Willem Pietersz Sluijs (1868 - 1949)

Biography

Children of Willem and Aafje: Pieter (1895), Cornelis (dove Kees, (1897), Jacob (1899), Grietje (1901), Jan (1902), Dieuwertje (1904 – 1908), Willem (1906), Gerrit (1908 – 1909), Dieuwertje (Duut) (1909), Aafje (1912), Gerrit (1914).

Bertram Sluys has a fuller list of their descendants, as well as more pictures of Willem's children and grandchildren.

Willem's military record includes his birth date, parents, had grey eyes and brown hair, 1670 millimeters tall, entered service on May 7 1888 in the 7th infantry, went to the 5th infantry Feb 15 1892, left Oct 16 1893.

There’s a list of several men living in Enkhuizen in the 1880’s. Willem Sluijs is listed there, registered there on June 9 1886. Since these men all came from different towns, and were all single between the ages of 16 and 25, they were all very likely in the army together. Willem is listed as a “bakkersknecht” (a baker’s apprentice), living at 1 / 347 Oosterdijk. He left on July 13 1889, back to Andijk. He is listed as belonging to the Nederlandse Hervormde church (the state church). When he returned to Andijk, he lived with another group of men, still working as a bakkersknecht. He was probably still in the army.

On Jan 7 1901 Willem Sluijs Pieterszoon, farmer (landbouwer) in Andijk, borrowed 500 guilders from the Spaarbank in Andijk / Wervershoof through Jan Groot Pieterszoon. For collateral, Willem put up his house and his land of 61 centiaren (acres?)

A census in 1919 lists Willem and Aafje living at 19 Klein Gouw with 7 children: Cornelis, Jacob, Jan, Willem, Dieuwertje, Aafje and Gerrit. Willem is listed as a vrachtvaarder (shipper of vegetables, etc.), which is scratched off and Landbouwer (farmer) written in. Cornelis and Jacob are also listed as landbouwers, Jacob, Jan and Willem are listed as leaving the house in the next few years, starting their own families. Jan moved to Twisk on Sept 25 1924 and Willem moved to Oterleek on Jan 12 1922.

A GRANDSON’S PICTURE OF WILLEM

Willem was a quiet, loving, creative person. Like his father, he was first a fisherman on the Zuiderzee, but then became a boat transporter and skipper of vegetables. He went with a boat which was pulled by dogs, and along with others went from Andijk to Hoorn, carrying vegetables and potatoes. He was small in stature. When he became older, he transferred his skipper business to his sons Pieter and Jacob, and he became a truck gardener with his son Cees.

Willem was a mild, gentle character. He was humble and never stood out. But he influenced many people. On Sundays he would smoke a big smoking pip he had, which reached to the floor. He didn’t smoke much – this was his Sunday treat. At that time most women liked their husbands to smoke: pipe smoke has a nice scent. The family lived at the foot of the dijk, but after the storm of 1916 the dijk broke and his house was moved on boats to where the town hall had been. He lived there until he died. Willem owned some land out in the country, and he went there by boat with his dog. Sometimes he took his grandsons Pieter and Bill to the land as he worked it (he worked there until quite late in life). They liked going with him because he gave them quite a lot of freedom.

From 2006 interview with Peter Sluys, grandson of Willem: “My grandfather – he was the picture of wisdom. He sat in his big chair on Sundays – that’s when we saw him mostly. He had a little beard just at the bottom here, and not higher up (on the face), and we called that a “sikje”. On Sundays he smoked his pipe. And he had a pipe rack with long pipes. Not expensive ones, because they were not very rich. Whenever we came over on Sundays, he would take it, and that head was, I think it was touching the floor. And then he smoked that long, long pipe, and he sat there. And that’s still a picture of wisdom as he was there because he did not say much.

"But what he said was always so nice too, you know. We related well, he had a very soft heart. Maybe sometimes too soft. And also whenever we went with him to his land, that he owned, and that he was working on, because he was a “bouwerman”, as they say, a gardener, a truck gardener, and then we went sometimes with him too in his boat. He was always nice to us. We didn’t have to work hard. But sometimes with Oom Kees – Oom Kees could never hear us. But he would say, “you do that there.” You know. And we did that. But we did that gladly. So grandparents’ home was also very much our home too. And we were very much connected with them.

"And then my grandparents’ home was very much wedged in by on the one side was the city hall and the head of the police. And on the town hall there was also a siren that would blow at six o’clock at night to let all the people around know, you know, all working: “it’s six o’clock, time to go home.” And also at twelve o’clock, “hey, you guys, you’re working and your workers are working for you on the land, but time to eat, you know.” So we were kind of geared to that too, in our youth, to that siren that was natural. And when we moved later on to the city we missed it.

"And then on the other side of his house, that was where the fire engine was. And it was a simple fire engine, of course. And you had these pumps that you had to hand pump yet. And they were always washing that thing, you know, and it was volunteers as I understand it. So that was where my grandparents’ house was, smack in the middle of these two things. And then a few houses farther there was on the one side of the road were another uncle and an aunt, that was Oom Lolle and Tante Grietje, and the other side was Oom Jan Sluijs (and Tante Dien).”

