Keetmolen!

I found a photo of Keetmolen in the Ede Photo Archives that matches the painting! The blades of the windmill are in the same position and even the clouds are the same! The painting must have been painted from that photo. The photo is dated at the same time of the century that my grandfather's family left Holland (1920).
...hmm, wish I could take a weekend trip back to Ede to look at the actual photo...

Ede, Gelderland, Holland

Before our trip to Holland, I asked my aunt to take photos of these paintings. I wasn't really expecting to see these things while I was in Holland. ...but if I did see them, I thought it would be really cool to get a photo of them in whatever state they were in.
The paintings are done on diagonally cut slices of wood with the bark still on the edges. They were my Grandfather's. As I grew up, I remember these paintings hanging on the wall in the farmhouse. "Grampa" was born in Ede. I'm not sure when or how these paintings came to him. ...maybe his mother and father gave them to him so he would know where he came from. ...maybe he came to possess them when his parents passed away. I do not know who painted them or if they are a mass produced souvenir (though our trip to Ede may have cleared that one from the possibilities - since it is not a normal tourist destination). Next time I am able to examine them, I'll look for any marks that may tell me about them... though I believe I have searched for marks on them years ago and there were none.

Sometimes when we visited my grandparents on the farm, I would run out of sticks to chase my cousins with, hikes to take, horses to draw portraits of, cans to kick, mud pies to make, birds to rescue, crawdads and frogs to catch, cows to chase, wild cats to tame, etc... so I would stare at these paintings (among other things... - who said I was normal?) and dream of walking along the streets of Ede. It was so exciting to find and actually see and touch these monuments after so many years of dreaming of them.

Oude Kerk (Old Church), Ede Centrum: I found some information and old photos on Old Church at this site (copy and paste link into browser)

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ede.nl%2Fcultuur%2Fcultuur-en-kunst%2Fgemeentearchief%2Fkennisbank%2Fartikel%2Foude-kerk%2F

When we first got off the train at Ede Centrum, we sat at the station for a bit. We could hear the delightful bells of a church. The bells went on for at least 15 minutes. It was Sunday. I don't remember the exact time, but it was probably around 5pm ...or maybe 6pm. We started walking through the streets making our way to De Boskamp (where we would be staying while in Ede -and I might add- is a great place to stay). We walked through a shopping area and came across the church! I hadn't looked at the painting photo in a while so I wasn't completely sure that it was the one at first, but the more I looked at it, the more I recognized it. The church underwent a major restoration from 1963-1967. I'm glad it did, because it was so thrilling to see it there!

The next day our hostess took a look at the painting photos. Right away she knew which windmill it was! We rented bikes for the day and eventually made it to the windmill. It is right next to the Ede-Waginingen train station. When we first came into Ede, we switched trains there and while we were waiting for the next train, we walked over to a little ice-cream shop. If we would have looked up and through the trees, we would have seen the windmill!
The windmill is now a museum and they give tours on Saturdays. Sadly we were there on Monday so we did not get to go inside. I did talk to the woman who lives in the house and she said we could walk around and take photos.

The sign in front of the windmill property reads:
KEETMOLEN Achtkantige, gemetselde beltmolen uit 1750. Op as straat "De Prins van Oranje 1896, no. 1479". Vlucht 24 meter. Naam "Keetmolen" onststond tijdens aanleg van spoorlijn Utrecht - Arnhem, toen hier een keet voor de arbeiders stond. De molen bij de keet werd "Keetmolen".
(KEETMOLEN Eight sided, built mill from 1750 rings. On ash street "The Prince of Orange 1896, no. 1479". 24 meters escape. Name barrack mill stood during construction of track line Utrecht - Arnhem, then here a barrack for the workers stood. The mill at the barrack became barrack mill. *direct translation done with a digital translator)

Food! Voedsel!

I live for food (no pun intended). I had hoped to find a cook book while I was in Holland, but we didn't have the time to really look for a good one.
When we got back to the USA, I started searching for dutch recipes online. I found a list of recipes on a site that I have been frequenting ( http://www.godutch.com/ ).The first one I tried was Zuurkool met Ham (Sauerkraut and Ham). For the same meal, I made Macaroni met Ham en Kaas (Macaroni -Dutch Style). Both turned out excellent. My husband was wondering what the occasion was when he saw that I made an effort to cook a real meal. But the occasion was just being married to someone who was starting a Dutch-cooking madness spree. It was probably the next day I made Echt - Hollandse Gehaktbal (Classic Dutch Meatballs). Then I did some more searching and ordered Let's Go Dutch by Johanna (van der Zeijst) Bates. This book gives both the US measurements AND Metric measurements which is very nice... I don't have to do my own converting for every recipe!

I have been cooking recipes out of this book for weeks now. So far I have made Dutch Winter Stamppot (Hollandse Winter Stamppot), Shrimp Croquettes (Garnalencroquetten), Dutch Oliebollen (Oliebollen), Beef with Mushrooms and Madeira Sauce (Beifstuk met Champignons en Madeirasaus), and Basic Dutch Pancakes (Flensjes). Every recipe has turned out very tasty. Even my mess-ups are tasty!

