The final catch-up post, I swear! This is last week’s
Sepia Saturday featuring a woman playing a harp. I have no such similar image in my collection of family photos, but I do have plenty of other musicians including the guy in the photo above, Jaap Rop. These photos are all labelled, two listing “Jaap” and one listing “Jake” which is a common Americanized form of the Dutch name Jaap. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of details about Jaap other than that he’s the son of Willemina Dijkema (the husband’s grandmother’s sister) and Derk Rop. Another person on Ancestry lists him as having died in either 2006 or 2007, and I assume he was born somewhere in the mid 1930s. All the photos above look like they were taken in the mid 1950s.
Top photo: This one is taken with his cousin, Henk (Hendrik) Dijkema who was named for his grandfather.
Middle photo: The back reads, “Van de zomer bij ons in de bleek,” which translates to, “Summer with us in the pale,” which I think might be phrasing for, “in the flesh,” but I’m not a fluent Dutch speaker so I’m really guessing! It’s a really nice looking foot-pump organ though, but I have to wonder what it’s doing outside.
Bottom photo: Jaap Rop and his accordion. It looks to be a different and smaller accordion than the one in the top photo.
If you happen to be related to the Rop family and can add more detail, please contact me!