Introduction
This is an evolving story and I'll probably have to update this page several times but I wanted to gather some of the background information into a single location.
It would seem that I have a half uncle on my mom's side, born just after WWII. His dad is my maternal grandfather and my family connected with him via "23 and Me" so we're fairly certain this is all real. Neither Andre (My half Uncle) nor myself knew Robert Jackson (My Grandfather), or 'Bob' as he is referred to in the article below, as he passed away when my mother was 15.
Below you'll find all the information I have to date
- We start with an article that was translated by my cousin from Dutch to English about my uncles search for his family starting in 1992
- I've added in what I know about the "23 and Me" genetic test.
- There is then some additional correspondence and background from my Uncle after the connection via "23 and Me"
- We finish up with my family meeting up with him in his home town of Amsterdam.
I'm still hoping I can find his news paper ads that he placed in Canada and his interaction with Canadian media.
Hope you enjoy!
Dutch Article
The war is not over for Andre Swart. Although he will be 75 this fall, he still has that one big question: who was the Canadian soldier who fathered me?
What is certain is that he will be born on Saturday 14 September 1946 in the Wilhelmina Gasthuis in Amsterdam. He is three days old when he comes into the home of a childless couple from Amsterdam as a foster child. “He was 36, she was 35. They had responded to a newspaper ad offering a child. That happened more often then.”
The mothers who placed the advertisements were unmarried pregnant women who, in their desperation, offered their unborn babies as foster children. In many cases they had no money to raise a child on their own. Giving up their baby was a way to hide the shame of unmarried motherhood. Because girls with a child 'without' a father were looked down on at the time. Andre Swart later heard from his foster parents why the choice fell on them: “Because they lived in Amsterdam South. That was known as a neat neighborhood.”
He says that as a child he always felt welcome with the father and mother who raised him. The word adoptive parents does not pass his lips. “I see them as my parents. Period."
It was never a secret that they are not his biological father and mother. “As toddlers, they already told you how it was. I don't think it ever had an impact. They have been very loving parents to me.”
In 1947, another letter arrived in which his biological mother inquired whether her son was doing well. Then it stopped contacting. Liberation child Andre received a technical education, got married and had a career in technology. The question of where he came from slumbered. Until in 1998 he wanted to know more about his background. He found out Maria Geertruida's address through the municipality of Nijmegen, after which he sent her a letter. "She replied that she had had a terrible life and that she did not want to be reminded of the past."
Later, her other son — a half-brother whose existence he did not know — took over the post. He contacted Andre, after which a one-off meeting came between the mother and her 'forgotten' son. “She said she was no longer sure if my father's name was Bob and she no longer had an address for him. The letters she received from him after the war were gone. I still blame her for that. She only had the photos from that time where they were together.”
In the end, thanks to questions from his half-brother to mom, some backgrounds emerged: her Canadian 'Bob' knew at the time that she was pregnant. That's why he had proposed to her in a letter to come to Canada with the baby. What the returned soldier did not know was that the young mother had already had a child before. So the half-brother in question. Emigrating would therefore mean that she had to abandon her oldest son. Breaking with 'Bob' and giving up her youngest son was therefore her escape route. Before she would find a new husband, she stayed with her parents for a while with her eldest son. To cover the shame of unmarried motherhood, the family told everyone that the little toddler was their youngest child. The fact that their eldest daughter was the boy's mother was kept secret.
Meanwhile, Andre's biological mother has passed away. He realizes that "Bob" probably isn't alive either. He is still in contact with his half-brother, who has never known who his father is. After Andre retired in 2010, he made another attempt through Canadian media to find 'Bob'. In vain. “I only had those pictures. Not even sure of his name, let alone an army number or something. That offered too few starting points.”
A search at a reunion of Canadian veterans in Nijmegen and a letter campaign in Canada also came to nothing. “Of course I started looking too late. Unfortunately."
What had he wanted to know from his father? "Nothing special. Just what else he has done with his life. And if I look like him. In the photos from back then, he looks just like me when I was in my twenties. I would also like to know if he was technical. Maybe I got my technical talent from him.”
Recently he had to go to the hospital. There they inquired about common illnesses in his family. "I said I had no idea because I don't know my family."
"23 and Me"
We pick things up at Christmas time in 2020. My cousins wife purchased a "23 and Me" test for him for Christmas. He sat on it for close to a year before doing the test and waiting for the results. After some initial enjoyment of seeing where in the world his DNA came from and how much Neanderthal he is, nothing happened until the following Christmas when he was clearing out his e-mails and found one from "23 and Me" indicating they had discovered a match. He had already seen several 'matches' of less than 6% but this one was close to 12%. People can often share a few percentage points of DNA without it being anything close but anything above 6% and you are into a family tree you can draw on a single page.
Below is the first correspondence between my cousin who took the test and my half Uncle.
Letter from My Uncle
In June 2021 I visited Recherchebureau (Detective Agency) Leijs & Partners - hereinafter referred to as the agency - with the request to try to find 'Bob'. When I spoke about my father/begetter I always referred to 'Bob', that was because I had once heard someone say that all Canadian men are probably called Bob, I thought that was a nice idea, hence 'Bob'.
The agency's investigation went well and in September I received a first report on what DNA matches I have in different databases. On December 29 I was called by Els Leijs with the announcement that they had found 'Bob': Robert Lloyd George Jackson, so his name was indeed Bob. I was very happy with this result and expected a report with address details and an invoice from the agency. Nothing. Called the agency on February 23, 2022 and spoke to Els, she thought she had sent me a message. Not so. Finally an email from Els yesterday in which your email address, the lack of information from the agency is the reason that I was not able to contact you earlier.
On September 14, 1946, my natural mother Maria Geertruida van Loenen gave birth to me in the Wilhelminagasthuis (Wilhelmina Hospital) in Amsterdam. Two days later she handed me over to foster parents who raised me lovingly: Piet Swart and Ali Smit.
Everyone knows who he or she resembles, I don't, that's why I decided to find out Maria Geertruida's address and wrote her in January 1992 with a number of questions about my origin. I received a very angry letter from her, she had had a terrible life, did not remember his name and did not want to contact me, but did send a number of photos of 'Bob'. Then I knew who I look like. In 1994 I contacted her again and it turned out that I had a half-brother – born in 1944, father unknown, possible incest.
With the commemoration of the liberation in 1995 there were many Canadians in the Netherlands, after all, the veterans were getting older, in 1995 the liberation was fifty years ago and many were still alive, hence a large-scale commemoration. I then went on ‘hunt for Canadian’ in Nijmegen with my half-brother, hoping to learn a bit more about 'Bob' from the photos or maybe even find him. I then also spoke to Maria Geertruida, according to her his name was indeed Bob and he came from the province of Ontario. Our search in Nijmegen had no results, but I did find out that the photos were taken in Nijmegen, I also met other Canadians who were also on 'my' photos, but no one knew who 'Bob' was. In the years that followed, I also made some attempts to find 'Bob', but that was also unsuccessful.
The reason I went looking again was because I really wanted to know what kind of man he was, I myself am fairly technically minded and I was curious if he was, was he a nice man, those kinds of questions and more, questions I can now ask your father or your aunt. I can come to you with my wife AnneMieke Sprenger to get to know you, although I look up to the flight with a mouth cap, but that has to be done. I am looking forward to our meeting, find it very exciting but it also makes me nervous.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Kind regards
Families Unite in 2023
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