It was pure boredom on a cold winters day that made me look at the subject of genealogy on the internet. I was surprised to learn that my forefathers were for many generations millers. This is how I found out about my family. I wrote down the names of family members with date of birth and location where they were born. I started at the bottom of a sheet of paper with our grand children and our children. Next was my generation which included my brother and my wife. My parents with their brothers and sisters were next. It now became a bit more difficult. My parents had died and so had their brothers and sisters. I put down what I remembered leaving many gap. It was now time to start with a search engine. Every aspect should be researched as accurately as possible. It appeared that spelling in the old days was very inaccurate. I have seen our surname spelled with two a’s. Van Aaken is the spelling for one child and the next child the correct way. I can only presume that the spelling was left to the pastor. Birth, marriage and death were all recorded in the church register and as all my family were protestant, I found most details from the Dutch Reformed church register in the towns where they lived. They also recorded when families moved to or arrived from another town. I remembered that my father once spoke about living in “Het Melkhuisje” in Hilversum. I found a web site and a list of tenants going back 150 years which included my grandfather. Another success was the town of Geldermalsen, where I knew my father was born. It took me little time to set up a family tree or stamboom as the Dutch call it. I traced birth after birth and was horrified at the number of children some families had those days. My grandfather PJWW van Aken owned a lodging house. His forefathers were millers and my great great grandfather Joost build a well known windmill in Geldermalsen which is still in use and is now called de Bouwing. Before that the family lived in a nearby town called Waardenburg. One Waardenburg windmill has been in the van Aken family for many generations for a period of over 150 years. I found doing this research a challenge and good fun.
—1—
Hendrik van Aken (No proof to be Gysbert's parents)
B Waardenburg 00/00/1615
D
Married Aeltgen Roeloffs
B Waardenburg 00/00/1617
D
Gijsbert Hendricksen 00/00/1640
—2—
Gijsbert Hendricksz van Aken
(Miller Waardenburg 1661 - 1705)B – Deil - 00/00/1640
D
Anneke Fransz 20/11/1664
B – 00/00/1644
D
Hendrick Gijsbertus –16/08/1665 – 20/12/1720
Rijckske - 01/06/1667
Hester - 18/09/1669
—3—
Hendrick Gijsbertus Van Aken (Miller Waardenburg 1705 - 1720)
B – Waardenburg – 16/08/1665
D – 20/12/1720
Geertje Hendriks Schouten - (Miller Waardenburg 1720 - 1747)
B – Waardenburg – 00/00/1668
Hendrikus - 19/02/1699
Joost - 23/01/1701
Joost - 26/02/1702 - 01/05/1777
Frans - 18/05/1704 -
Anneken - 07/03/1706
Hendrik -
Rijck - 14/07/1709
Rijck - 15/02/1711
Rijck - 12/02/1713
The Waarenburg mill was at that time a wooden standert windmill. The annual rent was F 325 (Gulden) In 1714 the windmill blew over and was replaced with a brick windmill. After Hendrick's death, Geertje his wife rented the mill for F 305 per year.
—4—
Joost Hendriksen Van Aken (Miller Waardenburg 1747 - 1762)
B – Waardenburg – 26/02/1702
D - Waardenburg - 01/05/1777
Maaike Van Der Velden - 25/02/1746 (Miller Waardenburg 1762 - 1781)
B – Haaften – 15/09/1720 -
D - Waardenburg - 01/05/1783
Geertje - 04/08/1746
Jantje - 11/02/1748
Neeltje - 06/04/1749
Hendrik - 19/01/1753
Neeltje - 03/03/1753
Hendrik Joost – 31/07/1757 – 02/02/1832
Cornelia - 11/5/1766
Thonia - 11/05/1766
During 1760 the windmill was rebuild again. In 1768 the rent was F 350.
—5—
Hendrik Joost Van Aken (Miller Waardenburg 1781 - 1815)
B – Waardenburg – 31/07/1757
D – 03/02/1832
Baatje Van Den Burg – Waardenburg – 03/03/1783
B – 00/00/1759
D – 10/12/1813
Joost – 21/03/1783 – 14/02/1864
Lukas - 26/10/1784 - 30/01/1851 (Miller Waardenburg 1815 - 1818)
Gerrit – 26/02/1786 – 03/01/1871 (Teacher)
Daniel – 01/11/1787
Daantje – 05/04/1789 - 15/04/1818
Maaike – 16/02/1791 - 21/02/1851
Jan Hendrik – 08/04/1793 – 04/09/1874 (Farmer)
Wilhelmina Cornelia – 11/02/1796 - 11/08/1828
Reijer – 02/05/1797
In 1775 the windmill was rebuild again. The rent was F 360. The six zided windmill now belonged to Mrs J.Th.Baroness van Pallandt. On the wooden axcel is a date cut. G.v.A 1799. This could be the millers son Gerrit van Aken, but there is also mention of somebody with the name Aylva.
—6—
Joost Van Aken
(Miller Geldermalsen 1824 - 1864)B – Waardenburg – 21/03/1783
D – Geldermalsen – 14/02/1864
Alida De Jongh – 20/09/1809
B – Waardenburg – /00/1777
D – Geldermalsen – 27/02/1872
Baatje - 04/05/1810
Janske – 19/01/1812 – 28/02/1842
Hendrik - 07/6/1814
Pieter Joost – 09/09/1816 - 17/07/1880
Metje - 26/03/1819
Daniel - 23/06/1821
Aart - 27/06/1824
Wijbrant - 03/03/1828
Joost bought the old standerd windmill in Geldermalsen in 1824 for f 5700. The windmill was in a poor condition and in 1844 he had her demolished and on the site build a new windmill. This windmill is still standing today and is in a good condition. It belongs to the Gemeente Geldermalsen and is now called de Bouwing. Cemented in the wall is an ingraved stone. This mill is build by Joost van Aken in 1844.
