Probing the Pasma Roots (Day 5)

During the night the rain began to fall, and in the morning the sky looked threatening.  But we could not resist the impulse to start immediately on our hunt for the Pasma roots.  We had read much of Orville Pasma’s manifesto on the descendants of Klaas and Klaaske Pasma, my Grandpa Pasma’s parents.  So we mapped out a route that took us first to the scenic Fries village of Sneek, then on to the port village of Harlingen, and finally to the early roots in the tiny hamlets of Oosterbierum and Tzummarum along the northwestern coast of Friesland.  Here is a link to a road map of our trip that day:

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Lippenhuizen,+The+Netherlands&daddr=Sneek,+The+Netherlands+to:Harlingen,+The+Netherlands+to:Oosterbierum,+The+Netherlands+to:Tzummarum,+The+Netherlands&hl=en&ll=53.096498,5.740356&spn=0.355408,0.883026&sll=53.094849,5.740356&sspn=0.355421,0.883026&geocode=FXD5KAMdK_tcACkNQaaM2ETIRzEO5vCgPBVxtg%3BFUwtKQMdrGFWACmR9zn_t_HIRzF62GtpEVojdQ%3BFVkmKwMdn-RSACmzlCAE3d3IRzGjZ3BP7p_gXw%3BFeFILAMdCBtUACnV29TPUODIRzG6qSFD9xbnLg%3BFe5WLAMdCK9UACnbicXNv-HIRzHvDiXhRCHvnw&oq=tzu&mra=ls&t=m&z=10

The reason we stopped at Sneek is that my neighbor and others told me that we must.  I disagree with that, having been there.  Perhaps it was that we were a bit grumpy, just starting out on our morning drive (things are never happy just at the beginning of what we know will be a long day; I think it has to do with a drop in blood sugar after breakfast).  Sneek was okay, but the best thing about it is that we found a Hema store, where I found a cute outfit for my new grandson and Jenni found the world’s greatest brown tights and a Subway restaurant.

We also visited a medieval Catholic church, which was stunning inside, with intricate brick work on the massive columns, high ceilings, statues, stained glass windows, and, permeating everything, the smell of holiness and mystery.

It was mid-afternoon before we left Sneek, and we made it to Harlingen 20 minutes later.  Now, here was a town that I would have liked to explore more!  Perched on the coast of the Waddenzee, it was one port from which Dutch ships sailed all over the world.  My great-uncle Henry Pasma caught the sea-bug here, and begged permission to sail with Dutch merchant vessels for the first few years of his adult life.  (Permission was granted.)  We loved the old buildings and picturesque canal.

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More importantly, Harlingen was the city to which my grandfather, Wiebe (William) Pasma, moved when just a boy, along with his parents (Klaas and Klaaske) and siblings.   Our mission:  to find Rommelhaven 7 and 7a, and Rommelhaven 28 and 28a, the home and the store, respectively, of Klaas’s family.  Thanks to Orville’s manifesto and Jenni’s determination and good sense of directions, we navigated the narrow, winding streets of the old Harlingen and found parking just two blocks from the Pasma home.

Filled with a growing excitement, we got Mom’s walker out of the car trunk, grabbed our umbrellas (it was raining by then), and walked the uneven cobblestones to 7 and 7a Rommelhaven. 

In the midst of our picture-taking, the door opened, and an older woman looked at us curiously.  She did not speak much English, so I explained as best I could in German that my grandfather had lived there as a boy, around the turn of the last century.  Her husband arrived and told us that he had lived in the house since a child, and that his own father (now over 100) still lived there also.  

They could not remember, of course, the Pasma family who had lived there before them, but they were able to tell us that the house at 7a had been a potato barn before it had been torn down and a newer home built there.  Here is a photo of the "new" 7a:

We half hoped they might invite us in, but I think the language barrier was too much for them.  It was raining harder by then, so we took our leave with many thanks, and crossed the narrow footbridge over the canal to Rommelhaven 28—a grander-looking corner building, once no doubt the Pasma store but now an elegant home.

 

Driving rain forced us to take shelter another block down under a storefront, while Jenni searched fruitlessly for an open café (everything closes on Mondays, apparently).  When the rain stopped we retraced our steps and stood again in front of Rommelhaven 7, amazed at the knowledge that this would have been an everyday, familiar sight to Mom’s father and grandfather.  With the large boats lining the canal, it was truly beautiful.

Reluctantly we took our leave and drove along the huge, mounded dikes northeast to Oosterbierum.  There, thanks again to Orville’s manifesto, we immediately found the impressive Reformed church at which Klaas and Klaaske first worshiped. 

We also found the small brick house across the street at which their family had lived, before leaving Oosterbierum for Harlingen.

There’s an interesting story in the move from Oosterbierum to Harlingen, which took place sometime in the 1890s. Klaas had been a merchant in Oosterbierum, but was apparently forced to move to Harlingen after some religious controversies made him a bit unpopular with many of his customers.  Klaas was a fervent Calvinist who followed the teachings of Abraham Kuyper and urged his congregation to do the same.  A split between the two hard-headed Dutch theological camps was inevitable, and at first Klaas changed his membership to the newly formed Gereformeerde Kerk in Oosterbierum (now a private home). 

But his customer base in Oosterbierum dropped away, preferring to give their business to Reformed church members instead.  So Klaas left for greener pastures in Harlingen, and eventually in America.

Knowing that Klaas’s birthplace was in nearby Tzummarum, we drove there and found the large church with the cemetery in the center of town.  There we did find a few Pasma tombstones to at least mark the fact that Pasmas lived there at one time:

By this time, Mom was very tired, and we headed home for bowls of hot chicken soup, toasted cheese sandwiches, and warm beds, hoping for better weather the next day.