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Koopman

| Introduction | Origins of Koopman | Opa GW Koopman |
| Early years in Surabaya | Surabaya connection to Scotland? |
| Oom Chris Koopman | Dutch Club in Singapore | Family time in Singapore |

Early years in Surabaya

Surabaya is located in East Java. The families Koopman, Ledeboer and Polack as well as other ancestors had been trading from Surabaya for a long time, going back to the early 1700's. There are many photos in albums which show our Eurasian families in front of their houses in Jalan Polack (Polack Street) in Surabaya. Jalan Polack still exists as I found out during a recent chance meeting with a native from Surabaya who was visiting us in Malaysia for Hari Raya, the festivities at the end of the month of Ramadan. I visited Surabaya for work in 2005 and tried to find some traces of our ancestry there. Unfortunately, I did not have a lot of time, and in addition had not had the opportunity to go through all the documents and photos passed to me after Omi passed away in 2003 to have the background to conduct a focused search.

Below is a family photo dating from around 1860, taken at the house of Omi's great grandparents, possibly in Jalan Polack, Surabaya.

From left to right are: Gerrit Jan Koopman, grandfather of Sophia Koopman, my grandmother. Standing second from left is Hendrik Polack, brother in law of GJ Koopman, who owned a villa in Jalan Polack. Third seated from left is Mrs Polack-Meyer, the wife of J F Polack seated next to her, both great grandparents of my grandmother. Note the wearing of sarongs and the Eurasian features. The last person seated on the right is the wife of Hendrik Polack, with her son standing in front of her. Next to her is another Polack family member.

Many graves in Surabaya are still to be found in Jalan Kerkhof (Literally Cemetery Street). One such grave, of which I found the inscription on a website for the Warnars family whose ancestry also includes the family Polack, states: "In 1997, we found the grave of the father of Elvire Duijneveld-Voorneman, Adolf Martinus Voorneman, born in 1855 en died on 16 Mars 1926 in Surabaya. Place of the grave-yard: Peneleh: Jalan Kerkhof in Surabaya Section B 1097. Adolf is placed in the family-grave next to his mother and his wife (viz Elizabeth Catherina Francina Voorneman Polack) On the stone, which was in a good shape, you can read (surrounded by Flowers) the text below. The grave is (was?) 130 x 200 meter and the stone is about 30 cm above the ground On top of it was a 30x15 stone cross decorated with small simple stones. We thought that on the edges were "pilaren" with a roof on it."

In our albums are other photos of graves in many corners of the world, including ones in Surabaya dating back much further than 1896. Obviously, it was often impossible for relatives to visit these graves due to the time and expense of travel, so a photo was apparently always sent to be included in family photo albums.

I have spent time in Penang going through old cemeteries but have found no connections so far. I am sure there are some, or we are here for the reason of Hali's family.

Above Hendrik Polack (And possibly his Indonesian wife in the background) in front of his house in Jalan Polack, Surabaya, around the time my great great grandfather, Gerrit Jan Koopman visited in the 1860's.

There is a possibility that some of the Polack family members are still in Surabaya and Indonesia. Alex J Pollack (Note the double ll, and the western first name) is currently a director on the Board of Directors of Bakrie & Brothers Tbk, a listed company in Indonesia. This information was found on the Surabaya stock exchange site in 2007. I am trying to confirm whether there is a family connection.

Click to "Surabaja connection to Scotland? ''