Mum and Dad and the family in New Zealand

My father wrote up the family story in his late seventies. He was not a natural with a computer and would sweat over his word documents. Mum wrote, or narrated, her story, but Dad did the final copy.

I placed the document online as a blog for Mum and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary. There was some sensitivity around this because of the Ottema family war history. Nevertheless, in the interest of my parents' descendants, I felt that it is important to make our family story available. The Second World War happened almost a century ago. 

In 2017 Coen Cornilessen wrote a book, De Ottema's that told the whole story and placed it in a sympathetic historical context.

In 2018, I edited Dad's writing a little. I have decided to continue Mum and Dad's story from where it left off . . . one day.