The discovery in
Greece.
In the
spring of 1990, George Viets spent a holiday in Greece. One morning, while he
was sitting on the terrace of his resort, he heard a voice calling out:
“George would you, please, put on the water for the coffee.” His first
reaction is: “No, why would I, I don’t feel like coffee at all.” After a
while he hears: “George is the water boiling yet?” He then looked around the
corner and sees a couple. ”Good morning, I am George, but I still haven’t
put the kettle on.” “Good morning to you too, my name is also George and I
have put the kettle on and I am making coffee right now. By the way my full name
is George Frans.” “That is curious so is mine, we must be related. Does the
name Callenbach, Haspels or Meerburg mean anything to you?”
As it turned out George Oldenburg had little interest in genealogy. His mother,
Mrs Oldenburg-van der Beek, had told him once that he was distantly related to
the Callenbachs.
George Viets told me this story and that caused me to start some research. It
turned out that the Rev. GF Gezelle Meerburg had two brothers-in-law, who both
named a son after him. One was the Rev CC Callenbach and the other was the
brother of his wife, Gijsbert van der Beek. Gijsbert was born on 28th
March 1823, in Emmichoven, the son of Govert van der Beek and Aletta Brandhorst.
Govert was baptised on 25th January 1778 and married on 3rd
June 1806 in Genderen. He died on 26th March 1853 in Waardhuizen.
Aletta followed him on 12th November.
Our Gijbert van der Beek married Adriana Broekman. He was a farmer. A son was
born on 17th December 1861 and they named him after his Uncle GF
Gezelle Meerburg; George Frans. As it happened, there were five cousins in the
family van der Beek, who were all called George Frans. One of these is George
Frans Oldenburg, who spent this holiday in Greece.
On 2nd October this year George and I visited him. We found out that
the name George Frans is equally valued in his family as in ours. When he gets a
letter addressed to S (Sjors) Oldenburg then he refuses to take delivery.
(This
story was written by WGJ (Willem) Callenbach (5.7.5) and first published in the
family magazine “the Prophet of the Velue.” No 25 in February 1991.)