EMILIA MESMAN HOUTMAN – SAM RATULANGIE – ALBERTINE MESMAN HOUTMAN – MARIA “TJENNY” TAMBAJONG – RATULANGIE – PEDDIE TAMBAJONG – LAOH – ALEXANDER  TAMBAJONG – SAM RATULANGIE  – VO BELJAARS – HENRIETTE “JET” TAMBAJONG – GEORGE WILLEM TAMBAJONG – JUSTUS TAMBAJONG – SUMAYKU – JAN NICOLAAS TAMBAJONG –  FRANCINE EVERDINA LEFRANDT – JOOST TAMBAJONG – JOHANNA NICOLINE AGAATS  – MARIA MONONUTU-WILSON – BENJAMIN TAMBAJONG – FRANCINE VAN DEN BROEK – SAMUEL VAN DEN BROEK – CHARLES WALSEN – BENJAMINA ISABELA TAMBAJONG – LAZAAR TAMBAJONG – MARTA RUNTUWENE – RAMBU – PETRUS BENJAMIN TAMBAJONG CONNECTION .

Manadonese Maternal ancestors :

Tambajong, Ratulangie

Javanese Paternal ancestors

Sutjitro

Other Minahasa familiy connections :

Runtuwene
Gerungan
Supit
Loho
Wagey
Manampiring
Manalang
Waworuntu
Warokka
Rambi
Tumbelaka

Lefrandt
Agaatsz
Van Den Broek
Cornelisz
Boogard
Wilson
Walsen
Engelen
Weydemueller
Heuvelman
Pietersz

Houtman
Mesman

It’s a story about an old Minahasa/Menadonese clan ‘Tambajong’, in North Sulawesie/Celebes,  from a small town and port of Amurang. The port has long ceased to exist. This town is located at a beautiful bay with the  same name, in northern Sulawesi/Celebes, an island in eastern Indonesia, just west of the well known ‘Spice Islands’ of ancient time, the Moluccas.
.
This Tambajong clan had a rich history of mixed Indonesian & Europeans Ancestors from Dutch, German, Spanish, English and Portuguese origins. They were adventurer families from the West. To name a few, Lefrandt, Van den Broek, Agaats, Boogard, Walsen, Corneliesz, Wilson, Weydemueller, Engelen, Pietersz etc. These mixed people were called the Indo’s. The Tambajongs had also ‘blood’ connections with other ‘Indo’ clans who lived for generations and centuries in that northern tip of that island with its capital Manado. This family, like other clans (Runtuwene, Gerungan, Waroka, Waworuntu, Ratulangie, Supit etc) originated from native tribal leaders who were called ‘Kepala Walak’, ‘Majoor’ or ‘Hukum Besar’.
.
The Westerners, besides trying to conquer the natives by force, also christened and Baptists its people, married into the tribal leader clans and influenced the power politics in these small communities. In the end the Westerners gained profit of the region’s rich natural resources, while the natives took advantage of the Westerners’ power and their sophisticated weapons, to defend against local enemies, such as the more powerful Islamic kingdoms from the East, Ternate and Tidore.

The Dutch East Indie’s high class privilege, which the Tambajong clan had enjoyed, came to an abrupt & tragic end when the Japanese arrived in 1942, occupied the country with brutality until 1945. The clan’s house was destroyed by Japanese bombs. Louis Tambajong, a son of the clan, a member of the KNIL army, which was the Dutch East Indie army back then, was killed by the Japanese. The rumor was that the Japanese soldiers had dragged him with horses until he perished. The clan’s oldest daughter’s (Nicoline Ariaantje Tambajong’s) husband (Dr. Dirk Pesik), who was a doctor who had educated in the Netherlands with a key position in a Dutch hospital, was beheaded by the Japanese.

After the Japanese left, the native Indonesians declared Independence from the Dutch. The Independence Declaration was a smart and bold move by the Indonesian revolutionists. They were filling in the political void, after the Japanese surrendered, when the Dutch & any other Western Military, were still out of the region. The Dutch and many other Europeans were still suffering and recovering from either the WWII paralyzing impact in Europe or the brutal Japanese occupation in the entire East Asia Region. The Independence was followed by the horrific ‘BERSIAP’ period, where Indo’s, just released from the Japanese Concentration Camps, no matter whether they were young, old, female or male, were brutally killed at random in the streets, by their ‘half brothers’, the young, native and naive Independence fighters, who wanted justice, in their own right due to 350 years of past Dutch brutality, but misguided in these civilian killings.

The Indo killing was a series of tragic events, a bloody chapter of the past, pushed into a dark corner, by local history ‘writers’, overshadowed by other tragic events that happened during the 2nd World War. The Tambajong family, just like many other Indo clans and families in the region, were caught in the middle, during those turbulent times. This clan got torn apart between family members who were or had to be pro-Indonesian Independence movement, lucky to hide under their native Indonesian name, and family members who wanted to keep the old Dutch East Indie ways and opted like many other hundreds of thousands Indo’s to leave the country, to the unwelcoming Netherlands. Within the Tambajong clan, during those challenging years, the silent emotional conflict between its family members couldn’t be more emphasized by the fact that one of the family’s son/brother-in-law, Sam Ratulangi, was himself a strong and vocal leader against Dutch East Indie’s segregation politics. He married one of the clan’s daughters, Maria. Sam Ratulangie’s little family himself, suffered under torn conflicts between his own family members. Before Maria, Sam had married a Dutch woman and had an Indo son and daughter. His former Dutch wife suffered in the Japanese concentration camp, that traumatized their son, who then left his father for Europe, never to see Sam again. Their Indo daughter fought with Sam against the Dutch.

Sam, Maria and their 3 younger daughter’s ordeal, was when they were banned by the Dutch on the island of Serui, near Papua New Guinea, between 1946-1948. It happened when the Revolution was flaring up and just after Sam accepted a position as a Governor of the entire island of Sulawesi. He was appointed to that position by the, at the time, still struggling 1st Indonesian President Soekarno. The Dutch decided to send Sam into exile, due to concerns that his wide spread popularity in the Eastern part of Indonesia, could influence the Independence Movement more than it was already. Sam, due to exhaustion, died one year after exile, on June 30th, 1949,  just before peace was reached.

One of his daughters from his 2nd wife studied and graduated in Germany and while in Germany married a Javanese engineer who had also studied and graduated in Germany. Both had known each other since secondary school during the Indonesian Revolution. They returned to Indonesia for a few years before going back to Germany . She achieved her Doctorate in Chemistry in Germany. They then returned and settled down in Indonesia.

Sam Ratulangie’s first daughter after studying in Indonesia, went to the US and continued to study and graduate in the Netherlands as a medical Psychiatrist , where she had settled down.

Sam Ratulangie’s oldest son had also studied and graduated in the Netherlands as a medical doctor. Sam’s youngest daughter graduated in Indonesia as a medical doctor. She pursued her career in politics. Her husband was a high ranking police official in the capital of Jakarta and then in Indonesia during the 80s.

Thank you for the write Rono.