Although my mother has told me lots of details about my family in the Dutch East Indies they were merely details and I asked Tilly to help me put the various details together and make some sense of it all. Tilly decided to go back to my maternal Great Grandparents and the following is the result of many hours of digging through information. We have kept it concise to keep it pleasant for you, who will be reading this interesting story about my ancestors.

Iona Jaeger, March 2023

Abraham Marinus Vermast is born on the 9^th of October 1854 in IJzendijke and was an equine vet.

He became a trainee at the State Veterinary School for East Indies service on 12 October 1875. He was appointed horse doctor 3rd class (2nd lieutenant) on 16 September 1880.

His marriage took place in Delfshaven on the 28^th of October 1880. He married Jacoba Petronella Cornelia van Goor. Jacoba was born on the 3^rd of March 1858 in Rotterdam.

In that same year, on the 6^th of November, they left for the Indies on the s.s Princes Marie which was docked in Amsterdam.

He was first stationed in Batavia or Weltevreden according to adverts in the paper and when he was transferred the young couple travelled by ship and arrived in Semarang around the 18^th of May 1881. Jacoba was around 7 months pregnant at that time.

On the 14^th of July 1881 two months after they have arrived in Semarang their first son was born in Salatiga where Abraham was stationed. He is given the name Willem Marinus Cornelis Vermast (died in Utrecht on the 1^st of April 1952)

On the 17^th of July 1885 a second child is born in Salatiga, a daughter, named Jacoba Petronella Vermast. She is named after her mother and will marry Francis Robert Twiss in Bankalang on the 27^th of March 1907.

Around this time (1885) Abraham is transferred to Soerabaja and in 1886 to Batavia. (advert)

It is in Batavia that the couple’s third child, a daughter, is born. She is named Emma Margaretha Jacoba Anna and she will marry           Jacob Sybrandi in Pakalongan on the 23^rd of December 1909. (Jacoba died 12.02.1940 in Haarlem).

Abraham is granted an extended leave of 2 years, due to an illness, and the whole family returns to Holland on the 5^th of September 1888. When people left for annual leave or longer periods of time, they sold all their belongings in an estate sale. You can see on this advert that all the belongings from Abraham and family were sold on the 1^st of September 1888.

According to an ad in the Samarangs Handelsblad of 26.06.1890 his leave is extended with another 6 months. On 15.08.1890, he was appointed assistant at national veterinary school in Utrecht.

A month before returning to the Indies Abraham gets an honorable discharge from the KNIL.

It is my guess that one child remains in Holland because there is proof that the family (father, mother and only 2 children) return to the Indies in March 1891 as you can see from the adverts. He is reinstated in the KNIL and gets a position in Soerabaja.

In 1892 he was exalted in rank to Captain.

As Abraham has an active life in the KNIL and is away from home on a regular basis his wife has an affair with a local physician called  George Fischer. When Abraham finds out about this affair, he gives Jacoba one option. He will only grand her a divorce on one condition and that is that she marries George Fischer.

The divorce is registered in Semarang on the 29^th of August 1893 (source RR) and on the 3^rd of January 1894 Jacoba marries her George.

My guess is that as part of the settlement the children stay with Abraham as it is known that Abraham starts looking for a new wife immediately. He places an ad in some publications in Holland and meets Catharina Gomes who is born in Den Helder on the 21^st of November 1868 and 14 years younger than him.

As Abraham cannot leave the Indies as no leave is granted, he signs the marriage contract in on the 19^th of July 1895 at the Residents office in Ambarawa, Semarang and is represented by Johan Gerard Justus Paravicini di Capelli who acts on his behalf when the marriage to Catharina Gomes on the 19^th of December 1895 is concluded. This is called marriage with the glove.

Even though on the marriage certificate it states that Catharina is without occupation I know from hearsay that she was a nurse. At the time of their marriage Abraham is 41 years old and Catharina 27 years old.

As Catharina is now a married woman, she joins her husband a month later and boards the S.S. Princes Sophie on the 28^th of December 1895. The ship crosses the oceans from Amsterdam to Batavia.

In Kota Radja, where Abraham is now stationed, their first child is born (my Grandmother) on the 27th of March 1897 and is given the names Henriette Alexandrina Catharina Vermast.

The Vermast family are Dutch Reform.

A son is born in Amsterdam (possibly during leave) on the 21^st of August 1898. He is given the name Abraham Marinus and will become a planter (this will possibly be in the Deli region of Medan) and marries Frieda Julie Schnitzler-Kelch in Soerabaja on the 22^nd of September 1930 (died 11.08.1956 in Amsterdam) Frieda is born in Salatiga on the 17^th of January 1906 and died in Amsterdam on the 1^st of January 1994 she is buried on the cemetery Zorgvliet in Amsterdam.

