SOMSEN REUNION WORLD WIDE 1997

DECEMBER 1997

VERY LAST NEWSLETTER OF THE REUNION COMMITTEE

THE YEAR 1997

What a fantastic year was 1997 in the history of our family!

For many of us it became a year which will be remembered with warm feelings for the rest of our lives, because of:

• the sparkling world-wide reunion with 450 participants from 11 countries.
• the publication of the family epic Somsen Omnes Genarationes
• the premiere of the impressive family video Somsen Panorama
• access to the Somsen Home Page on the Internet
• the many newly tightened family ties
• and ...maybe because of what will follow hereafter.

One more time you will receive a newsletter from us because there are still some things to be related and to be shared:

THANKS AND THANKS AGAIN

You were great! Enthusiastically you were preparing for the reunion. You went to a lot of trouble to be there and you had the time of your lives at the days of the reunion that were so blessed with sunshine.

The Reunion Committee is very grateful to you for your share in our very successful reunion. We had not expected such an enormous attendance and enthusiasm and we are enormously grateful to you for that. Thanks and thanks again!

AN ANTHOLOGY

You have made it very clear to us in many letters, e-mails, phone-calls, poems (!), diary-entries (!) and conversations that you have enjoyed every bit of it.

We became speechless, flushed regularly but retained a very good feeling after all.

From your letters and e-mails we could quite easily compose the following anthology. You might recognise your own words and feelings:

• We would not have missed this for anything in the world!
• All the expectations have been surpassed by far.
• Something to talk about and relate for a long time.
• Never to forget.
• It was formidable, glorious, grandiose.
• Please do know that I have enjoyed it extremely well!
• What a pity that my father has not been able to experience all this, he would have enjoyed it.
• The book, the Somsen video, all the preparations, the whole reunion-programme, everything testified great craftsmanship.
• It was a climax in our lives.
• The whole reunion was the second most memorable event in my life, the birth of my children being the first.
• The Somsen-week was absolutely fabulous.
• The reunion committee went all out for us. It was so much more than I had expected. We so much appreciated all of your work. Thank you just isn’t enough.
• Thank you for the incredible effort: the book, the well-organised reunion, the trip to the "Somps" (swamps)...and especially the photos of Emma and me "IN" the "Somps".
• It was said the event was excellently prepared as well as a great turn out. Congratulations on your hard work.
• I found the official reunion-days most impressive; climaxes for me were the film, the memorial meeting and the planting of the lime-tree.
• Everyone asks what was the best part of the trip. It was all so memorable, but walking up the drive to Erve Kots and seeing 450 Somsen relatives and the service at St. Helenachurch stand out.
• I REALLY felt as if I had come home.
• Words are totally inadequate to express the feelings of joy, gratitude and awe we have regarding the Somsen World-wide Reunion.
• I hated to come home in the USA.
• Your program was really good, and we do appreciate all of the English translation.
• We...are and will be always indebted to you for all that you have done to make an incredible dream a reality.
• We would very much like to experience the reunion again from minute to minute!
• Thank you very much for the successful Somsen-Reunion. It was a very wonderful family-party indeed.
• The whole weekend was a euphoria with its climax: the service in the church; what a splendid atmosphere, you made the ties with the past almost tangible.
• I found it so terribly moving that you dedicated the book to all those of whom we know that they "would have liked to witness this", for me you scored a bull’s eye!
• My husband is so proud of his heritage and I am so happy to be married to a Somsen!
• You have succeeded in awakening something in people, something of the "us" feeling, which one experiences so rarely. Even the in-laws, like me, felt Somsens to the backbone during that weekend.
• And the organisation was tiptop!
• I received my book, it is "awesome" as our teenagers say in America. It will take me weeks to really get through it.
• My favourite events of the week-end were the Church service and visiting the old Somsen homestead where my great-grandfather lived before emigrating to the USA..
• Wouldn’t it be fun to have another "world-wide" reunion in another 5 years or so, this time in the USA?
• The reunion was a delightful and memorable experience for us. While there we met some of our American relatives for the first time!
• We look at our pictures frequently and relive the whole experience.
• The reunion was a very special experience for us, made even more so by the obvious thoughtfulness and care you put into planning it, even to the smallest detail.
• It was emotionally moving, fun, interesting and so much more.
• I have heard that there is talk of a future reunion in the US. But, we will fondly remember the first ever Somsen family reunion.
• My husband keeps telling everyone that he wishes he were a member of the Somsen family!
• I have read much of the book and have seen the tape. Both are superb. What a wonderful work.
• The whole project rings with quality.
• I regret that my father, who would have revelled in all this information, could not see all this.
• Because of the effort of the reunion-committee it has become a historic meeting.
• I thank you very heartily for the cassette of the memorial meeting in the church in Aalten. I have already listened to it several times and I have enjoyed it very much.
• Our Somsen reunion has brought all of us her closer together realising what it is we truly share...sharing the same values, customs, history.
• The book was wonderfully organised and a pleasure to read. You have put together an incredible history of the Somsen family.
• Many many cordial thanks for these unforgettable days!!! Who could ever have guessed that it would become such a great event!
• I really do hope that in some way or other you are going to give a follow-up to the reunion.

THE WORLD-WIDE SOMSEN REUNION

And great it was! Moreover, both the local papers and the local and national radio paid attention to this uncommon happening, so that neighbours and friends were wondering: what, for heaven’s sake, is happening at the Somsens?!

