Aat Versteegt (50):
“Our family history is the foundation for good contact".
Aat Versteegt (50): I consider my family larger than what you normally do.
In all, around the world, about four hundred people all descended from Jan Beerentsz Versteeg.
My interest in our family began when I was twenty. I was living with my parents in Katwijk and discovered that in the nearby village of Rijnsburg lived another family with the name Versteegt.
No one could tell me if we were related to this family. Even when I called these people, they did not know if we were related.
I began my first research from this, the first piece of the puzzle.

Once the internet came available, I developed a site where my collected information could be published.
I had heard that someone else was also busy researching our family tree, but did not know who that was. Through the website I found this person: Henk Versteegt from Zeeland.
We added everything together. Thus a good base for further joint research. We looked in archives, went to visit people and began to build the data base.
Thanks to the site our research went very well. For instance I was contacted by people from Hong Kong, Canada, and America.

In the nineteenth century two brothers Versteegt immigrated to America at Staten Island. So the Ver Steegt’s there have the same ancestors.

Even closer to home there are peculiar ties to research. I discovered through the internet that there was a Jan Versteegt who I did not know before.
I contacted him. He told me he himself did not know who his biological father was. Thanks to the information in our database we could look this up. Later on father and son were reunited.
The contacts I got thanks to the research and the website are awesome. One of the American family members is a sound engineer with a reggae band. When he is on tour in Europe, we always try to find the time to meet. Our shared family history is the foundation for good contact.

Some of the relatives who I had not know existed have become friends of mine.
I think it is important to gather and publish information for posterity.
The Versteegt family has a particularly rich family history. To me, bringing everyone and everything together motivates me very much.

The web site of Aat Versteegt is: www.versteegt.net

(Photo caption) From left to right: Ron Versteegt, his father Aat Versteegt, the families genealogy partner Henk Versteegt and Jan Versteegt who through genealogy research met his natural father.

This page is last edited on: 12-05-09