Mr. Jacobus (Jaap) Domburg —

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There's a full genealogy going back beyond circa 1654 - Andries Jansse, second oldest known ancestor, was baptized 15 Nov 1654, and his father, Jan Ariesse Domburg, must have been born some 20 years before that - circa 1634 perhaps.

Translator: "These are the parents of Jaap: His father was a station-master, born on 23 May 1896 in Zwammerdam and he died in Zwolle on 11 Mar 1961 when he was 64 years old. Jaap’s father was the son of Jan Domburg (zie IXg) and Neeltje Blanken.

Jaap’s father married 02 Sep 1985 at the age of 20 in Bodegraven with Maagje van Egdom. They had 3 children, Jan, Jacobus (our Jaap) and Neeltje.

This is Jaap: Jacobus Domburg, head engineer at Philips, born on 31 Jan 1919 at Bodegraven, son of Klaas Domburg (seeXj) en Maagje van Egdom.

Maried (2) at the age of 36 in Eindhoven with Maria Henriette Caroline Lodewijks (our aunt Mia), who wedded at the age of 32, was born on 16 Mar 1923 in Helmond and was the daughter of Nicolaus Henricus Lodewijkx (=opa) and Antonia Maria Huberta Theunissen (=oma).

From Jaap’s first marriage are 2 children:

1.Frank Robert (see XIII)

2.Jacobien, born on 07 May 1954 in Eindhoven. She married at the age of 22 on 11 Feb 1977 in Laren with Berry Verlinden, 24 years old, born on 09 Jan 1953 in Laren.

XIII This is Jaap’s son Frank Robert.

Frank Robert Domburg, born on 31 Dec 1950 in Eindhoven, son of Jacobus Domburg (see XIm) en Alida Oosterhoff (this is Jaap’s first wife).

Married at the age of 30 on 06 May 1981 in Eindhoven with Claudia Schmitt,born in 1958."

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I ^[1] cannot remember exactly which year it was when I visited Uncle Jaap when he lived with Aunt Mia in a converted farmhouse in Beekbergen near Arnhem and was introduced to a strange contraption on a shelf in his his study.

Coming from the generation that firmly believed John Wayne had won the second world war, and that the whole affair had been conducted in black and white, the strange metal box with a tiny screen, belonged, in my imagination, to the bowels of a submarine.

With its pulsating lines, bleeps, and flashing white dots the machine would not have seemed out of pace in a hospital operating theatre; it resembled somewhat, an oscilloscope.

Jaap had introduced me to a primitive word processor and, having, perhaps, more trouble with the instructions appearing in Dutch than the keyboard, I wrote a short story - one of my first attempts at the genre.

I recall titling the story ‘To See or Not To See’ and it was based on an essay I had written while studying some course or other. I had to submit an essay on a Russian painter called Melevitch who had painted a white square on a white square, I, therefore, submitted a blank piece of paper. I received ‘0’ from the tutor. In my opinion it had been a draw.

Subsequently,the story went through several versions - a monologue and an attempted stage play - before ending up in my bottom drawer. But I do remember my first contact with a machine that has changed all our lives in the study in Uncle Jaap’s converted farmhouse in Beekbergen.

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Jaap and Mia were my Godparents. Jaap arranged for me to undertake a summer internship at Philips when I was at the University of Kent at Canterbury doing my undergraduate degree in electronics. They gave me some very interesting work to do, and I think I acquitted myself quite well. Mia and Jaap were very gracious hosts (they let me stay in the room with the dormer that you can see over the front door). I had an unforgettable time, and the internship experience served me well.