Our trip to Holland

My husband and I went on a Belated Honeymoon Trip to Europe. Our original plan was to just go to Holland and Germany (where each of our known families come from). That plan was scrapped when our planning really got going. We are not of wealthy families, so our thriftiness kicked in... We went in the Off-Season. We found the cheapest flight to "anywhere nearby" (which ended up being Zurich Switzerland- not known to be thrifty, but we didn't stay there long). We traveled by train and ferry. We stayed mostly in Hostels. We ate at markets whenever we had the chance. We ate street food and at small restaurants when markets were closed or unavailable. We also decided that since we'll be over in their part of the world, we should visit a few friends in the UK (this added a couple more countries to the list). Then, my husband told me that since we would be so close to France AND since it is our honeymoon, he is willing to go to Paris for a short stay. My husband has never expressed anything positive about the French - political reasons. I had to take him up on his offer or I would possibly never get to go to France... with him (I would have gone by myself or with a friend, eventually). After going to France, my husband is not as anti-France as he was- we had a great time there. We had a great time on the whole trip but my very favorite place was my family's homeland, Holland.
A close second for me and my husband's favorite place was his family's homeland, Germany. So ultimately we wished we had more time in both the places we originally planned on going. We'll be back... we have dubbed our honeymoon trip as our Preview of Europe Tour.

The first of many posts! What led to this blog... Eerste van vele posten! Wat tot dit blog leidde...

So here I am. I've succumbed to the BLOG WORLD. I have not had anything interesting enough to write about until now... or so I think, anyway.

I have been, for a bit over a year now, diligently searching through records, databases, piles of papers, photos, social sites, and books for clues and links between Holland and I. Just making sense of all the information I find is half the struggle. My mother is a "Full-Blood Dutch-Girl" (meaning: her father was born in Ede, Holland and immigrated to America with his family / her mother is the daughter of two Dutch born immigrants from Enkhuisen and Andijk, Holland). This makes me 50% Dutch.

My dad was never really sure of where his family came from (I am also researching his side now). He always told my brothers and I that he was Pennsylvania-Dutch...but not really. At some point (probably after a lot of pleading for a real answer) he told me he was French-Canadian and German. Then a family doing relatively extensive genealogy research contacted my dad. They had found some English roots and no German... or was it... ??? Until I find out for certain I still tell people I am 50% Dutch, 25% French-Canadian and 25% German.

The Dutch fascinate me. The determination and ingenuity of the country and people. The beautiful sounds of the language. My family and what made them leave such a beautiful place. The food... oh, the food! Everything about the Dutch just draws me in.

I have always had a curiosity about where my family came from. My first bit of Dutch knowledge came from reports I did in school. Whenever we had to do a report on another country I would always choose The Netherlands / Holland. For some reports it was required to choose the country of our families origin. Other report requirements were not as strict, but I still wanted to know more about "my people". The determination of the Dutch is remarkable. They made much of the country by blocking off the sea with huge dikes. Intuition steps in as they use canals throughout the country for transportation. Wooden shoes were / are used as they work in the fields so they do not sink into the mud. Tulips are very much loved by most of the Dutch and it makes for a wonderfully beautiful countryside in part of The Netherlands. My curiosity will, I fear, never be completely satisfied... but I can try!

The language sounded very strange to me in the beginning. My grandfather could speak a little bit of Dutch (that I know of). I thought that he was trying to clear his throat half the time he spoke it. At age 8 or 9 my grandfather taught me a few words of Dutch. He could not remember many words because it had been such a long time since he had someone to speak Dutch to. This sparked an interest in learning the language, so I made tape-recordings of Dutch language so I could learn more. A few years later I started spending more time with friends and getting into trouble so I did not retain much of the Dutch language I had learned. This will soon be rectified as I am re-learning the language and I hope find someone that I can practice with and keep my Dutch language skills going. Wish me luck!

My most recent "Dutch Obsession" started when I was planning my wedding.
I was explaining to my husband-to-be how some of my family were related to me... and then I just... well, I just got hooked. I started doing a family tree(s) to make sense of every one's relation to us both. Research-mode just took over. My husband and I decided to go to Europe for our honeymoon. I tried to find my relatives who still live in Holland (unsuccessfully - maybe) (the "maybe" is because I think I may have found one of my family but he still hasn't answered my second letter very clearly and I do not want to scare him away by persisting too much). Through the research we did, we found a monastery in Germany named after my husband's family (which sells a cure-all tonic), a town in Holland of one of my families names, and also a beach resort of another of my families names. While we were in Holland during our honeymoon, we spent most of our time in Ede. Ede is not known as a tourist destination but I felt very much "at home" while we were there. As long as a can remember, my grandfather had two small paintings of scene's in Ede; one was of a church and one was of a windmill with a house.


Both structures are still there and we had a wonderful time biking around on our search for them! We rode bikes through the forest and open fields North / North-East of Ede. It was beautiful - even with no leaves on the trees (we were there in March). One of the only things that could drive me away from this place would be "No Work". At the time of the century, that may have been the very reason why my grandfather's family immigrated.

I fell in love with the food while we were in Holland. While waiting at a train station, we ran over to an ice-cream shop for treats. They did not have ice-cream since it was only March - but they had Stroopwafels! I am now addicted to Stroopwafels (the right kind is non-existent where I live so I order them from the Caramel Cookie Waffel company in Montana, USA - they ship super fresh). In Ede, we ate at a place called Resy's. They spoke only a few words of English and I only a few words of Dutch, but the food was AMAZING! Even their fast food was good. Many of the dishes you find there are Curry (yum!), on account of the Dutch Indonesian Islands. I bought a cookbook online after we got home. I've been regularly trying dishes out of it and they are all good so far. I have yet to find a dish I do not like, although the Hot Lightning and Fish Pudding sound a bit scary (just the names sound scary - if you read the recipe they sound good)!

I'll make my conclusion very short since I've been so long winded with my first post. I will, after all be writing again soon.
I'm having a great time researching and exploring my heritage so far. I just hope to continue finding great recipes and family connections in the future.