The picture above was given by Louisa Johanna, the daughter of Evert Dirk, to Johan and Loes van Gorkom (
johan @ vangorkom.net). Louisa's father is right in the middle. He is surrounded by his wife, three children, an aunt and someone else. It is tempting to believe that the picture was taken in 1907. The incredible hats of the ladies make it absolutely clear that these people lived in the first decade of the twentieth century. The children of Evert Dirk were born in 1891, 1892 and 1893, the youngest being a boy, called Evert Dirk as well. You see this boy on the back row at the right side of the picture. He wears a cap and has no moustache, so he may very well be 14 years old. His sisters are sitting close to their father who is 45 years old in 1907. Their mother is certainly sitting at the father's left side, so the "proper" side, so to say. The pose of both parents is the same. The older woman on the back row must be the aunt. It might be Evert Dirk's sister Aletta. Father Evert Dirk will have been close to Aletta as she was a kind of second mother to him when he moved to Amsterdam with her. Moreover, they are sitting on a dune with dens, a landscape typical for Hilversum, where Aletta and her husband moved in 1906. The self-confident looking young man next to her cannot be her husband Philip, as he was already 67 in 1907. However, he could well be one of Aletta's sons, sitting next to his mother. Her youngest son
Philip Phoel had moved to Hilversum with his parents and was approximately 21 then. It would mean that the picture was taken just a few months before his emigration to New York. Interesting detail is that Philip Jr and his uncle Evert Dirk had the same profession, both being diamond setters.
In 1893 the Amsterdam bevolkingsregister (citizens register) had introduced the so-called gezinskaart. Literally translated it means family card. On the card the name of the head of the family was written, his age, address and similar details of people living with him, like his wife and children, but also a sister or other relative that moved in for some time. These cards are very informative therefore. Evert Dirk got his own card too in 1893. He had just married Geertruida Hendrika Walther on 13 November 1890. She was born in Amsterdam on 7 October 1864 as a daughter of Johann Georg Walther and Maria Louisa Schul. At the time they lived at the Binnen Wieringerstraat no. 12, close to the Brouwersgracht (Brewers Canal). The names of the wife's parents are absolutely German.
