’.  The clerks gave me that ‘crazy American’ look.  I haven’t heard anything from them. 

It was a pleasant small town and it would be great to go back one day and just bike around the area.  It was easy enough to drive from village to village.  It was close to the town of Anjum where Marilyn’s distant relative owns Rosier Market in the center of town. 

These towns are only about a mile or so from the North Sea.

Bernie Weidenaar