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RE: The Road to Steem Fest | The Thai Life and what to expect
Thailand is similar to Vietnam. Oh, I don't know if I told you that my grandpa is from the Netherlands. I've not been to Thailand, so it might be immature for me to prefer Vietnam.
And I've not been in Vietnam, so can't compare the two. I'm planning to go (soon) though, so I'll be sure to report back on that!
No, I didn't know your grandfather is from the Netherlands @joeyarnoldvn! Do you know where he's from? Did he immigrate to the US? That's cool, you must have gotten your awesomeness from him ;)
Awesomeness:
Yeah, my dad is built like an ox. Pretty strong like an ape. So, good heredity. So, probably because he is dutch. My dad was born in California. My dad's dad was born in the Netherlands.
The Titanic
My dad didn't know he was adopted until his teen years. Eventually, he found his birth mom. But his real dad, Peter Marinus Rasp, died around 1953. So, that means we don't know as much about my dad's side of the family. Peter was born in 1906-04-14 in Amsterdam. I heard a rumor that they missed the Titanic because Peter's dad, Peter Sr, was drunk somewhere. So, then, they eventually made it to Canada and then California. So, Peter's dad might have been from Germany. I'm still trying to find out more about those things.
That sounds very interesting. I'm intrigued...
Now that would be the best ever told about how a person got too drunk to make the passage on the Titanic. But it makes no sense because there were ships going from Rotterdam at the time, so I doubt that Dutch families would first sail to the UK and then take the Titanic to the US.
My father is from Amsterdam and he had an uncle and aunt who sailed to the US on the Holland - America line. They ended up in Canada and since a few years, I've been in touch with a few of the people on that side of the family. For me it was easy, because I don't have a very common surname. But everyone with the same surname is related :)
The last name Rasp is definitely Dutch, not German. It even sounds familiar, but that could be my brain trying too hard. It's a shame my father isn't alive, because he knew a lot of people in Amsterdam, as his cousin and best friend was quite the celebrity. Now that I think of it, I might write about it sometimes!
There's a website that might help you in your search:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/748241?availability=Family%20History%20Library
It has the passenger lists of all the sailings in that time. If you scroll down and look at: 'Passagiersregister' that should have the lists...
Did your father ever find out why he was adopted? I believe it happened a lot those days, simply because people went to the US with all these hopes and dreams that didn't quite happen the way they hoped and they then didn't have the money to support their families. Sad really. We're so lucky to live in this time, and we don't even realize it.
Different Spellings:
I've heard there are different spellings to my grandpa's surname, Rasp. Another spelling might be Raspe. Family Search is a good website. Thanks. I've been there. Also, Wiki Tree.
Adoption
My mom talked to my dad's real mom. So, I was told that my dad's parents were getting and feeling old. So, my dad's dad died when my dad was like three. So, his mom felt like she couldn't take care of him. So, she gave him up. But then she ended up remarrying and having another son. So, my dad's dad may have had heart disease or something as he died at around the age of 47, assuming he lived from 1906-1953.
Litography
I've read on I think Ancestry that my grandpa was in the occupation of lithography. So, perhaps, that was a family business that they were doing in the Netherlands and then in California as well. Ironically, I like to write. So, in some ways, I might be like my grandpa even as I've never met him. By the way, I stay away from beer.
Titanic
I need to look more into it. I guess they didn't have to, like you said. Maybe they just really desired to be on the Titanic. It might have been the cool thing to do.
Family Tree
Here is a link to a family tree (that I made on WikiTree) that I think is as accurate as I can make it. My great grandpa was Pieter Rasp Sr. born 1879, July 22, in Amsterdam. He married a Marie Charlotte Van Der Byl. Married in 1903. They probably had 5 children including my grandpa.
Well, either way, it sounds like your family history is quite interesting. I love going through info in history. I've been trying to find out more about my ancestors. It's harder now because both of my parents and any uncles and aunts have since passed away. I still have some cousings though who are much older and grew up with my mother, they would possibly be able to tell me more about her side of the family. I know that both my mother and father had some French in their ancestry. My grandmother's maiden name is French, and my father used to go to a French school in Amsterdam, which was only allowed at the time if you had some French heritage.
His French was fluent! I'd love to find out more about that school too! His French family would have come from the Normans, so in a way, we're also Viking :) I can hardly find anything about my mothers' side of the family. My father's side goes back to 17-something but funny enough, no info about the French part of their family. So I may have to dig a bit deeper.
However, his cousin (from his mother's side) was quite famous and notorious in all of the Netherlands around WWII and beyond, and we have a famous painter on my grandmother's side as well. All in all this makes for quite some interesting material.
My high school mascot was the Vikings. You know, it can be tough to get information out of people. So, the trick is in finding ways to get them to see the value in what they know. So, there are people, like you said, that can help you with your family tree. Vietnamese people would tell me that they don't know much about their family history, their ancestors, in many cases. They can tell me general stories about their country which is good in the sense of being united around Vietnamese heritage.
According to my mom, she has said that her side of the family can be traced to the kings of Troy and possibly back to Noah and Adam according to some websites and genealogies she ran across. So, we are not directly connected to the kings of Troy. It is more like a mother's mother's mother's mother's, etc, kind of thing, or I'm not totally sure yet because I have not looked at it yet. Most of my ancestors were Europeans. Maybe all of them were. Some of them may have been Normans.
Is this website Dutch?
https://www.wiewaswie.nl/nl/zoeken/
Yes, it is.