Roelof married Aeltie Wybes JELLEMA, daughter of Wybe Folkerts and Antje Tiebes, in 1627. Aeltie was born 1604 in Westergeest. She died 1662 in Westergeest.
De Woudwijk Genealogie (https://gw.geneanet.org/rolfulbes) beschrijft de familie Jellema via invallende noormannen tot het jaar 200 . Hieruit:
The family was quite famous in the early middle ages in the provinces of Friesland and Groningen. However, around 1450 all posessions were lost. The name is preserved by farmers adopting the name of the old strongholds or by remote relatives.
The name.
The original male name is Gjelt, which means 'precious gift'. (modern Frisian 'jild', modern Dutch 'geld'). A small boy is called 'Gjelcke' and it is the Frisian habit of clinging to this name untill your last friend dies. As all Scandinavian languages dislike the hard 'k', one sees also the alternative 'Gjelte' appearing in several regional dialects.
The collection of people around an important 'Gjelcke' are called the 'Gjelckinga'. A member of the family will add 'ma' to this name, as it is the abbreviation from the old 'maag' or 'mac', which means member of a family or clan. So you call yourself a 'Gjelckema'. This proces can also be found in other families, like Heringa-Herema, Gaykinge-Gaaikema and Hoytinga-Hoitema. In the end this individual term became a familyname of its own.
Research in the middle ages is hampered by the many alternative ways of writing the spoken familynames, depending on time and local dialect. During his livetime a person could use several alternatives and also estates are known under alternative names. For Gjelckinga one can find Jellinghe and Gelckinge and for Gjelckema one encounters the variants Gjelkama, Jelckama, Jelkema, Jellama, Jellema, Jelluma, Gjaltema, Gjeltema, Geldema, Jeltema and even Jelscama and Jelsema
In later centuries the names Jellema and Jeltema survived as the most popular form of our familyname. In the available documentation persons or farms are interchangable named and various alternatives for one person or one estate can be found.Locaton. This aristocratic farmer family probably started before 700, ruling the sandy ridge of Nordhorn and Zuidhorn and from there, excercised their power into the western part of the province of Groningen and, even more important, into the capital city of Groningen. This Pleistocene ridge appears as an island, surrounded by swamps and marine intrusions. It had strategic importance as road traffic between Groningen and Friesland had to pass here and, in the beginning it was well accessible to seatraffic. The reinforcements of the large "Jellema Borgh" consists of several stone buildings and a square system of ditches, right west of the church of Zuidhorn.Oldest historic fact known: the conflict between the Bishop of Utrecht and the Gjelkinga family in the city of Groningen in the year 1112 .
The oldest written appearance, 27 April 1243, is the knight Willem Yeltama ,
who founded a Johannniter hospital in Bozen (Bolzano), Tirol area.
He was probably a Knight Templar and could be one of the founders of the Teutonic Order.
The seal of the family, as well in Leeuwarden as Groningen, was a fortified tower "stins", topped with a saddle-roof, probably the Gelkinga stins on the Market in Groningen city.
Oldest document: A peace contract between the city of Groningen and Vredewold in 1405, signed and sealed by Tiabeco Jelskama, as representative of Vredewold.
An important geologic event in the history of Friesland was the breach of the Middelsee, which completely shifted the centers of marine trade from Staveren en Medemblik to the middle of Friesland, to the cities of Leeuwarden and Sneek. All established families tried to participate in this blooming economy and one sees many new tradehouses appearing near both dikes of the Middelsee. The new house of the Jellingha's can be found in Britsum, where they exercised much influence in the capital city of Leeuwarden (Uteke Jellama, Grietman Leeuwarderadeel, donated a hospital to the city, the Saint Antony Gasthuis on 24 february 1430)
When a new breach of the sea relocated the trade from Zuidhorn to Kollum around 800, a large fortified mansion, a SteenHuys, was erected just south of the church around the year 1000. (Gerlof Jellama *1475). Starting from Zuidhorn also other farms and 'stinsen' were founded and reinforced. In the neighbouring Faan and Niekerk large farms were owned, where Menno Jeltama (*1420) donated a fund to the Geertruid Gasthuis in Groningen. Also the 'Hummersma State' near Lucaswoude was owned. From Kollum also estates were founded in Oudwoude (Bauck Lyuwedr. *1485) and Buitenpost (Jeltinga State).
On its peak, around 1350, a whole row of fortified posessions could be found between the cities of Groningen and Leeuwarden. However, the powerfull Melle Jellama, the owner of the old Borgh in Zuidhorn , had only daughters, and sadly the first evidence on this borch is the transfer of the main buildings to his son-in-law Allard Hindricks Gaykinga in 1475. (so nowadays called Gaykema Hof).
The estates in Kollum and Westergeest were destroyed around 1460-70, when the city of Groningen extended its power into the eastern part of Friesland. The fighting went up and down, it was impossible to keep one stone on top of another.
From the Kollum area, two other settlements were established; the "Meskenwier" estate near Akkrum, from where the Jelckama's received a tough reputation as warlords. They even attacked the cities of Leeuwarden in Friesland and Hoorn in Holland. Nearby Teeta Jellama joined a convent in Haskerdijken and his will in 1430 provides a lot of information,
Another large farm "Marshorne" was aquired from monks near Poppingawier. Later on the baron Sytzama married a Jeltinga lady from Buitenpost and sold part of her heritage, this farm, to the rich and famous Aesge of Hoxwier. The later descendants living on this farm, named themselves Jellema, and from these, quite fertile household, the majority of the present Jellema's is descending. Presentday about 1500 persons bear our name.
So quite suddenly, around 1450, all estates and all aristocratic features disappeared. The only visible exeption is the 'Jeltinga' State in Buitenpost, which is nowadays transformed to the City Hall of the Kollumerland municipality.
