BOISSEVAIN | Charles "Handelsblad" and Emily (Updated Jan. 29, 2017)

Charles Handelsblad Boissevain (1842-1927).
He was editor and publisher of Amsterdam's
Algemeen Handelsblad.

The Charlestje Family Group, headed by Charles and Emily Boissevain, is the one that my grandmother Olga, Charles's sixth child, drummed into me when I was a boy of 4 to 9 years old in Canada.

I first collected information on my Boissevain ancestors for a booklet I gave to my parents on their 50th wedding anniversary in 1982. My mother corrected it, added to it and deleted certain things that she felt improper to reveal. It is now my trusted guide to the family.

This post is built around that source and a list and numbering system begun by the late Matthijs (Thijs) Boissevain after the Boissevain family reunion a quarter-century ago in Boissevain, Manitoba, Canada. I made certain modifications in his system that are listed in the Notes at the end of this post.

The first six generations of the Boissevain Family before Charles are covered in another post.

1111316 Charles Handelsblad Boissevain (Root of Tree) was born 28 Oct 1842 in Amsterdam, son of Gideon Jérémie Boissevain and Maria van Heukelom. He was editor and part owner of the Amsterdam Algemeen Handelsblad. Charles died 05 May 1927 in Drafna (Naarden), at 84. Charles married, at 24, 27 June 1867 in Woolston (Hampshire, England) Emily Héloïse MacDonnell, 23. Emily was born 01 Jun 1844 in Dublin, daughter of Hercules Henry Graves MacDonnell and Emily Ann Moylan. Emily died 26 Jan 1931 in Blaricum, at the age of 86.

The Handelsblad reports invasion of Holland and Belgium,
May 10, 1940. "Netherlands at War with Germany." It was a
short war. After Rotterdam was obliterated, the Queen surrendered.

The 1111316 in front of Charles Handelsblad's name establishes his patrilineal "Pedigree". It shows the birth order of each person by generation.

The prefix 1111316 can be added to each of the following numbers to take them back to the Ur Boissevain in the Dordogne, Lucas Bouissavy.

Charles had 11 children by Emily Héloïse MacDonnell:

1 Charles Ernest Henri ("Eh Ha") Boissevain, born 09 May 1868 in Amsterdam.
2 Maria Boissevain, born 27 Oct 1869 in Amsterdam
3 Alfred Gideon Boissevain, born 28 Dec 1870 in Amsterdam.
4 Robert Walrave Boissevain, born 12 Mar 1872 in Amsterdam.
5 Hester ("Hessie") Boissevain, born 16 Aug 1873 in Driebergen.
6 Olga Emily Boissevain, born 27 Oct 1875 in Amsterdam. She was Hilda van Stockum's mother.
7 Hilda Gerarda Boissevain, born 12 Jul 1877 in Amsterdam.
8 Eugen Jan Boissevain, born 20 May 1880 in Amsterdam.
9 Petronella Johanna ("Nella") Boissevain, born 24 Dec 1881 in Amsterdam.
A Jan Maurits Boissevain, born the 10th child on 05 Feb 1883 in Amsterdam. Under the numbering system used here, in families with more than 9 children, the 10th child is numbered "A", the 11th is numbered "B" and so on. This keeps the numbering to one column per generation while retaining the ability to sort on that column.
B Catharina Josephina (“Teau”) Boissevain was born the 11th child on 23 Jan 1885 in Amsterdam.

Charles E. H. Boissevain and MariaPijnappel.

1 Charles Ernest Henri (Eh Hah) Boissevain was born on 09 May 1868 in Amsterdam, son of Charles Handelsblad Boissevain and Emily Héloïse MacDonnell. Charles died 07 Nov 1940 in Blaricum, at 72. Charles married, at 22, on 19 Feb 1891 in Amsterdam Maria Barbera Pijnappel, aged 20. Maria was born on 10 Jul 1870 in Amsterdam, daughter of Menso Johannes Pijnappel and Helena Catharina Justina Brugmans. Maria died 24 Nov 1950 in Blaricum, at 80. She was the first female member of the Dutch Parliament and my mother told me her Tante Maria was as prickly as her name implies.

Children of Charles E. H. and Maria:11 Menso Boissevain, born 19 Apr 1892 in Amsterdam. 12 Charles Hercules Boissevain, born on 18 Oct 1893 in Amsterdam. 13 Robert Lucas Boissevain, born on 27-04-1895 in Amsterdam. 14 Helena Catharina Justina (Heentie) Boissevain, born on 10-11-1897 in Amsterdam 15 Maria Cornelia (Mary) Boissevain, born on 07-05-1899 in Amsterdam. 16 Laurens Rijnhart Boissevain, born on 13-06-1901 in Amsterdam.17 Emily Héloïse Boissevain, born on 21-03-1903 in Amsterdam. 18 Catharine Josephine (Teau) Boissevain, born on 01-11-1905 in Amsterdam.19 Elisabeth Antonia Boissevain, born on 07-04-1907 in Amsterdam. 1A Dieuke Machteld Hilda Boissevain, born on 05-12-1910 in Amsterdam.

11 Menso Boissevain was born on 19 Apr 1892 in Amsterdam, son of Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain and Maria Barbera Pijnappel. Menso died on 25 Jan 1970 in Zandvoort, at 77. Menso married, at 25, on 16 Apr 1918 in Hilversum Johanna Elizabeth Uijt den Bogaard, aged 19 years. Johanna was born on 09 May 1898 in Hilversum, daughter of Pieter Uijt den Bogaard and Sara Adriana Petronella Gleichman. Johanna died on 28 Dec 1977 in Haarlem, at 79. 

Children of Menso and Johanna :111 Sara Adriana Petronella Boissevain, born on 11-02-1919 in Weesperkarspel. 112 Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain, born on 28-04-1921 in Weesperkarspel. 113 Helena Mary Boissevain, born on 02-08-1925 in Weesperkarspel. Helena died on 23 Nov 1926 in Amsterdam, at the age of 1 year. 114 Elisabeth Antonia Boissevain, born on 25-05-1928 in Weesperkarspel.

111 Sara Adriana Petronella Boissevain was born on 11-02-1919 in Weesperkarspel, daughter of Menso Boissevain and Johanna Elizabeth Uijt den Bogaard. Sara married, at the age of 26 years, on 18-10-1945 in Amsterdam Leo Joseph Patrick Sullivan, aged 29 years. The marriage was dissolved in 1950 in Amsterdam. Leo was born on 21-10-1915 in Montreal, son of James Sullivan and Agnes Giblin. Leo died.

112 Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain was born on 28-04-1921 in Weesperkarspel, son of Menso Boissevain and Johanna Elizabeth Uijt den Bogaard. Charles died on 08-02-1994, at the age of 72 years. Charles died. Charles married, at 25, on 22-08-1946 in Sydney (New South Wales) Mary Erica Sagar, aged 27. The marriage was dissolved in 1955. Mary was born on 02-12-1918 in Adelaide (South Australia), daughter of Eric Noel Sagar. Mary died on 03-09-2002 in Cogee (NSW, Australia), at 83.

Child of Charles and Mary :

1121 Jennifer Julia Francis Boissevain, born on 02 Dec 1950 in Sydney, Australia.

1121 Jennifer Julia Francis Boissevain was born on 02 Dec 1950 in Sydney, Australia, daughter of Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain and Mary Erica Sagar. Jennifer :

(1) married Leon Edelman, son of William Elelman. 

(2) married Barry John Mark Lants, born 09 Sep 1951 in Sydney (New South Wales), son of Andy Lants. 

113 Elisabeth Antonia Boissevain was born on 25-05-1928 in Weesperkarspel, daughter of Menso Boissevain and Johanna Elizabeth Uijt den Bogaard. Elisabeth died on 01-10-1994 on Amsterdam, at the age of 66 years (cause: verkeersongeluk). Elisabeth died. Elisabeth married, at the age of 23 years, on 23-08-1951 in Amsterdam Sieger de Lang, aged 36 years. Sieger was born on 05-11-1914 in Amsterdam, son of Sieger de Lang and Jentje Diepeveen. Sieger died on 01-10-1994 in Amsterdam, at the age of 79 years (cause: verkeersongeluk).  

12 Charles Hercules Boissevain was born 18 Oct 1893 in Amsterdam, son of Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain and Maria Barbera Pijnappel. Charles died on 18 Oct 1946 in Colorado Springs (Colorado), at 53. Charles:

(1) married, at age 31, on 29 Dec 1924 in New York Marie Therese Wera (Zwetana) von Hartenau, also 31. The marriage was dissolved in 1927. Zwetana was born on 24 Oct 1893 in Graz (Stiermarken), daughter of Alexander Joseph Prinz von Battenberg, Graf von Hartenau and Johanna Marie Luise Loisinger. Zwetana died 24 Nov 1935. 

(2) married, at age 34 years, on 20 Jun 1928 in Chicago, Ill. Ruth Davis, aged 36. Ruth was born 18 May 1892 in Chicago. Ruth died on 05 Dec 1982 in Colorado Springs, Colo.  at 90. 

Children of Charles and Ruth :

121 Menso Boissevain, born on 13 Sep 1930 in Colorado Springs (Colorado). 

122 Maria Barbera Boissevain, born on 21 Sep 1932 in Colorado Springs (Colorado), daughter of Charles Hercules Boissevain and Ruth Davis. Maria died on 19-08-1993 on Lelystad, at 60. Maria married, at 20 years, on 29 Dec 1952 in Santa Fe (New Mexico) Christopher Grant Champlin La Farge, aged 24 years. The marriage was dissolved 06-1977 in Boston (Massachusetts). Christopher was born on 14 Sep 1928 in New York, son of Christopher Grant Champlin and Louise Ruth Hoar Maria Barbera La Farge. Christopher died on 08 Jan 1994 in Colorado Springs (Colorado), at 65.

13 Robert Lucas (Bob Sr.) Boissevain was born on 27-04-1895 in Amsterdam, son of Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain and Maria Barbera Pijnappel. Robert died 12 Apr 1945 in the Concentration Camp Zwieberge (Halberstadt, Magdeburg), at 49. Robert married, at 25, on 12-04-1921 in Amsterdam Helena Suzanna (Sonia) van Tienhoven, aged 21. Helena was born on 10 Feb 1900 in Amsterdam, daughter of Gijsbert van Tienhoven and Helena Suzanna van Hall. Helena died on 16 Apr 1997 in Bentveld, at 97. Bob and his wife and their entire family received the Yad Vashem award for sheltering four Jews during the Nazi Occupation. Bob died in concentration camp; all four of the Jews in hiding survived the war. 

Children of Robert and Helena : 

1 Robert Lucas (Bob Jr.) Boissevain, born on 20 Jun 1922 in Amsterdam.  2 Maria Barbera Boissevain, born on 01 Nov 1924 in Amsterdam. 3 Helena Suzanna Boissevain, born on 18 Aug 1926 in Amsterdam. 4 Willem Boissevain, born on 24 Oct 1930 in Amsterdam. 5 Hester Boissevain, born on 05 Apr 1934 in Amsterdam. 6 Charles (Leidschendam) Boissevain, born on 05 Apr 1934 (twin of Hester).

