Some time after I learned to know my wife Greta Passelima I got interested in the history of her family. When I asked Greta's father about this, he took an old briefcase and he showed me the papers that actually contained the first information I could use to build a family tree.
A couple of years later there was a new motivation: to provide our children Dewi and Guus with the information about that part of their roots that lies in Maluku. I took a second step by visiting uncles and aunts in The Netherlands. In the phone book we discovered uncle Bert Passelima in Amsterdam and we met him and his wife in their home in Amsterdam. Uncle Bert told us that the name Passelima often was pronounced as Pesulima, particularly by people from the Moluccan isles. He told us to contact uncle Ben Pesoelima in Groningen, in the north of The Netherlands.

More than before, I felt the drive to find out more about the roots of this family. Within six months I visited uncle Ben and aunt Mary Pesoelima, uncle Philipbert Schenkhuysen in Papendrecht, the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam, the General State Archives (now Nationaal Archief) and the Documentation and Information Center for Family History and Heraldry (CBG) and the Dutch East-Indies Family Archive (SIFA), all in The Hague. In the Family History Center in Apeldoorn I did a substantial finding. In a register of baptisms of Ternate the following was recorded: Willem, born 9 September 1833 and baptized 9 February 1834, being a child of Jacob Pesulima and Magdalena de Rooij. This is undoubtedly the Willem that was quoted in the old papers that Greta's father showed me. In the same period uncle Ben Pesoelima presented me a story in which a certain Hendrik Pesulima from Amboina was mentioned, who later on moved to Ternate where his name changed in Pasalima. These two facts confirm the idea that the Passelima family is a branch of the Pesulima family.

Several things became clear about Greta's ancestors. One: there has been an early ancestor named Pesulima who lived at Ambon. Two: a descendant settled on the isle Ternate where the surname changed into Pasalima.

These findings convinced me to search for more information about the Pesulima family. On this website I present the information I found until now. Therefor the site is updated very often. So, please look again because new information is added almost every week.

Personal information is part of a family tree. In particular when published on the Internet, this information is available to everyone. Therefore the Genealogy pages (Lineages) are protected with a password. Family members and other relatives can get a password here, to enter these pages.
In general I don't publish personal information about living individuals without their permission.

Without the help of many people this Family History couldn't have been written. It even wouldn't have started without the first information that was provided by Greta's father, Mr. John Passelima. I feel sad he died so early. I often wished we could talk more about family history and other issues. He was a passionated talker, in particular when the country Indonesia was the subject of our conversation.

I very much like to thank uncle Bert Passelima (died in 2002) and aunt Rita from Amsterdam, uncle Ben (he died in 1997) and aunt Mary Pesoelima from Groningen, uncle Philipbert Schenkhuysen (died in 2001) from Papendrecht, mister Visker of the Dutch East-Indies Family Archive (SIFA), Pieter and Willy Pesulima from Cuijk, uncle Mingus Pesulima and aunt Corrie (both died in March 2000) from Lunteren, uncle Joop (he died October 2001) and aunt Henny Pesulima from Capelle aan den IJssel, Does Pesulima who died when he should be in the middle of his life, aunt Mina De Lima-Pesulima from Capelle aan den IJssel, Mr. Robert Pesulima from the USA, Mr. Hemi Pesulima, Enggelina Pesulima, Lambert Pesulima, Ruth Pesulima, Anis Pesulima and Nova Picaulima.

Thanks for the valuable information I got from aunt Noke Tanalisan-Passelima from Jakarta, aunt Anna Passelima, uncle Jan Passelima and aunt Marie Passelima from Bandung. Extra information was delivered by Hans Straver from the Landelijk Steunpunt Educatie Molukkers. Also a big help was the support from miss Rita Rehatta, daughter of late René Rehatta, the former raja of Soya, mister J.K.J. van Suchtelen van de Haare from Assen, mister A.T. Tielman from Den Haag, Mrs. Tineke Vijsel from Gouda and mister A.Th. Soentpiet from Amsterdam.

Finally I like to thank Pri, who helped me to ‘put things on track’, my kids Dewi and Guus who helped with the translation and the HTML and of course my wife Greta Passselima who was the inspiration to start with this work.

The classification in lineages of the Pesulima family is partial adopted from the Family history: 'Origin/descent of the Pesulima Family', written by G. Pesulima (Ambon, 1979).

Place names are as much as possible written in current Indonesian spelling. Cities with a complete different name in the Dutch East-Indies have the 'old' name added.

There is a register of all the names of individuals that are mentioned at these pages: Name Index. There also is a small list with the translation of Ambonese and Indonesian words used here. See Sources & Links.

Of course I always tried to be careful to respect the privacy of living individuals. It is possible that information slipped through my fingers. So please warn me when something went wrong! Also in the case of wrong information, misspelling of names et cetera please contact me about these inaccuracies.