In 1901 he left for Europe on another one-year leave due to long service. During that leave he was seconded to the farrier school at Amersfoort and to the bacteriological course at Utrecht. Here he also became an assistant at the state veterinary school. In 1902 he returned from leave to the Indies and was retired in 1904.

Their third and last child is born in Renkum on the 10^th of October 1906 and is named Bertha Helena Vermast (nickname Aunt Sus) Bertha married Pieter Jan Kaiser a physician on the 1^st of July 1930.

From the registry of Amsterdam, it is not quite clear whether the family and the children stayed in Holland for a few years or whether they went back and forth to the Indies each time.

In 1909, the queen granted him the titular rank of Major. Abraham was decorated with the medal of honour for important military service with the clasps Atjeh 1873, 1885, 1896 and 1900 with the officer's cross for long-term Dutch service and the knight's cross of the Oranje Nassau order.

On the 14^th of August 1914 Abraham, his wife and two children travel to the Netherlands on the s.s. Kawri and a year later on the 15^th of September 1915 the make another journey on the Insulinde and dock in Rotterdam saying goodbye to the Indies for good.

The search for my mother's paternal side has an interesting twist.

Jacob Abraham Willem van Kluijve was born in Gouda on the          13^th of March 1809 and was a bricklayer's servant.

As you can see the name was “van Kluijve” and this name will in time change to “Kol van Kluijve” the reason will only become clear later.

If we go back two generations to the Great Grandfather of Jacob Abraham Willem and so the 4 x Great Great Grandfather of Iona is called “van Kluijven” and the ”N” is abolished only in the next generation with the father of Jacob Abraham.

Jacob Abraham Willem van Kluijve married Maria Palmboom in The Hague in 1827. Maria was also born in Gouda in 1804. Maria was a pipe maker.

From this marriage born:

- Jacoba Johanna van Kluijve 1827 - 1922

- Willemina Angelina van Kluijve 1829-1830

- Willemina Helena van Kluijve 1831-1905

- Jacob Abraham Willem van Kluijve 1832-1834

- Johannes van Kluijve 1834-1918 (my Great Great Grandfather)

- Jacob Abraham Willem van Kluijve 1836-1902

- Willem Andries van Kluijve 1838-1896

- Marinus van Kluijve 1840-1849

- Abraham van Kluijve 1843-1843

- Abraham van Kluijve 1845-1849

- Leendert van Kluijven (register error) 1847-1879

- Maria van Kluijve 1860-1938

After the death of Maria in 1868, Jacob is left with seven surviving children. He remarries on the 22^nd of November 1871 with          Heintje Neeleman in Gouda. Jacob is 62 years old then. Neeltje is also born in Gouda on the 13^th of March 1822 and had 8 siblings. At the time of their marriage, she was 49 years old. This marriage remains childless.

Johannes van Kluijve the 5 ^th child and second son born on the 13^th of March 1834 in Gouda was supervisor of the state water authority by profession when he married Anthonia Maria de Haan born in 1841 in Woerden daughter of Dirk Kol de Haan and Hendrica Jacoba van Leeuwen.

The second name of Johannes's father-in-law, "Kol", will play a major role in the eventual surname change of the family due to a small mistake at the registration office.

Johannes and Anthonia married on 26 September 1861 in Woerden. Johannes was 27 years old and Anthonia 7 years younger.

From this marriage were born:

- Hendrika Jacoba van Kluijve born in Utrecht 02.05.1862 died in            Utrecht 02.06.1862 and her twin

- Maria Johanna van Kluijve 02.05.1862 – 02.06.1862 both died at          only 1 month old

- Maria Johanna van Kluijve 30.09.1863 Herwen en Aerdt died                28.12.1945 in de Bilt named after her deceased sister

- Dirk Kol van Kluijve (my Great Grandfather) born in Lobith on                 31.01.1865 and died in de Bilt on 11.03.1936 named after his              grandfather

- Hendrika Jacoba van Kluijve born in Lobith on 06.09.1867 died in        Zwolle 16.03.1952

- Jaqueline Alida Wilhelmina van Kluijve born in Lobith 19.02.1869 -      died in de Bilt 30.03.1953

When registering the birth of Dirk, a mistake was made and instead of Dirk Kol (two given names) van Kluijve son of Johannes van Kluijve, he is registered as first name Dirk and surname Kol van Kluijve. All his other siblings have the name van Kluijve, but the rest of his future blood line will continue to carry the surname Kol van Kluijve.

According to the entry on an official register Dirk moved to the Indies on the 24^th of February 1888.

Dirk arrives in the Dutch East Indies around 1888. Dirk was a planter and worked for the Deli Mij. (comp.) who had lots of business dealings with the Sultan of Medan.

Amongst the Sultan’s concubines was a native woman called Roebi. Dirk and Roebi had a relationship, it is my quess that this was with the approval of the Sultan. Apart from Roebi’s name,  I have not been able to find any other information about her. Two children which were born out of wedlock were officially acknowledged by Dirk.