131 Robert Lucas (Bob Jr.) Boissevain was born on 20 Jun 1922 in Amsterdam. Bob married, at 41 years, on 28 Aug 1963 in Zandvoort Brigitte Maud Fuchs, aged 30. Brigitte was born on 19 Nov 1932 in Karlsbad, daughter of Richard Johann Rudolf Fuchs and Margaretha Gertrude Lendlmayr von Lendenfeld. 

Children of Bob and Brigitte :

1311 Suzanna Eileen (Sue) Boissevain, born on 18 Apr 1965 in Haarlem. 

1312 Barbera Margaret Boissevain, born 28 Mar 1967 in Haarlem.

1311 Suzanna Eileen (Sue) Boissevain was born on 18-04-1965 in Haarlem, daughter of Robert Lucas (Bob) Boissevain and Brigitte Maud Fuchs. Sue married, at 30, on 27 Apr 1995 in Heemstede Ronald (Ron) Post, aged 37. Ron was born 01 Oct 1957 in Hamilton (New Zealand), son of J.J. Post and C.J. de Weeze. 

1312 Barbera Margaret Boissevain was born on 28 Mar 1967 in Haarlem, daughter of Robert Lucas (Bob) Boissevain and Brigitte Maud Fuchs. Barbera married, at the age of 33 , on 24 Jun 2000 in Heemstede Bernardus P.J.M. (Ben) Herpen. 

Children of Barbera and Ben :

1311 Lucas Johannes Boissevain, born on 18-11-1996 in Leidschendam. 

1312 Laurens Benjamin Boissevain, born on 21-07-1998 in Leidschendam. 

1313 Philippe Ronald Peter Boissevain, born on 18-10-2000 in Leidschendam.

132 Maria Barbera Boissevain was born on 01-11-1924 in Amsterdam, daughter of Robert Lucas Boissevain and Helena Suzanna van Tienhoven. Maria died. Maria died. Maria married, at the age of 38 years, on 06-06-1963 in Oegstgeest Meinardus Woldringh, aged 48 years. Meinardus was born on 16-03-1915 in Groningen, son of Sebo Albertus Woldringh and Swaantina Gesina Alberdina Potjer. Meinardus died on 09-10-1968 on Breda, at the age of 53 years. Meinardus died. 

133 Willem Boissevain was born on 24-10-1930 in Amsterdam, son of 13 Robert Lucas Boissevain and Helena Suzanna van Tienhoven. Willem married, at 25, on 15 Sep 1956 in Amsterdam Clari de Wit, aged 25. Clari was born on 28 Oct 1930 in Utrecht, daughter of Abram de Wit and Clara Alida Jacoba Dike. 

Children of Willem and Clari :1331 Saskia Boissevain, born on 22-01-1958 in Amsterdam. 1332 Robert Diederik Boissevain, born on 21-08-1959 in Amsterdam. 1333 Claartje Henriëtte Boissevain, born on 11-07-1961 in Amsterdam. 1334 Valentijn Boissevain, born on 24-03-1965 in Velp.

1331 Saskia Boissevain was born on 22-01-1958 in Amsterdam, daughter of Willem Boissevain and Clari de Wit. Saskia married, at the age of 48 years, on 06-02-2006 in Amsterdam Peter Johan Schenk. 

Children of Saskia and Peter :

13311 Jort Lucas Schenk, born on 24-12-1992 in Amsterdam. 

13312 Myrd Merlijn Schenk, born on 08-07-1995 in Amsterdam.

1332 Claartje Henriëtte Boissevain was born on 11-07-1961 in Amsterdam, daughter of Willem Boissevain and Clari de Wit. Claartje married, at the age of 46 years, on 08-09-2007 in Beek-Ubbergen Jan Steehouder, aged 46 years. Jan was born on 13-12-1960 in Heteren, son of Henk Steehouder and Meyer Riet. 

Child of Claartje and Jan :

13321 Anneclaar Boissevain, born on 29-01-2004 in Berg en Dal.

1333 Valentijn Boissevain was born on 24-03-1965 in Velp, son of Willem Boissevain and Clari de Wit. Valentijn married, at the age of 32 years, on 16-02-1998 in Doesburg Esther Maria Cornelia (Isaney) van Hall, aged 29. The marriage was dissolved on 16 Jun 2003. Isaney was born on 04 Oct 1968 in Veldhoven. 

Child of Valentijn and Isaney :

13331 Céline-Aleï Clarice Boissevain, born 30 Jun 2000 in Spankeren.

135 Hester Boissevain was born on 05 Apr 1934 in Amsterdam. Hester married, at 30, 20 Nov 1964 in Amsterdam Edy Grinberg, aged 27. Edy was born 12 April 1937 in Istanbul (Turkije), son of Levi Grinberg and Mina Marcus. 

136 Charles Leidschendam Boissevain was born on 05 Apr 1934, married, at the age of 33 years, on 09-Mar 1968 in Delft Louise Henriëtte Westermann, aged 29. Louise was born on 29 Dec 1938 in Hilversum, daughter of Arthur Jan Marius Westermann and Eleonora Louise Knipscheer. 

Children of Charles and Louise :

1361 Iaera Elisabeth Boissevain, born on 13-01-1970 in ´s-Gravenhage. 

1362 Iolente Wendelijne Boissevain, born on 29-05-1972 in ´s-Gravenhage. Iolente died on 16-10-1992 on Amsterdam, at the age of 20 years (cause: verkeersongeluk).

1363 Aviva Héloïse Boissevain, born on 17 Apr 1973 in´s-Gravenhage.

14 Helena Catharina Justina (Heentie) Boissevain was born on 10-11-1897 in Amsterdam, daughter of Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain and Maria Barbera Pijnappel. Heentie died on 08-11-1993 on Velp, at the age of 95 years. Heentie died. Heentie married, at the age of 31 years, on 08-08-1929 in Amsterdam Dirk Cornelis Mesman, aged 28 years. Dirk was born on 11-05-1901 in Amsterdam, son of Dirk Mesman and Betje Petronella Hansen. Dirk died on 08-08-1984 on Doorn, at the age of 83 years. 

15 Maria Cornelia (Mary) Boissevain was born on 07-05-1899 in Amsterdam, daughter of Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain and Maria Barbera Pijnappel. Mary died on 12-12-1995, at the age of 96 years. Mary died. Mary married Jan Hendrik de Jong. Jan was born on 28-09-1895 in Batavia, son of Jan Evert de Jong and Margaretha van Ysendoorn. Jan died on 06-05-1946 on Hilversum, at the age of 50 years. 

16 Laurens Rijnhart Boissevain was born on 13-06-1901 in Amsterdam, son of Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain and Maria Barbera Pijnappel. Laurens died on 30-10-1986 on Monte Carlo, at the age of 85 years. Laurens died. Laurens married, at the age of 34 years, on 07-10-1935 in Belgrado Vera Neveroff, aged 34 years. Vera was born on 25-10-1900 in Kursk (Russia ), daughter of Alexander Neveroff and Zoya de la Tour. Vera died.

Children of Laurens and Vera :

161 Vera Alexandra Boissevain, born on 12 iov 1936 in Amsterdam. 

162 Marina Catherina Boissevain, born on 19-09-1939 in Beauvallon (Var).

163 Kyra Irina Boissevain, born on 06-12-1943 in Monte Carlo.

161 Vera Alexandra Boissevain was born on 12-11-1936 in Amsterdam, daughter of Laurens Rijnhart Boissevain and Vera Neveroff. Vera died on 06-10-1994 on Stocksfield (Northumberland,U.K.), at the age of 57 years. Vera married, at age 27, on 18-01-1964 in Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne) Peter Michael Evans Lombe, aged 30 years. Peter was born on 05-06-1933 in Bangalore (India), son of John Michael Lombe and Patricia Routledge Gibson. 

162 Marina Catherina Boissevain was born on 19-09-1939 in Beauvallon (Var), daughter of Laurens Rijnhart Boissevain and Vera Neveroff. Marina married, at the age of 19 years, on 25-08-1959 in Vence (Alpes-Maritimes) Guy Marie Joseph Sauvage de Brantes, aged 21 years. Guy was born on 25-09-1937 in Authon (Loir-et-Cher), son of Francois Sauvage de Brantes and Anne-Aymone Faucigny-Lucinge. 

163 Kyra Irina Boissevain was born on 06-12-1943 in Monte Carlo, daughter of Laurens Rijnhart Boissevain and Vera Neveroff. Kyra married, at the age of 19 years, on 03-08-1963 in Monte Carlo Robert Henry Dickinson, aged 29 years. Robert was born on 12-05-1934 in Corbridge (Northumberland), son of Robert Joicey Dickinson and Alice Penelope Barnett. 

17 Emily Héloise Boissevain was born on 21-03-1903 in Amsterdam, daughter of Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain and Maria Barbera Pijnappel. Emily died on 29-01-1968 on Stroud (Gloucestershire), at the age of 64 years. Emily married, at the age of 23 years, on 24-06-1926 in Blaricum Carl Erik Holbek, aged 24 years. Carl was born on 30-06-1901 in Skodsborg (Sjalland, Denemarken), son of Carl Andreas Jesper Holbek and Marie Dorph. Carl died on 06-05-1968 on Snekkrsten (Sjælland, Denemarken), at the age of 66 years. 

18 Catharine Josephine (Teau) Boissevain was born on 01-11-1905 in Amsterdam, daughter of Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain and Maria Barbera Pijnappel. Teau died on 21-10-2002 on Putten, at the age of 96 years. Teau married, at the age of 23 years, on 23-05-1929 in Blaricum Carl Huisken, aged 26 years. Carl was born on 30-07-1902 in Amsterdam, son of Albert Gerard Huisken and Emmy Schöffer. Carl died on 25-06-1987 on Putten, at the age of 84 years. 

19 Elisabeth Antonia Boissevain was born on 07-04-1907 in Amsterdam, daughter of Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain and Maria Barbera Pijnappel. Elisabeth died on 03-07-2000 on Bayview (NSW, Australië), at the age of 93 years. Elisabeth married, at the age of 31 years, on 08-09-1938 in Amsterdam Elias Liko Krejcik, aged 41 years. Elias was born on 28-01-1897 in St. Petersburg, son of Rosa Ida Krejcik. Elias died on 11-11-1981 on Bayview (New South Wales), at the age of 84 years. Elias died. 

1A Dieuke Machteld Hilda Boissevain was born on 05-12-1910 in Amsterdam, daughter of Charles Ernest Henri Boissevain and Maria Barbera Pijnappel. Dieuke died on 01-04-1987 on Bussum, at the age of 76 years. Dieuke died. Dieuke married Carel Marie Nienhuys. Carel was born on 22-09-1909 in Amsterdam, son of Jan Willem Nienhuys and Alida Maria Versteegh. Carel died on 05-11-2003 on Bussum, at the age of 94 years. Carel died. 

132 Maria Boissevain was born on 27-10-1869 in Amsterdam, daughter of Charles Boissevain and Emily Héloïse MacDonnell. Maria died on 20-07-1959 on Naarden, at the age of 89 years. Maria married, at the age of 18 years, on 20-09-1888 in Amsterdam Cornelis van Eeghen, aged 26 years. The marriage was dissolved on 23-06-1921 in Amsterdam. Cornelis was born on 06-11-1861 in Amsterdam, son of Hendrik van Eeghen and Catharina Susanna Bierman. Cornelis died on 03-09-1940 on Amsterdam, at the age of 78 years. 

