Putting my toe back into the Genealogy pool

Cousin Love!

The big move is over but still figuring where to put stuff.  My craft room is still being used as a bedroom.  Everything I want in the craft room is still packed.  But I have my laptop and I have my digital files.

Recently I got the chance to learn more about my uncle who was adopted.  He recently did a DNA test & found out more about his birth parents.  So I have been working on that sporadically. Went to the library for some obituaries. And used the census to find out that his birth parents were neighbors.

I also explored the largest library in my new county.  They do have genealogy materials so spent some time looking things over.  I did take some photos of materials I found interesting.  There was also a picture of my g+grandparents that I've never seen!

I also attended a local conference where we were encouraged to blog!  Going to conferences always gets me fired up to work on my tree too.  Learned a lot and feel like I'm heading in a good direction still.

I also re-connected with wikitree.com.  I made an account in 2012 but didn't even have the same email.  Got that all straightened out and have been working on adding my lines to the great tree in the cloud.  That has been a good experience since sourcing is very important.  But it is fun when you connect your line into an existing tree!

Good Luck & Good Night

Making progress on my Genealogy Do-Over

I have been working on my do-over since 2015.  After 2 years and a few months, I have accomplished two very important goals.  I had an overwhelming amount of digital information that needed to be logged and added to my rootsmagic tree.  I am very please that I have complete not only 1 surname, but 2 surnames (out of four).  I'm still working on the remaining files but I also still have a lot of paper not digitized at all.  So sorting and scanning is still in the future.  But I am very pleased with my progress!  

Jumping on the DNA bandwagon pt. 4

Now it was my turn to take a test and my mother graciously paid for it.  I went with Ancestry.com (and now regret that) since that is where my mother did her test.  This way I could find out my father's family there too.

So this is my results.  Not surprised now by the Scandinavia.  But confused about the "Thousands of Years ago" heading.  Shouldn't these results be closer to home since my DNA probably doesn't have much left from my great-great-great grandparents?  And the other reason I regret using Ancestory.com.....I am now blocked from viewing public trees of my DNA connections.  When my mother did her test, this was still available.  And was one of the reasons I even liked this service.  But now I have to subscribe to the ancestry mega machine to even see how I might be related to a DNA match?  So not interested.

My next DNA goal is to upload raw results to other sites.  I know very little about this at this time so it will be another journey in my family tree quest.

Jumping on the DNA bandwagon pt. 3

We ended up getting three test kits from 23 & me.  One for my husband, one for my father and one for his wife, who does not know a lot about her biological father and was interested in seeing where she fit in.  Waiting for results can be painful and my father's results took a week or so longer than the other two.  But I was super surprised at the outcome. I seriously consider that the result may have been mixed up with another client.

Seriously???  29.8 % Scandinavian??  And my father wasn't fazed by this at all.  I personally had a bit of a identity crisis.  All my life, I was told "You are Dutch" and now I find out that I'm more Scandinavian?  What is up with this!

But since my father didn't panic, I am just going to keep looking into the dutch lines and see if I can find a Scandinavian transplant.  Because it turns out that a number of Scandinavians did migrate to the Netherlands and took dutch names.

Challenge excepted.

Jumping on the DNA bandwagon pt. 2

Time went fast because of all the holiday stuff.  But when January hit, I was ready to see the results!
(We only had to wait until February.)  My mother's result were significantly different from her brother's.  I knew they wouldn't be the same (not twins) but my mother's largest percentage (75%) was for Europe West. For the same region, my uncle's percentage was 36%.  What!?

This really opens up more questions that I expected.  I have done research on my mother's ancestor's but not much past 1830.  And all of them were from the Europe West region (Dutch/Bentheim) originally. But how does my uncle's results fit into the picture?  And who was born in England and moved to the Netherlands?

So this made me very interested in seeing my father's results.  Maybe I'm not as Dutch as I thought.  Luckily, my husband was open to getting a test for himself and my father.  But I decided to try 23&me instead to see how the two sites compared.

Jumping on the DNA bandwagon pt. 1

So it's not that I don't have any interest in DNA, because I am, but rather not sure how it would contribute to moving my family tree back farther.  Plus the $$ output could get out of hand if you are testing everyone with every kind of test.