WILLEM AND HIS BROTHER PRUIKE JAN SLUIS

Summaries in English from “Jaarboekjes Oud Andijk”, 1993 (recorded here with permission): Jan and Willem transported their potatoes to the auction in Bovenkarspel in their large boats (called “lange scuiten” in Dutch). They lived next door to each other. Just behind them was a wide body of water that was left over from an old dike burst named “de kuil” (the pit). They kept their 6 boats (they each owned 3) in there, and sometimes all of them were full of potatoes. They would take mornings to go to the various market produce growers, an empty potato sack as their flag on their mast, and then parked them in de kuil in the evenings. Piet Kistemaker, one of the neighbor boys, remembers as a child playing in the boats, climbing from one to the other . Sometimes Jan would see the children, say, “hee, een snoek” (hey, a crab) and would put them in one of the boats. He was strong and fun to be around. On market day Jan and Willem would leave with their boats very early in the morning for Bovenkarspel, with their dogs (rather than horses) pulling the boats along the canals. There was still a lot of grassland in the polder at that time, but every time two canals crossed each other the dogs had to swim across the crossing.

VISITS TO OPA AND OMA (AND ONE REASON DAD DIDN’T GO ONCE)

From 2006 interview with Peter Sluys, his grandson: "They lived in Andijk. And we went over there almost every Sunday. And that was a treat to us. And it was presented as a treat. And I can tell you some of the times why sometimes I was held back and I wasn’t allowed to go there. Oh, one instance. What happened was that my father did not smoke much. But on Sundays he smoked a cigar. And so he smoked there that Sunday too that cigar – after we came out of church he smoked that cigar and put it back there in the ash tray, you know, then my father went to bed for a nap because he was physically very active all the time. And so he took that nap there, and probably my mother too, I don’t remember, but, I thought, yeah, smoking, hmmm. So I took that little piece of cigar, and I lit it, and I started smoking it. But somehow they smelled it, and he caught me. And then he said to me, “now for punishment you have to finish smoking it.” But I was already getting a little bit heady-ish, and, you know, real clouds of smoke. And he said, “you smoke it through, boy.” And I smoked until I threw up and I was as sick as a dog. (laughs) Actually, after that, I have never picked up smoking very easily. And I never smoked very much. And then I quit smoking, of course, later on.

Anyway, my mother said, “now, you cannot go along with us to grandpa and grandma.” And that was a punishment. Because, you see, at my grandpa and grandma’s house there was also my unmarried uncle (Oom Kees), who was pretty well totally deaf, and he was always playing with my brother Bill and I. And he was a smoker too. And you had in Holland these heavy table cloths, and then he would make all sorts of figures with blowing that smoke there. And we were amazed how he could do that. (chuckles) He made us kites, and he helped us even to fly the kites. But he taught us how to make them so that we could do it and so that we could make them – we learned that from him. As deaf as a doornail. And he played, by the way, accordian too yet, because he had learned that when he was young. My father could too. And you could feel that he could not hear the notes. He was also very dear to us. And so going to opa and oma’s house included going to Oom Kees. He was our youth friend. As a matter of fact, he was also a youth friend this way : my grandmother was um, rather – what shall I say – thrifty. And they had apple trees and she picked apples. And they were put in the attic. And also for the winter. But she would never give us an apple. But Oom Kees, he snuck up whenever we visited. And he gave us an apple, and he said, “don’t tell grandma.” (laughs) Yah! And we came home with it and we told dad and mom. And they snickered a little bit because they knew what was happening. (laughs)^[1]

Sources

• 1870 census: 1701-02_9 Bevolkingsregister Andijk 9, 1860-1901. As found at [1]

• Marriage: Aktenummer:5 Registratiedatum:6 april 1894 Akteplaats:Andijk Aktesoort:H as found at [2]

• Marriage announcement: Enkhuizer Courant. Algemeen Nieuws- en Advertentieblad voor Hollands Noorderkwartier, 1894-04-15; p. 2 as found at [3]

• Personal first hand information from Peter Sluys, grandson

• Jan 7 1901 borrowing money: 1686-01_38 NNA Andijk 38, notaris Jan van Bommel, 1901 jan-maa as found at [4]

• 1880’s list of people in Enkhuizen: 1701-08_25 Bevolkingsregister Enkhuizen 25, 1880-1890. As found at [5]

• 1889 Andijk census: 1701-02_31 Dienstbodenregister Andijk 31, 1878-1901 as found at [6]

• Military registration as found at [7]

• Death: Collection region: Noord-Holland Record number: 13 Record date: 8 April 1949 Record place: Andijk as found at [8] However, according to his grandson Peter Sluys' records, Willem died on March 11, 1949. And according to "Netherlands, Noord-Holland, Civil Registration, 1811-1950," database with images, FamilySearch at : accessed 26 April 2016, Enkhuizen > Overlijden 1941-1950 > image 413 of 515; Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem (Noord-Hollands Archives, Haarlem), he died on April 6 1949.

• Death announcement: Dagblad voor West-Friesland, 1949-05-06; p. 2 as found at [9]

• Translated notes from the Kistemaker Netwerk (with permission), Oud Andijk in Beeld (deel 1) as found at [10]

• Translated notes from the Kistemaker Netwerk (with permission), Groei en Bloei van de geschiedenis van Andijk as found at [11]

• M G Baltes' Andijker Buurtjeskerk database as found at [12]

Footnotes

1. ↑ Entered by Bertram Sluys.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Bertram Sluys for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Bertram and others.