During the past years a number of our family members tried to find out more about the relations between the various members of the Afman-family. Family data were gathered aod sorted.
What was missing till now was an overall view. This item came up for discussion during an Afman-family-meeting in the fall of 1995 and as a result the initiative was taken to make this overall-view.
From that moment forward a small team worked very hard. A lot of research had to be done but besides that, we could take advantage of the various genealogical annotations made by members of our family in The Netherlands and in the United States.
In the book that is in front of you now you can read who our ancestors were. The first generation we found we could trace about 1585. This is more than two centuries before in 1811 when the name "Afman" was assumed. But one can also read how the Afman-family developed during the 19th and 20th century, after having chosen the name "Afman". During our research we did not find anybody hearing the name "Afman" who did not belong to our family.
That's why we assume we have a unique family name. About the origin of this name various theories have been developed by several members of our family, but none of these theories are satisfying. The investigation goes on. The result will certainly be published.
In this genealogy we could not restrict ourselves to simple data of birth, marriage and death. We have tried to give our ancestors a "face" by mentioning lots of biographical data and various histories.
lt' s really fascinating to see that trains of ancestors pass in ones mind.
Maybe you can imagine in what way their families were composed, how they lived, worked and took care of us, their descendants.
Thanks to the cordial cooperation of everybody who invitedly, and sometimes also uninvitedly, provided us with information, the book is almost complete. In case while reading you detect some errors yet or might have some additional data we solicit the favor of those remarks.
We don't accept any responsibility regarding the recorded data.
We wish y ou a lot of pleasant moments while you are looking for your relatives into this family-book.
Zwolle, Sint-Oedenrode, Kampen, November 16, 1996
Pietef A. Afrnan
Margrietha W. Prins- Afman
Ronald E.J .Prins
(From the first Family Book Afman, 1996)