On the gravestone of Lutske Snip, the following text is written: “deceased while saving her child August 9, 1926.” When someone reads something like this, one wonders, what exactly happened that day and what became of her child(ren)? Hence, my research into this family tragedy.
Lutske, a daughter of Siete Snip and Antje van der Velde, was born on August 25, 1893 in Sebaldeburen. On January 31, 1918, she married Popke van der Wei in Emmen. In this family, 4 children were born.
Johannes (Jo) on June 15, 1918, Siete on September 15, 1920, Antje on June 28, 1923, and on June 5, 1925, Gezina (Sientje) joined the family as the youngest daughter. On June 25, 1922, another child was born, but sadly did not survive.
And then it becomes August 9, 1926, a black day. The van der Wei family lives by the Vledders near Nieuw Weerdinge. One of the girls, Antje, 3 years old, falls into the canal. Mother Lutske jumps in after her. Antje is pulled from the water by passersby and survives the incident. But Lutske is not noticed for a while, all eyes apparently focused on the rescued Antje, and she drowns. A sad additional detail is that Lutske was pregnant during this accident. Her husband, Popke van der Wei, was working in Hengelo at the time and therefore not present during the accident.
Father Popke is left alone with 4 small children. Both boys, Johannes and Siete, apparently can stay with their father, but a solution must be found for the two little girls. Gezina is only 1 year old, and Antje is only 3. The solution is that Gezina will be placed with her aunt Janke and her husband Roelf Bouwes, and Antje will be raised by aunt Lamke and her husband Lute Hoogenberg. Gerrit Akker, married to Lutske’s youngest sister Feikje, is appointed as the overseeing guardian of the children. Gezina is lovingly taken care of, as she will tell her children later on, but Antje feels somewhat neglected compared to her “foster” brother Egbert in the Hoogenberg family.
For a long time, Gezina doesn’t know that Roelf and Janke are not her real parents, but when she first goes to elementary school, she suddenly hears the name Gezina van der Wei instead of Gezina Bouwes. When she returns home, she then hears the whole story about her real parents.
Popke van der Wei moved with his two sons to Hengelo, where his parents also lived, and remarried on September 1, 1933, to Janna Meijer (* September 10, 1904). He passed away in 1968. There remained good contact between the family members. When Gezina wanted to marry Albert Dennebos in 1947, she also needed permission from her father Popke van der Wei, so the journey to distant Hengelo was undertaken. Antje also married in 1947, likely in Groningen, to P. Slomp. Johannes, the eldest son, married Marie Borchert and passed away on April 28, 1996, in Doetinchem; unfortunately, I have no further information about Siete. Finally, Gezina passed away on March 12, 2010, 14 years after her husband Albert.
Text by Paul Snip 09-12-2015
