I could have start this story with almost the same words,
but we didnt meet Brian, and ‘we’ were with 3 dutch ladies now.

But this one is different, part 2 so we speak
Yesterday we met Brian’s Parents: Dale & Terry from Seattle, USA.

So much has changed in the 4 years since we’ve met Brian..

I still had both my grandparents, and Ida her mom,
her dad had been passed away a year before, in the first farm where we met, we went inside the Hassink which was for sale, and we walk into the rooms and i burst out in tears, not had been there since saying goodbye to Oom Marinus the brother of my grandpa.
and then to the farm, which hold so many family memories from all generations.

So much has changed for me, but the Family farms are (mostly) still here. So yesterday we went with Dale & Terry to do the farm tour, in a different order too, where we ended 4 years ago with Brian, we started with Dale & Terry. at Ida her garden.

Different than with Brian, is that Beppie & Ida are 2nd degree cousins with Dale, where Brian and I are 3rd. so there GreatGrandparents is one and the same.

Theodor Johann & Johanna Hendrika are their Great Grandparents,
and mine and Brians (and many more decendants)
Great-Great Grandparents..
Click on the green words to open another story, this one shows a list of all the great/grandparents and the dates they are born and passed away and where. (to which the numbers relate)

On the road we first went to Kaemingk Season Decorations,
which is not in the family anymore, but using our name clearly brings some succes, the buildings are huge

Near there, still in Aalten, the smallest church in the Netherlands

Here we stand at the border of Dinxperlo (NL) & Suderwick (DE) belonging to the bigger place called Bocholt

From there we went back over the border, to Barchem (NL)
where we visitted the cementary of our greatgrandparents

This is the Family grave where Theodor Johann & Johanna Hendrika and more family who lived on the Teesink farm

the name is standing in the middle back in the photo above.

The second Kaemingk Family grave is this one,

Here are burried, the parents-in-law from Hendrik Jan (7) , his wife Aaltje (oma) and their youngest son Theo & later their 2nd son, Marinus & Ada, Ida her parents too were burried here.

From here we went to Hassink, the farm which was from Ida her parents, my grandparents siblings, from 1983

this farm came back in Kaemingk ownership because in the past many children of the 8th, and 10th siblings were born here too, as far as I know of from 1929 a son of Johan (nr.8) and all 11 dutch born children of Arnold (nr 11)  were born here at Hassink.

At the next farm in our tour, but for most the 1st Kaemingk Family Farm, Teesink, the story goes that Theodor Johann & Johanna lived here with their 12 children.. from here they went all there separate ways into the world.

It seems to be a (more than once applied) Kaemingk thing, for their daughter to live next door, the youngest daughter, Hanna (nr.12) lived here:

at the “Johanna Hoeve” where there current owners were so kind to invite us in the garden to make this picture (with the name on the farm)

Our ( Beppie, Ida, mine) line is from Hendrik Jan (nr.7) who lived at Broekhuis, the next farm we went to.

Hendrik Jan is married into this farm
when he married Aaltje Oltvoort 1st March 1918
the story goes, when war came they were hiding Jews and the soldiers came to take opa with them but he disappeared, they said to Oma, “if you dont tell us where your husband is, we set your farm on fire” and oma said: “as long as the legs of my chair arent burning, i dont go anywhere and tell you nothing”. the soldiers left, but later Hendrik was taken to prison camp. that story comes another time..

our (grand)fathers are the oldest sons which both married sisters, who came from Vorden, near by Barchem,

so on our way back we went a bit off-kaemingk-tour to where our (grand)mothers were born. “we needed to go there too” and we saw that farm inside a bit there is living a cousin form mom’s side of Ida & Beppie, we realized later that this day 3 years ago was the exact date our (grand)mother has passed away.

We ended the tour with a diner at the same place where we ate Pannekoeken with Brian 4 years ago

We had a great day around our great-grandparents houses!

Theodor Johann Kaemingk is our Opa.
Born: 19 jan 1858
Married:  20 Nov 1884
& Died:  5 May 1940 in the age of 82

Johanna Hendrika Pennings is our Oma.
Born: 17 June 1863
Married:  20 Nov 1884
& Died: 26 Apr 1915 at age of 52

Although we do have info about their parents and great/grandparents 3 generations back to 1757,
We consider this pair of Grandparents our Family Tree – start

This couple were the parents of our Great Grandparents.
They had the 12 children of who we heard all the family stories, when we were little kids, or even still beautiful stories to be told.