• Johanna Maria Kol van Kluijve was born at the company Batang Serangan, Tandjoeng Poera on the 30^th of December 1890. Her acknowledgement was done in the civil registry in Tanjong Poera on the 15^th of October 1892 on deed nr. 5. On the 22^nd of March 1917 she married Ferdinand Johan Rienks a pharmacist (born around 1885 in Leiden). Johanna dies on the 6^th of July 1953 in Doorwerth (Utrecht). From this marriage one daughter is born, named Johanna Maria Rienks. She is born in The Hague on the 5^th of May 1920 and died in Doorwerth on the 28^th of January 1964.
• Johannes Kol van Kluijve, my maternal Grandfather, and their second child, is born in Tandjong Poera as well, on the              14^th of August 1893. He is acknowledged by civil registry in Tanjong Poera on the 3^rd of April 1894 deed number 1. (source last will and testament from 1896)

On the 20^th of April 1896 Dirk sells all his belongings, something that is often done when people go on leave to Europe for a long time. After everything is sold, he leave the Indies and travels with his two children to the Netherlands. As so many others before him, the children (my Grandfather and Great Aunt Tante Jo) where taken to Holland to live with their aunts and be educated locally. In those days if you had fathered children with a local girl and had acknowledged them, the children were taken from the mother and given to Dutch family to educate.

According to Iona, Roebi, who was illiterate, died of typhoid when Johannes was around 3 years old. Underneath Johannes’ birth certificate Roebi signed with a cross, and this was witnesses underneath by someone else as to be her handwriting. Considering that Johannes was around 3 years old, this gives us a year 1896 the exact same year Dirk goes to Holland with the children.

On the 11^th of November 1896 a last will and testament was made in Hoorn by Hendrik Jan ten Zeldam, Notary Public in Oostenblokker near Hoorn. In said testament one can read that Dirk’s two children, with the permission of their mother, were made heirs to Dirk’s estate. In case Dirk would pass away before the children reach adulthood, Johannes van Kluijve (their Uncle) is appointed guardian. This deed is witnessed by Pieter Bakker and Simon Pieterszoon Bakker. What the relation is between the brothers Bakker and Dirk is not known.

No information was found what exact date Dirk went back to the Indies, but Tilly has found local adverts from 1901 so we assumed he went back between 1896 – 1901.

My Grandmother and Grandfather a match made in the Indies?

Henriette A.C Vermast, born in Kota Radja on the 27^th of March 1897, left the indies for good, or so she thought when she boarded the s.s Insulinde with her parents on the 15^th of September 1915 she was about 18 years old and as far as I can find she or the family lived on the Prinsengracht 153 III in Amsterdam.

Johannes Kol van Kluijve born in Tandjong Poera on the 14^th of August 1893 found himself in Holland as well. As is known, his father Dirk had taken Johannes and his sister Johanna Maria to the Netherlands after the death of their mother Roebi in 1896. This was done to ensure that they would get a good Dutch education, which is what Johannes received. He studied and became an architect.

On the 30^th of December 1927, Johannes Kol van Kluijve then aged 35 and an architect by profession married 30-year-old Henriette Alexandrine Catharina Vermast in The Hague.

Since Johannes is already living in the Dutch East Indies at the time of his marriage, they marry by gauntlet and Johannes has given 55-year-old Christiaan Roos lieutenant-colonel of Military Administration by profession power of attorney to perform the marriage in his place.

Henriette travels on the 3^rd of January 1928 with the ss. Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft to join her husband in the Indies, where she was born.

Apparently, the young couple first lived in Bandung and moved to Medan after the Wall Street crash, however I can only find proof that the settled down in Medan and Johannes worked at the Architects office Bennink & Co, Hugo de Vrieslaan 10 in Medan (which is now called Jl. Uskup Agung).

Henriette is very active for the Oostkust & Sumatra institute.

On the 4^th of June 1929 their first and only child is born and is named Kundry Ruby Edmee Kol van Kluijve. Johannes honours his mother, Roebi, by giving Kundry (nickname Kitty) Roebi (written Ruby) as her second name.

On the 11^th of March 1936 Kundry's Grandfather Dirk Kol van Kluijve sr. died. He had built a majestic house where he retired with his second wife. It was at the Beetslaan 34, 3723 in Bilthoven.

He financed the local natural swimming pool  called " de Biltse Duinen" in Bilthoven but apart from a picture (click here) amongs his belongings, I have not found any other evidence of this. The pool is a Golfclub at present.

