BECOMING KUIPER – Part 5: A Family Without a Marriage Record
While tracing the lives of our ancestors, I came across a couple who, by the standards of their time, seemed…
Netherlands
BECOMING KUIPER – Part 3: The Society of Benevolence
In 1818, General Johannes van den Bosch founded the Maatschappij van Weldadigheid (Society of Benevolence), an idea which came from…
BECOMING KUIPER – Part 2: A Crime Called Poverty
The Napoleonic Wars took place from 1803-1815, and in its aftermath, the economy stagnated, regional crops failed, and the population…
BECOMING KUIPER – Part 1: Patronyms and the Birth of Surnames
Grietje Alberts was the daughter of Albert Martens and lived in the province of Groningen, Netherlands, from 10 January 1794…
The Departure of the Kuiper Family
On 7 November 2025, exactly 70 years after the SS Zuiderkruis arrived in Cape Town, after departing from Amsterdam on…
When The World Turned Dark
The Second World War did not begin with sudden chaos, but with a slow tightening of fear across Europe. In…
October 1955: Voyage Of The SS Zuiderkruis
It was on the morning of 21 October 1955 that she watched her parents close the door to their home…