But it started Thanksgiving 2016.  My mother's youngest brother had results back from his DNA test.  (His wife had done one also, so thanks to her!)  It was interesting because he was a real mix of European with the largest (put not over 50%) percentage actually British rather than Netherlands.  This does make sense because his surname isn't very Dutch. (Naber = German, British, etc.)  This got my mother very interested to do a test as well.  So she ordered one and sent it out right away.   [They both used AncestryDNA.]  Then we just had to wait for the results.

Wedding Wednesday: Naber & Lubbers

Walter Naber and Priscilla Lubbers married February 14, 1918 in Fillmore Township, Michigan. Together they had 11 children, 2 who died young.  Walter Naber is credited by family with saving some of his younger children who were very small.  He setup a little incubator at home for the newborns, keeping them warm like little chicks!  Their youngest daughter was actually born at the hospital at a time when very few babies were not born at home because of the high risk birth.

Wedding Wednesday: Brandt & Naber

I love old wedding pictures!  I have tried to locate direct line ancestor's wedding pictures and have only been partially successful.  So I'll share the ones I have, starting with my maternal grandparents.

Gertrude Brandt married Gordon Naber on September 26, 1941 in Holland Township, Michigan.

From the newspaper: "A pretty wedding took place Friday evening at 8 o'clock in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Otto Brandt on route 2 when their daughter Gertrude, was united in marriage to Gordon Naber, son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Naber, of route 5.  The bride was gowned in white silk marquisette, princess style with a train.  The yoke of the dress and the upper sleeve were trimmed in lace.  She wore a fingertip veil and carried a bouquet of lilies, delphiniums, pink gladioli and baby breath."

Tombstone Tuesday: Great-Great-Great Grandparents #25

Johannes and Anna (De Vries) Naber were married May 17, 1843 in Ulrum, Netherlands.  Together they had 7 children with only 1 living to adulthood.  Johannes was born May 17, 1813 in Groningen, Netherlands and died October 6, 1892 in Michigan.  Anna was born February 7, 1813 in Warfhuizen, Netherlands and died July 17, 1893 in Michigan.  They are both buried in the Pilgrim Home Cemetery in Holland, Michigan.

Tombstone Tuesday: Great-Great-Grandparents #13

Johannes and Aaltje (Hellenthal) Naber were married March 6, 1876 in Holland, Michigan.  Johannes was born March 6, 1855 in Holland Township, Michigan and Aaltje was born October 31, 1854 in Fillmore Township, Michigan.  They had 6 children together.  Johannes died October 13, 1904 in Holland Township, Michigan at the age of 49.  Aaltje died October 22, 1919 in Holland Township, Michigan at the age of 64.  They are buried in the East Holland Cemetery, Michigan.

Brick Wall Comes Tumbling Down, Pt. 2

After locating the birth records of Jan De Vries and Luiktje Mulder, I felt fairly confident that this was the correct couple.  But how could I be positive since there had been mistakes made before?

Based on family naming practices in the Dutch tradition, the first born son would be named after the paternal grandfather, the first born daughter named after the paternal grandmother, the second born son named after the maternal grandfather and the second daughter after the maternal grandmother.  Looking at the children of Jan & Luiktje should reflect the family names that I found on the birth records.

Jan De Vries's father was Kornelis Geerts de Vries and his mother Jantje Geerts.  (The Geerts should reflect the previous generations first names.  I wonder why Jantje doesn't have a last name listed?  Maybe because it was 1816 and she was married before the whole "pick a last name" mandate came down?)  Jan and Luiktje did have a daughter Jantje born 1860 and died in 1881. She was the only daughter that we know about so that does fit with her grandmother's name.  There is also a son named Cornelius but very little is known about where he fits into the family.  Since there were no dates, he always fell at the end of the family but it makes sense if he was the first born son. The only record he can be found in is the burial records at the Beaverdam Cemetery.  There is no stone for him while Jantje does have one.  And he is not listed in any of the census records I have seen.  So he must have been born and died somewhere between census records.  Plus the couple immigrated in 1854 so there are a number of years between then and 1860 where a child (or two) would fit and there are very few records from that time.

Luiktje Mulder's father was Jakob Hendriks Mulder and her mother Pieterke Lammerts Jolman.  As soon as I saw her father's name I knew it fit!  My ancestor Jacob was born 1861 and died 1949.  His marriage record has his name spelled as Jakob.  He should be the second born son so having Cornelius before him works out with the naming practices.

