Journey to His Past

I can't go any further on my blog without recognizing a wonderful genea-friend, Tom de Meijer, of Maastricht, Netherlands.

I started communicating with Tom when I found a message on the ancestry message board.  He was looking for information on Pieter Luyendyk, who immigrated to the United States with his wife, Jaapje Maasdam.  I emailed Tom telling him I may be able to help him.  Pieter and Jaapje Luyendyk were my husband's great, great grandparents.  From this one email a wonderful friend was found.

Tom has been unbelievably helpful with research in The Netherlands.  He met with a Professor Luijendijk, who had the family history back to 1470, in Dutch!  Tom gladly sent me a copy of this research.  Tom also went to Vierpolders, Netherlands and took numerous pictures at the church that the Luijendijk's help found.  He met with a Luijendijk descendant and sent me that information.  He has answered many, many questions of mine and provided historical and Dutch related familial information.  In return, I helped answer the question of where Pieter and Jaapje Luyendyk settled.  I shared my research with him.  I will never be able to thank Tom enough for all he has done.

Tom's interest in the Luyendyk/Maasdam family is because his wife's family traces to the Maasdam family.  Tom has a wonderful Maasdam Family website where he shares his research.  For more information on this family, check his website out, here.

As for the information Tom has provided to me, I will be sharing it soon on this blog.