Frans Wackers is from the small town of Echt in Middle Limburg, The Netherlands. The genealogy of the Wackers family goes back to 1575. The prominent rural Wackers family resided for 400+ years in the same geographical area, where many held public offices. Not satisfied with bare genealogical dates of birth, marriage, children, and death, the author scrutinized genealogical data and found on the internet more personal information. In addition to putting his Wackers family in a historical perspective, he reconstructs the life stories of 17 remarkable ancestors. Nonetheless, many questions remain. During his search, he found two more than 200-year-old rare documents that revealed living in the early 19th century. In the book's second part, the author focuses on the short mid-20th-century life of his mother, Miep Koopman, who passed away when the author was 16. In the end, he comes to an important conclusion about his early youth.