This history page describes how this Ringersma Family Tree website was created by Pieter Hendrik (Piet) Ringersma Sr.
Pieter Hendrik Ringersma (senior) deceased at May 4, 2002 at age 82.
The data of the familytree of the “Ringersma” family has been collected by Pieter Hendrik Ringersma senior, born February 16, 1920, in the parish of Dantumadeel in the province of Friesland in The Netherlands. The province (or county) of Friesland, from which our family originated, is located in the nothern part of the country.
After his studies at the Higher Technical College in Dordrecht, in 1945, he started work as a civil engineer for the Department of Transport for 40 years.
Reasons for collecting information
In the fall of 1995 his eldest son Henk, gave him a piece of paper with all the addresses of persons with the familyname “Ringersma’s” as mentioned in the Dutch telephone directory. There were about 30 addresses, four of which were his own family. It was suggested that he should research the familytree of the “Ringersma” family, because in view of the number of addresses in the phonebook, that should not be a momentous task.
Piet sent a letter to all unknown Ringersma’s family members and asked them for information about their families. The reactions he received on this letter stimulated him to arrange the information into an overview. Although at age of 75 he already had a computer, and after installing a special genealogy program he started processing the received data.
How our history was reconstructed
Family members have send him most of the available data. Even from as far away as United States of America and Australia. He also received very valuable information from others, outside the family. Many thanks to all. There are too many to thank everyone personally.
Also he collected information from the archives of the province of Friesland and from the archives of other provinces, as well as from the state archives. The collection is not complete yet, but a first overview can be found in these webpages. As mentioned at the initial webpage, you can also order the information in bookform.
Finally, it is very much appreciated if you would send additions and corrections on this website.
Revival of this site
The work on collecting the familytree data will be continued by his son Henk P. Ringersma. The contact page informs you on how to reach him.