THE INTERNET

If you want to know what the press wrote you could turn to the Somsen Home Page on the Internet.

John H. Somsen [P2353] has already got many newspaper articles, photos and other highlights of the reunion on his Internet-site.

You can see these via http://www.ness-inc.com/somsen/

Besides John H. is very busy extending this information!

FOR SALE

For those interested we have still got some items for sale:

1 Somsen Omnes Generationes (book, 311 pages) fl. 100 $ 75

2 Somsen Panorama (video, PAL-system, without subtitles) fl 40 *

3 Somsen Panorama (video, PAL-system, English subtitles) fl 50 *

4 Somsen Panorama (video, NTSC-system, English subtitles) $ 27

5 Audio cassette fl 15 $ 10

• Memorial meeting St Helena’s Church, Aalten 10-08-97
• Radio 5 ‘The time of your life’ 08-08-97 (Dutch version)

6 Reunion-video (video, PAL-system, without subtitles) fl. 30 *

• TV Drenthe ‘Teun Hunse [P68], Canada’ augustus 1997
• NCRV-TV ‘Spiritual Power 11’ 25-09-97

about Herman ‘Soshu’ Somsen, [P180]

• TV-Aalten ‘Somsen-Reunion’ 09-08-97 by Leo van der Linde
• Home-video ‘Somsen-Reunion’ 09/10-08-97 by Yvonne Reijs-Edel

(Erve Kots, Memorial Meeting and Camping IJzerlo)

* not available in NTSC-system (USA)

To order one or more articles, please make your check (or money order) payable in US-dollars to:

• Mrs Marieke Edwards

920 East Bay Dr. NE # 3D301

Olympia, WA. 98506

USA

• please mention with your payment the number(s) of the item(s) you order (1 to 6)

All prices include packing and mailing.

THE REUNION COMMITTEE

A long period of hard work has been concluded and the committee may look back on a reunion which was more than successful with feelings of intense satisfaction and pride. A reunion which could be concluded without any deficit, thanks to the good budgetary and expenditure policy of our treasurer Ard Somsen.

On 13 December the Reunion Committee is going to finish this historic Somsen-project in Aalten. On that day we will treat ourselves and our partners to a dinner and we hope while relating many of our experiences and stories to rest on our laurels.

THE CONTINUATION: THE SOMSEN FOUNDATION

The idea had already been mentioned before, but after the reunion the appeal for a continuation was louder than ever before. Many asked us if there was going to be some sort of follow-up.

We also felt that a continuation was bound to happen and therefore we decided in our last meeting on 1 November 1997 to establish a foundation, the Somsen Foundation.

The Somsen Foundation, which is going to be established soon at the office of the notary Mulder in Aalten, will have as its object:

To preserve and promote the solidarity between all Somsens, those who are/were related to them or those who are interested in them.

The Somsen Foundation will try to achieve this object for example by:

• doing historical research into the family-history
• collecting documentation and genealogical data
• keeping and taking charge of a family-archive and data-bases
• publishing a periodical
• providing information to persons, institutions and official authorities
• organising activities so as to realise the object of the foundation.

THE BOARD OF THE SOMSEN FOUNDATION

The board of the Somsen Foundation will initially comprise five members.

We are glad to announce that three members of the Reunion Committee are willing to sit on the new board:

Theo Somsen (Vaassen) [P227]

Wim Somsen (De Heurne) [P518]

Johan Somsen (Epe) [P1098]

We are also very glad that John H.Somsen from Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA [P2353] is prepared to assist the Board of the Foundation as advisor.

BECOME A SUPPORTER OF THE SOMSEN FOUNDATION

One of the characteristics of a foundation is that there are no members (as in a union), but only donors or supporters. You can become a supporter of the Somsen Foundation. The annual donation is $15,= or fl 25,= per address. Then you will receive the Somsen-bulletin twice a year and moreover you will have access to all the data (e.g. the addresses) that the Somsen Foundation has at its disposal.

So becoming a supporter is the way of remaining informed about our family in the present, the past and the future!

You will see that a few things are going to take place!

So send in the enclosed form before January 31, 1998.

If you don’t respond we assume that you are not interested in further information.

PRIVACY PROTECTION

We have the disposal of the addresses (including telephone-numbers) of virtually every Somsen.

The Reunion Committee will hand over these data to the Somsen Foundation.

If you have any objections to this we would like to ask you to make this known on paper before

January 31, 1998. Please use the enclosed form.

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS AND NEW YEAR’S WISHES

We started this very last Newsletter with a retrospect view of 1997. That memorable year is almost over now. Therefore the Reunion Committee wishes all of you a meaningful Christmas and, moreover, a happy New Year for 1998!

Please send in before January 31, 1998 to

Theo D.F.Somsen

Hindenhoek 11

8171 AC Vaassen

The Netherlands

Name :

Address :

Town :

Zipcode :

Country :

Personal Identi-

ficationnumber *:

€ I want to be / do not want to be ** a supporter of the Somsen Foundation.

(N.B. Please do not pay yet !)

€ I do not / do ** object to my address-data being transferred to the Somsen Foundation.

Date :

Signature :

* Your Personal Identificationnumber can be found on the address-sticker or in the index of the

family-book.

** Please delete which does not apply.