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Born:

Jelle was born in Indonesia on January 11, 1929. He first met his aunt, Jeanette Crans McKindley, totally by chance when she showed up in Amsterdam looking for her relatives. Jelle’s grandfather Adriaan Tjaden was the brother of Francoise Tjaden, Jeanette's mother.

According to Jelle, he was in Holland and his mother, Roosje Tjaden, said "I want to introduce you to your aunt from America." It was a total surprise, but everyone in his family liked Jeanette immediately. Jelle’s father remarked that she seemed to have a lot of common sense and was "toughened by history." Jelle says that is a Dutch expression meaning she had a lot of street smarts. "Jeanette was a darling lady!" Jelle says of that first meeting.

Jelle’s grandfather Adriaan did not go to the United States. Instead, he joined the Dutch colonial army and went to the Dutch East Indies.

Jelle also joined the Dutch army, but he lied about his age to get in. He was only 16, and pretended to be older. It took his mother a year to convince the army authorities of his real age. By that time, Jelle was actually 17, and had to leave the army and go to school with other boys his age. That was difficult, Jelle says, because his heart was still in the army.

While he was in school, one of Jelle’s classmates made an insulting remark about Jelle’s former army regiment. Jelle responded by breaking the other boy’s nose. As punishment, Jelle’s father put him on a Chinese junk headed for Shanghai. The captain of the junk was a friend of Jelle's father.  Suddenly, Jelle found himself on a boat to China, without even his Dutch passport!!  He was at sea for three months.

Jelle came to the United States in 1958. He was unable to get a job in Holland as an engineer because he is one-eighth Indonesian, on his father's side, and not full-blooded Dutch.