3 Alfred Gideon Boissevain was born on 28-12-1870 in Amsterdam, son of Charles Boissevain and Emily Héloïse MacDonnell. Alfred died on 31-01-1922 on Amsterdam, at the age of 51 years. Alfred married Maria Anna Hooglandt. She´s a daughter of Jan Daniel Hooglandt and Catherina Elisabeth Heemskerk. Maria died. 

Children of Alfred and Maria :1 Catherina Elisabeth (Cabeth) Boissevain, born on 05-09-1899 in Amsterdam Follow 31. 2 Olga Emily Boissevain, born on 03-01-1902 in Amsterdam Follow 32. 3 Robert Walrave Boissevain, born on 05-09-1903 in Amsterdam Follow 33. 4 Herman Boissevain, born on 15-09-1909 in Amsterdam. Herman died. 5 Ralph Louis Boissevain, born on 20-08-1912 in Amsterdam Follow 34.

131 Catherina Elisabeth (Cabeth) Boissevain was born on 05-09-1899 in Amsterdam, daughter of Alfred Gideon Boissevain and Maria Anna Hooglandt. Cabeth died on 25-04-2001 on Den Dolder, at the age of 101 years. Cabeth died. Cabeth married, at 26 years, on 16-03-1926 in Amsterdam Johannes Jacobus van der Wouw, aged 26 years. Johannes was born on 15-12-1899 in Pretoria, South Africa. Johannes died on 03-08-1980 on Den Dolder, at the age of 80. 

132 Olga Emily Boissevain was born on 03-01-1902 in Amsterdam, daughter of Alfred Gideon Boissevain and Maria Anna Hooglandt. Olga died on 16-08-1993 in Amsterdam, at the age of 91 years. Olga died. Olga married, at the age of 25 years, on 17-11-1927 in Soerabaja Herman Josua van Lennep, aged 28 years. Herman was born on 22-09-1899 in Amsterdam. Herman died on 12-06-1979 on Amsterdam, at the age of 79 years. 

133 Robert Walrave Boissevain was born 05-09-1903 in Amsterdam, son of Alfred Gideon Boissevain and Maria Anna Hooglandt. Robert died on 01-02-1987 on Naarden, at the age of 83 years. Robert died. Robert married, at the age of 40 years, on 14-06-1944 in Voorburg Louise Maria Spierenburg, aged 31 years. Louise was born on 14-03-1913 in Rotterdam. Louise died on 21-02-2004 on Bilthoven, at the age of 90 years. Louise died. 

Children of Robert and Louise :1 Maria Anna Boissevain, born on 30-07-1946 in ´s-Gravenhage. 2 Ralphine Louise Boissevain, born on 14-03-1948 in ´s-Gravenhage.

135 Ralph Louis Boissevain was born 20-08-1912 in Amsterdam, son of Alfred Gideon Boissevain and Maria Anna Hooglandt. Ralph died 23-02-1972 on Quailcum Beach (British Columbia), at 59. Ralph married, at the age of 39 years, on 02-11-1951 in Paramaribo Martha Kruisinga. Martha died. 

34 Robert Walrave Boissevain was born on 12-03-1872 in Amsterdam, son of Charles Boissevain and Emily Héloïse MacDonnell. Robert died on 23-04-1938 in Montreal (Quebec), at the age of 66. Robert :

(1) married, at 28 years, on 25-09-1900 in West Brompton (London) Ethel Rose (Rosie) Phibbs, aged 25 years. The marriage was dissolved 03-1919 in Amsterdam. Rosie was born 25-08-1875 in Bombay, daughter of William Phibbs and Rose Blanche de Moleyns. Rosie died on 25-12-1937 in Hilversum, at 62. 

(2) married, at 47 years, on 27-05-1919 in Brooklyn (New York) Anne Willemina Deterling, aged 24 years. Anne was born on 21-03-1895 in Brooklyn (New York), daughter of Charles Deterling and Katherine Margaret White. Anne died.

Children of Robert and Rosie: 

1 Theodora Jacoba Boissevain, born on 14-08-1901 in Batavia (West-Java) Follow 1341.

2 Cornelis Alfred Boissevain, born on 28-12-1902 in Semarang Follow 1342. 3 Frederick William Boissevain, born on 13-09-1904 in Batavia Follow 1343. 4 Hester Boissevain, born on 23-10-1905 in Naarden Follow 1344. 

5 Adrienne Boissevain, born on 27-04-1908 in Amsterdam Follow 1345.  

6 Kathleen Boissevain, born on 27-09-1909 in Blaricum. Kathleen died on 26-08-1930 on Singapore, at the age of 20 years.

Children of Robert and Anne:

7 Robert Fergus Boissevain, born on 27-11-1920 in Paris Follow 1346.  

8 Alfred Gideon Jérémie Boissevain, born on 07-02-1923 in New York Follow 1347.

41 Theodora Jacoba Boissevain was born on 14-08-1901 in Batavia (West-Java), daughter of Robert Walrave Boissevain and Ethel Rose Phibbs. Theodora died on 31-01-1958 on Amsterdam, at the age of 56 years. Theodora died. Theodora married, at the age of 20 years, on 31-08-1921 in Les Diablerets (Vaud) Willem Frederik Sillem, aged 26 years. Willem was born on 08-05-1895 in Amsterdam. Willem died on 03-04-1960 in Amsterdam, at 64. 

42 Cornelis Alfred Boissevain was born on 28-12-1902 in Semarang, son of Robert Walrave Boissevain and Ethel Rose Phibbs. Cornelis died on 24-05-1963 on Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), at the age of 60 years. Cornelis died. Cornelis married, at the age of 24 years, on 15-10-1927 in Bryn Athyn (Pennsylvania) Mildred Sophie Goerwitz, aged 25 years. Mildred was born on 27-03-1902 in Glenview (Illinois). Mildred died 12-1988 on Bryn Athun (Pennsylvania), at the age of 86 years. 

Children of Cornelis and Mildred :1 Jeremy Fergus Boissevain, born on 05-08-1928 in Londen Follow 421. 2 Thomas Alfred Boissevain, born on 22-12-1929 in Londen Skip to 422. 3 André Robert Boissevain, born on 11-11-1932 in Welwyn (Hertfordshire) Skip to 423.

421 Jeremy Fergus Boissevain was born on 05-08-1928 in Londen, son of Cornelis Alfred Boissevain and Mildred Sophie Goerwitz. Jeremy married, at the age of 23 years, on 29-03-1952 in Bryn Athyn (Pennsylvania) Inga Britt Otterstrand. 

Children of Jeremy and Inga :

1 Ieneke Boissevain, born on 24-11-1954 in Tokyo Follow 4211. 

2 Liet Boissevain, born on 01-02-1957 in Malta Follow 4212. 

3 Maria Boissevain, born on 28-05-1961 in Malta Follow 4213. 

4 Anna Boissevain, born on 22-05-1965 in Montreal (Quebec) Follow 4214.

4211 Ieneke Boissevain was born on 24-11-1954 in Tokyo, daughter of Jeremy Fergus Boissevain and Inga Britt Otterstrand. Ieneke :

(1) married Peter Swaffer. 

(2) married, at the age of 25 years, on 12-01-1980 in Brighton (Sussex) Nicholas Rayburn. The marriage was dissolved in 1983. 

4212 Liet Boissevain was born on 01-02-1957 in Malta, daughter of Jeremy Fergus Boissevain and Inga Britt Otterstrand. Liet married, at the age of 32 years, on 29-09-1989 in Malta Malta Natalino Bonello. 

4213 Maria Boissevain was born on 28-05-1961 in Malta, daughter of Jeremy Fergus Boissevain and Inga Britt Otterstrand. Maria married Frank van Beek. 

4214 Anna Boissevain was born on 22-05-1965 in Montreal (Quebec), daughter of Jeremy Fergus Boissevain and Inga Britt Otterstrand. Anna married Hans Willem van der Neut. 

422 Thomas Alfred Boissevain was born on 22-12-1929 in Londen, son of Cornelis Alfred Boissevain and Mildred Sophie Goerwitz. Thomas died on 08-04-2003 on Vero Beach Florida (USA), at the age of 73 years. Thomas married, at the age of 27 years, on 20-04-1957 in Bryn Athyn (Pennsylvania) Helen Bratton Lightfoot, aged 25. Helen was born on 08-07-1931 in Cheltenham (Pennsylvania). 

Children of Thomas and Helen :

1 Susanne Pamela Boissevain, born on 23-10-1958 in Poughkeepsie (New York) Follow 1.1.1.1.3.1.3.4.2.2.1. 

2 David Clark Boissevain, born on 21-05-1960 in Concord (Massachusetts) Follow 1.1.1.1.3.1.3.4.2.2.2.

1.1.1.1.3.1.3.4.2.2.1 Susanne Pamela Boissevain was born on 23-10-1958 in Poughkeepsie (New York), daughter of Thomas Alfred Boissevain and Helen Bratton Lightfoot. Susanne married Elliott Rothchild. Elliott was born on 11-05-1957 in New Haven (Connecticut). 

1.1.1.1.3.1.3.4.2.2.2 David Clark Boissevain was born on 21-05-1960 in Concord (Massachusetts), son of Thomas Alfred Boissevain and Helen Bratton Lightfoot. David married, at the age of 29 years, on 14-10-1989 in Ridgefield (Connecticut) Kathleen Sinnott. 

Child of David and Kathleen :

1 Clark Anthony Boissevain, born on 28-02-1991.

1.1.1.1.3.1.3.4.2.3 André Robert Boissevain was born on 11-11-1932 in Welwyn (Hert-fordshire), son of Cornelis Alfred Boissevain and Mildred Sophie Goerwitz. André :

(1) married Judith Richelieu. 

(2) married, at the age of 26 years, on 07-12-1958 in South Hero (Vermont) Alice Harvey, aged 26 years. Alice was born on 28-10-1932 in St. AJbans (Vermont). Alice died. Alice died. 

Children of André and Alice :

1 Andrea Lee Boissevain, born on 10-08-1960 in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Follow 4.2.3.1. 

2 Dana Gideon Boissevain, born on 07-01-1961 in Upper Darby (Pennsylvania) Follow 4.2.3.2. 

3 Mark Boissevain, born on 19-12-1964 in New Haven (Connecticut). 

4 Maria Boissevain, born on 21-02-1968. Maria died on 21-02-1968.

4.2.3.1 Andrea Lee Boissevain was born on 10-08-1960 in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), daughter of André Robert Boissevain and Alice Harvey. Andrea married, at the age of 24 years, on 25-08-1984 in Poughkeepsie (New York) Samuel Mickle Fox IV, aged 28 years. Samuel was born on 09-09-1955 in Cairo (Egypte). 

2.3.2 Dana Gideon Boissevain was born on 07-01-1961 in Upper Darby (Pennsylvania), son of André Robert Boissevain and Alice Harvey. Dana married, at the age of 2 months, on 14-03-1961 in Nani Newton Delia Bunch. 

