Start    -    Welcome    -    History    -    Publications    -    Family Stories    -   Family Tree   -   Weblinks    -    Sitemap   -   Members Only

In the XVIth Century, two brothers founded two family trees. They were Jacob Selm and Heyn Sylm. About their parents no records exist. Jacob's family died out in the XIXth century as the last bearer of the name had no descendants. So all living Sillems belong to Heyn's family line. However, since the members of Jacob's line not only had the same family name but also used the same coat of arms and intermarriages occurred occasionally we consider them as our, albeit somewhat distant cousins.

Members who are interested in family history are invited to climb the Sillem family trees. They should not feel deterred by the plethora of bearers of the name Sillem. It will soon become obvious that thanks to a simple plan an overview can be achieved easily.

One of the most distiguished personalities in our family was the merchant and banker Hieronymus Sillem. As a 19 year old he was already director of the Hamburg merchant company Matthiessen & Sillem. When French troups occupied the city and Napoleon incorporated Hamburg into the French Empire Hieronymous together with his wife and daughters moved to St. Petersburg in 1812. There he acted as a representative of the Amsterdam banking company Hope & Co. After the defeat of the Napoleonic Army at Waterloo in 1814, the Netherlands regained their independance. The major shareholder of Hope & Co who lived in England offered Hieronymus to become director of the company and and at the same time to purchase one third of the capital. Hieronymus agreed and together with parts of the family moved into a manorial townhouse on Heerengracht in Amsterdam.

Then there was his son Wilhelm (I.) Sillem. He became famous for a street development he financed and the first German glass-covered shopping passage in Hamburg. On the other hand, his place in the family history is that of an incurable speculator. Later on, he moved to Geneva with his large family. He may have lost a fortune but he had enough money left to became known as the "father of the poor". Even a street was named after him, the Rue Sillem.

It is the aim of our Web activities to acquaint as many Sillems as possible with their family history and to strenghthen in them a sense of belonging to the family. To achieve this, we present a form that those who agree with our aims are requested to fill with a few life data (see details on the Welcome page). Some have already sent us the sheet with their personal data; you can tell them by their underlined names in the family tree lists. Just click on the names to open the respective data sheet.

In addition to the family tree lists mentioned above, Johann Gottlieb Sillem III from Holland who adopted the name of Vincent (see Table NL 2) has compiled a plethora of genealogical information about the Dutch branch of our family (Chart 1, Chart 2). His son Hassan is also a devotee to the family history. He succeeded in setting up the Argentine family tree (s. Chart, Notes). It is to their credit that data on the Dutch and Argentine Sillems could be included in this Web site.