Do-Over Log Jam

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One of my first ventures into the trenches of Genealogy in 1997 (about) was meeting with my mother's cousin who had done TONS and TONS of work on our shared line.  She very generously shared by copying all her files that included newspaper clippings and handwritten memories.  So I started as a name collector with that huge file of handwritten family group sheets.  But what I did NOT do was sourcing.  I had no idea where that name or date originated.  I negated the work done by others by not giving credit to the original.

As I go back through those pages plus other collections, I'm looking at a lifetime of work by many as well as record of who came before me.  I'm not a name collector.  Rather I'm honoring the work of my relatives.  The years and years of their efforts (typing, organizing, going to libraries) are worth the hours of effort by me.  Their love of family and history deserves preservation.  What I'm hoping to pass down to my descendants is a well organized record of my work, including names and faces and stories of those who came before,

Wedding Wednesday: Brandt & De Vries

Jeanette De Vries and Otto Brandt married October 31, 1918 in Zeeland, Michigan.  I don't have a newspaper clipping describing the dress but the story goes that Otto and Jeanette had a shotgun wedding.  She was pregnant (first child born April 1919) and her brothers (she had six of them) chased Otto down, forcing him to marry her.  They ended up with 11 children, two who died very young.

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-Great Grandparents #23 & #31

Jan Kornelis and Luiktje (Mulder) De Vries were married June 6, 1850 in Leens, Netherland.  Jan Kornelis was born November 13, 1816 in Hornhuizen, Netherlands.  Luiktje was born January 29, 1822 in Leens, Netherlands.  They had four children together.  Jan died January 20, 1892 in Zeeland, Michigan at the age of 75.  Luiktje died April 1893 in Zeeland, Michigan at the age of 71.  They are buried in the Beaverdam Cemetery.  (The stone above is for their daughter, Jan & Luiktje do not have a stone but they are in the same area as Jantje.)

Tombstone Tuesday: Great-Great-Grandparents #16

Johannes and Gertrude (Boes) De Vries were married October 5, 1887 in Zeeland, Michigan.  Johannes was born July 23, 1863 in Zeeland Township, Michigan.  Gertrude was born October 4, 1866 in Beaverdam, Michigan.  Together they had twelve children together.  Johannes died October 1, 1943 in Zeeland, Michigan at the age of 80.  Gertrude died April 28, 1936 in Zeeland, Michigan at the age of 69.  They are both buried in the Zeeland Cemetery, Michigan.

Tombstone Tuesday: Great-Great-Grandparents #12

Jacob and Agnes (Marlink) De Vries were married March 23, 1887 in Zeeland, Michigan.  Jacob was born May 23, 1861 in Zeeland Township, Michigan.  Agnes (Agina) was born November 25, 1867 in Zeeland Township, Michigan.  They had twelve children together.  Jacob died May 29, 1949 in Zeeland.  Agnes died August 11, 1949 in Zeeland.  They are buried in the Zeeland Cemetery.

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 #8

Otto and Jeanette Brandt are buried in the Restlawn Memorial Gardens in Holland, Michigan.  Otto Brandt was born June 1, 1898 in East Saugatuck, Michigan.  Jeanette De Vries was born February 15, 1899 in Michigan.  They were married October 31, 1918 in Michigan.  Together they had 11 children (3 still living).  Otto died at the age of 93, December 25, 1991 in Holland, Michigan.  Jeanette died April 17, 1975 in Zeeland, Michigan.

Tombstone Tuesday: Great-Grandparents #6

Ben and Lucy Stremler are buried in the Borculo Cemetery, Blendon Township, Michigan.  Binne Stremler was born April 23, 1881 in Wonseradeel, Friesland, Netherlands.  Lucy De Vries was born September 17, 1888 in Zeeland, Ottawa County, Michigan.  Ben and Lucy were married March 26, 1908 and they had 7 children together.  Ben died March 26, 1926 in Ottawa County, Michigan.  Lucy remarried to Hessel Bremer who died in 1948.  Lucy died August 16, 1968 at the county poor farm in Eastmanville, Michigan.

Jeanette De Vries Brandt

about 1914

So I realized during my last post that my great-grandmother Jeanette had a child every year for SEVEN years!  (Okay it is probably a re-realization!)  Two of these babies died.  Julius Otto before he was one year old and Rose Marie was stillborn.  Now they did re-use those names which does make it complicated.  Four more children came along in 1927, 1929, 1930 and then the baby in 1938.

