Freerk/Frederik's father had a (for that time in that region) large farm in Opende, a few kilometers NW of Marum (see map). The farm consisted foremost of pasture. His mother had died when Freerk was 6 and his father when he was almost 9. Where Freerk and his 6 brothers and sister were then raised is not known.
Description of Freerk by the Militia (H.II.1.): length 1/6/7/5, face broad, stern flat, eyes blue, nose ordinairy, mouth ordinairy, chin broad, hair dark blond, eyebrows dark blond.

Hendrikje was the daughter of a weaver in Marum. Her father had come from Nordhorn in Bentheim (Germany) to Surhuisterveen (in Friesland, 10 km NW of Marum). He married the daughter of the weaver there, who also had come from the County of Bentheim, from the town Neuenhaus. Hendrikje lived with her family near the wind-flower-mill of Marum, in the bend of the road to the Kruisweg (see map).
Hendrikje was small with a "lief kopke" (lovely small face), as recounted by Wieb Posthumus, her granddaughter, who knew her personally.

Freerk and Hendrikje married in 1859 in Marum (see signatures, both with second initial). At that time, Freerk, worked on a farm. Hendrikje was 30, Freerk almost 27.
Children: 1860 Wiebrigje, 1863 Klaas, 1867 Gerrit, 1872 Liena.

Freerk then started in a very small house; he cultivated heath and made it into a reasonable small farm.
Later in life he had (as phrased by his grandson Freerk Posthumus) "due to hard labour" ulcera cruris.  Such sores are not related to hard work; Freerk and Liena's granddaughter Wieb was afflicted, too.

In 1892, daughter Liena, unmarried, bore a son, that was named Freerk. Hendrikje went to the civil registry for the formalities.

Freerk died 28 Februari 1902, in the evening at half ten, 69 years of age. In the newspaper announcement the text has "after a pleasant matrimonial alliance of 42 years".

By the end of that year, a house with 1.62 ha land is sold in Kornhorn (see circle on map) under Doezum (advertisment in the Nieuwsblad van het Noorden 19021207). Is this the house and land of their small farm?

Hendrikje then moved to Nuis where she ran a shop.
Hendrikje died in 1917, aged 88. This is announced in the newspaper by son Gerrit. He continued the shop.

Marriages of the children: Wiebrigje 1883 x Jan van der Velde, Klaas 1893 x Sijke Hessels, Gerrit 1897 x Thijsje Randel, Liena 1897 x Klaas Posthumus.

Freerk descended from a line of reverends in the province of Drenthe. One of the forebears was from german gentry (family name: van Selbach). That there was "nobility" in the family was known, because daughter Liena sometimes mentioned it to the children, without giving details. For her, it was already seven generations back.....

[ Hendrikje's brother was frugal. They owned land and a shop. In the attick stood (during WW I) a milk-can full of silver "rijksdaalders", 2.5 G coins...  (Thus it was told by Wieb Posthumus, Hendrikje's granddaughter.)

Back to the ancestry of FH & HB.
To the dutch version.