My other ancestor is the third son, Johannes was born 1863 and died 1943.  He was probably named after his own father.  I will have to do more research around Kornelis and Jantje to see where the name Jan fits in.  Jan K. must have older brothers otherwise he would have been named after the grandfathers Geert.

Brick Wall Comes Tumbling Down, Pt. 1

I finally had a big break through on one of my double family tree lines after many years of frustration!  I am related through BOTH my parents to a pair of brothers, Jacob & Johannes De Vries.  From a family tree created by another family member, I knew their parents were Jan Kornelius De Vries & Luikje Ebels.  I never questioned that information.  Why not?  I guess I figured they had documentation to back it up.

But now I have new information and it came about because I wanted to correctly source my main tree.  As many newbies do, I was so excited collecting information that I didn't source anything.  Maybe this is because there is SO MUCH information coming at you at first that it is just so overwhelming.  Whatever the reason, I wanted to make sure my sources where documented.  I started with my own birth & marriage records and started going back, looking for birth, marriage and death records for each ancestor.  This finally brought me back to the Johannes De Vries & Jacob De Vries brothers.

Johannes De Vries's marriage record in 1887 to Gertrude Bos lists his parents as Jan De Vries & Luikje Mulder.    Jacob De Vries's marriage record in 1887 to Agina Marlink does not list parents.  It actually was a few years ago that I looked up the marriage records and I really hadn't given it much time since then.  I figured that it was a mistake.  But recently that old block was haunting me again.

In past years, I had done numerous searches on Genlias (now WieWasWie) for a De Vries married to an Ebels, coming up with nothing.  I looked for any name close to Luikje Ebels in birth records and found nothing.  Yes, there were a lot of Jan De Vries's but I only knew the father was Kornelius so I wasn't able to pin point the right record.  But guess what happened when I tried De Vries and Mulder?  Yep, it came right up!

From this record, it was an easy search to find both birth records.  Jan De Vries was born November 13, 1816 NOT February 1816.  (I think the February date came from his death record which listed is age as 75 years 11 months.)  Luiktje Mulder was born February 29, 1822 to Jakob Hendriks Mulder & Pieterke Lammerts Jolman.

Tombstone Tuesday: Great-Grandparents #7

Walter and Priscilla Naber are buried in the East Holland Cemetery, Michigan.  Walter Naber was born August 22, 1895 in Holland Township, Michigan.  Priscilla Lubbers was born November 28, 1896 in Fillmore Township, Michigan.  They were married February 14, 1918 at the bride's parents home in Fillmore Township, Michigan.  They had 9 children together (three still living).  Priscilla died May 20, 1963 in Holland, Michigan. Walter remarried to Cornelia Beyer in 1965.  He died March 24, 1975 in Holland Township, Michigan.

Tombstone Tuesday: Maternal Grandparents

Gert and Gordon Naber are buried in Restlawn Memorial Gardens in Holland.  Gertrude Brandt was born in 1921, Holland Township, Michigan.  Gordon was born in 1921, Holland Township, Michigan.  They were married in 1941, Holland Township, Michigan.  Gordon served in the Navy during WWII and was a carpenter.  They had 8 children children together.  Gertrude did not remarry after the death of Gordon.

Organizing Genealogy Photos: Part 1

some of the photo boxes plus the slide box

Organizing photos is actually pretty personal in that everyone has their own system.  I had been scrapping and scanning my own pictures since I had kids but there was a lot of pre-kids pictures that was just stashed in boxes. Then my mom gave me a ton of photos that she had from her mother and I needed a system.  I did search the internet but not a lot really seemed helpful.  Then I asked my father-in-law for his pictures because I knew they were just in boxes in the top of the closet and I wanted to discover that side of the family.  Now I really had a problem and needed to find a solution fast!

First off I don't have a lot of extra money so I knew I had to do all the scanning and organizing myself. So the first problem I had to tackle was where to put the pictures after I scanned them.  I just could not return them to the plastic bags or boxes or old albums since they would get more damaged that way.  I knew I needed to get archival boxes (and already had gotten 1 box for old slides) but how many?  At this point I decided that I needed to divide into four groups.  My parents are divorced so having their family pictures separate works and my mother-in-law had also died so that seemed to work okay as well.  So I purchased four regular size boxes for each family surname (Groenhof, Naber, Green, Vorce).  But I also had quite a few pictures that were bigger than the standard size picture box.  So I purchased three boxes for pictures up to size 12x9.  (The reason I went with three is because my side just didn't have a ton of large pictures so I could easily store them in one box.)  But I also had some really large pictures of my kids as well as heritage pictures that needed a bigger box. So I purchased one box (19.5 x 13) to hold all those really large pictures that would not be brought out much.

