Last summer, we received an extraordinary email from a completely unknown individual. In the email, we were offered the sea atlas from 1914 that was used by Captain Vreugdenhil during World War I. It’s marked with special navigation routes to evade German U-boats. Adrianus Vreugdenhil also invented a directional indicator for sea vessels, but it wasn’t widely adopted because it was unclear to many captains. You can find more information about Adrianus on page 149 of our family tree book.
Oscar Vreugdenhil is normally found among building materials and saw machines, but this time it started in Poland. With an old Volvo, the entrepreneur from Meteren brings refugees from Ukraine to the nearest train station. “I have to help those people.” After a 1500-kilometer drive, he suddenly found himself at the border of the war zone. “Not dangerous, but exciting,” says Oscar.
The Klundert town hall is 400 years old. The Marital Lane showcases over 500 portraits of weddings officiated there. Among them that of Jaap Vreugdenhil and Sita Strootman who were wed there 44 years ago.
Bas Vreugdenhil of cafe ‘t Peerdt had wanted to slow down. He’s worked in the hospitality industry for over fifty years, but successive lockdowns saw his retirement get pushed away further and further. “We were finally doing well again,” he says. “But now we have to close earlier and check QR-codes while only a small percentage of infections can be traced back to our industry.” He’s lost all ideas on how to continue.
Bas en Geertje Vreugdenhil,
When Dennis gets into the cab of his truck his shoes come off. He’s very proud of his cab.
The oldest supermarket of Curaçao is 90 years old. Vreugdenhil opened its doors in 1931 at the Ruyterkade in Willemstad. It was the first to have a shop without a counter. Frans Vreugdenhil (D IX m) was the founder who arrived on Curaçao by ship in the twenties of the last century as captain of the Royal Dutch Steamboat Company. He met his wife there and decided to stay.
