Dutch Love Child, Son of Native Canadian Vet, Granted Citizenship

Will van Ee from Holland had searched for his father for many years. Mr. Van Ee, the illegitimate son of an aboriginal Canadian soldier and a Dutch girl who met during the Second World war never knew his father or his father's name. His mother was Hendrike Herber and after Will's birth she married Albert Van Ee whose surname Will used.

Then one day a cousin gave van Ee an old photograph. Hendrike is shown alongside a beaming Canadian soldier named Walter Majeki. Van Ee’s aunt told her nephew that Walter was his biological father.

Van Ee then enlisted the help of Olga Rains, a Dutch war bride in Peterborough, Ontario dedicated to reuniting other WW2 children with their Canadian families. In 1984 Walter's brother was found. Sadly Walter had died several years before, but Will flew to Toronto to meet his new-found family.

After meeting his uncle and cousin, Van Ee became a full-status member of the Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation in Northern Ontario, and later was granted Canadian citizenship.

Read the rest of this poignant story at Dutch love-child fathered by First Nations’ Canadian veteran finds lost identity, gets citizenship

Image credit: Screenshot from http://www.nationalpost.com