I wrote on the side of each archival box the size so I would know which box fit which picture and added initials of the family (G/N for my side).  Plus I labeled the four small boxes with the family name as well.  So now it was time to start scanning!

Gert Brandt

Photo booth picture of Gert Brandt when she was in her early teens.  (This is my favorite of the ones I have seen!)  I'm not sure if she is still in school here.  She was only allowed to go through the 8th grade.  Her father didn't think girls needed to go further.  She worked and gave her salary to her parents after leaving school.

Gert was born May 21, 1921, the third child of Otto and Jeanette.  Her older brother Julius died before she was born.  So she grew up with one older sister and seven younger siblings.  What a full house!  She also grew during the depression and didn't live on a farm, although they did have a garden and chickens.

Maybe I like this picture because it shows she did have some fun!

Military Service in The Netherlands

Otto Brand / late 1880's

This is a picture of my Great-Great Grandfather, Otto Brand.  Otto (third generation with that name) was born November 9, 1860 in Zuilichem, Gelderland, Netherlands.  He served in the military while in his twenties.  The "story" is that he served more than he was personally required by selling his services to those who didn't want to serve.  He didn't marry until he was 30 years old and he and his wife had two children while still living in the Netherlands. His wife Willemke's family had been immigrating to the United States so she really want to join them.  Otto was more reluctant to move but eventually they immigrated with their two young children.

They had two additional children after the migration, one of which was my Great-Grandfather Otto who was born in 1898.  According to my grandmother, her grandfather Otto never really learned English so Dutch was still spoken in his house.  Her future husband, Gordon was able to speak Dutch with Otto which he seem to enjoy.  Otto's own grandchildren had never really learned more than a few words of Dutch.

Otto died July 3, 1947 in Holland Michigan followed 11 days later by his wife, Wilma.  They are buried in the Pilgrim Home Cemetery in Holland.

Knitting

So another thing I have neglected over the last few years is knitting.  I actually like to knit quite a bit although not during the summer.  In the winter time it is great to have some yarn and needles in your hand!

It is actually a family tradition to knit!  My mother (plus sister), my mother-in-law and both my grandmothers either knit or crochet.  Both my grandmothers crochet'd (is that right?) until they were quite old since it kept their fingers nimble!  I was actually surprised to see some samples of my paternal grandmother's rather delicate crochet samples.  I have a hard time picturing her doing this type of work since I don't remember her ever doing it in front of me. I do have a couple of ornaments she gave me.  My maternal grandmother actually made wash clothes which is why they are a favorite of mine.  Ever christmas we could pick one out.  Now I wish I had saved one...

So I have to get back into knitting, learn how to crochet and spend less time on the computer.  Good luck with that right?!

Interviewing My Grandmother

I'm currently uploading my very first you-tube video!  In 2002, 2003 and 2004, I did a number of family interviews (most were with my mother).  One of my favorites is my Grandma Naber's interview.  It started with my niece needing some information on the great depression and my sister asking me to videotape.  I think we planned on expanding it right from the beginning to a more in-depth interview.  My grandmother wasn't very convinced that she had any information of interest, but we did end up with almost 2 hours of footage.  The actual interview was done in March 2003 and she died later that year.  After re-watching and digitizing, one of the best parts is hearing Grandma laugh again!

I will post the video link after it is upload.  It is still only 1/2 done.

(update - part one is done and posted!)

1940 census

As you know the 1940 census was released at the beginning of April. I was very excited and I thought that was the first year that I would find my grandparents together.  But no, they were not married until 1941.  So 10 more years and 4 kids later, they will finally be listed together!  But I have been able to find a number of other folks.  Of course I have to page through each district but it does go pretty fast!

I found almost all of my great grandparents.  I did know where they would be located since they didn't move around much.  My other set of grandparents I haven't attempted yet since I only know they lived in Holland.  I also found a few the the great-great grandparents.  A couple as I was looking for other names and some because I looked through all three of the districts in Zeeland!

The census above is of my great-grand father Benjamin Groenhof.  My father remembers him so I went looking since I knew he had been living in Zeeland in 1940.  I found him living with his second born son.