UNCLE SANDER AND THE INTERNET by B.D. Eenink in Halle translation by Sarah Grafton UNCLE SANDER I still see myself sitting there, now some thirty-five, forty years ago. A little boy on grandma's old foot-warmer in front of the big black stove. Under the large "bosom" [cooking-hood] with grandma on one side and grandpa on the other. I listened with burning ears to stories of the past. About my grandfather's grandfather, Berend Eenink, who lived close to the "de Landeweerd" inn in Halle and who was so terribly strong. Whenever customers of "de Landeweerd" became difficult, Berend would be called to help. Once, he took care of two drunk soldiers by the well with the words : "and now you settle your bill, or I will settle you both down." One character in always the center of my grand- father's stories was Uncle Sander, my grandmother's uncle. Uncle Sander Heesen was, according to the tales, a real adventurer. He first worked at the Arentsen windmill in Varsseveld. The Windmill is still there and is now called "de Engel" (the Angel). When Sander was 16, he set out on his own for America. He began there as an apprentice at a mill, but worked his way up quickly and became a wealthy man. He could afford to return several times to the Achterhoek in order to visit family and to come for his true love, the daughter of the miller Arentsen in Varsseveld. In his letters and during his visits he made all-out attempts to convince my grand- mother to also go to America. Because, "an Achterhoek woman would be an asset there and would surely feel at home because auntie and uncle had nine children around the age of my grandmother." Of course, as she grew older, grandmother did begin to seriously consider the offer, but in the end it did not come about and so Aaltje Heesen in 1916, at the age of 36, married my grandfather, Berend Eenink from the "Beerlink" farm in Halle-Nijman. Four photographs and a piece of an envelope were the only tangible memories that grandma still had. When auntie and uncle had passed on, the contacts were lost because the Dutch nieces and nephews were not fluent enough in Dutch to be able to write letters. After the stories about Uncle Sander in America I lay in bed in the evenings tossing about and wondering if it would ever be possible to make contact with my distant, distant nephews and nieces in that country far, far across the enormous ocean. But also about what would have become if my grandmother hadn't married my grandfather, rather had gone to America with Uncle Sander. THE EMIGRATION WAVE In the eighties my interest in Uncle Sander was renewed due to the appearance of a few publications concerning emigration from the Achterhoek and the German Munster country. In the ADW Contact Center, a number of articles appeared concerning emigrants from the township of Wisch. Further, in 1981 a book by G.H. Linterink (De Landverhuizers: The Emigrants) appeared on the market and later, in 1990, a book by Willem Wilterdink (Winterswijkse pioneers in Amerika : The Winterswijk Pioneers in America). Then it finally became clear to me that Sander was not the only one who left for America. Around the middle of the last century several thousand Achter- hoekers moved to America. Most were surely not look- ing for adventure but were fleeing bitter poverty. It is unimaginable how many people gave everything up for an uncertain future in a far away, strange country with an unfamiliar language. The distress here must have been horribly high. In Aalten, around the middle of the last century, in three years' time around ten percent of the population fled to America. The August 15th, 1846, Arnhemse Courant (news- paper) reported the situation in Winterswijk: "The emigration from this area is increasing in a surprising manner. Of this township of ap- proximately 8000 inhabitants now 959 people have left and a still greater number is presently preparing also. Most farmers and craftsmen, whose property for the most part consists of land, furniture, and in the fields stood fruits that must first be sold, of which the worth has dropped from 25 to 35%, as the rent and lease thereof from 15 to 20%" For this article, we'll leave it at that, I would highly recommend both books if you would like to know more about the background of this emigration wave. The publications were then occasion to take a look at the archives. And there it became clear to me that the facts were somewhat different than the tales of grandpa and grandma. Sander (Alexander) was born December 1, 1840 in Dinxperlo: son to Hendrik Jan Heesen and Willemina Prinsen. In 1844 the family moved to Westendorp. According to the stories he had at age sixteen already left for America; however, in the Dinxperlo archives I came across Sander when he was 22 and moved from Varsseveld to Dinxperlo. In Varsseveld he was an apprentice to the miller Hermanus Arentsen, the owner of the mill then called "de Hoop," but now carrying the name "de Engel." In Dinxperlo he went to work for his Uncle Carel Bernard Ressing, once more as a miller's apprentice. From there he went to Haffen, a small town near Rees in Germany, in 1864. He possibly left from there for the America, at any rate I could not find mention of him in the Wisch archives in Dinxperlo. The first big wave of Achterhoekers left approximately between 1845 and 1850. Sander could have left in 1865 at the earliest, and probably belonged to the group of people who left due to encouraging messages from earlier emigrants. In the 'eighties, I noticed that quite a few Achter- hoekers still maintain contact with the descendants of the emigrants. My own few attempts to contact in such a manner my family Heesen were unsuccessful, and so disappeared the information and photos of Uncle Sander under the dresser. THE INTERNET In 