Child of Dana and Delia :

1 Eric Michael Boissevain, born on 18-07-1991.

Child of Dana from an unknown relation :

1 Brandy Lee Boissevain, born on 10-07-1986.

4.3 Frederick William Boissevain was born on 13-09-1904 in Batavia, son of Robert Walrave Boissevain and Ethel Rose Phibbs. Frederick died on 23-06-1943 on Canada, at the age of 38 years (cause: Ongeval tijdens legeroefening). Frederick died. Frederick married Marion Bishop. Marion was born on 19-03-1908 in Hartford, daughter of Hartley Bishop and Jeanette Reynolds. Marion died. Marion died. 

Children of Frederick and Marion :

1 Kathleen Boissevain, born on 25-11-1937 in Hartford (Connecticut) 

2 Frederic H. Boissevain, born on 29-04-1939 in Hartford.

431 Kathleen Boissevain was born on 25-11-1937 in Hartford (Connecticut), daughter of Frederick William Boissevain and Marion Bishop. Kathleen married William P. Chilton. William was born on 08-09-1939. 

432 Frederic H. Boissevain was born on 29-04-1939 in Hartford, son of Frederick William Boissevain and Marion Bishop. Frederic :

(1) married, at the age of 38 years, in 1977 Danae Voltos, aged 38 years. Danae was born in 1939. 

(2) married, at the age of 50 years, on 17-02-1990 Jane Revere Rotch, aged 30 years. Jane was born on 31-10-1959. 

Child of Frederic and Danae :

1 Elizabeth Danae Boissevain, born on 03-07-1978.

Child of Frederic and Jane :

1 Jeremy Revere Boissevain, born on 13-08-1993.

44 Hester Boissevain was born on 23-10-1905 in Naarden, daughter of Robert Walrave Boissevain and Ethel Rose Phibbs. Hester died on 18-02-1999 on Zoetermeer, at the age of 93 years. Hester died. Hester married, at the age of 23 years, on 02-01-1929 in Hilversum Gilles André de la Porte, aged 27 years. The marriage was dissolved on 11-04-1938 in Hilversum. Gilles was born on 04-11-1901 in Amsterdam, son of Josef de la Porte and Anna Maria Sophia Luise Lang. Gilles died on 21-12-1968 on Leiden, at the age of 67 years. Gilles died. 

45 Adrienne Boissevain was born on 27-04-1908 in Amsterdam, daughter of Robert Walrave Boissevain and Ethel Rose Phibbs. Adrienne died on 23-02-1988 on Amsterdam, at the age of 79 years. Adrienne died. Adrienne married, at the age of 23 years, on 14-01-1932 in Hilversum Christiaan Knapper, aged 33 years. Christiaan was born on 17-04-1898 in Amsterdam, daughter of Nicolaas Knapper and Cornelia Elisabeth Schaap. Christiaan died on 09 Nov 1950 on Djakarta, at the age of 52 years. Christiaan died. 

46 Robert Fergus Boissevain was born on 27-11-1920 in Parijs, son of Robert Walrave Boissevain and Anne Willemina Deterling. Robert married, at 28, on 25-06-1949 in Brooklyn (New York) Eleanor E. O´Brien, who was born on 10-10 (year unknown), daughter of John J. O´Brien and Mary E. Walsh. Eleanor died on 08 Jul 1996. Robert died on 05 May 1997 in Florida, at 76.

Children of Robert and Eleanor :

1 Robert Eugen Boissevain, born on 18-01-1953 in (Long Island, New York) Follow 4.6.1. 

2 Patricia Maureen Boissevain, born on 13-05-1954 in (Long Island, New York). 

3 Anne Marie Boissevain, born on 13-07-1961 in (Long Island).

461 Robert Eugen Boissevain was born on 18-01-1953 in (Long Island, New York), son of Robert Fergus Boissevain and Eleanor E. O´Brien. Robert married, at the age of 29 years, on 18-04-1982 in Californië Lori Peterson. 

Child of Robert and Lori :

1 Lauren Nicole Boissevain, born on 29-07-1984.

47 Alfred Gideon Jérémie Boissevain was born on 07-02-1923 in New York, son of Robert Walrave Boissevain and Anne Willemina Deterling. Alfred died. Alfred died. Alfred married Hedvig Christine Hogg. Hedvig was born on 01-08-1924 in St. Catherines (Ontario), daughter of Robert Hogg and Martha Christina Gjersvik. Al and Hedvig ran a vineyard together. Hedvig died on 03-09-1998 on Californië (USA), at the age of 74. Al moved to Bloomington, Ind., to be near his daughter Claire.

Children of Alfred and Hedvig :

1 Claire Boissevain, born on 20-01-1952 in Redwood City (Calif.) 

2 Paul Robert Boissevain, born on 02-06-1954 in Redwood City

3 Charles Alfred Boissevain, born on 02-12-1959 in Redwood City.

471 Claire Boissevain was born on 20-01-1952 in Redwood City (Californië), daughter of Alfred Gideon Jérémie Boissevain and Hedvig Christine Hogg. Claire :

(1) married, at the age of 28 years, on 25-05-1980 George Makowski. The marriage was dissolved 01-1988. 

(2) married, at 36, on 21-06-1988 in Bloomington (Indiana) Philip A. Crooke. She continues to live there.

472 Paul Robert Boissevain was born on 02-06-1954 in Redwood City, son of Alfred Gideon Jérémie Boissevain and Hedvig Christine Hogg. Paul married, at the age of 26 years, on 08-06-1980 in Portola Valley, Calif. Laura de Ghetaldi, aged 26 years. Laura was born on 17-06-1953 in San Francisco, Calif., daughter of Guido Oscar de Ghetaldi and Evelyn Lenore Gardner. 

Children of Paul and Laura :

1 Joshua Blake Boissevain, born on 06-01-1983 in Denver (Colorado). 

2 Brett Lawrence Boissevain, born on 13-01-1986 in Denver.

5 Hester Boissevain was born on 16-08-1873 in Driebergen, daughter of Charles Boissevain and Emily Héloïse MacDonnell. Hester died on 03-10-1969 on Hattem, at the age of 96 years. Hester married, at the age of 21 years, on 07-03-1895 in Amsterdam Jan van Hall, aged 28 years. Jan was born on 10-11-1866 in Amsterdam, son of Maurits Cornelis van Hall and Debora Cremer Eindhoven. Jan died on 08-02-1940 in Zwolle, at 73. 

6 Olga Emily Boissevain was born on 27-10-1875 in Amsterdam, daughter of Charles Boissevain and Emily Héloïse MacDonnell. Olga died on 01-06-1949 in Montreal (Quebec), at 73. Olga married, at 30, on 28-08-1906 in Naarden Abraham Johannes van Stockum, aged 42. Abraham was born on 03-07-1864 in Lisse, son of Johannes van Stockum and Sophia Clara Emelia Lastdrager. Abraham died on 29-12-1935 in ´s-Gravenhage, at 71. 

Children of Olga and Abraham: 1 Jan van Stockum. Jan died 1948.2 Hilda van Stockum, born on 09-02-1908 in Rotterdam. 3 Willem van Stockum, born in 1911. Willem died on June 10, 1944 in Laval, France, at 33.

61 Hilda van Stockum was born on 09-02-1908 in Rotterdam, daughter of Abraham Johannes van Stockum and Olga Emily Boissevain. Hilda died on 01-11-2006 in Berkhamsted, at 98. Hilda married, at 24, on 27-06-1932 in Dublin, Ireland, E. R. (Spike) Marlin, aged 23. Spike was born in New York, N.Y. in 1909. Spike died in 1994, at 85.

Children of Hilda and Spike:1 Olga Emily Marlin. Born 1934 in New York, N.Y.2 Brigid Nella Marlin. Born 1936 in Washington, D.C.3 Randal Marlin. Born 1938 in Washington, D.C.4 Sheila Ruth Marlin. Born 1940 in Washington, D.C.5 John Tepper Marlin. Born March 1, 1942 in Washington, D.C.6 Elisabeth Willemien Marlin. Born April 23, 1945 in Washington, D.C.

7 Hilda Gerarda Boissevain was born on 12-07-1877 in Amsterdam, daughter of Charles Boissevain and Emily Héloïse MacDonnell. Hilda died on 15-04-1975 on Amsterdam, at the age of 97 years. Hilda married, at the age of 19 years, on 16-06-1897 in Naarden Hendrik (“Han”) de Booij, aged 29. Hendrik was born on 23-06-1867 in Haarlem, son of Chrétien Jean Gerard de Booij and Adriane Johanna de Mol van Otterloo. Han died on 07-09-1964 in Amsterdam, at 97. 

8 Eugen Jan Boissevain was born on 20-05-1880 in Amsterdam, son of Charles Boissevain and Emily Héloïse MacDonnell. Eugen died on 29-08-1949 on Boston (Massachusetts), at the age of 69 years. Eugen :

(1) married, at the age of 33 years, on 14-07-1913 in London Inez Milholland, aged 26 years. Inez was born on 06-08-1886 in New York, daughter of John W. Milholland and Jean Torrey. Inez died on 25-11-1916 on Los Angeles (Californië), at 30. 

(2) married, at the age of 43, 07-1923 in New York Edna St. Vincent Millay, aged 31. Edna was born on 22-02-1892 in Rockland (Maine), daughter of Henry Tolman St. Millay and Cora Buzzell. Edna died on 19-10-1950 in Austerlitz (New York), at the age of 58. 

9 Petronella Johanna (“Nella”) Boissevain was born on 24-12-1881 in Amsterdam, daughter of Charles Boissevain and Emily Héloïse MacDonnell. Petronella died on 03-12-1956 on Leeuwarden, at the age of 74 years. Petronella married, at 33 years, on 20-05-1915 in Soerabaja (Oost-Java) Eduard Theodoor Hissink, aged 32 years. Eduard was born on 20-04-1883 in Grave, son of Evert Teunis Hissink and Willemine Hendrika Hess. Eduard died on 28-02-1959 on Leeuwarden, at the age of 75 years. 

A Jan Maurits Boissevain was born the 10th child on 05-02-1883 in Amsterdam, son of Charles Boissevain and Emily Héloïse MacDonnell. Jan died on 08-11-1964 on Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes), at the age of 81. Jan married Charlotta Ives. Charlotta was born on 27-11-1897 in Boston (Massachusetts), daughter of Charles Ives and Lake White. Charlotta died in the Cap d'Antibes. I met her in 1964.

B Catharina Josephina (“Teau”) Boissevain was born the 11th child on 23-01-1885 in Amsterdam, youngest child of Charles Boissevain and Emily Héloïse MacDonnell. Catharina died on 01-09-1922 on Amsterdam, at only 37 years of age. Catharina married, at 22, on 27-06-1907 in Naarden Lieven Ferdinand de Beaufort, aged 28. Lieven was born 23-03-1879 in Leusden, son of Willem Hendrik de Beaufort and Adèle Maria van Eeghen. Lieven died on 11-05-1968 in Amersfoort, at 89. 

Notes

1. This is what genealogists call a Family Group, one of the two main organizational devices, the other being the Pedigree. (The Pedigree starts with a person today and works backward through parents and grandparents.) 

2. I have attempted to pursue accepted genealogical notation and principles, updated to minimize Roman numerals, which are impossible (or at best inconvenient and difficult) to sort. 
3. Numbering System. The late Matthijs (Thijs) Boissevain after the Boissevain family reunion a quarter-century ago in Boissevain, Manitoba, Canada. He used the Henry Numbering System for keeping track of individuals in Family Groups. I have modified the Henry system slightly so that it is both simple and sortable, using 1-9 for the first nine children and then using the alphabet for the next 26 children. This eliminates the need for periods between numbers at least for families with no more than 35 children in a single generation, which in a monogamous family is a fair bet.

