Meeting The Motherland
Before there were cell phones or airplanes, snow days or hashtags, there was a family living in the eastern countryside of the Netherlands along the German border. They lived in a quiet town named Winterswijk, now a main thoroughfare through the Achterhoek (literally meaning “back corner”) region of the Gelderland province.
Similar to others that resided in Winterswijk, this family occupied the same farm for generations — at least dating back to the Middle Ages. They woke early to tend their crops, worked long days, and enjoyed Sunday service in the city’s central market square at the centuries-old Jacobskerk.
They knew little else of their history aside from the understanding that their grandparents, and great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents likely led similar lives. But perhaps what made this particular family unique was not their history but rather the story they would collectively write over the centuries that followed.
The Story of a Lifetime
Like most memorable stories, the Loomans family ancestry contains a multi-faceted cast of characters who experience a seemingly endless array of trials and triumphs. It’s an intriguing adventure to discover one’s lineage, requiring that we continuously challenge long-held assumptions and beliefs about our heritage.
This post along with the 29 that follow represent a collage of moments that combine to form a stunning portrait of this complex narrative. Each chapter presents different facts and nuances of the family’s lineage, some that you may have guessed, others that may be surprising. With each one, however, another layer of the proverbial onion is pulled back to reveal an intense and intriguing story of the Loomans family’s collective lifetime.
Perhaps the most suitable place to start on such a far-reaching campaign is where the root of our story begins—the small town we discussed earlier: Winterswijk.
A Ride Through the Dutch Countryside
While residing in modern-day Netherlands, Winterswijk’s close proximity to the border of Germany enabled a strong mix of Dutch and Germanic traditions, resulting in a uniquely blended rhythm of customs, language, history, and energy. For centuries, the rural landscape of Winterswijk was home to only a few thousand people, with only rare interaction with their neighbors in the towns of Aalten, Bredevoort, and Dinxperlo that surround the area.
Records of farming properties still operating today date back nearly a thousand years and dot the Dutch countryside in and around Winterswijk. Following a similar narrative to many others in Western Europe, for much of its history Winterswijk was an isolated agricultural community, practicing for many centuries a feudal system where most inhabitants were serfs.
In exchange for protection, feudal lords bound serfs to work the land and provide services. While it remained an option for serfs to buy their freedom, the cost of doing so was often prohibitive. As a direct result of this system, many families were serfs for centuries until the feudal practice was extensively abolished during the 1500s.
Serving as a modern-day landlord, the lords of these feudal communities were paid rent by their subjects and collected property of their serfs, such as livestock, in the event of death. Following the abolition of the system, the hierarchical system of serfs kept, but their livelihood was improved.
By the time of the French occupation of the Netherlands in 1795, servitude had all but disappeared from practice. Family farms which were previously rent-bearing to the overlord became wholly owned by the property owners nearly overnight, positioning many serfs in a dramatically different position than their forbearers who worked at the permission of their lord.
It seems reasonable to suggest that the economic conditions and cultural circumstances of the Netherlands mirrored those of the surrounding areas in Western Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Isolated agricultural work was the primary source of income (as little there was) for many families in the region.
As a farming community, Winterswijk allocated space for farmers to herd sheep, receive sods of heath, and perform other activities, effectively naming the shared areas “common grounds”. The practice of using common grounds in the center of communities was also popular elsewhere, including in emerging cities such as Boston (the famed Boston Common park that sits at the center of the city’s long corridor toward the harbor was in fact named for its original use).
Until the mid-nineteenth century when the common grounds were divided among landowners, the practice of using this shared space was beneficial to Winterswijk’s many farmers. It was typical for farmers to receive manure-drenched sod to hold manure and fertilize their lands, which, as practiced over many centuries, contributed to significant portions of early farm lands to gradually gain tens of feet or more. Conversely, the common grounds, with its steady removal of sod, got lower and became more waterlogged, making the bad grounds worse and the good grounds better over a string of several centuries.
What is fascinating about this repetition is to what degree these practices inadvertently shaped the physical landscape of the community, to an extent that is maintained nearly two centuries after the practice ended. Communal practices such as this are critical to our understanding of our ancestor’s likely situation prior to and after arrival in the United States—and our ability to ascertain and deduce what their lives may have consisted of throughout time.
This postcard of Winterswijk was sent by Blanche Loomans, wife of Derrick J. Loomans, to brother-in-law Henry Loomans in October 1909 during the couple’s tour of Europe. Notice Blanche remarking in her note that Winterswijk was the birthplace of Father (Jan Albert) Loomans about eight decades earlier.
Visiting Winterswijk Today
Nearly two centuries after Loomans family ancestors left the Netherlands, the town of Winterswijk is now a city with nearly 30,000 people. It is accessible with just a two hour drive from Amsterdam or an hour from Dusseldorf, Germany. It’s known locally and to tourists for its biking and hiking tours, nature reserves, flower parade, and more.
In 2020, I visited Winterswijk while driving from Amsterdam to Germany and was struck by the serene and peaceful nature of this once tiny village. The core of downtown was truly the meeting of numerous roads, converging on the beautiful and towering Jacobskerk at the center of the market square. Like other locales in Western Europe, Winterswijk’s winding avenues and streets are filled with ample cafes and sidewalk seating where the locals gather to drink, talk, and enjoy.