• D.F. van Laren
    Single Men and Women October 28, 1953 – Groote Beer Tuesday Oct 20th departure day finally arrived. My fiancée had the use of her father’s car for the trip to Rotterdam and Dad, Mother and my sister came along for the waving out ceremony. The final goodbyes had to be said in the departure hall just …
  • Mels van der Laan
    Single Men and Women December 9, 1955 – Ryndam Born Melchior Franciscus van der Laan, the youngest of five children. The oldest being my brother Han, 17 years my senior, three sisters, Adre, Mien and Gre, then yours truly, fondly known as Mels. Although very young at the time, I still can see the …
  • My Suitcase by Nina
    Time 0:03:44 Transcript Last summer, I visited the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. I saw many immigrants’ suitcases and settlement stories - both positive and negative. I told my husband that it would be nice to donate my suitcase and my story. I left everything at home, like the …
  • N. Peerboom
    Single Men and Women June 6, 1952 – Waterman I well remember the day that I disembarked from the MS Waterman in Halifax NS on June 6, 1952 and passed through the now famous Pier 21 shed. The Customs and Immigration officials processed the 900 Dutch arrivals smoothly, after which we proceeded to the …
  • W.A.T. van den Byllaardt
    Single Men and Women April 21, 1957 – Ryndam Arrived in Halifax on April 21, 1957, with the SS Ryndam, HAL. During the trip we had one day, rough stormy weather in the North Atlantic and the dining room did not get the patrons it deserved. The services, entertainment, and personnel were sublime. We …
  • John Vanderlaan
    Single Men and Women Veendam On May 23rd 1930, I was born in a small village in the northern part of The Netherlands. At the time of my birth I had 3 siblings. A brother and 2 sisters. At later dates 2 more brothers were born. When 6 years old, I went to elementary school and in 1942 went to high …
  • Cornelis Verwolf
    Single Men and Women February 26, 1950 – Beaverbrae I have been asked numerous times why I left home and came to Canada. When I was 9 years old the war started in the low lands (Holland) on May 10, 1940. At about 4:30 a.m. there was a lot of banging, airplanes flying in all directions. An hour …
  • Photographs-Life in Hungary
    … Photographs-Life in Hungary …
  • Photographs-Aboard the Ship and Plane
    … Photographs-Aboard the Ship and Plane …
  • Photographs-Coming to Canada
    … Photographs-Coming to Canada …