4. Modifications. I have also modified the list prepared in favor of making the numbering system sortable by computer. I have also (a) updated Thijs's list where I have better or newer information, (b)  trimmed some duplicative words,

5. Dates. I have used European format for dates, i.e., dd-mmm (three-character, no period)-yyyy, following genealogical convention. 

6. Order of Surnames. I have also placed maiden names before married names as in Anglo-Saxon (as opposed to Dutch and Spanish) tradition.

7. Non-Patriarchal. I have included both men and women in the numbering system.numbering.

8. Dropped Prefixes. After six generations  I have dropped the prefix 1111316 identifying Charles, for simplicity.
9. Weighted to More Ancient Ancestors. Since the older generations are the most valued, with more descendants, I have made taken most pains to be inclusive about sources for these individuals. I have tried to be brief about living people, who can speak for themselves.

10. Comments. Please send comments, corrections, additions to me at john@boissevainbooks.com or comment on this post!

This blog is sponsored by Boissevain Books, which publishes books by Hilda van Stockum. To buy a book, go to www.boissevainbooks.com.

HvS BIO | Family, Work and Spiritual Journey - Updated May 30, 2017

Hilda van Stockum - Family and Work (Unfinished Autobiography)

Chapter 1. My Mother and Her Family.1

Charles and Emily Boissevain, My Mother’s Parents. 2

Olga Boissevain, My Mother. 3

Chapter 2. Bram van Stockum, My Father, and World War I 4

My Father’s Naval Career. 7

World War I 8

Chapter 3. My Mother, 1912

Mother Leaves for Switzerland 1912. 10

The Great War. 11

My Father’s Teaching. 11

Blockade, 1916. 12

Finding Religion in Hans Christian Andersen. 13

Aunt Teau. 14

Chapter 4. My Father in the USA

My Father in USA.. 15

My Emergence as an Artist. 16

Father Returns from USA.. 16

Chapter 5. Art School in Amsterdam

Chapter 6. Art School in Dublin.

Chapter 7. Marriage.

Chapter 8. My Conversion

© 2014 by Boissevain Books LLC, NYC 

Chapter 1. My Mother

This chapter is now a separate file.

Gathering of the Boissevain Family in 1920-21, at Drafna, east of Amsterdam in Naarden-Bussum. The seated gentleman with the white hair is Charles, with his wife Emily MacDonnell next to him.

Chapter 2. Bram van Stockum, My Father, and World War I 

My father was an entirely different personality. He was one of nine children - there were two brothers and two sisters older than him and a brother and three sisters younger. His father and mother belonged to the same stiff, Dutch Protestantism that had failed to impress my mother. It failed to impress my father too. My van Stockum Grandmother got a note from the Dominee saying:

"Your sons are very well behaved and good boys - but I would prefer it if you didn't send them to Sunday school any more as they ask too many questions."

My father, of course, was a terror. His stories about his youth were an unfailing source of entertainment to his children. There was the time when he lived in Lisse, in South Holland, and he designed a sailing wagon out of a sister’s outgrown buggy and sailed along the streets of Lisse with it at terrifying speed. This was before the advent motorcars and the farmers complained that their horses bolted at the sight. So the burgomaster of Lisse decreed that the wagon might only be sailed in the fields.

Then there was the terrifying day when his little sister Pierre stood on the wagon alone and a gust of wind bore her off at great speed towards the canal. My father told me he never ran so fast in his life and managed to catch the wagon before it toppled into the canal with its precious load.

His father was notary of Lisse and a rather stiff, dry man, not given to affectionate gestures. He and my father didn't get on at all - though my father once did say to his mother: "Please tell Papa not to beat me, it hurts him more than it does me," which was in his case literally true.

Another of my father’s exploits was to climb the church tower of Lisse and he said that the thing that amused him most about it was the commotion it made in the village - and how he saw two older women holding up their aprons to catch him if he fell. He used to make slingshots and many shop windows fell victim to his pebbles. Soon - whenever anything got broken, Bram van Stockum got the blame. Once a month his mother got the bill and she'd call Bram.

"Look over this, dear - and see if it’s correct."

Bram would go over it.

"Yes - the butcher’s window - I did that on Friday - and the Shoemaker’s window on Wednesday - and Miss Willem's in the same day but I never did the baker's window - that's a lie - who dares say I did the baker's window?"

So my grandmother would not pay for the baker’s window - as my father was the soul of honesty.

He also was a terrific fighter. His older sister Dina would have to carry his satchel home from school so he would have his hands free. And once he built a house in one of his father's favorite trees, which was hidden until the leaves fell in the autumn - and an outraged parent gave him a thrashing for it. There are revealing bits about those youthful days - how he used to imagine a statue erected in the village square to his honor - and how his mother had to bribe him to read books.

My father had an extremely affectionate nature but he was not emotional, like my mother. He used to be amused at the adventures she would be able to recount after a short journey and he said of her that of she were locked in solitary confinement for a week she'd still have hair-raising adventures with a rat.

Hilda van Stockum at 25.

My father married late in life - he was passionately fond of his freedom, and reluctant to tie himself down. My mother’s married life with him was extremely odd. My father was a naval officer and an inventor. He married because a depth-regulator for mines which he had designed had become a success and he believed he would be rich. Unfortunately the invention was stolen and he never got a penny for it - though it was used (with minor alterations) and proved very successful. So my father and mother started their married life deeply in debt and my mother naturally wanted to save. She made my father simpler and simpler breakfasts and he never protested. She grew very proud of him until he said to her one day: "Wouldn't it be better, love, if you gave me my breakfast at home. It gets rather expensive going to a hotel all the time!"

My mother had been brought up like a lady. The eleven Boissevain children had not been encouraged to learn the household arts. Those were the days of servants. Most of the girls turned out good housekeepers anyway, out of instinct I suppose, but not mother. It is one of the stories of her early married life that she discovered thick dust on the mantel piece, flicked it with her finger and said pensively to her husband; as if she'd made a terrific discovery: "Wouldn't it be a good idea to wipe that off?"

My father was a connoisseur of food. He knew his wines, for instance. Once his friends wanted to test him, and blindfolded him. He was given many different wines to sip and unfailingly placed them. Finally his friends thought they'd stymie him and mixed two wines together.

"That's odd," said my father. "I can't make out whether it’s this one or that," naming the two wines that had been mixed. His friends gave up after that.

It was rather awkward to have a person of such fine taste in the house. While we'd all be enjoying some store-bought cake, he'd push it away in disgust. "Margarine and saccharine," he'd mutter, outraged. Or: "the eggs weren't fresh."

On the other hand, his enjoyment of good food was a pleasure to behold - every taste was relished. Mother said that though she began by disliking oysters she learned to like them from watching my father eat them. Afterwards I often wondered at the casual way most people treat oysters - making soups and stews of them and acting as if they had no dignity. There was only one way my father would eat them - as they lay cosily in their mother-of-pearl bed, with a sprinkling of lemon juice over them. And opening them was a kind of religious ceremony. It was no wonder that my mother in the early days was swayed by his preferences and ordered caviar and oysters almost every day, until a relative told her that was not the way to save.

For an emotional lady like my mother, my father was not a wholly satisfactory husband. For one thing, his hours were not normal. His brain only became active after 4 pm and then he would work through the night. Going to bed around the time my mother got up he would presently sleep through most of her waking hours. That was, of course, when he wasn't on active duty. He usually had some sort of invention on hand at which he worked furiously, not noticing my mother much. As those were the days before she had children and as they lived in a lonely country place, my mother found it a bit dull. There was the memorable evening when she rebelled. Finding my father absorbed as usual, my mother simmered slowly by the fire until suddenly she kicked up her feet so that one slipper hit the ceiling and the other flew right across the room and she exclaimed passionately.

"I'm going out of this house and I'll run off with the first man I meet."

My father, roused out of his meditations, took in the whole situation at a glance and went into one of his delightful, shoulder shaking laughs - which immediately restored the harmony. (Mother liked nothing so much as having her jokes appreciated.)

In some ways my father never outgrew his childhood. He lived his whole life in near-poverty and always expected to be made a millionaire by each of his inventions. Whatever money he had always went on patents. Once he was complaining that mother hadn't cooked the rice properly - My father had strict views on rice which must have each grain separate and soft, but not moist. My mother said irritably:

"Well, why don't you invent a pan which would make rice the way you want it."

That was enough to start off my father and my mother soon rued her words. My father was up all night in the sitting room and in the morning my mother was greeted by a pitying servant who shook her head and said: "Ah, poor Mr. van Stockum - isn't it sad about him." My mother asked anxiously "Why? What's happened?"

"He must be ill," said the servant. "Look what he did -" and opening the door she revealed the result of my father's nocturnal labor. Several enormous mounds of cooked rice had been carelessly emptied out on the Turkish carpet and various pots and pans of my mother's were lying about with holes punched into them.

The result of these efforts was a very efficient pan which would infallibly make the right kind of rice if you obeyed instructions. It was a kind of steamer and would cook any kind of vegetable in a wholesome way. We used it all our lives and valued it but it wasn't a commercial success as it needed a modicum of intelligence to use it. I still remember an attic full of these pans which were never sold.

Sometimes, when my father had a marvelous idea he would wake my mother up in the middle of the night and take her for a walk on the moors. She was very sleepy at those times and found it difficult to follow his thoughts but her warm heart always responded to his need for companionship.

She often said that she was glad that my father never made a success of his inventions. It was only lack of money that curbed his ambitions and when he regaled us children with stories of what he would do when his millions came in, in a year or so - I could see my mother shudder. It always involved an enormous house full of gadgets and once he even had an idea for a miniature railway in our garden. Once, when I was about ten years old, my mother got a legacy. I had been begging her for a little playhouse as my Grandmother had in the garden for her grandchildren to play with. It was just large enough for two children to sit in - it had a nameplate and a bell and a letterbox on the door and a window with curtains and a little chimney on top - exactly as if it were a big house. My mother wanted to use part of the legacy to give me such a house and my father said he'd design it for me. But alas, it was not his idea to follow the conventional which delights a child. He had an invention of a door which could open on either side (it had no hinges but worked on the principle of a banknote wallet.)

It was a complete success. The door did open on both sides. But who wants a door opening on both sides? It was a great disappointment to me. (There was no letterbox, nameplate or bell either.) It was done on crossed ropes.

My father was an extremely sensitive person. As a small boy it was well known that he could be led by a kind word though he resisted all compulsion. He had a loathing of any kind of harshness. When anybody spoke unkindly to or of a person, my father would get up and leave the room with an expression of real suffering on his face. Though he was an atheist for the greater part of his life he never spoke a profane word or showed any irreverence towards traditionally holy things. He was a tremendous example to us children as he never lost his patience. His only way of protest was to leave the room and meditate in the seclusion of his study. With children he was at his best - he loved them. I remember walking hand in hand with him and hearing Kipling's Just So Stories retold by him. On another occasion he bought me Alice in Wonderland and read it out to me, punctuated with his shoulder-shaking laughter.

