Jan van der Sluis left Heerenveen for the USA

Jan van der Sluis was born on 18 November 1841 in Heerenveen, Friesland, The Netherlands, as the eldest child of Geert Andries van der Sluis (1819-1890) and Elisabeth Halbes de Vrieze (1820-1886). Jan was named after his paternal grandfather, an earlier Jan van der Sluis (1784-1862) who had been an alderman.

Jan, aged 24, married 21-year-old Jacobina Alma on 12 July 1866 in Menaldumadeel, Friesland. She was born in Menaldumadeel on 4 March 1845. Her parents are Tjeerd Alma (1806-1867) and Geertje Adama (1809-1870).

Jacobina gave birth to her first son, Tjeerd, on 23 June 1867 in Haskerland, Friesland. Two sons named Geert Andries died young, the first as a baby in 1868, the second at the age of 3 on 15 February 1874 in Nijehaske. The couple's fourth son was Hendrik Willem, born in Haskerland on 3 May 1872.

Jan van der Sluis left for the US on 28 June 1877. He settled in St. Paul, Minnesota. On 13 May 1880 he (bigamously) married Elisabeth van Hoven. She gave birth to his child in 1881.
Jacobina Alma acquired a divorce at a district court in Frisia on 20 December 1882. Her son Hendrik Willem became a a pupil at the Military School in Nieuwersluis, and lived with his uncle Hermanu Alma (1839-1915) and his wife^*. Hendrik Willem died at the age of 13 on 11 July 1885 in Ferweradeel, Friesland.

Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad, 29-8-1895

At the age of 150, Jacobina Alma died in Leeuwarden, Friesland, on 18 Augustus 1895.

^* Hermanus Alma and his wife Margrieta Maas (1842-1916) had a daughter Clasina Cornelia Alma (1871-1938) who married Nollius Hajonides van der Meulen who drowned in 1907 when steamship "Berlin" went down.

Sources: WieWasWie.nl, Delpher.nl, AlleFriezen.nl, D. de Vries: "Genealogie Alma, Frysk Genealogysk JIerboekje" 1970, p. 70-97.
For more information on the Alma family, see also: DocPlayer.nl.