My Mother and Her Family

Mom's high school photo

Oebele Theunis Frankfort
Opa right after his last promotion 		My mother was born in Batavia (Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies.

My grandfather (Opa), Oebele Theunis Frankfort, served in the KNIL in the Dutch East Indies from 1915 until his death in a Japanese POW camp in 1945. He was also a fanatical soccer player and fan. (He even named his German Shepherd Ajax.)

He met my grandmother (Oma), Sawinah Tronowidjono Frankfort, around 1917. They married and had 13 children. Although they moved a lot because of Opa's military career, they led a comfortable life before the war. Below is the family home in Jogjakarta. An Indonesian government minister lives there now.

The Frankfort house in Jogjakarta Opa's military ID photo My mother, age 2, sitting on her father's lap at a party

Oma with my mother and aunts
Hertogin (Duchess) Sawinah Tronowidjono
Frankfort
with my mother
and aunts

The Frankfort Family

The Frankforts are a Jewish family from Amsterdam who most likely moved there from Frankfurt, Germany in the 1600s.

Replica of the Medieval Frankfurt Ghetto
Replica of the Medieval Ghetto in Frankfurt,
located in the Judisches Museum in Frankfurt, Germany

Artist Eduard Frankfort
Artist
Eduard Frankfort 		One well-known Frankfort from Amsterdam was Eduard Frankfort, a painter in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Paintings by Eduard Frankfort Paintings by Eduard Frankfort
Opa and his sister as children My grandfather was born in 1888 in Oostzaan (right outside Amsterdam). He grew up in the Jordaan (Jewish) district in Amsterdam and later, Nijmegen and Apeldoorn. Tragically, Rijkent Frankfort (my great-grandfather) died at the young age of 35 from diabetes-related illnesses. Not long afterward, my great-aunt also suffered from debilitating diabetic problems (blindness and kidney failure -- insulin had not yet been discovered) and she passed away at the age of 19.
Showing off the engagement ring
My great aunt showing off her engagement ring
shortly before she passed away

Faced with the daunting task of caring for his widowed mother, Opa enlisted in the Dutch army, at age 16, in 1904. He later transferred to the elite KNIL unit after an already distinguished career that included working for the Marsjasje in The Hague. Grietje Jansma Frankfort Opa, age 31

Frankfort Genealogy

My grandmother, Sawinah Tronowidjono Frankfort, was a member of the royal family of Middle Java in Indonesia. Her first cousins included the Sultan of Jogjakarta and the Pakoe Al Iman of Surakarta. Due to the unstable political situation there, I don't have more information than that.

The Sultan of Java and his wife entertaining the Dutch governor
The Sultan of Java and his wife entertaining the Dutch governor

My grandfather, Oebele Theunis Frankfort, was the son of Rijkent Frankfort and Grietje Jansma Frankfort.
He had one sister, Sijtje Jacoba Margaretha Theodora Frankfort.

Grietje Jansma Frankfort was the daughter of Theunis Jansma and Minke DeHaan Jansma. She had eight siblings.

Rijkent Frankfort was the son of Jacob Frankfort and Sijltje Paau Frankfort.

For more information about Dutch Jewish and Sephardic genealogy, see also:

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