Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 1:23 PM
Subject: Re: Question Re: Ritsema
Hello Jack,
It took some time before answering you due to a lot of work,
family, house and garden.
The answer to your question is not very difficult. Jacob Crijns,
Derk
Crijns Bekema and his wife Anje Ritzes were mennonites (Doopsgezinden).
The
Ritzema's were not and in the end of the 18th century and the beginning
of the
19th century a lot of mennonites became members of the Dutch Reformed
Church. In
my family e.g. Rietema's from Vliedorp/Houwerzijl and Ulrum did so. They
married
to members of the Reformed church and became earlier or later members of
that church. After the death of the head of the family, they went over
as a
family to the other church as you see. Besides the question of baptism
as a
child or an adult, their way of life as serious believers was not very
different. On the other side their was the development from the strong
doctrine
in the church to a liberal faith. Nowadays the majority of mennonites in
our
country call themselves liberal. Thanks to the Revolution in 1795
all denominations were declared equal and had the same rights. From then
also mennonites could be appointed to a post to the
Government.
I am studying your attachement of the other e-mail and
I shall answer you as soon as possible. On my computer I have Vista
and Office 2007 but not Works. By accident and thanks to Microsoft it
was
possible to read your story, don't ask me how.
2010/5/30 <jackheerema@XXXX>
Hello Gert,
I have found something which may or may
not be significant and something you may be able to shed some light
on? On
page 186 of the book "Boer en Heer, "de Groninger boer" 1760-1960", it
shows
an interesting picture of Jacob Crijns (Ritzema) and his brother Derk
Crijns
(Bekema) and his wife. This painting was probably commissioned after
Jacob Crinjs death in 1809. Jacob Crijns had married Auke Jacobs
Ritsema, the
daughter of Jacob Jans Ritsema and Grietje Nannes Fijland, in 1773 and
he
and four of the five surviving children all use the name Ritzema as a
surname. Auke dies giving birth to Albert in 1787 and Jacob Crijns
dies on May
6th, 1809. On July 16th of 1809 Crijn Jacobs Ritzema aged 32, Jacob
Jacobs Ritzema aged 25 and Albert Jacobs Ritsema aged 22 all do
profession of
faith in Warffum on the same Sunday. Would you know if there is
something
significant in this in relation to the death of their father?
Thanks Gert, I hope I am not being a
nuisance,
Mvg
Jack |