Then there was the day when he took me to the Amsterdam Zoo and I lost the paper whistle with the colored streamers he had bought me. Later we found it trampled in the dirt and I got my first lesson in philosophy, in the transitoriness of all worldly glory. I don't remember his arguments at that time but when I was a little older a similar thing happened. My father had bought me a bag of sweets and I lost it on the road. I wept bitterly until my father told me of the little poor boy who was going to come along that road and find that bag of sweets - and the delight it was going to be to him. That dried my tears.

No children were ever too young to talk to, according to my father, and we were treated to the best of his thoughts from the first. My mother says he even talked to me as an infant and I can well believe it. I know I worshiped him and liked nothing so well as to sit on the little saddle he had made for me on the crossbar of his bike - with his arms around me and the whole wide world in front. 

My Father’s Naval Career 

My father's naval career was unusual. Several times he risked his reputation for an idea. At the naval port of "Den Helder" there used to be exercises of the navy - one part of the fleet would be the "enemy" and the other "Dutch". The enemy would have to sneak into the harbor at night without having been spotted by a searchlight. In my father's early days he was appointed captain of such an "enemy" ship. And he didn't like the assignment. The "enemy" never won. It couldn't win.

The searchlight covered all of the navigable space. Father felt it was unfair. He was always ambitious, and he wanted to win. He explored the approaches to the harbor and found a place not covered by the searchlights which was considered too shallow for the kind of ship my father commanded. My father always wanted to find things out for himself and he measured it. According to his calculations he could make it. And so, on the fateful night, he went over this dark stretch of water, his heart in his mouth. If he grounded that ship it would have been the end of his career in the navy. He often told us how he listened with beating heart to the ominously dwindling numbers of the depth meter - until at last - it remained steady - steady - steady and my father’s ship came through. It caused terrific excitement in Den Helder - as it was the first time the "enemy" had won for years. It was on that occasion that my mother first met my father and that he and she quarreled about the number of children they wanted to have. It was ten years later before they finally married.

My father once won a sailing match through similar daring. He took his boat from Den Helder at the Northern Tip of Holland down to Rotterdam harbor in the south, whence he'd reach the lakes where the regatta was held. Unfortunately the wind rose while he was sailing over the North Sea and something went wrong with the rigging so he couldn't take down the sails. They flew like a bird over the storm-tossed sea.

"Can you swim?" asked my father anxiously of the sailor who was with him.

“Like a brick," said the man, meaning it literally. But he had full confidence in my father. My father believes that they made Rotterdam harbor on account of the fact that all sails were up. He said if one of those enormous breakers had overtaken them they'd have been done for - but they went faster. Nobody afterwards would believe that he'd gone into that harbor in that weather. The next day the wind had considerably abated but all the other sailboats had only half sails up. Of course my father saw no need in taking down his sails and so he won the match with ease. (we still have the little silver tea set he got on that occasion).

My father always deplored the advent of steam. His first ship was a clipper and he could tell appetizingly of the activity and skill involved in handling sails and the way you were alive to the weather and became one with your ship.

World War I 

My father wasn't a pacifist but he believed all wars should be fought at sea. He was very much against women and children being involved and he felt land-warfare was unchivalrous and messy. "At sea we do not fight against people." he said. "We save them when we can. We fight ships."

It was the fact that the Germans broke this rule in their naval warfare and refused to save the crews of sinking ships or failed to give sufficient warning, that turned Father against then during the First World War.

They do not understand the laws of the sea-" he said with disgust.

He was commander of the seaport to Amsterdam called Ymuiden in 1914 - and once when a British warship was mined just outside the harbor he had the crew rescued, clothed, fed and dispatched to England before the night was gone. Of course, my mother said, “Holland was neutral. But father was never neutral."

He always maintained that we should have come to the aid of Belgium when it was brutally invaded by the Germans in 1914.

“But think of all the suffering that would have brought on Holland-" protested my mother.

"No matter - when a brother is attacked, you don't stand by and do nothing - you help." said my father. "The same rule goes for nations as for individuals." I often thought of those words when the 1939 war was upon us and he was so plainly proved right.

Once, during the First World War, my father invented a gadget that horrified my mother. It was a kind of automatic torpedo which could be directed infallibly towards an enemy harbor - where it would explode. My mother thought this diabolical and wept and argued until my father tore up this invention. Perhaps if there had been more wives and husbands like that we wouldn't have the atom bomb upon us now.

My father had tremendous physical strength and seemed to me most courageous. He smiled when I told him that.

“Not at all - " he said. "I wasn't brave. I just couldn't imagine anything going wrong." He always said that he could stand any pain as long as he could clench his teeth - that's why he was a coward at the dentist's. He was so afraid of the dentist that he once pulled one of his own teeth. I can remember it clearly, my father standing in front of a mirror with a pair of plyers clenched around the offending tooth - tugging at it for all he was worth.

"Bram," my mother called from downstairs. "Dinner is ready!"

"I'll be down in a minute." my father replied. "It's half out already!"

Once my father was vice-admiral for a while and his beautiful uniform made a deep impression on me. He had a three-cornered hat with a plume and he had gold-braid epaulettes on his shoulders. The gold-braid on his sleeves and trousers glittered and he wore a saber at his side and white gloves. He was covered with medals which he said he got for sailing and bowing at royalty.

He used to have dinner with Queen Wilhelmina and he often told us children with relish how a minister had taken a spoonful of boiling hot soup and was growing purple in the face, unable to swallow it though not daring to return it to its original place. The Queen noticed it.

"Spit it out - your Excellency," she cried with maternal solicitude. "Spit it out!"

He used to take me to see processions of the royal family - I'll never forget the lined streets - the waving flags - the handsome Cavalry men and the open carriage in which the Queen and prince consort bowed from left to right.

When my father became a naval officer, the Queen of the Netherlands was very young. He saw her crowned as a girl of 18 and I think he fell in love with the slim, long-necked dignity of her. His feeling for her was always that of a champion and he often said he preferred to have a Queen to fight for than a King. Not that he did an awful amount of fighting. He participated in some minor skirmishes in the East Indies, that was all, until the first World War came.

He was sent on several exploring expeditions in New Guyana, which he had described himself in a diary. He penetrated forests where no European had yet set foot and gave names to mountaintops, the Van Stockumberg being one of them.

My father was a terrific arguer but a fair one. When you beat him in an argument he always acknowledged it and congratulated you with as much pleasure as if he'd thought of the idea himself. My mother says that her intellect went through a terrific course of training with him, as his ideas were so original and unconventional that he was hard to live with unless you could convince him that the generally accepted way was best. She managed to convince him several times, and on each occasion the matter was closed. My father gave in and the subject was never mentioned again.

One such argument dealt with the training of us children. At heart my father was an anarchist with a flavor of Rousseau [who loved the state of nature]. He believed children to be naturally good and able to grow up perfect if not interfered with. All my mother’s efforts at discipline were considered interfering with nature. My mother said that nothing less than the welfare of her children would have embarked her on the argument that ensued. I believe they argued day and night for a week, but in the end mother won and we were brought up normal children instead of savages. The only remnant of his former attitude could be found in the fact that he didn't like our table manners to be corrected.

"The children will learn from looking at us." he maintained. "Meanwhile conversation at table should be pleasant." If mother sometimes forgot and burst out in irritation at our bad manners he'd leave the room.

Another extraordinary trait of my father's was his opinion about time. One of the tragedies of my childhood invariably went like this: Father and Mother would take us out on a trip in the train. We were all dressed neatly and left much too early on account of Mother's nervousness. Father would laugh to see us go.

"You'll have to wait for hours." he'd warn us. "I'll follow later."

"I don't care." Mother would answer defiantly. Of course we did have to wait for a long time on a cold and draughty platform. The train would eventually come, but not father. With tearful faces glued to the carriage windows we would see him arrive just as the train pulled out of the station. To go out together with him mother used to say, she'd have to aim for a later train and he for an earlier one.

Once we went on a trip in a donkey carriage with my father. We were not allowed to beat the donkey, even though it went at a snail’s pace.

“It will run when it wants to," said my father treating us to many stories of gentleness and charity to animals. It was a very edifying journey but it took us all a day to get to the seaside place that we should have reached for brunch - and instead we all had to stay overnight at a hotel. The next day we went home by train and father's orderly made the return trip in the donkey carriage in two hours. You have no idea how slowly a donkey can go that knows it’s not going to be beaten! And how fast it can go if it does!

I don't really know what that trip taught me. I think I dimly felt that some ideals cost more than they're worth. But I honored and loved my father for it all the same.

Both my father and my mother always followed their consciences. When they were atheists they were so from a mistaken idealism, because the God they were asked to believe in didn't measure up to their standards. Eventually they both became ardent believers. God could not have failed to love them even in the days when they denied Him.

My Father’s Teaching 

Though my father was very busy at the time and was away sometimes for weeks on end, he wouldn't let me go to school but instructed me himself. He thought all schools were stupid, killed initiative, made knowledge unattractive and were physically unhygienic. He disliked us acquiring a vulgar way of speaking and feared the influence of other children. 

My mother wasn't happy about it. She favored a more social attitude but she herself had suffered a lot from boredom at school and didn't care for the orthodox methods of education. She had just heard of Maria Montessori and was examining her methods. Meanwhile she taught me reading and writing by the Jan Lighthart method - a great improvement on the older ways.

My father understood arithmetic and geography. He was a very difficult taskmaster. He allowed no hesitation. If he told me to learn a table I had to know that table without pausing to clear my throat. I remember weeping hopelessly one afternoon because I couldn't "understand" the table of two.

My father didn't make allowances for a child's way of thinking. Instead of starting geography with a familiar thing like my own house, or our village, he began with the earth and the sun. There was a candle and an orange. I remember, and a lot of talk about stars and planets. The result of this was that I no longer pictured the night sky as a sheet with holes pricked in it to let through the glory of heaven.

My father's teaching was dramatic and descriptive and bolstered with logic. I pictured my life as an angel after death, flying between all these worlds in a space without an end - so it didn't matter if you fell for there was nowhere to fall to - and was it likely you'd ever meet another angel? Well, once in a while, perhaps - and then what would we do? Sit down in a world and chat for a while? What a dreary existence! However it wasn't as dreadful as another nightmare I had, after my father had flatly told me that God was an invention of people who were too cowardly and lazy to stand on their own feet. I remember standing in front of him as he told me this, the lovely sunshine outside making an incongruous background. My father said it sadly, regretfully. There was no hatred, not even satisfaction in his voice. He was dreadfully sorry to disturb my illusion but honesty compelled him. No, there was no God - I might as well know now as later. I ran to my mother and asked her. She was more concerned with my peace of mind and much less sure.

"I don't know -" was all the comfort she could give me. I felt more deserted then I had done when they had left me because of illness and travel. I pictured what it would be like to die if there was no God. I could picture nothing - for ever. It was appalling. I had to stop myself from doing it because I knew it was bad for me. And secretly I didn't believe a word of it. I knew there was a God. But I remember freezing coldness. The freezing coldness of the thought.

It was at that time that we had a servant who was found to have stolen a lot of our things. They were found in her suitcase. There was a terrific scene. I still see the girl walk past me, weeping. I was horrified. Suddenly I knew very definitely that I must never lie or be dishonest in any way - neither with myself nor with others. "If you are truthful you will be saved," something told me deep inside myself. I promised this something that I would try - and any lapses against truth have always hurt my conscience more than any other sin. 

