This post is dedicated to Yvette Hoitink at Dutch Genealogy.
Two wonderful events have occurred recently which add to my treasure trove of genealogical information and old family photos. One is that my mother sent me my grandmother’s high school graduation (and beyond) scrapbook. In my last post I showed off my grandmother’s teacher contract from 1931-32 and a photo of my grandparents two years before they married. These were from the scrapbook. I will be posting more of these treats in the future.
The other event is that Yvette Hoitink, a Dutch genealogist, quickly and easily found a wealth of information about the Zuidweg family–my grandfather’s Dutch ancestors. Dutch Genealogy is a site which describes Yvette’s services. You can contact her through that site. What would have taken me years of effort and a good knowledge of the Dutch language, took Yvette a few hours. In the next few posts, I’ll be examining some of the information Yvette found. Among other tidbits, she discovered incorrect information I had catalogued, information which discredited family stories, and an intriguing coincidence.
Today’s post is to share the coincidence. My grandfather, Adrian Zuidweg, born in 1908 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, married my grandmother, Lucille Edna Mulder, in 1932. See the last post for a photo of them as a young couple. Here is a wedding photo.
Adrian Jr. and Edna (Mulder) Zuidweg, 1932
Grandma’s father was Charles Mulder, of Caledonia, Michigan. His name at birth, in 1885 in Goes, the Netherlands, was Karel Pieter Phillipus Mulder.
My great grandfather Charles Mulder with his parents and siblings. He’s front row, second from the right, with the curly dark hair.
In the 5th generation of the Zuidweg family, Yvette discovered a Carel Mulder, who was born about 1781. She writes, “On 5 May 1836 he was a jailor’s hand in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands. He died on 19 May 1847 at the age of 66 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.” I’ll hazard a guess that this is a common name, but the same town name is certainly intriguing.
Looking back a little further, I see that my great grandfather’s grandfather was Karel Mulder, born February 21, 1837 in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands. He died in April 22, 1881, also in Goes. Obviously not a match.
Not his father either.
But look! Another generation back was yet another Karel Mulder, born March 8, 1780 in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands. He died May 19, 1847, also in Goes. HE’S A MATCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And now I know that this ancestor of my GRANDMOTHER and of my GRANDFATHER was a “jailor’s hand.” Whatever that is.
My husband isn’t as excited about information like this. He says, “Do you know how many people were alive in those days? It’s not that big a coincidence to have that happen.” And actually today, in the land of Facebook, where I’m two degrees removed from almost every other American Facebooker, it might not be that big of a deal either. But to me it was fascinating to see that name which is a “staple” of my grandmother’s line show up on my grandfather’s!
According to Ancestry.com the “jailor’s hand” is my “5th great grandfather”:
This is a family rumor which proved to be true. My mother has always told me that my grandparents were cousins of sorts.
The Family Kalamazoo 
Genealogy is so much fun!
I know!
Oh your hubby is just jealeous that he hasnt got such a cool find in his family tree 🙂
Hehehe, you are so right!!!
Wonderful find!
Thank you, I am thrilled!
What a great blog post! As I focused on your grandfather’s ancestors, I had no idea that his wife was a descendant of Carel Mulder too. What an amazing coincidence!
In Dutch-American settlements, people often married other people in their small community so there are a lot of cousins marrying cousins. Few genealogists realize that this intermarrying often happened in the small towns they came from too. I would not be surprised if we find more shared ancestors as we continue the search.
About the “jailor’s hand”, the Dutch term is “cipiersknecht”. A cipier is a jailor or prison warden/guard. A ‘knecht’ is a hand, apprentice or assistant. There’s no good translation in English although “junior” probably comes close. They apparently had cipiers (wardens) and cipiersknechten (junior wardens) in that prison.
Goes had a prison for convicted criminals from the isle of Beveland and parts of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (two regions in Zeeland). A lot more people went to prison than today, often for very short sentences. You could be convicted for having a chicken run loose, and were given the choice between a fine or a few days in prison. Some poor people chose the prison option (or did not have the money and had no choice). Carel Mulder would have seen a lot of different people come through his prison.
A prison was built in Goes in 1848. As Carel Mulder died in 1847, he would not have seen this new prison. During Carel’s lifetime, prisoners were kept in different locations: in the tower, attic and cellar of the city hall and in a room above the consistory of the Dutch reformed church (for women and children (!) only). I haven’t found records yet that show where Carel Mulder served but it must have been in one of these buildings. Here is link to some images of the city hall at Goes: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Stadhuis_(Goes). It still exists today and is a scheduled monument.
Here is another link to a page about this history of Goes: http://www.geschiedeniszeeland.nl/tab_themas/themas/steden/goes/ . It is in Dutch but includes some lovely images, including a watercolor painting of the city hall in Goes. The first phase of the building dates to the second half of the 14th century. The facade dates to the 1770s. The tower on the right was used as a prison.
I am putting the watercolor as my computer desktop picture–beautiful!
Yvette, you are a wealth of fantastic information!! This is all so fascinating. Thank you so much.
You’re very welcome!
Yvette, I just published another post about the results of your research.
[…] « Intriguing Coincidence or An “Of Course” Moment? […]
Very interesting information. Yvette sure knows her stuff. My daughter-in-law’s name is Knecht so I sent her the interesting info on the word.
Thanks
Jose
Very cool! She sure does–I’m very impressed!
Thank you both for the compliment!
You’re welcome. It’s well deserved.
Thanks for visiting and liking my blog.
Pierre
You’re welcome, Pierre!!
Exciting blog post!
Thank you so much! I was pretty excited :)!
How exciting! I’ve seen a lot of the inter-marrying of cousins in my maternal grandmother’s family in New Jersey. It’s all so fascinating. And, love your photos!
[…] This same Carel Mulder is also an ancestor of my maternal grandfather. I wrote about the discovery of this coincidence in an earlier post. […]
[…] a. That my grandparents were cousins. Yes, they share a common ancestor way back. I shared that in this blog post […]
[…] Genealogy. She did further research on the Mulder branch of my family, but because of the “Intriguing Coincidence” I’ve written about earlier, this also meant further research on the Zuidweg […]