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Genealogical Data
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The Research

And this is how it all started...

From the end of the 90's we, Bertha and Max van Dam  Max en Bertha, started our hobby in genealogy. Initially, we obviously researched our own families, such as: van Dam, van Kleef, Bromet and Nabarro. In part as a result of questions we received, we gradually started researching other families as well. We also researched families of which relatively many name-bearers occurred in our database. 
No family tree will ever be "complete". Always new branches are discovered and new sources are revealed, that may be researched. Both of us experienced the results of the extensive decimation of our families in the Shoah, but fortunately always young new branches grow on to the top of our tree.

Who are we? What interested us about genealogy and what did we aim for?

We, Bertha van Dam-Bromet (born 1941 in Amsterdam) and Max van Dam (born 1939 in Amsterdam) started our genealogy research by the end of the 90's. 

Knowing very little about our families, we slowly started the research for our roots. Initially we were prompted by the enthusiasm of our son Jacob, who had started a preliminary research during a work visit to the Netherlands. Within just a few days of work he managed to retrieve a lot of information, both in Groningen (the van Dam family) and in Amsterdam (the Bromet family). 

Since we were already pensioners, we took over Jacob's research.
It is a hobby we enjoyed immensely from the very beginning - with here and there signs of addiction...

Sadly, on September 18, 2008 my wife Bertha passed away  unexpectedly.


Just one day before her sudden death we had decided to offer our extensive genealogical database to the wider public by publishing it on the Internet as soon as possible. This is realized by means of this web site.
I owe Bertha much gratitude for the accuracy and quality of our growing genealogical database.
Now, I proceed on this path alone.


As so many amongst us, we had gradually developed a  possibly unattainable wish. Ours was to create one large database of the entire Dutch-Jewish community, in cooperation with other researchers. That is of course a utopic vision, as we realized ourselves.  

I do hope though, that this database will assist the visitors of this site to discover more information about their own families.
Through our many contacts, Bertha and I realized that specifically in our own Dutch-Jewish generation, born just before or in the first years of the Second World War, there is a great gap of information concerning one's own family.  

After WW2 we were orphaned from one or both parents and only some were lucky enough to have both their parents survive. In all cases the families were decimated to a large extend or almost completely wiped out.  
After WW2 there was need to get back to work and rebuild daily life and there was little time to speak about the family's past. In addition, many adults were not inclined to discuss their experiences with their children.  

The Jewish children of those days often had no one to tell them about the past, and neither have today. The fact that many people did not return to their previous domiciles added to this lack of first-hand information.  

More than once it occurs that during family research,  close relatives are found, such as a cousin or second cousin. For many of us that is an emotional experience.
Fortunately in our database one will find branches of expanding Jewish families, especially in Israel and the Netherlands.  

We would like to expand this database with the help of visitors to our site.

Any piece of additional information, corrections or simply a positive feed-back will be greatly appreciated.