THREE PIONEERS
THE THREE PIONEERS
Three of my ancestors have through the years taken up their residence outside the Netherlands:
•
Tjaart Alma leaves for Australia in 1882, where he dies the following year without
offspring.
•
Willem Bot leaves in 1886 with his wife Deborah Schreuder and eight children to Ghent in
Lyon County, Minnesota, after two of his sons (Bernard and Hero) having explored the
situation there first for a season in 1884 as a hired hand. William is ancestor of a flourishing
branch of the family Bot in the US.
•
Bernardus Wilhelmus Alma departs in 1893 to the US. He marries in 1901 in Chicago with
Gertrude Demphne Bloemsma and is ancestor of a flourishing branch of the family Alma in
the US.
Mutual family relations of the three pioneers
The next pages show some background information about the countries they went to take up
there new residence.
Two sons of William and Deborah (Hero and Henderikus (Henry)) return to
The Netherlands in 1907 to marry a Dutch bride.
The two new couples travel back to the USA in August 1907 on the USS Rijndam. They travel
together with their nephew Kornelis Bot (up to that moment shopkeeper in Bedum).
The diagram below shows the family relations of these pioneers.
The persons in red and black are my direct ancestors.
The persons in red are my direct ancestors in a direct line from me to my oldest known
forefather.
The other persons are shown in green, the year of leaving the Netherlands in blue.
Bernardus Wilhelmus Alma and Gertrude Demphne Bloemsma.
Wedding picture 1901, provided by Ron Cancilla, US
William Hero Bot and Deborah Schreuder
Henry J. Bot and Gerada J. Peters 1908
Hero W. Bot and Anna Paagman
