"Keep true to the dreams of thy youth“
Johan Friedrich von Schiller

Who am I?

By asking yourself this question, you have started a journey. You will be scared and you will be excited.You will be lonely and you will find friendship. You will have fun and you will be sad. This yourney has enriched my life with many relatives in Europe and America, new experiences, new friends and places I never knew before.

So, join me and read on ……View of Dordrecht from the Dordtse Kil, 1644 by Jan van Goyen. Like many Dutch painters of his time, Jan van Goyen studied art in the town of Haarlem. At age 35, he established a permanent studio at Den Haag (The Hague). Typically, a Dutch painter of the 17th century (also known as the Dutch Golden Age) will fall into one of four categories, a painter of portraits, landscapes, still-lifes, or genre.

What’s new

This site details the family tree of the Kloosterman family and emigrants to America.  Start your Search or browse Surnames.

Featured photo’s
  • My great-grandfather Jan Kloosterman and his wife Jannetje Slabbekoorn at their 50e wedding anniversary 31-05-1938. My great-grandmother is still wearing the traditional Zuid-Beveland costume, with its large, stiffly starched hat and the large gold square "kissers" worn at the temples.
  • Coat of Arms of the Kloosterman family
  • Johanna (Anna) Bosselaar, my grandmother a few years before she died in 1972.
  • Leendert Kloosterman and his wive Tannetje Cornelisse, their daughters Janna (on the left), Johanna and their son Cornelis Jan, around 1910. Photografic workshop De Doelen, Cornelis Henning, Markt C 14, Middelburg, and Badhuisstraat 63, Vlissingen.
  • My father, around 2020 in front of a painting by Gauguin
  • My daugthers Margo and Evelien, around 1978
  • EMF poster. My father Adriaan worked there more than 40 years and was a skilled metalworker and a highly trained electro technical mechanic, building big electrical motors. In the late fifties the EMF was taken over by the HEEMAF Electrical Works in Hengelo. In 1962 HEEMAF merged with Hazemeyer and SMIT Slikkerveer and became HOLEC Holland.
  • 1952, my mother and me, visiting my grandparents in the Kofstraat4, Dordrecht
  • That's me!, around 2012
  • Jannetje Slabbekoorn, born 07 march 1857 in Heinkenszand. Jannetje is my great-grandmother and is wearing the traditional Zuid-Beveland costume, with the distinctive large, stiffly starched hat, including large gold square kissers worn at the temples. Jannetje died 26 march 1931.
  • Johanna (Anna) Bosselaar, my grandmother a few years before she died.
  • 1920? Adriaan (Adrie) Kloosterman (my father, on the left) and his brother Jan Kloosterman
  • In WW II, John Kloosterman was in General Patton's tank division that swept through Italy; John became a career Army man retiring as a Lieutenant-Colonel
  • Leendert Kloosterman and his wive Tannetje Cornelisse, their daughters Janna (on the left), Johanna and their son Cornelis Jan, around 1910. Photografic workshop De Doelen, Cornelis Henning, Markt C 14, Middelburg, and Badhuisstraat 63, Vlissingen.
  • A piece of Art My lovely wife Hélène in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. The museum is noted for its collection of Dutch and Flemish works of art. The original collection was bequeathed to the city of Rotterdam in 1847 by F.J.O. Boymans, a city councilman. In 1958 the collection of Daniel George van Beuningen was acquired, and the Boymans Museum was renamed the Boymans van Beuningen Museum.
  • 1982, Bonaire, Dutch Antilles. Olympus OM1 in an Ikelite under water housing, 18 mm wide angle, dome port and my Vivitar flash.
  • My father and mother, 1942. They married during WW II, there was no white wedding dress available in those days, so she married in blue! The blue wedding dress was made of lace and silk. The price of the wedding suit my father is wearing was around $ 25, Quite a price in those days. The price of my mothers wedding dress is not known, her mother paid the bill. Picture made by studio Hameter, Voorstraat 291 in Dordrecht.
Dordrecht

Dordrecht is my hometown, the map is from “Blaeu’s Toonneel der Steden” Dutch city maps, (Willem and Joan Blaeu), 1652.

Dordrecht, from “Blaeu’s Toonneel der Steden” Dutch city maps, Edited by Willem and Joan Blaeu), 1652.

Our ancestors

This site is presented with the hopes of preserving the memories of our ancestors. Many we know about and many we will never know, because of records being destroyed by fire, flood other disasters. They have made possible the way we live today. We owe them gratitude and an interest in understanding their experiences.

Without them, where would I be? Jacob van Stry, The yacht of the Chamber of Rotterdam for the Dutch East India Company salutes an East-Indiaman and a Dutch man-of-war on the roadstead of Hellevoetsluis, 1790

Emigrants to America

Any additional information about the surname Kloosterman and emigrants to America are welcomed. Please Email me, Thank you !