The search for Elisabeth I
Where to start?
Anyone has that kind of pictures. They are hidden in shoeboxes and in the old bags of your mom that died for years.
This is such a picture. My mom kept it and now it is in my house and came up when cleaning out a tray.
An intriguing question raised my mind. Reading the backside of the picture, I saw a pencil cross and a nice in ink written text: --"Bart's franse vriendin Elisabeth a/b Westerdam 1946"--
In English: - "Bart's french friend Elisabeth on board of Westerdam 1946." And in french: "L'amie française de Bart en bord de Westerdam 1946
The questions
First of all: Who is Elisabeth?
Second: Who made this picture?
Third: Who gave my mother the picture? Was that on board or later in New York?
I knew that answers on any questions would raise new ones, but the idea that the girl on the picture might be a bit older than me scared me. My age is not that of a teenager anymore. So she might be alive, but could even be passed away. I decided not to linger anymore and started to think about where to start en how to proceed.
Holland America Line
I knew the story, my mother Trina told me often enough. The Westerdam was a new ship and had passengers and freight on board. It was the first trip of the vessel. So I could try to find something on that via Google. To make a longer story short: It was possible to have an online look on the passengers list. The entrance was: Westerdam. And the information popped up: on the ship itself and the story of the first sail.
This is more actual but gives a rich report on all ships of the Holland America Line
The HAL passengerslists
Two pages of the handwritten passengerslist. One with my familyname and one with the name Demongeot.
But first I did not know what her familyname was. I had to figure out a name of 'french' origine on the list. And there were several. But would the girl be on that list? See for instance that my name and that of my brother are not mentioned. I only see an indication of 1/2 and '-'. So which family would it be? Laseur, Ruarus, Le Benerais, Demongeot? I had no idea how the search should continue now, not knowing a name would be difficult. And my own name was not visible in the passengers list of the HAL. I had to think. This ship was travelling in my mind. It left Rotterdam, crossed, the Northsee, the Channel and did it stop in Southampton or any British harbour? It went on the Atlantic Ocean, dangerous poluted with drifting seamines from WWII and then this ship was arriving in New York. The maidentrip it was. So could there be any revelation on that?
The search continued
I had to look in to the immigration in the USA.
I knew about the maidentrip of the ship, I had its name: Westerdam and had the knowledge from dutch historic information that the first trip was on june 28th 1946. So up to New York! Virtualy that is. Would there be any info on this ship and what happend on its first arrival?
I know there was a paper publication with the ship and the tugboats that made a watershow on arrival. I do have it somewhere on my harddisks, but have to find it back. If so, it will be shown here:
Ellis Island
We were not fugitives from Europe searching for a better world. My dad, already in NY a few month earlier, was a diplomat. The ship had 134 passengers, and all had to be registered. Nowadays you find yourself in long lines at airfields, people in black uniforms shouting: "Keep your line", stay in your line please" in most unfriendly way. Would that have been the case in 1946? Anyway registration lists had to be delivered from the shipsdocter with all relevant data. And believe me, nowadays all that data would have to be shielded due to modern privacyrules.
But they were not. And since digitalisation is a cost reduction on keeping documents safe in archives they were all systematically photographed. And that was my great luck. There were accesable immigrations shipslists online. A miracle, I found myself and my brother and my mother. If I could find data on the french passengers then all would be much easier. Maybe I could even discover the name of Elisabeth.
Immigration lists
Detailed information: Names, addresses, destination, hair-colour, eyes, etc. Two pages per line per name.
Yes there she was: Elisabeth Demongeot! line number 8 on list 5. Wow ! Do you want to see it yourself click on the picture, and it will open up the document.
And now, how to go on
Now there was a name and I had on list 5 the information "IN TRANSIT TO CANADA". So possibly more to find in Canada.
Google always gives a lot of entries. So this time.
Googling on "Demongeot Toronto" gave the info:
Want to see the rest of the trip?
Ru en Trina
This website is for myself, member of the de Haan family. The information is not specificly ment to be public. Some people, like friends and familymembers can have a look here. An example is the picture:
a picture of my mom and dad in the beloved scenery from their home in Bormes les Mimosas. Rutger de Haan en Trina Prins. It is a symbol of the joy and hapiness of my parents. Ru smoking a Havanna with his grandson Matthias. Trina with her daily toast on life.
Ile de Porquerolles
The mediterane isle in front of Toulon, it was the ultimate spot for Trina en Ru. The extreem sense of love and happiness got over them after a rough boatride from Toulon to Porquerolles. Could a better place be thought off to bring their 3 sons and their wifes together, and hand their parents over to nature?
