About me

Hello!

My name is Marco den Ouden. Here is a short biography of myself. I will be adding some photos over time.

Roots

I was born in Amstelveen, a suburb of Amsterdam, on Feb. 18, 1949. My parents were Adriaan Johan (Hans) den Ouden and Maretta Elisabeth (Letty) den Ouden. You'll find a little more on both of them in the Family tree pages.

When I was two years old, we emigrated to Canada. I had my birthday on the steamer taking us there and caught scarlet fever during the voyage. When we got to Halifax, I was immediately quarantined. Eventually, however, we made our way to Waterdown, Ontario where my Dad had gotten a job as a foreman on a farm. Our first home was on the farm in the converted loft of a barn. Dad left that job to become the superintendent of a cemetery and we moved to an farmhouse in Smithville, Ontario. Both towns are near Hamilton.

Smithville lies above the Niagara Escarpment, and I remember riding in my family's car from a Hamilton trip up the escarpment to home. in particular I remember on occasion when we had to stop for a train with a great steam locomotive, the tracks running along the escarpment at that point.

In 1954, our family, then consisting of my parents, my brother Mike, my sister Carolyn and myself, moved to Dollard des Ormeaux, Quebec where my Dad was transferred to start a brand new cemetery. There was a large old French Canadian farm house on the property which became our new home. Below is a video taken in 1956 showing the family (including newest member Linda) as well as the artificial lake created on the property and the old stone farm house. The dog's name was Teddy.

That big old farm house was later torn down to widen the boulevard and my parents bought a house in nearby Roxboro, Quebec. My Dad later left the cemetery company to become the Director of Public Works for the Town of Roxboro.