Coers, Onnes, and Roest - More Tangled Webs

In previous blog postings, I've explored various tangled webs of interrelationships within my genealogy database. In this missive, I look at three families from opposite corners of the Netherlands: The Onnes family from Groningen, the Roest family from Middelburg (Zeeland), and the Coers family of Arnhem, in the south of Gelderland.

Interrelationships between Coers, Onnes, and Roest families.

In this drop chart, the individuals marked in blue are distant cousins. Let's begin with someone we've visited before, my fourth cousin twice removed, physicist Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes (1853-1926). His parents were Harm Kamerlingh-Onnes (1819-1880) and Anna Gerdina Coers (1829-1899), linking two of these families.

Heike's uncle Jacob Jan Coers (born 1834) worked in the printing and lithography business in Arnhem, establishing in the 1850's the firm Letter- en stereotypegieterij, kunstboekdrukkerij en graveerinrichting Onnes, de Boer en Coers. One of his partners in that company was Hermannus Barteld Onnes (1807-1863), first cousin once removed of Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes.

In the 1880's, Jacob Jan Coers took on his brother-in-law, Gerrit Roest (1857-1908), as a partner in the firm Coers & Roest, a company that still does business today.

The interrelationships between these families continue: Gerrit Roest married Heilina Froukelina Onnes (born 1859), a first cousin of Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes. And Jacob Jan's brother Gerrit Thomas Coers (1826-1903) married Agatha Henderika Onnes (1831-1895), a second cousin of Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes.

Cheers! Hans