1995 I came into contact with the Internet and that would eventually lead to the reappearance of Uncle Sander's things. But first something about the Internet. In order to explain what the Internet is, we must begin with the connections between computers. Computers can exchange data via telephone lines. To do so there the electric signals of computers are translated into beeps, that translation is done by a machine called a modem. Whoever has by accident called a fax machine knows these beeps. As more and more computers be- come connected in this manner, we are able to speak on the computer network. At the end of the 'sixties, the American government developed a plan to set up a computer network for the most part untouchable by, for example, sabotage, trade wars, or natural disaster. So was created eventually the Internet. On the Internet, computers and be plugged in and also taken off without setting up a central control. In this respect the Internet is properly invulnerable, but at the same time this also means that no one is the boss on the Internet. In principle, everyone can log on and do whatever he or she would like, and that explains a great deal of the Internet's popularity. The enormous growth and popularity of the Internet is a thing of the past few years. Before this time it was mostly govern- ments, universities, and a few large businesses that made use of the Internet. What concerns private interests is that the number of connections remained chiefly intended for the real hobbyists. And because there were so few private interests, businesses had little interest in building up their private relationships in this manner. But in the past two years, much has changed. New developments in the area of PC's has played a role in these changes, as has fierce competition between the providers. Providers are firms that look after the connections between a PC at home and the actual Internet. Whoever wants access to the Internet buys a PC and a modem and subscribes to a provider. One receives from the provider the proper software and a phone number which one can call with the modem in order to log on the the actual Internet. It will go too far to explain what all the Internet offers. We shall turn our attention to two parts of particular importance to genealogy. And those are the World Wide Web and E-mail. Via the World Wide Web (shortened to WWW or also called the Web) one can connect to someone's website. Those addresses appear more and more often in advertisements, for example. A few examples: The address www.gelderlander.nl is for the Gelder- lander newspaper. The train guide is www.ns.nl and for traffic news around the Betuwe one can go to www.betuweroute.nl. In this manner your computer is connected to the homepage (the first page) of that address. That can be a page of text from one person or a complete computer program from a company. So can you connect with the NS (Nederlands Spoorwegen: the national train system) and through filling out information at the NS homepage receive a complete train trip planner. And that schedule can then be printed. You can find telephone numbers and zip codes at the PTT (national post and telephone service). You can read the Gelderlander or a newspaper in Russia. You can order products from countless mail order companies all over the world. These are just a few examples, for there are at this moment more than five hundred million pages to look at on the Internet, and each day ten thousand pages are added. Precisely because no one is the boss on the Internet, thus no censor, one can find virtually anything that keeps anyone busy. It is truly a reflection of society. And if all those websites are not enough, one can also ask questions of one of the more that 15000 news- groups in the hope that there among the tens of millions of participants, someone with be able to help you. Or one can simply read about what all these people are corresponding. In short, the quantity of information and the variety is literally unimaginable. You can type in addresses, as you know them, or your computer can search for key words. But the best way to find addresses is probably through the use of links. Let us as an example take a look at the website for the Dutch Genealogy Association (NGV). The address is http://www.digiface.nl/~zelis/ngv.htm This homepage contains a number of articles with information about genealogy as well as a list of names of other websites that may be interesting. Those are links. You need only click on the name to connect to the relevant website. Also at this site may contain links and so can you wander the entire world or as in their jargon "surf." The NGV offers for this reason the name NGV Surfing Service to the left under the name. The more than one hundred links of the NGV concern connections with its own subdivisions but also with other organizations, archives and libraries inside and outside the country and with phone books of other countries, for example Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, France and the US. Also our "neighbors," the Asso- ciation for archaeology in Lichtenvoorde, with their beautiful website about Harreveld, are accessible via a link on the NGV page. THE AMERICAN TELEPHONE BOOK When I realized in 1995 that the US phone book could be consulted on the Internet, I immediately thought about the descendants of Uncle Sander. Thus having logged on with my provider, I typed in the address of the site in America, www.