Chapter 3. My Mother

The following is from a book marked Diary Book II:

My father and mother were not the kind of people to discourage a child in his search for God. I made up my own mythology, patched up from various remarks made by grownups added to an inborn religious sense. I was really a Sun-worshipper. Early in life I associated the Sun with God.

The first real grief I can remember is when my father went to the West Indies on an expedition and was away for many months. I was only three at the time [1911] but I missed him dreadfully. I'd go to the house of my aunt [Mary Boissevain van Eeghan?] and she had made up a song for me about my dear father coming back, which she played on the piano. That comforted me. 

Mother Leaves for Switzerland 1912 

A year later an even worse thing happened. My mother fell seriously ill and went to a sanatorium in Switzerland. My baby brother Willem and I went to an aunt [Teau de Beaufort] in another part of the country. To have my mother go - to be sent away from our home to a place where we were not the pivots of the universe but merely guests - was shattering to a child of four. I know it deepened me and showed me the transitoriness of human life. Luckily I had an aunt who taught me about God and the angels of Heaven. It gave me a new sense of security which I badly needed at the time.

I must have worked on these few data in my own mind for a year later I find myself with this mythology I worked out for myself. My mother is back in Switzerland again but this time I am with her and I've begun to draw. I still have the book with those early drawings. The sun is obviously God - He is smiling when "the children" are safe - but frowning and worried when they're in the woods, because of the wolf (devil) who will eat them. On one page there is a church and the wolf is listening sentimentally to the bells. All the children are turning around gaily in the wood and the sun is smiling because the wolf is so piously occupied.

My mother's sanatorium [Privatklinik Bircher-Benner] was in Zurich and they have a carillon there every Saturday night. These bells impressed me profoundly. They were the holiest things I'd ever heard.

There was a nurse in this sanatorium whom I disliked. She was called Marianne and she was often impatient and harsh with children. Once my mother had to go out and left me in her charge. She took me to her bedroom. There I saw a picture of the Thorn-crowned Christ. "Who is that funny man?" I asked, struck. She was horrified. She took me under the armpits and planked me on her bed.  Then, kneeling before me with a fierce face she told me the story of Jesus. As I sat on that bed - my legs stretched in front of me, I marveled. I felt a great dislike for Sister Marianne who was obviously very angry with my parents for some reason or other. But the story made a deep impression on me all the same. 

The Great War 

It wasn't long after that when the war broke out [starting end of June 1914 – after the Assassination of the Archduke of Austria in Sarajevo, and escalating in August [with the invasions by Germany of Luxembourg and Belgium] that the war broke out and my father was appointed commander of Ymuiden [the port of Amsterdam]. We had rented a country house in the neighborhood but when the Belgian refugees flooded the country we gave it up to them and retired to a smaller house - until another place was found for the refugees.

I remember my mother studying near a window and weeping over the horrors described in the paper. I remember my father full of ingenious plans for the defense of Ymuiden. (However, it was never attacked - Holland remained neutral and Germany did not invade.)

To me the war was a fantastic thing, something I could not understand. I used to imagine to myself, when tucked in bed at night, what would happen if German soldiers came into my house to kill my parents and my two brothers. I always felt sure that all I'd have to do was to go out to them and tell them:

"Don't you know, they're my father and mother, you wouldn't want to kill them, would you?" and I'd look at them and they'd say in German:

"Oh no miss, of course not, we thought they were just people but if they're your father and mother we will go away."

Another of my fantasies was that I'd have an underground passage, like a rabbit warren, with various openings, stocked with food and other useful things. I could spend hours imagining and furnishing that hideout. 

My Faith in Prayer, 1916 

I was about eight years old [1916] when Holland was being blockaded by England along with Germany. So there was scarcity of food and fuel. I remember being very cold in my bed at night and being allowed only two slices of grey bread. Also there were not as many toys at Christmas and St. Nicholas day. My mother celebrated both feasts as her Irish mother had done. The Dutch usually only celebrated St. Nicholas. I remember the day when we expected the saint’s arrival. To me he was always a very holy man, but I was afraid of him. I was dressed in white silk, with patent leather shoes and white socks. I was shivering with fear and before joining the others in the drawing room. I knelt by my bed and asked God fervently to protect me from St. Nicholas. With beating heart I joined the others and the solemn figure of St. Nicholas entered.

Then, suddenly, my fear collapsed like a pricked balloon. My mother had not put the front of the bishop’s miter properly on Nicholas's head and so a mole was revealed in the middle of his forehead that proclaimed him immediately as harmless Mr. Cornelis, my father's best friend. Instead of feeling disillusioned as so many children do when they find out that St. Nicholas is only someone dressed up, I felt it was a beautiful answer to my prayer.

What better way was there for God to protect me against St. Nicholas than to show me the truth? I have never forgotten it and my faith in prayer dates from that day.

Somebody gave me a children's bible around this time and I was absorbed and thrilled by the stories, especially the New Testament. I felt passionately concerned in Jesus's crucifixion and would weep over it, curled up in my father's big red armchair.

As a consequence I wanted to go to church and I told my mother so. My mother thought it rather amusing and said I could go with the servants the next Sunday. However, the servants were Reformed Dutch and the church was a bare, cold affair. The clergyman hopped about excitedly and talked a lot in an unnatural booming voice. I was bored stiff. I remember thinking to myself as I walked home between the chattering servants that it was a hoax the grownups had played on me and that it hadn't been a church at all.

A little later my mother, brothers and I were walking through the village. The door of the Catholic church was open and light and music came streaming out. It must have been Benediction - I darted in, followed by Willem. The lights, the music - the incense - or was it the Real Presence? I sensed something and I ran excitedly. "Mother, mother, come inside, this is where God is!!"

My mother quickly hurried us away.

"Never go there again, that's a dangerous place," She told me sternly. 

Finding Religion in Hans Christian Andersen 

At the time [1916] I was very fond of Hans Andersen's fairy tales, from which I also got a sense of religion. I preferred them to the Arabian Nights or Grimm's Tales. Especially the Little Mermaid and the Snow Queen seemed to me full of religious truth. [The “Snow Queen” story is posted online here: http://www.boissevain.us/hvserm1930s/thesnowqueenstory.html. The family is interested in having this published as a book or a DVD or both.]

I secretly had the ambition of marrying a prince and when our neighbor, a farmer's boy of my own age, asked if I would marry him I told him I aimed higher. This boy lent me a book on Don Juan which he said was very good. I don't know what kind of a book it was, but from a few sentences in it I concluded that it was an evil book. (I must also admit that it didn't interest me very much.) I didn't tell my mother about it but I took it to a little pavilion we had in the garden where I solemnly told God that I wasn't reading it for His sake. After which I returned it to the boy. I never said a word to anybody about this, not at the time.

My grandmother, my father's mother, fell ill at about this time. My father was very upset about it. He was his mother's favorite. I remember sitting up in bed and my father coming into the room looking ever so sad and saying in a broken voice:

"Your grandmother has died."

"Now he will have to believe in God-" I remember thinking. And strangely enough it wasn't long after that that he did get a kind of revelation which changed his whole outlook and made him a firm believer in God - though in an unorthodox way.

I had a pair of rabbits in those days which I called Adam and Eve. I don't know whether I neglected them though I was accused of it by my nurse - but one day I found Adam lying still. He had starved himself because Eve was pregnant.

I took Adam in my arms to the nursery, where I sat on the floor with his poor stiff body on my lap. I remembered reading how the first Adam had been formed and I began to blow hopefully on my rabbit - but though I blew and blew nothing happened, and I found out the difference in power between God and me.

Sometimes I used to play with two little Catholic girls who lived a few fields away. They talked about the Holy Ghost being a dove and I argued with them.

"How can a ghost be a dove?" but they said He was - and that was the end of it.

The war was getting worse and worse - there was less and less food. Mother was ill and a young cousin of mine of 18 came to help out with the household along with a friend of hers named Hanna. I stuck to my cousin as being the more familiar and of a blond, comfortable type. My brothers immediately made a beeline for her friend who was dark, vivacious, full of imagination and told stories. I could invent stories too - I often did, for the boys, and the books I chose were filled with the antics of two bad little girls, laboriously written with cramped fingers.

But Hanna could invent things nobody else ever thought of - she had ghost stories that sent shivers down our spines - like the one in which someone plunges her hand in a flowerpot and brings up an eye! She had to feed us with her stories for neither of the girls knew much about cooking and once there was only rice for dinner and it was both burnt and hard - no one could eat it - not even the cat. I remember being in a dilemma about going to school. (My father had at last relented and Willem and I went to honest-to-goodness schools in the village.) My boots had no soles but my slippers had good soles. As it was wet and cold outside I wanted to wear my slippers but my cousin said I had to wear my boots until Hanna came to my aid and said it was silly to wear boots without proper soles and sent me off in leaky slippers.

My mother became very ill indeed and was sent to a hospital. My father fell ill also at that time so our house was closed up and we children were distributed among relatives.

Aunt Teau 

I went to the same aunt Teau [for Catherine, or Cateau, Boissevain de Beaufort] whom I had visited at the age of four. She had a girl of my age and three younger boys.

This aunt Teau was my mother's youngest sister – the youngest of the eleven children. She was a lovely person and extremely gifted. She used to tell us bible stories and made them come alive in a way I've never heard since. A person like the actress Ruth Draper seems closest to her. There's a story of how she wanted to see "La Dame aux Camelias," with Sara Bernhardt as a young girl and her father said it wasn't a suitable play. She was furious - and a few days later she told her father that she had a surprise for him. Unsuspecting he sat down in the chair provided and then my Aunt Teau proceeded to act La dame aux Camelias more movingly and better than Sara Bernhardt, according to those who saw them both.

My aunt Teau often acted in private theatricals and even wrote plays but she never went before the general public. Instead she married a professor of zoology of aristocratic lineage and lived in a castle on the moors - where she made life for us children into an enchanted fairy tale. After my mother there is no one I loved more. And she had a simple, childlike faith which appealed to me very much. She taught me hymns - the Lord is my Shepherd - We Are Little Candles - etc. Naturally I was not completely happy. I missed my parents and my brothers. At those times I used to look at a little bronze sparrow which my aunt had given to me and it seemed to hold a message: "Not a Sparrow shall fall to the ground..." That little bird was a great comfort to me.

My aunt didn't live long. She suffered from leukemia and died in 1920 when I was twelve years old.

Meanwhile my mother had become very close to this sister and persuaded my father to go and live in her neighborhood. As my father was by this time pensioned off and there was no need for him to stay in the house near Ymuiden, he rented one in Amersfoort - not too far from my aunt’s house.

My aunt often came to visit us, driving up in her pony carriage or in the car in a grey suit with a big white muffler carelessly flung around her neck and a red tam o'shanter perched on her glossy black hair. She had a lovely face with a sensitive mouth, long straight nose and grey-green eyes full of expression. I used to love to crouch behind my mother's chair and listen to their conversation when she visited us.

I didn't realize how much my aunt was suffering at the time, knowing that she could not live very long. Once she came to visit me when my mother was away and I was ill in bed and weeping from self-pity.

