Our Stories: A family reunion in the Netherlands

A group of MyHeritage users from Holland and Canada met for the first time in Haarlem, Netherlands, in May.

Family photo outside the North Holland Archives

Joining them was our Netherlands country manager Denie Kasan, who documented their reunion at the North Holland Archives in Haarlem. Following is a translation based on his original post.

Last week in the North Holland Archives, a special family reunion took place.

In honor of their Canadian relative Gordon Benedict, MyHeritage user Elly Groot organized the event to meet him for the first time.

The day began with introductions and snacks. Gordon was pleasantly surprised by the local treats and souvenirs.

Starting the day with introductions and snacks

Elly invited Gordon to share his story, talk about his family, and how he discovered his new Dutch relatives.

While studying in the Netherlands, Gordon became interested in finding out more about his family background, and visited his grandmother to ask questions.

After returning home, his curiosity got the better of him, and he wanted to learn even more about his family heritage. After searching on Google, he found MyHeritage and signed up to begin his search.

Gordon Benedict shares his family and background

After entering the information that he knew, Gordon began to receive Smart Matches, which led to family tree connections with other users, including André Been and Elly Groot.  He met André and Elly for the first time at the reunion.

“You start with a simple question about one Tjeerd Raatsveld and, before you know it, you are already back 20 years,” said Gordon.

Through genealogical research, Gordon discovered more about his Dutch family and Holland, in general.

Gordon also gave a photo presentation about his childhood and growing up in Canada, in addition to sharing how he discovered his family.

He said that he really enjoyed his visit to the Netherlands to meet his distant relatives and to enrich his family connections.

Gordon meets new family members

We love to hear about MyHeritage members finding distant relatives from around the world.

Have you found any family members that live across the globe? What have you recently discovered about your family history?

Let us know in the comments below.