Reginald Hendrickson's bracelet.

Question

Through the relentless searching of Wikitree members and others a relative of Reginald Hendrickson has been found.  A man  walking along the Meuse river found a silver bracelet in a WW2 war foxhole.There were engravings on it that said Reginald Hendrickson, RNA 25 B2. Wayne Morgan got a request from the man and the Wikitree community got into gear to get the bracelet back to a descendent. I got this from Wayne Morgan today (my cuz yeah that's right uhuh)

Well our search for Reginald Hendrickson
 has paid off.His son Jim Hendrickson
 e/mailed me today. Saw article in a
 magazine i contacted,Legion Magazine.
Paid off.
This made my day,month,year.WIllem 
in Holland also made a great effort.
His son found the bracelet.
WIllem is in fact  Willem-Wouter Dijkstra whose son found the bracelet.

Genealogy is amazing and WIkitree is the best!!!!!!

Comments

How incredibly cool! How great that WikiTree was in the thick of this too! Mags

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This is the email correspondence which included details about the owner of the bracelet. It makes a very good read.

Hi Jim,

 

We received a mail from Wayne Morgan with very good news. Are you “our” Reginalds son? If so you and your family become back Reginald’s bracelet that he lost end 1944 or Spring 1945 in his foxhole near the town of Heusden. We think that he was watching the Germans 300 feet to the north on the other side of the river Meuse (Maas). The rest of the story we can tell each other later! Please tell us the story of your father with as many details as possible so we can confirm.

 

We presume that Reginald is not alive anymore. Since 15 years we try to find him or family. We hope very strong that we have a match!

 

Greetings and hope to hear from you soon.

 

Willem-Wouter (my son who found the bracelet) and Will (his father) Dijkstra

 

Greetings from Canada!

FYI: The email address that you used for me below is not correct – mine is *deleted*

 

My dad “Reg” (Reginald)  was born in Zouterwoude, Holland in 1902 (although his army records show that he was born in 1904), his full name was Reinier Arnold Dirk Hendriksen. He died in 1968 and was buried in Toronto – his name at that time had been changed to Hendrickson. The Canteen pass shows his number as 2582, I understand that the bracelet shows RNA 25.. (Royal Netherlands Army).   Oshawa is the town where my family lived just before the start of the war.  If this information satisfies you that you have indeed reached the right family, let me know and I will send you additional information regarding my dad and our family.

 

Greetings from the Netherlands!!!

 

We cannot express how grateful we are that we found each other. Today is a strange day in relation to our contact because on this day we memorize the death of the Second World War and wars that followed. Tomorrow we celebrate our freedom that was defended by so many at high costs.

We now know for sure that the bracelet can return home. That is exactly what we wanted for so many years. We have deep respect for our liberators!! We started this quest about 15 years ago without results. USA, Canada, Norway, Dutch authorities, veteran organizations, nobody could find “our” soldier. Now we understand why. Reginald changed his name. Of course we want to know everything about Reginald, his life, how he was a military for four years, your family, did you know about the bracelet a.s.o. Otherwise we want to inform you about where and how the bracelet was found. And we want to bring the bracelet back to Reginald. So we want to make plans to come to Canada. To start some pictures of the bracelet.

 

Some months ago we placed a message on Wikitree. It was picked up by Wayne Morgan and he kept on searching. I understood Wayne placed a message in a magazine for Veterans and that is where you must have been triggered.

 

Thanks to Wayne!!

 

We keep in touch and wait for your answer.

 

Family Dijkstra

Regards

Jim

 

 

 

 

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Hi again,

I will sit down this coming weekend and put together my dad’s story (as I know it).  I am a member of the Royal Canadian Legion, having served in both the British and Canadian Armed Forces. I received the latest edition of their magazine on Monday and was quite surprises to read the item that Wayne had submitted.  At first, I thought that it must be someone else, but the reference to Oshawa made me get out my dad’s records. I’ve included a scan of another very worn document from dad’s file – one that he was very proud of!

 

I am really interested in knowing how the bracelet was found. We had no idea as to him having a bracelet – I will try to explain why when I put together his story.

Regards

Jim

 

HI Jim,

 

In 2000 a journalist wrote an article about the bracelet in a local newspaper. The follow up was that our son was filmed and went on national TV with this item. After 15 years Willem-Wouter has grown up! On the foto the exact location. We start investigations about the Prinses Irene Brigade. We saw that there is a museum and of course records. We presume that Zouterwoude must be Zoeterwoude near Leiden. We have made contact with the same journalist and he is very interested to publish the story.

 

Regards.

 

With your permission we inform Wayne about the steps we take. So Wayne can see the results. We are grateful!

Our adress:

 

Familie Dijkstra

 

 

 

Fifteen years?? Now that's cool. Thanks Wayne.

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And this is the fifteen year old story. :)