The 12 Children are all born in Aalten:

1. Herman Lambertus.
   born: 04 dec 1885-died: 26 sept 1948 in Aalten NL= 62
2. Gerrit Wilhelm.
   born: 12 sept 1887 – died: 19 jun 1979 in De Wijk NL = 91
3. Englebert.
   born 10 feb  1889 – died:  18 juli 1955 in Lynden, W, USA = 66
4. Gerrit Johan.
   born: 2 nov 1890-died: 22 jan, 1965 in Glencoe, South Africa = 75
5. Elisabeth.
   born: 15 april 1892 – died: 27 jan 1971 in Barchem,  NL= 79
6. Aleida Gerharda.
   born: 28 april 1894- died: 17 may 1983 in Borculo, NL = 89
7. Hendrik Jan.
   born: 15 nov  1895- died: 12 nov 1967 in Barchem, NL= 71
8. Johan Gerrit.
   born: 31 oct 1897-died: 8 feb 1986 in Lochem, NL = 89
9. Grada Johanna.
   born: 24 dec 1899-died: 8 feb 1969 in Aalten, NL = 69
10. Theodor Johan.
    born: 20 juli 1901-died: 16 aug 1985 in Sioux, I, USA =84
11. Arnold Gerhard.
    born: 3 jun 1904-died: 29 sept 1969 in Emo, O, Canada = 65
12.  Johanna Hendrika.
    born: 11 feb 1906- died: 24 april 1994 in Deventer, NL = 88

Family Grave where Theodor Johann is burried.
photo made april 2019

The stories on this website will be about this family tree

I met Brian and friends on the train station and from there we drove to meet Ida at the first family farm, which has been since 1978 of here parents, where I visited myself also frequently.

Ida and I are double family, her father was a brother of my grandfather(96) and her mom(91) is a sister of my grandma(92).

we started and met Ida at the Hassink Farm
(for photo’s click here (for sale now)

this ‘Family Tree’ was planted during a Kaemingk-familyday there,
in summer 2006 where both Ida and I were too.

Luckily everyone had the same idea about how many time to spend together, so all day we were spending together with visiting farms, driving and taking photo’s as if we were tourists, but the most beautiful part:

We weren’t tourists, we all felt home at all the farms where only our ancestors had been, living, where they raised our (great)(grand)parents. And one where Ida had been growing up too.

Brian and I share the same great-greatgrandparents
they must have been great … Pioneers !

We have seen all around Hassink (where older Kaemingk generations have lived and being raised too, like Johan Gerrit too, one of the 12 children, from which Englebert is Brians greatgrandfather and Hendrik Jan mine)

On our way to the Teesink farm we came across the farms where Hanna & Liza have been living too.

The Teesink farm, is where all 12 children of Theodor Johann & Johanna Hendrika have been born and raised until they moved and or emigrated:  to USA: Englebert & Ted and to South Africa: Gerrit and to Canada: Arnold)
Later on Johan Gerrit, took over the Teesink farm.

From there we moved on to Broekhuis,
where the new owners were home and invited us to look inside,

which still had much the same or even traces of the past.

My grandfather and Ida’s father grew up here and so did Ida herself and her brothers and sisters.

Then it was time for lunch, and we headed for a “Pannenkoekenhuis” the one with the best pancakes in Holland.

On our way there we went in business

After the pancakes we went to church

The smallest one in all Holland
(the only one which fits in 1 picture)

We decided at this hour that,
now we are doing the Kaemingk tour,
we should do ALL, so there we went,
crossing the border with Germany

The story which my grandfather told us very often
that in this town, this road is the border, (still is)
and in the past they sold flowers on both sides of the streets and the signs were “Bloemen te koop” (in Dutch) and on the other side  “Blumen zu kauf” (in German)

 so the question is:
On which side of this street they lived?
Are our roots Dutch or German?

