For the newspaper I am at the opening of the new exhibition in the National Prison Museum in Veenhuizen.
Curator Alina Dijk devised a small exhibition about ancestors and their descendants. She herself also recently discovered that she has an ancestor who must have lived in appalling conditions at her current workplace. As a history buff, I always get the creeps from such extraordinary coincidences.
I myself would love to have such a connection with the Colonies of Benevolence. Stories like that of the family of writer Suzanna Jansen, who wrote the successful book The Pauper’s Paradise wrote about, or from former newsreader Philip Freriks who turns out to have a rather dissolute great-great-grandmother. They are quite imaginative.
I’m quite ashamed of this genealogical sensationalism, but I can’t help but look a little jealous at the opening at all the descendants who empathize with the lives of their ancestors. A little later I meet a descendant who tells about the sad life of his ancestor. The surname of this descendant also appears in my family tree. He promises to find out if there is a link, a few hours later he emails me.
We are not only distant relatives, the man also tells me that one of my ancestors has a history in Veenhuizen. He was an orphan. I am as happy as a child. “Yes, we are paupers too!” I send in the family app. My sensationalism is rewarded with silence. Carefully I make my own diagnosis: a big knock from the mill. Two centuries ago you were sent to the colonies in Drenthe for less.