Jeanette was the seventh child, born Feb 15, 1899, to Johannes and Gertrude De Vries.  She married Otto Brandt Oct 31, 1918.  I have heard that it was a forced marriage in that Otto might not have been willing but Jeanette's brothers made sure he attended.  And since she was 3 months pregnant at the time of the marriage, this is probably true!

I believe her childhood was pretty happy, living on a farm with good parents and lots of siblings.  Her early marriage must have been very difficult with babies and cleaning and the depression.  Her husband Otto was not always able to find work.  She lived until 1975, long enough to see grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  My own daughter received her middle name in honor of Jeanette so she will be remembered.

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.

Visiting cemeteries

I have visited two cemeteries this week, one yesterday and one today. And I dragged/bribed my children to come along. They really didn't help a ton but it was nice to have someone there. And they did look for names! My daughter didn't want to look by herself so the two of them looked together.

Yesterday we went to the Beaverdam Cemetery. It was so HOT. I started taking pictures of every stone but that didn't last long with the heat. It doesn't seem like it would be a big deal to just take pictures but yes, it was! I did find most of the graves I wanted and the ones I didn't find might not even have stones. That is part of the organization problem. I probably have a listing from the cemetery records at the library, but not on my computer. Nor linked to my cemetery file. I have visited this cemetery before but it was before I had a digital camera so it was nice to have digital copies to add to my computer records.

I actually have two sets of direct ancestors at this cemetery. The de Vries pair do not have a stone. The only stone from that family is for the daughter who died in 1881. As you can tell from the picture above, the stone is very worn and difficult to read. The girl was named Jantje and she died when she was 20 years old. I haven't looked up a death record for her yet so I am not sure the cause of her death. Her younger brother died about the same age but I don't even have exact dates for him. The two surviving brothers are the ancestors that connect my parents trees.

The other couple are Jan & Jantje Beld. Their stone is also in bad shape but someone had added plaques since the last time I had been out there, about 10 years ago.

Today we went to the Benthiem Cemetery. This was my very first visit there. My direct ancestor, Reijer Sneller, is buried there but doesn't not have a stone. So there wasn't any big discoveries. All the pictures I took were for distant relatives or just very old stones. It was a very nice cemetery but was being mowed so there was a lot of grass clippings to move aside.

I also spent a lot of time adding the pictures and records to Find A Grave. This website is a collection of cemetery records and photos added by anyone who has an interest. It is a great site!

I am trying to decide if I should visit another cemetery tomorrow to make it three in a row or to swing by the library and make some copies from the cemetery records.

Prolific Fathers

Genea-Musings Saturday challenge is to find the most prolific dad in your tree. Well, I couldn't find a way for iFamily for Leopard to pull this out for me so I am going with two prolific brothers. These brothers are the bridge between my parents family tree.

The older brother, Jacob De Vries, is my father's Great-Great grandfather on his mother's side. Jacob and his wife Agnes produced 11 children, 2 of which didn't survive to adulthood. The second brother is Johannes, my mother's Great-Great grandfather on her mother's side. Johannes and his wife Gertrude (pictured above) produced 12 children, 2 of which didn't survive to adulthood.

Happy Father's Day!

A missing wedding picture

Many years ago, I created a wedding (or at least a picture of the couple around that time) genealogy picture album. The idea was that it would start with me and my husband and then go to our parents, our grandparents and out to our great-grandparents. (I don't have any pictures of the next level so I never even put those pages in the book.) As of yesterday, I was missing 3 pictures for the album, 2 from my husbands side and 1 from my own. Well, I was picking some stuff up yesterday and I found some pictures. Of course I have to scan them but I thought I would take a look before I put them on the scan pile. Well, I found a picture of my mother-in-law, who passed away a few years ago along with one of the missing pictures with a note from her! I actually had this picture for a number of years but totally forgot. WOW! I am very excited! The copy is not great but I fixed it up a bit and it is posted above. This is Duncan Livingston & Ida May Cook married in 1901.

My daughter loves this album as much as I do so I showed her the picture and she noticed something interesting. (Figures!) If you look closely at the broach Ida is wearing, it looks like a picture of her husband. I will have to see if my father in law has the original at his house since the orientation of the photo is wrong for the album and I would like to rescan it.

So the only pictures I need are Edwin Charles Vorce & Susie Augusta Stinchfield, married in 1895 AND Ben Stremler & Lucy De Vries married in 1908. Of course it might not be a wedding picture but I would like something for the album!

Matrilineal Line

I haven't done a Genea-Musings Saturday Night Challenge in a while so here it goes! This one is to post your matrilineal line, your family tree traced back through your mother and then to her mother, etc. The second part of the challenge is related to testing of the DNA which I haven't done so I am skipping that!

