Dear member of the Sleijster (Sleyster-Sleister-Slyster) family.

I would like to inform you about my family research on the Sleijster-family. As a result of my genealogic research in the Dutch archives, that I have been doing since 1989, I have gathared a lot of information and the family tree is almost complete.

The Sleijster family tree starts in 1625 with the marriage of Thomas Sleijster in Zutphen, The Netherlands. He is the first Sleijster that could be found until now.

Between 1846 and 1875 several Sleijsters emigrated from Holland to America. They were registered in the US with the names Sleyster and Sleister.  That's because in the US the Dutch character "ij" is not used.

It seems that all Slei(j)(y)ster are related and that they are all of Dutch descent. I discovered that many American Sleisters and Sleysters think that they are of German descent. There is a document that indicates this. Watch the HRC page on my website www.sleyster.nl. But Sleisters or Schleisters or Sleysters were never found in Germany.

From 1600 there were many Sleisters, Sleysters en Sleijsters in The Netherlands. From 1800 they are all using the name Sleijster. Read also the page "The Name" on www.sleyster.nl where you will find the many ways they wrote their name. You'll see that there were a lot of different writings between 1600 and 1800.

So all the people in the world with the name Sleister, Sleyster and Sleijster are descendents from Thomas Sleijster who married in 1625 in Zutphen in The Netherlands. With him starts the familytree of all Sleisters, Sleysters and Sleijsters.

The emigrants

In 1846 Roelof (Zt2-US1) went to Alto/Wisconsin where he had 10 children (big family)
In 1847 Jan Hendrik (Zt8-US2-3-4) went with 5 children to Evansville, Indiana (big family)
In 1847 Hendrika Smeenk-Sleijster (Zt6 - sister of Warnerius) went to Pella, Iowa (4 sons: Smeenk)
In 1852 Warnerius (Zt6) went to Pella, Iowa.  (daughter Carrie > daugher Johanna Ellerbroek)
In 1868 Philip Jacob (Zt8-US4) went with 6 children to USA, Chariton County, Missouri (daughters)
In 1875 Berend (Zt7-US4) with 2 daughters. Son B.A. died in Albuquerque, New Mexico (daughters)

SLEISTER -------- Passengerslist - 1846: J. Sleister

In 1847 there is J. Sleister. Until now I was not able to give him a place in the family tree.

The shiplist of the ship "Plato" contains this:
J.Sleister                 (M)                     44
Johanna Sleister      (F)                      48
P.Sleister                (M)                     11
A.Sleister                (F)                       9
G.Sleister                (F)                       8
M.Sleister               (M)                       5
G.Sleister               (M)                       1

They came from Gelderland (NL) and departed from Rotterdam on 5 november 1846 and arrived in New Orleans on 23 februari 1847. There they worked to earn money to go to Holland in Michigan.

Here stops the story...
Who knows anything about this family ?
Are the American Sleisters descendents of this Sleister-family?
( There is something strange: this family looks very much like the family of Jan Hendrik Sleyster. The ages are almost the same, they also have 5 children with almost the same ages, but there is some differance in the ages and the first letter of their first name. And J. Sleister went to Holland Michigan while JH went to Brunswic or Evansville.)

-------- Shirley Sleyster

In September 1999 Shirley Sleyster surprised me with a letter: she found my website and sent me her book "THE DESCENDANTS OF THOMAS SLEYSTER" that she wrote in 1979.

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Well, dear family, I hope that you will enjoy the Sleyster-site and that you will learn a lot more about your descent. And I hope you will send me an email. Even if you don't have any information I would be pleased to contact with you.

Please inform others about this website and let them send me a message.

With kind regards,

Harry Sleijster
De Haere 38
8181 ZJ Heerde
The Netherlands
harry@sleijster.nl