—7—
Pieter Joost Van Aken (Miller Waardenburg 1864 - 1871)
B – Brakel – 09/09/1816
D – Geldermalsen – 17/07/1880
Johanna Hendrika Van Mourik – Geldermalsen – 08/02/1839
B – 01/06/1815
D – 05/09/1902
Joost – 01/09/1839
Metje – 03/01/1842 - Utrecht - 12/06/1932
Alida Zolina – 01/09/1843
Janske Pieternella – 01/09/1845
Dirk Antonie – 01/12/1850 – 23/08/51
Dirk Antonie Pieter – 01/08/1856 -
Pieter Jan Willem Wijbrand - 06/05/1857
Hendrik Daniel – 22/01/1860
Baatje Cornelia Johanna – 14/10/1861
Pieter Joost sold the windmill De Bouwing 1871 for f 8100.
—8—
Pieter Jan Willem Wijbrand Van Aken
B Geldermalsen 06/05/1857
D Amsterdam 00/00/19??
Neeltje Merkens 03/05/1885
B - Beesd - 13/11/1864
D - Amsterdam 02/02/1942
Mia - Mia was a matron in Nederlands Indie
Alida Baatje – Da married Frans Muller
Jacoba - Coba married Frans Scholte, a taxi driver in Amsterdam.
Meta – 28/10/1896 – Meta married Kees Broekema. Children Joke and Jan
Pieter – Piet married an Indonesian lady. He died in a Japanese kamp during WWII. He had 2 sons and 2 daughters
Johannes Cornelis Jan – 00/00/1901 - Co married Marta Maria van den Erve on 04/11/1931. They had 3 sons
Dirk Antonie Pieter Geldermalsen – 05/09/1902 - 01/10/1961
Pieter Jan Willem Wijbrand was a NH Church organist from 1878 to 1903. He kept a Lodging house in Geldermalsen from 1888 to1903. The family moved to het Melkhuisje in Hilversum in 1904. Than they moved to Amsterdam in 1906 where the had a home in the Jacob van Lennep Kade 167.
—9—
Dirk Antonie Pieter Van Aken
B – Geldermalsen – 05/09/1902
D – Amsterdam – 01/10/1961
Jannetje Meerding - Batavia - 28/06/1932
B – Rotterdam – 24/01/1907
D – Purmerend – 28/02/1990
Jos Wijbrand Batavia 31/12/1939 – Jos married Ingeborg Elisabeth Klaiz in 1962 and they had 2 sons.
Dick Antonie Pieter Utrecht 28/10/1946
Dirk preferred to be called Ton, short for his second name Antonie. He was born in 1902 in his fathers logement in Geldermalsen.
I remember him pointing out the room where he was born. The left window on the first floor of a pub. In 1905 the family moved to het melkhuisje in Hilversum where his father run a vegetable busines for a year. This venture was unsuccessful and the family moved to Amsterdam. After WWI Mia, his sister, persuated Ton and his older brother Co to move to Indonesia. Ton got employment in a tea plantation in Sumatra. A few years later he moved to Batavia where he sold advertising for the Dutch newspaper “De Java Bode” and later became the Manager. During WWII he became a Japanese prisoner of war and spent 4 years in a camp in Bandoeng. After the war in 1945 he reunited with his wife and son and they travelled back to the Netherlands to recover from the camps. In 1948 he returned to Batavia to work again for the same newspaper. His wife and now two sons followed a year later. In 1958 the family returned to the Netherlands.
Now virtually completely deaf, Ton found an administrative position at an institute for deaf children, where he worked for the last three years of his life.
—10—
Dick Antonie Pieter Van Aken
B – Utrecht – 28/10/1946
D
Elisabeth Angela Greville Sanders – 29/08/1970
B London 29/09/1948
D
Richard Antonie Greville – London – 23/02/1971
Edward Alan Pieter – Cape Town – 08/09/1973
Tamara – Cape Town – 29/02/1976
Dick was born in the Academic Hospital in Utrecht. He lived the first year of his life with his brother in Soest with foster parents. His parents were recovering from the war in a sanatorium in Switserland. In 1949 they moved to Djakarta. Dick attended the Nassau School in the Busuki Road in Djakarta. A school now famous for the attendance of Barak Obama, president of America. In 1958 the family returned to the Netherlands and lived in Amsterdam. After completion of school and the army he moved to South Africa in 1967 and lived in Johannesburg, where he worked as a computer operator.
In 1969 he travelled through Europe and settled in London where he met his wife Libby.
In 1972 after their first son's birth in London, they left for South Africa and after a 6 months stay in Johannesburg the family moved to Cape Town. For 26 years they lived in Cape Town. Dick worked in the computer industry, initially in employment, but later self employed. Once the children had grown up and left home, the couple returned to the United Kingdom. From 1999 Dick worked as a Research Fellow for the Nottingham Trent University and the South Leicestershire College. Libby return to teaching. In 2010 they retired to Brittany in France.
—11—
Edward Alan Pieter Van Aken
B – Cape Town – 08/09/1973
D
Janine Jooste – 00/00/2002
B - Namibia - 24/12/1974
D
Nicholas – Cape Town – 18/07/2003
Kirsten – Cape Town – 19/07/2005
Edward was born in Cape Town’s Mowbray Hospital. He was educated in Table View and studied computers at the Technicon. In 1997 he moved to London to start a career in Computers. He returned to Cape Town in 1999 and married three years later.
—12—
Nicholas Alan Van Aken
B – Cape Town – 18/07/2003
D
Nicholas and Kirsten are the 12th known van Aken generation from the Waardenburg en Geldermalsen branch.