Meanwhile Dirk Kol van Kluijve jr. Kundry’s Uncle, is known to be a spoiled boy as he is the only son of Johanna and Dirk sr. allegedly a number of the family believed he had very light fingers (this was already apparent on the police report). Oma (Henriette Vermast) would watch him like a hawk when he came to visit her in The Hague. He also visited my mother and asked her to remove a ring she was wearing so he could look at it more closely. My mother refused and told him he could look at it whilst she was wearing it. Basically, he was not to be trusted.

Johanna Franssen Dirk senior’s second wife allegedly made sure that the children born out of the relationship with Ruby did not inherit a penny. Rumour has it that she forged the will of Dirk sr. making Dirk jr. the sole heir to the large estate. Dirk jr. allegedly blew the lot. 

When Kundry was around 10 years old Johannes and Henriette get divorced after which Henriette worked for the Royal Dutch Shell in Medan.

The second world war:

Kundry and her mother were incarcerated in a Japanese women’s camp for 3 ½ years. In all probability this must have been the camp in St Josefschool in Medan. As this was the only camp near the centre of Medan and my mother told me that she and grandma had to stand in the main square in Medan in the blazing sun for hours on end.

Recent research has pointed towards Poelau Brayan and Aek Pamienke II, but Tilly will investigate this further and the update will be added to this page.

My Grandfather worked for the resistance and organisation called Sapoe Tangan Merah (red handkerchief). The organisation, which consisted of Moluccan soldiers and was supplemented by Menadonese, Timorese and Indo-European ex-militants;

With his 6ft 4” he must have stand out from the crowd. Grandpa was betrayed by a Batak and imprisoned in the Pemantangsiantar prison.

Pematangsiantar is a place on the East Coast of Sumatra where a civilian camp was located in a prison on the corner of Wilhelmina Street and Canton Street in Pematangsiantar. The camp was in use between 11 April 1942 and 15 April 1943. Between 13 March 1942 and 21 December 1942, a civilian camp was also located at the Central Hospital Siantar Doctor Fund (SDF). Between April 1942 and June 1942, a reception camp was set up for family members of indigenous KNIL soldiers captured at the Harrisons & Crosfield Hospital (source: www.oorlogsbronnen.nl).

Johannes was assigned to the demolition squad in the resistance and held in prison as a political prisoner at the time of his arrest. After being tortured he was starved to death and passed away on the        3^rd of December 1944. Starvation has been stated as the official cause of death. 

Grandpa had a Batak girlfriend called Siti, so it is very sour that he had been betrayed by a Batak. My Grandmother was informed of his death but when she arrived to identify the body, it had been removed. As we were never given a burial place it has been our understanding that Siti took the body.

After extensive research by Tilly we have now learned that Johannes has is final resting place in Pemantansiantar behind the Batak Roman Catolic church. An actual burial site number is unknown. 

After the capitulation of the Japanese and the end of the war, Kundry was repatriated to Holland on the ss. Sommelsdijk. She left Belawan, the harbour of Medan, on the 14^th of April 1946 all alone and docked in Rotterdam on the 8^th of May 1946 leaving her mother behind in the Indies.

At that time she was almost 17 years old and found loggings at her aunt in Leiden where she went on to study.

It is in school in Leiden where she meets Eric Jaeger.

The name Jaeger was originally Jäger but Eric’s grandfather changed it somewhere after the Boer War between 1899-1902 to Jaeger as the English found that easier to pronounce.

Eric was born on the 9^th of March 1928 in Pekalongan on the island of Java so both Kundry and Eric were born in the Indies and that would later on probably give them common grounds. As there will be a separate page dedicated to Eric I will keep the information about him very brief.

Unfortunately, the marriage of Kundry and Eric didn’t last and ends in a divorce in 2002 after 50 years of marriage. They ultimately proved incompatible. My father Eric is still alive and lives in the U.K and has just turned 95 years old.

Kundry (my mother) remarried on the 2^nd of July 2003 with                Arend Johan (John) Aarsse born the 31^st of December 1922 and 7 years older than Kundry.

They make their home in Queensland, Australia and have a very close relationship. Kundry finds in him the soulmate she has always wanted, and he is also much loved by all her children. John passes away at age 92 on the 20^th of October 2010.

Kundry Ruby Edmee Aarsse – Kol van Kluijve continued to live in Australia where she died at age 91 on the 18^th of February 2021.

My mother leaves a large loving family behind (3 children, 6 Grandchildren en 3 Great Grandchildren):

• Loving daughter Iona Harriet Jennifer with her children:

1. 1. Robert Eric Hammond & Grandchildren Felix Raul ,            Rose Geraldine Iona & Leo Eric
   2. Sarah Louise Hammond
   3. Laura Emily Hammond

• Loving daughter Marla Francis Marye with her child:

1. 1. Niko Terace Rye Kaminski

• Loving daughter Emma Edmee Marguerite with her children:

1. 1. Felix Carl Jaeger-Lee
   2. Thomas Johannes Jaeger-Lee

Iona Jaeger - Wood, March 2023