Excerpt by Kathryn Pentecost (van der Poel family) of Adelaide, South Australia On my mother’s side, I come from an enormous family of van der Poels – some of whom migrated to the Netherlands Indies in the early 1800s. The van der Poel clan dates back before 1600; some members of the family migrated from Holland:…
BDH: Where were you born ? JK: I was born in the beautiful tourist town of Malang, in East Java, the former Dutch East Indies, prior to the Japanese invasion. After struggle for independence, the country became known as Indonesia and the Dutch were expelled. BDH: How did you emigrate ? JK: As a 17-year…
by Tim O’Callaghan of Chicago, Illinois USA My name is Tim O’Callaghan and I am the youngest son of Maria Gerichhausen who left the Netherlands at age 11 months with her family to begin a new life in the Dutch East Indies. They lived initially in Bandung and then Batavia for a total of 22 years. The…