Plekker descendants

My great grandmother was called Wilhelmina Sibbelina Plekker. She married Teunis Spits and they got 7 children. The youngest daughter Marietje passed away at the age of 12.
The eldest daughter Klazina married Dirk Hartog and got 4 children. Their youngest daughter Wilhelmina is my mother.
My mother and I inherited the brown eyes of the Plekker’s and it happened twice being in Zaandam where my ancestors come from, that people recognized me by my “Plekker eyes”.

A few weeks ago I went through some scrap books of my grand father. He kept a detailed “history’ of my grandmothers family his own, their children and grand children.

I felt the need to browse the Internet for people with the name Plekker and found a Plekker website designed and maintained by Greet Plekker-van Sante.

I sent her an e-mail and received one in return the very same day. We exchanged more and last Saturday, packed with documentation, family tree’s, photo’s and articles, Greet and her husband Luuk came to see me and my mother. We had a fantastic day. Greet was able to update her data with the notes my grandfather made and she told us many wonderful stories about our ancestors.

The day went by so quickly. But after they left we exchanged more e-mails. I also looked on Skype for Plekkers and my Skype friend Simon even found a Plekker in South Africa of whom Greet (she and Luuk spent two holidays there) wasn’t even aware of.

I spoke to one “cousin” on Skype and sent an e-mail to some in Scotland, USA and Australia.
There are a few others on Skype but up till now I haven’t received a reply to my authorization requests and/or IM’s.
Well, not everyone might be interested in the history of their ancestors of course.

I started a blog called “Plekker Descendants” and added an Album to which I am uploading pictures in the next few weeks.
The meaning of this blog and album is to add more information, pictures and stories and not only from the past but also from the future. Hopefully all Plekkers will come together here to “meet’.

Before the Internet, finding ancestors and cousins was a real time consuming job. But now a days and with Skype, everyone is within reach. Instead of living hours and generations apart, we have the possibility to be together again.

Think of this….. isn’t that a great thing? How fortunate we are to live in this computer area.