So there we went for ice cream, in the German part,
because it is typical Dutch to get your stuff where it is the cheapest I took Malaga taste which at us is called “Boerenjongens” (farmerboys) as long as I remember when we went for ice cream with my grandparents they took this one.. Brian discovered why
also without the ice cream it is a often given gift at birthdays in our Kaemingk family

Just after war time the price difference were the opposite, then coal got smuggled from Holland, by putting them in Footballs and kicking them over the border into Germany, which was forbidden but tolerated. (this story (in dutch and german) on the sign next to statue made for the oldest citizen a man at that time 102 years old, who wished to honor the smugglers

The greatgrandparents, and their descendants
of our great-greatgrandfather were all born in this town.
the one most far back in history was born in 1767

“wir gehen fahren zu Friedhof”
In this town we went to cemetary,
in search of relatives, all we found was it was updated
and only recent graves far relatives which the last name is spelled
“Kemink” (photo’s later)

From there we went back in Holland, to Ida’s house,

where she has very old family photo’s and letters
(see other posts in Family History)

And in the end of the day back home and to the train.

We all had a wonderful day!

Just a memory to share with you.. Last Christmas we picked up my grandparents to have once again a lovely Christmas Diner with them, for more than 10 years we’re telling eachother.. it just might be the last Christmas that we can share with them   because they get older and older.. one of the passions of my grandpa (oldest Kaemingk alive as far as we know) was years ago making, and lately only talking about the family-tree that he made.. last year he commented that he is too old to keep up “with all that family-stuff” and I dicided to take it over.. and i use facebook to help me find all of you

… my grandpa was telling years and years stories about uncles that had (he knows all in details) this amount of children and named all the names in order and well.. there came all the time that story about that one uncle he never met, because that uncle went to America before he was born.. another one went too, but that one came back one time.. but Englebert he never met… years ago, he went to Canada, met some Kaemingks there and one of them helped my grandpa to get the american info for the familytree.. Last year septembre thanks to facebook i got some info and arranged a meeting.. not just with me but especially for my grandpa..

because it just might be the last possibility to have this meeting..
1 week after the meeting my grandpa got a call from a friend who received a church (the other passion of my grandpa) newsletter and in that newsletter they mentioned a person with the same last name Kaemingk. the lady asked my grandpa if this was family and he could happily say : “Yes and we met him last week”.. 3 weeks they’ve been enthousiastic.. but grandpa had a surgery to have too in that month.. and although he was cool about it, you never know what happens.. so since then.. i visit them weekly, i did’nt hear nothing about it or any family info anymore.. as if he had let it go.. it was too much for him.. often he is tired.. (happy to still be together with my grandma but sadly she is forgetting a lot and keeps him busy more than he can handle (now that is been taking care of)

but when we picked them up for Christmas Diner.. we took care of grandma.. and Grandpa took the chance to talk all evening and on a certain moment it came on beautyfull memories from that year.. he forgot how it happened but he started to tell us the story that ended with the story of the lady and started with telling my mom:” did you know who we met? were you there with us? I don’t remember good…. my mom reminded him that i was there.. “Oh Yeah he said.. we met a very far cousin.. his name is Matthew he is same age as Judith..one of the great grandchildren of Englebert, the uncle that i never met.. so I kind of met all the ‘family-lines’ now.. so Judith and him are in the same line to my grandfather.. 3rd degree..where she found him i don’t understand but We were so excited!! and he is from the same church!! so Englebert seemed to ended up good there in the States..   than the story of the lady came and they were both so happy, grandma confirmed “yes you spended many many hours, days, months! at the typewriter to make that familytree and now you finally met one Kaemingk of that “lost” uncle of yours.. and my grandpa continued.. “but i forgot where we met, so i reminded him: “at a birthday of another first degree cousin of mine.. because it was like old days.. going unexpected to visit my grandparents, then they were not home.. so we called and we joined you there.. this made it also happen to meet more cousins of mine.. oh yeah, my grandpa followed his story.. that this meeting could happen to us at 94 & 91 years of age.. i never expected it anymore but this was the best experience this year!

written 6 januari 2014

photos of septembre 2013

Top row: Willem, Gerrit, Hendrik, Engelbert, Liza

Middel row: Herman, Johan (the smaller one), Grandfather, Grandmother, Hanna (the little girl), Lyda

3rd row sitting: Arnold, Grada, Ted

updated in 2015

red details added 2019

This Teesink farm, the story goes (we have to check some details though) that our shared Opa Theodor Johann lived here with his 12 children before they moved to ‘anywhere around the world’