Depok

Relation with De Calonne and origin of “the 12” family names
Many De Calonnes worked and lived in Depok (Indonesia). Also, there are connections between our family and some of the Depok families.
Some of the families that are related to De Calonne are among the 12 original families of Depok. These families descent from the slaves that Cornelis Chastelein (1657-1714) emancipated in his will. The 12 families are: Bacas, Isakh, Jacob, Jonathans, Joseph, Laurens, Leander, Loen, Sadokh, Samuel, Soedira and Tholense. The name Sadokh no longer occurs after the second world war.

By will Cornelis Chastelein emancipated his over 150 slaves and gave them his lands called Depok to work and live on.
The will shows that the slaves had no surnames around 1714, except one Elias Soedira (a carpenter slave). Most slaves in the will were mentioned with a first name and their place of origin.
In the testament about half of the 150 emancipated slaves is mentioned explicitly.
Most of those slaves were from Bali and some were from Makassar (Sulawesi), Surabaya, Bengalen (India) and of the coast of Coromandel (also India).
The slaves mentioned as “van Batavia” (from Batavia) were probably 2nd generation slaves, born in or around Depok and Batavia, with parents who came from elsewhere.
Click here for an overview of the people mentioned in Cornelis’ will (including family reconstructions).

So, the story Cornelis Chastelijn gave the 12 families their last names himself is probably incorrect. Jan-Karel Kwisthout also draws this conclusion in his book “Sporen uit het verleden van Depok” (Traces from the past of Depok).
The last names (except for Soedira) originate later, at least after the death of Cornelis Chastelein.
In some of the last names Dutch first names are clearly recognizable (Isakh, Jonathan, Jacob, Joseph, Lawrence, Samuel). Those could be derived from first names of the slaves emancipated in the will.
For example: in the will a “Jonathan” and a “Samuel” are mentioned. In the will there are also two slaves called “Salomon” (one from Bali and one from Makasser).
Considering this, it could well be that the family “Salomons”, also occuring in Depok as early as the second half of the 18th century, deserves a place among the other original families of Depok!

A last name could also be derived from the (first of last) name of the witness at the christening. This was very common among the so-called Mardijker people (a common name for freed slaves in the Dutch East Indies).
A freed slave could for example receive the last name of a witness with a last name “Bacas” or a first name “Laurens”.

NOTE Among Mardijker people were lots of (descendants of) former P.O.W.’s of Portuguese origin and the language among Mardijker people and in their church was a kind of bastard Portuguese.

The project
I’m adding the genealogical data about all 12 families (from a lot of sources) to this site. Goals are:
a) to make the data available to co-genealogists, e.g. descendants of Depokkers,
b) to gather more information through contacts that visit this site,
c) in the long run: show how the Depok families are linked to each other and how they spread across Indonesia and beyond.
At the moment, over 1500 descendants of the 12 families are included in the database.

Cemetery Depok Lama
In 2015 I took hundreds of photo’s of (old and newer) graves at the Cornelis Chastelijn cemetery in Depok Lama.
An index (.pdf) of the graves can be found here (sorted on grave number) and here (alphabetical order).
More info and the 531 photo’s can be found on this page. They are sorted on grave number. The grave number and the year the photo was taken are part of the photo filename.

Searchable data
All genealogical data on the Depokkers can be searched just like the data on De Calonne: via the Genealogy | Family tree-link on the menu.
This website is indexed by Google and other search engines, so can be found there. Data about living persons can only be seen with an activated account, due to privacy regulations.

About the disctricts
If an event takes place in “Buitenzorg”, you should read the district of Buitenzorg (nowadays called Bogor), in which district Depok lies. So the actual event would have taken place in Depok in most cases.

Spelling
Over time the spelling of family names can vary. Some examples:
– Bacas: Bacas, Backas, Bachas, Bakas
– Isakh: Isakh, Isaack, Izaak, Isaaks, Isack, Isaak, Isaeck, Izaks
– Jacob, Jonathans and Joseph: no other spellings known so far.
– Laurens: Laurens, Lourens
– Leander: Leander, Leanders, Leandersz
– Loen: Loen, Loon and possibly also Lawn, Lawnd en Loend
– Sadokh: Sadokh, Sadok, Zadokh
– Samuel: Samuel, Samuels, Samuelsz
– Soedira: Soedira, Zoedira
– Tholense: Tholense, Tolenze, Tulensie, Tulenzij

Your contribution
Corrections and/or additions are always very welcome!
You can send them using the “suggestion”-tab that can be found at the individual and family pages.
You can also use the comment form below.