The album linked in the first box below contains a series of photos of my grandparents, my parents, and my uncles and aunts.

The second link connects to ten albums with a total of some 500 image files from my own life history, from 1932 to 2012, in successive periods of 3 to 10 years per album. In several instances the transition between periods is marked by some significant event. Click on any one of the links in the box to go to the album for that period. Close the tab to return to this page.

In 2011, I completed a lengthy autobiography, primarily for my children and grandchildren. I had a small number of copies printed for distribution to my children and to my wife Dixie’s and my siblings. The complete document, including many photographs, is accessible via the third box, in a series of separate files. In April 2020 I added an update that covers the period from 2011 on. The link for that document is also in the same box.

The link in the fourth box opens a 24-page document prepared by Jack Vanden Born and titled The Vanden Born and Nijboer line. It describes the early history of my ancestors on both my father’s and my mother’s (Nijboer) side.

The link in the next box connects to a collection of photos of Dixie’s ancestors. Dixie was born in Wisconsin, United States, to first- and second-generation immigrants from the Netherlands who early in her life moved to Alberta and made their home there.

An additional link connects to a collection of photos of Dixie’s mother, Harriet Wierenga, presented at her 100th birthday celebration. She died on 23 August 2017, aged 101. The box contains a link to a special page dedicated to her memory.

Five of my six siblings are no longer living; a link in the final box goes to a separate page that provides some detail as well as further links to photo collections for each of them, and for a sister-in-law and a brother-in-law who died in 2015 and 2016.

William H. Vanden Born
October 2021

Bill’s Ancestry
The album contains about 110 images of my two sets of grandparents and of my parents, including the places where they lived. The image shown is of my Vanden Born grandparents in 1930, at the time of my parents’ wedding.
Click on the heading or on the image to see the album.

Bill’s Life
1932-1949    1949-1958    1958-1961
1962-1970    1971-1980    1981-1990
1991-1995    1996-2000    2001-2005
2006-2012

Autobiography 2011

In February 2011 I completed a project that I had started about three years earlier, writing my autobiography, complete with a lot of pictures and some history of the van den Born family. I have transformed each of the sections or chapters (in a few cases parts of chapters) into ‘pdf’ files and uploaded them all to this website, so the material is available to all who are sufficiently interested to look at it. I have made printed copies for each of our five children and for Dixie’s and my siblings, but I am not planning any public distribution or sale of copies.
If you are interested in reading the autobiography, click here or on the image. In April 2020 I added Further Destinations, an annotated timeline and story of events in my life since 2010.

The van den Born and Nijboer lines

In 1992, Jack Vanden Born prepared separate documents that described the van den Born and Nijboer lines. In 2014, and again in 2019, he updated the van den Born history with information provided by cousin Peter van den Born in The Netherlands and then combined the two documents. The van den Born section covers the period from 1641 to 1949. The Nijboer part covers the period from 1713 to 1983, the year our mother Nennetje died. The photo on the left shows the two families in 1930 at the time of my parents’ wedding.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Click here or on the link above to see the document.

Dixie’s Ancestry
The album contains about 75 photos from both the Wierenga and the Westra side of Dixie’s parents and grandparents.
Click on the heading or on the image to see the album.

Harriet Wierenga at 100
The album contains about 180 photos from Dixie’s mother’s life, from the time she was born in 1916 to her 100th birthday in 2016. Click on the heading or on the image to see the album.
Harriet Wierenga died 23 August 2017, aged 101. A special page is dedicated to her memory. Click here to go to that page.

Deaths in the family

Information and links to photo albums related to the deaths of five of my siblings (George, John, JohnJ, Wilco, Bertha), a sister-in-law (Sophie), and a brother-in-law (Herman) are on a separate page.
Click here for the page that has links to relevant photo albums and other details.