My Matrilineal Line:
1) Elizabeth Ann
2) Janice Elaine Naber
3) Gertrude Wilma Brandt (1921-2003) married Gordon Naber
4) Jeanette DeVries (1899-1975) married Otto Brandt
5) Gertrude Boes (1866-1936) married Johannes De Vries
6) Hermina Beld ( 1936-1920) married Egbert Boes
7) Jantje Bekker (1805-1893) married Jan Beld

My Husband's Matrilineal LIne:

1) Eric Nelson

2) Leah Grace Vorce (1941-2006) married Nelson Green

3) Grace Vea Tillotson (1901-1976) married Harold Vorce

4) Nellie May Burnett (1864-1951) married Asahel Tillotson

5) Sarah Jane Case (1840-1915) married Charles Burnett

6) Phebe Bagley (1798-1874) married Ira Case

7) Sarah (??-??) married Ichabod Bagley

PS) the picture is my mother-in-law with her only granddaughter, my beautiful daughter, Claire!

16 Great-Great-Great Grandparents

If nothing else, Genea-Musings is giving me things to blog about!

So here is the list of my 16 G-G-G Grandparents & their nationality:

1) Minne Gerbens Groenhof: born 10 Mar 1850 @Hemelumer Oldeferd, Friesland, Netherlands, married 07 Jun 1878 @Hemelumer Oldeferd, Friesland, Netherlands, died 22 Oct 1895 @Olive Township, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

2) Marijke Berends Kool: born 28 Apr 1852 @Hemelumer Oldeferd, Friesland, Netherlands, died 08 Apr 1932 @Blendon Township, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

3) Jacob Harmens Steigenga: born 07 Apr 1853 @Hemelumer Oldeferd, Friesland, Netherlands, married 24 May 1877 @Workum, Friesland, Netherlands, died 30 Jul 1923 @Borculo, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

4) Aukje Ruurds Vander Meer: born 30 Dec 1856 @Workum, Friesland, Netherlands, died 20 Mar 1916 @Blendon Township, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

5) Symon Harmens Stremler: born 11 Dec 1843 @Wonseradeel, Friesland, Netherlands, married 05 May 1925 @Wonseradeel, Friesland, Netherlands, died 08 May 1925 @ Olive Township, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

6) Pietje Wiebes Hiemenga: born 19 Oct 1845 @Wonseradeel, Friesland, Netherlands, died 06 Aug 1920 @Olive Township, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

7) Jacob De Vries: born 23 May 1861 @Zeeland Township, Ottawa, Michigan, married 23 Mar 1887 @Michigan, died 29 May 1949 @Zeeland, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

8) Agina Jannetina Marlink: born 25 Nov 1867 @Zeeland Township, Ottawa, Michigan, died 11 Aug 1949 @Zeeland, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

9) Johannes Jans Naber: born 06 Mar 1855 @Holland Township, Ottawa, Michigan, married 06 Mar 1876 @Holland Township, Ottawa, Michigan, died 13 Oct 1904 @Holland Township, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

10) Aaltje Hellenthal: born 31 Oct 1854 @Fillmore Township, Allegan, Michigan, died 22 Oct 1919 @Holland Township, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

11) Gradus Lubbers: born 01 Dec 1872 @Fillmore Township, Allegan, Michigan married 14 Mar 1896 @Fillmore Township, Allega, Michigan, died 20 Jan 1947 @Holland, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

12) Dina (Sneller) Bol: born 26 Dec 1875 @Olive Township, Ottawa, Michigan, died 08 Nov 1960 @Holland, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

13) Otto Ottos Brand: born 09 Nov 1860 @Zuilchem, Gelderland, Netherlands, married 31 Dec 1890 @Bedum, Gelderland, Netherlands, died 03 Jul 1947 @Holland, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

14) Willemke Jans Meulenbelt: born 02 Feb 1863 @Aduard, Groningen, Netherlands, died 14 Jul 1947 @Holland, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

15) Johannes De Vries: born 23 Jul 1863 @Zeeland Township, Michigan, married 05 Oct 1887 @Zeeland, Ottawa, Michigan, died 01 Oct 1943 @Zeeland, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

16) Gertrude Boes: born 04 Oct 1866 @Beaverdam, Ottawa, Michigan, died 28 Apr 1936 @Zeeland, Ottawa, Michigan (Dutch)

So it looks like my "nationality" is...Dutch! Big surprise!