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The Coat of Arms of the Maasdams
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History of the Maasdam Family and their emigration overseas
1. Summary of the family History
1.a. Summary of the Origins of the Maasdam family.
1.b. Short notes and pictures on the ancestors their villages and farmsteads on the island of The Hoekse Waard.
2. Emigrants to the US
2.a. Summary of the branches of the Maasdam family living in the USA
2.b. Family Tree of Jan living in Maasdam (± 1500 AD) with the 2 main branches of the Maasdams / Marsdens living in the USA.
2.c. Descendant Chart of Johannes Maasdam (1830 - 1909) including the branch of Sebastian Maasdam who changed his name to Marsden.
Links related to the Maasdams in the USA
The Company of Abraham Gradus and his son Felber Maasdam at Maasdam.com.
The town of Pella, Iowa with orange tulips, the history of the emigrants (amoung them was Jacob Gerrits on the SS Nagasaki), Sinterklaas and soon a real windmill!
Go the shopping street of Pella for "'t Bloemen Huis" and "De Snoepwinkel"
Visit Cayuga County, NY, where Johannes Maasdam settled in 1854. Cayuga County has its own GenWeb project, with data regarding the Owasco Rural Cemetery where Maasdams and Marsdens are burried, registers of the Owasco Dutch Reformed Church, birth records and marriage registers of Montezuma. The town of Owasco has its own history page with interesting clues of Dutch settlements.
On Ellis Island you will find the Passenger records of immigrants arrivined in the US between 1892-1924. Among the arrivals of some other Maasdams you can see that Jacob Gesset (1871-1944) married to Catherine Wagaman (1870-1931) arrived from a trip to Holland on 17 October 1919.
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Introduction
In the spring of 2001 Margery Marsden-Van Duyne and undersigned, the author of this site, came in contact with each other via the bulletin board of FamilyHistory.com (Ancestry.com).
Margery had been searching over the last 30 years for the ancestors of Johannes Maasdam, the great-grandfather of her husband Clayton Marsden. Johannes, son of Bastiaan Maasdam left for the United States of America around 1850.
By this web encounter Margery could become aquainted with the book "The Family Maasdam" written by Arie-Pieter van den Hoek (also a descendant of the Maasdam family) and M.A.M. Dam-Mast adding 350 years of family history to her genealogy up to AD 1500. At the same time, on the European side, the branch of Johannes could be completed with another 7 generations by the research that Margery had been doing over the last decades.
Nothing was heard from Johannes after he left for the USA. It turned out that he settled in the rural town of Owasco, Cayuga County in the beautiful Finger Lake region of the State of New York, USA.
Many of Johannes' descendants are still living in Cayuga County in a radius of 30 miles around Auburn.
There is another Maasdam who went to the United States: Jaapje Maasdam (born 23 July 1822 in Zuid-Beijerland). She was the older sister of Johannes and married Pieter Luijendijk (born Zuid-Beijerland 29 August 1823). They married in Zuid-Beijerland 7 May 1847 and emigrated to the USA in 1849. They probably helped Johannes to emigrate too. However, there was no further information about Jaapje and Pieter Luijendijk until.....May 8, 2007, exactly 160 years after the marriage of Pieter and Jaapje, when Brenda Rae Leyndyke-Glover informed us about the descendants of Pieter and Jaapje who moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Thanks to Ancestry.com !. More about this branche of the family will be published soon.
On April 11, 2011 Dr. Earl William Kennedy, Senior Reaearch Fellow at the A.C. van Raalte Institute, Holland, Michican and Professor of religion Emeritus, Northwestern College, draw my attention on yet another sister of Johannes Maasdam, who emigrated to the United States. It was his elder sister Pietertje, who had lived with her parents in Zuid-Beijerland till 1954 and left that year for the USA. On 26 December 1854 she arrived on board of the "Holland' from Rotterdam in New York City. On July 27, 1865 she married in Grand Rapids to Jan Oepkes Bijlsma (John Bylsma) who had emigrated earlier from Franekeradeel, Friesland. Pietertje became his second wife. The couple had no children.On the passengers list of Ellis Island she is known as Pickdge Maasdam while the marriage record calls her Pritze Moasdam and the census of 10 June 1880 Pietge Bylsma. Her whereabouts in the period 1854 - 1865 are unknown.
The genealogy of the the "lost branch" of Owasco, Cayuga county and the family members in Michigan complete very well the genealogy of the other Maasdams that settled in Pella, Iowa. That history is well described in the book of Arie-Pieter van den Hoek and M.A.M. Dam-Mast entitled: Het geslacht Maasdam, (The Family Maasdam), Strijen / Puttershoek 1986, ISBN 90-9001230-3.
Tom de Meijer, April 22, 2011.
For remarks and additional information, links etc., please contact me >>
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3. Recent Emigrants to New Zealand
On 7 December 1996, Ruud Maasdam and Dorien Vermaas emigrated to New Zealand with their two children Rutger and Josefien. They had given up a comfortable life in The Netherlands to start the vineyard of their dreams in the region of Rapaura Road , Marlborough, famous for its superb wines. In November 1998 their daughter Annabel was born in Wellington. Now, a few years later, their 21 Hectares (52 acres) "Staete Landt Vineyards" produces Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris wines. The Sauvignon Blanc of the first vintage in 2000 got a mention of "outstanding" in Wine Spectator, the prominent American wine magazine.
In May 2008 their wine is promoted by NRC-Handelsblad >>
Other Historical and Geneological Links of interest in relation to the Maasdam Family
The Dutch Heritage and Genealogy at GoDutch.com.
A mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in the island of Hoeksche Waard.
Additional information can be found on the Genealogy Hoeksche Waard (Dutch).
Dutch Genealogy site in English especially for emigrants.
History of the Hoekse Waard (Dutch) by historian Martine Zoeteman.
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