//switchboard.com and I received a form to fill in on the screen. It appeared possible to fill in the entire address of the person for whom one was searching, however I decided in this instance to simply search for the last name "Heesen." The American phone book contained over one hundred fifteen million names, but within thirty seconds I had an answer. Around fifty entries under the name "Heesen." But, alas, you have a number and an address, but how to proceed? Just calling up strangers with a vague story about an "Uncle Sander from Holland" would, besides creating a huge phone bill, result in little. Possibly write a letter, but then the question remains to which of the approximately fifty Heesens. It sat on the back burner until I was busy on the Internet this spring and decided to check the phone book once again. It appeared that with the address of one of the Heesens in New York, something new was there, an e-mail address. E-mail Once more an Internet term that needs an ex- planation. Everyone who has a subscription to a provider also has an Internet address. The Internet programs on PC's gives you the address where your message needs to go. The message can be a letter, but it is also possible to send pictures, photos, even video or sound wav's. Everyone with an Internet address has an electronic mailbox from his or her provider. Mail for the addressed arrives there and only the addressed, with the use of a password, can access the mail and download it. CONTACT Back to the quest for Sander. When I uncovered the e-mail address, I quickly mailed him. Connect to the provider and the mail went on its way. Half a day later I already had a message from an enthusiastic Mark Heesen from New York. His twin brother David in Janesville, Wisconsin appeared to be the genealogist in the family and he would send the information on to David. Oh, one thinks, next Sunday they'll enjoy a cup of coffee together talking about that Achterhoeker searching for Uncle Sander. One glance at a map of the United States showed me that it might not go that way. The gentlemen live 1600 km away from each other. And Janesville is in Wisconsin, but around 200 km from Elroy. I did hear from David two days later, through e-mail. Then you see why e-mail is much more widespread than in Holland. Due to the enormous distances, it is a very valuable resource for maintaining contact. According to David, his ancestor Alexander Heesen was the miller of Elroy, in Wisconsin. That made sense, but Alexander would have married Augusta Behrend and that didn't make sense with grandma's stories about a daughter of the miller Arentsen in Varsseveld. Would he have married twice? Augusta Behrend sounded rather German. As I already mentioned, I was on the wrong track when Sander left for Haffen in Germany. Was grandmother's story wrong and did his wife come from Germany? Then compare the children. That was also a fright upon first glance. The names we have written on the photo. Nine names, David had eight and other names it seemed. But maybe the Dutch names had been cor- rupted. This could have been, left the American information, right our information: Charles=Karel Alice=Ales Ruth=Roete Helen=(He)lena Henry=Hendrik Bob=Robert Paul=Paul Fred=Fritze In our photo there remains Emma, would she possible have been a daughter-in-law, or did she die young? Meanwhile I attempted in different ways to find out if we really had the descendants of Sander. To the pres- ent, still unsuccessful. Mrs. W.A.C. van Ast-Heezen in Winterswijk has kept herself busy with the family tree of the Heesen family (with all variations such as Heezen, Hezen and Hesen). I discovered through her that several branches of this family are in the US, the branches are descendants of various emigrants. Emigrants who were all descendants of Willem Heesen who was born around 1640 in Suder- wick. Unfortunately I did not have at my command information about the departure of Sander. The con- clusion (for the moment) is then that it seems that I have rediscovered my family, but it is not certain. IN CONCLUSION Perhaps you are wondering why this article is in the ADW Contact Center? Is it about the Internet or about Uncle Sander? Actually, about both. In this article, I wanted to show you what kind of a role the Internet can play in your search (literally and figuratively) for distant rela- tions. Don't think that the Internet is inaccessible to you. The threshold to the Internet is still becoming lower. The library in Doetinchem has, for example, two com- puters at your disposal for Internet access since February 1997. For fl. 1.25 (÷75›) each quarter of an hour, you can use the Internet. A simple but effective manual lies next to it. In addition, there are plans for short instruc- tional meetings. Otherwise, grab a student by the scruff of his or her neck, for more often they are in contact with the Internet as part of their education. But I advise you then to stick close, because pop groups such as the Spice Girls, Kelly Family, Backstreet Boys and whatever else they're called are on the Internet, even accompanied with music. And before you know it, that is what your money is spent on. The previously mentioned address of the Dutch Genealogy Association (NGV) is a great starting point for experimenting. And if you immediately want to dive into emigration, then Paul van Voorthuijsen's Holland Page is for you. The address is: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/paulvanV/homepage.htm In closing just a moment for the second reason for this publication. As registered, the determination of our relations is still going rather laboriously. I hope some people who read this article will be able to help me. Whoever may know more or have interest can call me at 0314-631851. And if you should also e-mail me at eeninkbd@worldonline.nl , it will probably not surprise me. SOURCES: De landverhuizers (The Emigrants), G.H. Ligterink, 1980 Winterswijkse pioniers is Amerika (The Winterswijk Pioneers in America), W. Wilterdink, 1990 Contact Center ADW, December 80, April 82, August 82, and December 82.