Acknowledgements. Genealogy is as much about people helping people as it is about keeping one's nose buried in hard-to-read microfilms. One of goals I had in establishing this site has been met: I've met new family and friends. A few people who have helped me immensely are:

Tommy Rijn, whom I met at the Goes, Zeeland archief in June, 2000. "Cornelius Bustraan? I have a Cornelius Bustraan in my database," he said. A distant relative, Tommy pointed me towards the Wemeldinge records and inspired me to start my Bustraan research.

June Bustraan and Joyce Vanden Bosch of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They had old Maljaert documented through the Michigan line of Bustraans all the way down to their grandchildren. Joyce and her husband Rog made a trip to Europe and (with my encouragement) met Tommy Rijn. Together they visited the Kapelle archief (where many of the Wemeldinge records are kept).

Ellie Bustraan of Zeeland visited the Zeeuws archief in Middelburg and within three weeks this clever woman figured out how the migrant Adriaan was related to Maljaert (thank you, Ellie). 

Rik Butstraen of Belgium has a great webpage with the stamboom (family tree) for his Belgian family. He also led to a good number of internet resources.

Finally, a couple of years ago we spent a very gezellig Amsterdam Sunday afternoon  sampling jenever and Belgian beers near the Concertgebouw at the Wildschut with Willem and Bep Bustraan. There we learned the RIH story.

Me. I'm Keith Bustraan. I am a descendant of Adriaan Bustraan, the one who settled  outside of New York in 1892. I grew up in upstate New York and now live in Charleston, South Carolina with my wife Gayle and son Peter.

Web stuff. I built this website by modifying an old template designed by Bjorn Staerk from Pyra's Blogger site. I used Nvu as my web editor. The vintage postcards are reproduced with the kind permission of Ad Weststrate of Veere. He's probably a distant relative, too, since a woman named Lena Weststrate married Pieter Adriaanzoon Bustraan in 1864 and Ad says his family is from nearby Krabbendijke.