When I was a kid, the oldest person in our family was “Aunt Jen.” After the death of her only child, Aunt Jen went to live in a group home for elderly ladies run by the mother of one of the 4th grade teachers at Haverhill Elementary School (Portage, Michigan), Mr. Sweringer. My fourth grade class was directly opposite that of Mr. S who made kids put a penny in a jar if they cussed.
My daughter’s middle name is Jennifer, and I gave her this name in honor of Aunt Jen.
Aunt Jen was born Jennie DeKorn in Kalamazoo, on March 8, 1873, to Richard and Alice (Paak) DeKorn. She was the oldest of the three siblings, which included Cora (my great grandmother) and Joseph (the photographer).
At age 23, on May 20, 1896, Jennie married Lambertus Leeuwenhoek.
Lambertus, known to everyone in the family as Uncle Lou, was born in the Netherlands on May 3, 1972. He passed away April 20, 1949 in Kalamazoo. Uncle Lou’s parents were Arie Leeuwenhoek and Mary Hoogedoom. The story I was told by Grandpa is that Uncle Lou and his brother Gerard were orphans. He told me that Uncle Lou was a very intelligent man.
Additional info added later: I discovered a letter from Phil DeKorn, son of Joseph, to my parents, which says that Uncle Lou was a wizard at chess and checkers.
Gerard or Garret Leeuwenhoek
He also said that Uncle Lou was a direct descendent of Antony van Leeuwenhoek, the inventor of the microscope.
Uncle Lou and his brother-in-law, my great grandfather Adrian Zuidweg, spent a lot of time together.
Aunt Jen and Uncle Lou had one child, Alice Leeuwenhoek Moerdyke. She was born in Kalamazoo on April 16, 1897. I suspect she was quite spoiled because:
a. I have so many photos of her!
b. She had a lot of pretty clothes–much nicer than the rest of the family.
c. My grandfather once told me so ;).
And look how cute she was:
Aunt Jen and Uncle Lou lived the rest of their lives in Kalamazoo. They celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1946 and the Kalamazoo Gazette ran their photo.
When I was little, she attended our family get-togethers, and she wasn’t a mother or aunt of anyone from my generation or my mother’s. I couldn’t grasp that she was my grandfather’s aunt, as that seemed to me impossible. My parents took me to visit her regularly, and I always respected them for their attention to her.
On March 15, 1968, at the age of 95, Aunt Jen passed away.
The Family Kalamazoo 
I can see a resemblance between and you and the young Jen. I liked what you had to say about the generations. My aunt Eloise was in the same relationship to my brother Roger’s grandchildren, the oldest of whom started college a few months after Eloise died at age 91. I wonder what those young people thought of ancient Great-Great-Aunt Eloise and, for that matter, what they think of me
— Great-Aunt Wilma. I expect to be a great-great-aunt someday, perhaps in the next five years. Being a great-great-aunt really puts one in one’s place.
I love that humor: “Being a great-great-aunt really puts one in one’s place.” Hilarious. Yes, your Eloise was an intriguing person.
By the way, yes, i can see the resemblance, too. Since she’s Cora’s sister and the two girls shared similarities, that makes sense. Clearly, I look most like the DeKorns, rather than other relatives!
Great piece. Thank You.
Thanks for reading it, Jose! Have a great week!
Very nice account. I feel like I know Aunt Jen (a little bit anyway) after reading this. I also love the pictures!
Thanks so much for reading! Aunt Jen was a nice lady!
She would be thrilled and proud that you gave her such a nice post.
Aw, that made me happy to hear :).
I enjoyed the photos very much.
Thanks so much for checking them out, EmilyAnn!
I liked the ways you deduced that Alice was spoiled. 🙂
Hahaha, I’m glad you liked that ;). Eventually I plan to post a lot of pix of Alice, but that will have to wait while I sort out some of the more basic info.
Such wonderful photos! Thank you for sharing
Thank you so much for taking the time to look at them!
Your blog is wonderful. I wish I had so many pictures from my family. I am the first one born in the US and my family lost most everything in the Holocaust. I will have to post the few I have from my side. My husband’s family has many more photos available. I think blogging is going to take up more time than I planned!
Ruth,
Thank you so much. Blogging has taken over my life ;)! I’m so sorry that your family lost so much. I know many people who are interested in genealogy but don’t do much research because so many records were lost in the Holocaust. Also hard to get records from Russia, too, I think. You are doing a great thing with your blog.
Luanne
[…] Lou’s hero brother who died at war, a post about Uncle Lou’s Bible collection, and one which focuses on my Aunt Jen, Uncle Lou’s wife. When I was growing up, she was the oldest […]
[…] so he’s still called Uncle Lou by me today, although I never met him. I did know his wife, Aunt Jen, who survived him by […]