MICHELLE and Barack Obama are staying at their Martha’s Vineyard home this month. They bought it a few years ago from a Mr. Groesbeek. Wyc Grousbeck, descendant of Jaap and Katrijn Groesbeek of Rotterdam. Their son Klaas emigrated to Beverwijk, now Albany. The seller was and is the owner of one of America’s top basketball teams, the Boston Celtics.
The Obama home (7 bedrooms, 2 guest wings, outdoor fireplace, swimming pool, hot tub on a balcony, 7000 square feet, 25 acres of land) sits on Texel.
Yes, Texel.
Now it’s known as Martha’s Vineyard but, as we wrote in our July 17 edition, back in the day discoverer Hendrick Christiaensz named the entire area after the Dutch Wadden Islands. Vlieland, now Nantucket, is not far away, in the middle of the Zuyderzee. And the Cabbeljaus Islands are there as well, obviously, because Dutch kabeljauw = cod, which is why they now call that cape on the mainland Cape Cod.
Martha’s Vineyard, where Mr. and Mrs. Obama spend their summer days, is a late name. Initially, a small island nearby actually carried that name, and only as an alias for Hendrick Christiaensz Eylant, as it was known for the longest time. Today that sandbar is called after no one, Nomans Land.
Groesbeek, Texel, Vlieland, Kabeljauw Islands. And: Unlucky Harbour. That’s now called Harwich, but woe to you if you sailed too close in stormy weather. It was so risky that the locals have built three different inland ports there to prevent accidents. The middle one is called Wychmere, pronounced: Wyc meer, as in: lake. Odds are that one day this will become Barackmere.