She knelt by me and said passionately and tragically: "Child, child, if you only knew how little you have to weep about. If you only knew what real grief is!"

The note of anguish in her voice struck me deeply. I stooped weeping and never forgot it. She was very concerned at leaving her four young children. Two have joined her since. One drowned as a young boy, the other was shot by the Germans. The other two married and are now well and happy. 

My Father in USA 

Around this time [1917, 1918] my father went to America. One of mother's brothers, Eugen Boissevain, the widower of Inez Milholland, gave my father this chance to try out an invention he had for a gearless automobile [i.e., an automatic transmission]. My father enjoyed the year in America very much, but nothing ever came of his invention.

While my father was away we children came down with the measles, Willem first - and Jan and I weren't allowed to go to school - so we played in the woods together. It was beautiful weather and I enjoyed very much getting to know my little brother better. I was still young enough to enjoy playing imaginary games and Jan responded very well. Only I noticed that he was very credulous and inclined to get frightened at the idea of hobgoblins. I didn't want him to get frightened but I liked the fact that fairies seemed quite possible to him - so I told him about the fairies there were in these woods and that there was a particular hole in a hollow tree which he should visit every Sunday morning and then he would find that the fairies had brought him candy. Jan was about seven years old at the time and the idea enchanted him. 

So when we were over the measles I used to spend all my pocket money buying prettily colored sweets and hanging them decoratively around the hollow tree - Jan trudged there every Sunday morning and was a firm believer. Once he went before I was quite ready and I fled through the streets in my underwear to get to the place before him. Another time I hadn;t any weekly money except a penny and I dared not go into the sweetshop with so little. My school teacher found me weeping in front of the shop and brought me inside to buy my pathetic pennyworth of sweets.

For months I kept up this game until one day, when I'd been away on a trip, my mother awaited me with a grave face.

"I'm sorry, Hilda - but I'm afraid you're going to be very disappointed at what I'm going to tell you."

"What?" I asked, alarmed.

"Jan came to me on Sunday and asked me if God was real. I told him yes." (Mother had decided as much by this time.) 

Then he asked "Are Angels real?

Again, Mother said "yes"

Then he asked, "Are fairies real?

"And you said no, I hope -" I interrupted her. "Naturally, it would have been wicked not to. I don't mind a bit," I said.

Mother was very relieved and perhaps I was too. It had been a bit of a strain keeping up the supply of sweets all the time.

My mother made an interesting circle of friends in this town. (We lived on the outskirts.) She was by now thoroughly familiar with Maria Montessori's ideas and she was trying to find a school like that for poor Jan. There wasn't one in Amersfoort - and at the ordinary school he was unpopular. Poor little fellow - he used to give away all his toys in hope of making friends, but didn't succeed. My mother joined a philosophical and theosophoical society and heard Rabindranath Tagore speak. She read Dostoyevsky and Herman Bahr and used to discuss these novels interestingly with her friends. One of her friendds was a famous art-critic Josh Havelaar - who was married to a charming woman who became Mother's great friend. 

Then there was the musical family next door - the Father, Piet Tiggers, gave me piano lessons, but I was frightened of him - and his wife taught me dancing. His wife was much gentler and helped me to compose little dances for my mother's birthday. I always tried to have some sort of entertainment on my mother's birthday and drilled my brothers and whatever schoolfriend would join, into their respective roles. They had two little children who used to call their father and mother by their Christian names but when they heard us call our mother "Moeder" they did the same. 

I remember having long arguments with Mrs. Tiggers about Hans Christian Andersen. She didn't like him and I defended him with all the vehemence of a twelve year old. I saw my first opera during that period and it made me drunk with joy. Mr. and Mrs. Tiggers were in the thick of it. I loved the smell of greasepaint, the excitement, the music. For a long time afterwards my cousin and I would walk along the streets playing at being Lionel and Martha and singing Martha, Ade.

Major incidents of HvS's early youth according to Brigid:

1. Her giving away of her favourite doll to the poor. It was a life size doll, called "Esquimo", because it was dressed like an Esquimo. Hilda took it everywhere and fed it at meals and took it to bed at night. 

       Then one day a lady called and talked to Granny about the sufferings of the poor little children. SHe asked Hilda if she had any spare toys for them.

Hilda told me later, it was just as if God were telling her to give up her favourite doll, and not any of the others, so she bought it to the lady. 

      Granny was very distressed. "But that is your favourite doll! (it was also very expensive) Can't you give her some of the toys you don't play with?

But Hilda said, "No, I want to give Esquimo."

Hilda said the lady looked at her with great love and said, "You want to give your best doll to the poor children?" And Hilda nodded. Granny said "You will miss Esquimo, and Hilda knew that this was true, she would miss Esquimo dreadfully.

But the lady understood, and thanked her profoundly.

2. Later on when she was older there was the time when she forgot to feed her rabbits and saw that the male rabbit had starved himself to death so that the pregnant female could live and give birth. It broke her heart that she had forgotten them! And she never forgot the pathetic sacrifice of the male rabbit!

The Books That Led to Her Conversion

My Emergence as an Artist 

During those days my talent was being disciplined by all these great people who nodded wisely over carelessly executed drawings and wondered if anything would come of it.

"I don't know what I'm more astonished at - what she can do or what she can't do," said Josh Havelaar.

So it was decided that I should take painting lessons from a friend of his - a charming painter called Mewg, who taught me to use hard pencils with sharp points and look well before I drew anything. I remember getting very tired. I used to love watching him paint. His colors were always fresh and he had a mellow, tender outlook on things. Once he painted a picture which Josh Havelaar dissapproved of - but I liked it - a little dead rabbit surrounded by primroses. It was delightfully sentimental. It was around this time [1922] that my poor Aunt Teau died.

Father Returns from USA 

Presently my father returned from America and astonished us all by having grown a beard. He liked America and he told us great stories about it. He'd liked the three-ring circus and the empty sidewalks (you've got the road to yourself if you walk) and the cafeterias [the Horn & Hardart self-service cafeteria would have appealed to him].

He also enjoyed the comic strips. He liked the universal carfare system and the lack of red tape and a certain generosity in trade, which didn't trouble itself about a penny here and there. It all suited my father very well.

Meanwhile we were having trouble with our neighbors who kept doves and roses while we kept a goat. Our goat got at their roses and their doves got on our clock. As a matter of fact my goat was a good little creature though she took a lot of looking after. She used to jump on our windowsill to bid us "good morning" She was a very young goat and I called her Kiddy.

I had to get a bundle of straw for her stable every week from a farmer some way off - but I would have done more for her. She used to follow me everywhere, she wore a little bell and I'd hear it rin-timing behind me. I went for long walks on the moors with her and she was more company than a dog - I know, I've had both. But when she got old and melancholy I sold her - she was better off on a farm where there were other goats.

It was around this time that I began to discover the pleasure or working well and getting high marks. I used to take an interest in history and read my father’s Streckfuss for hours on end. I was delighted to find Palestine and Christ mentioned in an ordinary history book. I had ideas of my own on religion at the time. When the teacher wanted me to parse the sentence: "As the hart panteth for water, so I pine for God."

I refused. I said it would be disrespectful to God to pull that sentence to pieces. The teacher sent me home with a note to my father who laughed and said I was perfectly right. Henceforth I was excused from parsing religious sentences and the teacher probably thought we belonged to some obscure, unknown sect.

 © 2014 by Boissevain Books, LLC

The Reading Behind Her Conversion to Catholicism

Hilda van Stockum (L) with her parents  and her
brother Willem, c. 1914

Hilda van Stockum is included in Walter Romig's The  Book of Catholic Authors, 1943. The date of publication was just four years after she became a Catholic. In 1939 she had followed her older friend from her art school days, Evie Hone, into the church.

The van Stockum entry is five pages long. It is highly useful as her own story of her road to Catholicism from parents who were nominally Dutch reform Protestants but were non-practicing and agnostic. 

My mother always told me that G. K. Chesterton's book What's Wrong with the World was an important influence on her decision to join the Catholic Church. I posted this and Michael Phillips questioned G. K. Chesterton's right to be a spiritual leader on the grounds that he was anti-Semitic. I cited Paul Johnson on this topic and Michael was satisfied. Johnson wrote in 2010:

Why this hostility [to Chesterton by the BBC]? One explanation often advanced is that he was anti-Semitic. I have never been able to see this. His odd and aggressive brother, Cecil, was certainly an anti-Semite. So was his friend and associate Hilaire Belloc. GKC was involved in the Marconi campaign against Lloyd George and Rufus Isaacs. But that was all. GKC lacked all the characteristics of the real anti-Semite: love of conspiracy theory, bitterness, huge hidden hatreds and violence of thought. It is significant that he saw through Hitler before anyone else in England, issuing dire warnings from 1932 onwards. Before his death in 1936, he even predicted Hitler would begin the Second World War with a grab at Poland.

May 29, 2017 — Today is G.K. Chesterton's birthday and is a good time to update this post with some additional comments. He was born in London in 1874. He was a large man, well over six feet, and rotund. He used to say that when he got the urge to go and exercise he would lie down until the urge passed away. He argued with people like H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw, but he kept them as friends. He wrote 4,000 newspaper essays, 80 books, several hundred poems, about 200 short stories, and several plays. His Father Brown stories, about a detective-slash-priest, were imitated in the social-psychological crime series called Inspector Morse and its follow-on Endeavour. He dabbled in mysticism before going the Church of England and then becoming a Catholic. His book The Everlasting Man (1925) contributed to C.S. Lewis's conversion from atheism to Christianity.

Chesterton wrote: "If man, as we know him, is incapable of the philosophy of progress, Mr. Shaw asks, not for a new kind of philosophy, but for a new kind of man. It is rather as if a nurse had tried a rather bitter food for some years on a baby, and on discovering that it was not suitable, should not throw away the food and ask for a new food, but throw the baby out of window, and ask for a new baby." (Heretics (1905)

Another quote: "The sane man knows that he has a touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the saint, a touch of the citizen. Nay, the really sane man knows that he has a touch of the madman. But the materialist's world is quite simple and solid, just as the madman is quite sure he is sane." (Orthodoxy, 1908)

Another: "Fairy tales do not give a child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon." (Tremendous Trifles, 1909)

Finally: For the great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, And all their songs are sad." (The Ballad of the White Horse, 1911) The same could have been said of the Scots history, except that the Scottish resistance to English rule was more effective than the Irish.

Meanwhile, John Beaumont's new book on U.S. Catholic conversions, The Mississippi Flows Into the Tiber: A Guide to Notable American Converts to the Catholic Church (South Bend, Indiana: Fidelity Press, 2014), 1014 pp., $69, mentions a different book as having been an influence of HvS. I reached Beaumont's via a review of it by Anne Barbeau Gardiner. She says:

throughout these pages we see the influence of certain books on conversions, such as the works of Thomas Aquinas, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Newman, Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and Gilson. Then, too, some entered at an early age, like Marco Rubio who at thirteen told his parents he wanted to be a Catholic, and others, like Wallace Stevens, waited till their deathbed. Some inched their way into the Church over the course of years, like John Sparrow Thompson, the first Catholic Prime Minister of Canada, and others converted in a flash, like Hilda van Stockum, who finished reading Arnold Lunn’s Now I See and exclaimed, “I’m not thinking about being a Catholic, I am a Catholic.”