Presentation book “Ancestors and descendants of Jan Pietersz. De Wit” Posted on 01-03-2010 at 16:56

A real “De Wit” happening took place at the Holland Flowers Festival on February 25, 2010. The exhibition was very well visited that day. It was crowded with “De Wit” family members. More than 200 family members from all over the country came to visit and be a witness of the presentation of the first copy of the book “Ancestors and descendants of Jan Pietersz. De Wit” by Simon de Wit Janzn. to the deputy mayor of Stede Broec, Barbara Reus-de Wit.

The book is an initiative of Simon de Wit from Bovenkarspel. After retiring from his career at the family business Jan de Wit en Zonen B.V., Simon found the time to delve into the history of his family. The book is written by Evert Grooteman, whose hobby is genealogy, and who searched through the archives. Simon de Wit collected the contemporary data. The project was started in 2005. It was a tremendous undertaking to collect all data, photos, prayer cards, etc.

Mr. Grooteman spent many hours in the several archives and composed a family tree of 10 generations that goes back to the seventeenth century. The furthest ancestor was Pieter, wedded around 1670 and residing in Grootebroek.

The De Wit family turns out to be an enterprising family. In the past several generations they were vegetable shipper/trader or grower and often a combination of the two. The vegetables were grown and bought in the Streek area, and shipped from the “Kolk” harbour in Broekerhaven to Amsterdam to be sold there at the market. Nowadays the family also counts many entrepreneurs, especially in the business of flower bulbs and bulb flowers, such as with E. de Wit en Zn. B.V., Fa. A. de Wit en Zn., Germaco, De Wit-Schouten, Ronico, Jan de Wit en Zonen B.V., De Wit Transport B.V., but also the sophisticated fashion store in Bovenkarspel Dirk de Wit, furniture store Simon de Wit, etc. etc. Branching out still had to be invented, but the De Wit family has been doing this for 300 years already.

Click here to watch the pictures of the book presentation.