Helena Catrina Koster (Willem Vlietstra/Contributed)
I don’t even know where to start with the story behind this photo, except to say that I am incredibly excited to have it. The woman in the photo is Helena Catrina Koster — my great-great-great-grandmother, whom I have very little information about — and it was sent to me by a gentleman named Willem Vlietstra.
Last weekend, I found an unexpected email in my inbox from Willem, who stumbled across a mystery photo on this blog and decided to reach out. Willem, who was born in 1941 in Beverwijk, in his youth met the younger brother of my great-great-great-grandfather Freerk Bellinga Swalve and even remembers having conversations with him!
Now, see if you can follow me here. Freerk’s brother’s name was Heinrich. Heinrich was married to a woman named Rijntje Hagen. Rijntje had a sister, and that sister’s grandson is Willem. Which leads to how he has in his possession the photographs he sent me and granted me permission to share here.
That’s right — Photographs. As in, more than one! I’ll try to post more here in the coming days, as well as an update to that mystery photo mentioned above, as time allows.
I am so excited for you….you are doing an amazing job….and you have one of those rare minds that allows you to see all the connections and keep them straight in your mind for more than the blink of an eye……AMAZING !!!
Huge hugs Oma xx
On the website I use to date dutch “Cartes de Visite 1860-1914″ photos with the exact similar logo are dated between 1890-08-21 and 1898-03-31.
http://nies.liacs.nl:1860/ : studio (1078)Greiner