Last post I showed you the photo of my great-great-great-grandfather, Boudewijn de Korne. I just discovered new information about him written by his grandson Joseph DeKorn. Boudewijn, his wife Johanna, and their two children travelled to the United States with Gerrit Remine (Gerrard Remijnse), who was Johanna’s brother.
They travelled on a sailing vessel and arrived at Kalamazoo, Michigan on June 22, 1856. However, “they located in Zeeland, Michigan” for several years. “The voyage across was bad and long.” Joseph’s father Richard and Aunt Mary told him it took 90 days, but Joseph didn’t believe it was actually that long.
I mentioned that Boudewijn and his wife Johanna had two living children when they left the Netherlands. The older is Richard DeKorn; I have introduced him several times before. Note that Richard’s generation appears to have dropped the final E from their last name.
Richard: Dirk de Korne, born 21 Aug 1851, Kapelle, Zeeland, the Netherlands; died 26 Jan 1930, Kalamazoo,
Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. Also known as Richard and, when younger, Derrick.
Richard DeKorn (Dirk de Korne)
Mary: Maria Catharina de Korne was born on 4 Jan 1855 in Kapelle, Zeeland, the Netherlands. Mary married John DeSmit in Kalamazoo in 1873 and they had at eight children. Her daughter Frances married a Flipse. When I got married in 1975 my mother took me to Flipse Flower shop to order my bridal bouquet because they were “shirt tail relatives.” It’s hard to imagine it from this photo, but Mary only died two years before I was born.
Mary DeKorn DeSmit
After the family moved to the United States, Boudewijn and Johanna had another daughter, Adriana, in 1959, who is one year old in the 1860 census. Nothing after that.
However, a 10-year-old daughter Jennie shows up in the 1870 census, which Jose from Enhanced News Archive was kind enough to find for me.
Joseph DeKorn’s documentation mentions Jennie, but not Adriana. My grandfather identified the woman in this photograph as Jennie, Richard’s sister, who married a man named John Culver and eventually moved to Seattle, Washington. She died in Pierce, Washington, on July 4, 1947. According to her death record, she was born around 1861. One difficulty in searching is that there is another Jennie Culver (married to Earl) who lived in Kalamazoo during Jennie DeKorn Culver’s lifetime.
So the question remains: was there an Adriana born in 1859 as well as Jennie born in 1860 or 1861? Or are they the same person? If Adriana had lived and kept her name, she would have been mentioned in Joseph’s statement. So either she passed away as an infant or she became known as Jennie or, perhaps most likely, the census got her name wrong to begin with.
UPDATE: IT IS NOW 2018, FIVE YEARS LATER, AND I STILL DO NOT HAVE BIRTH OR BAPTISM INFORMATION ABOUT JENNIE OR ADRIANA. I AM GOING TO ASSUME FOR NOW THAT JENNIE IS ADRIANA–UNTIL I FIND OUT TO THE CONTRARY. THIS IS BECAUSE JENNIE IS A COMMON NICKNAME FOR ADRIANA.
Jennie DeKorn Culver
This is a photo of Jenny and John Culver’s children:
The Culver Children
The Family Kalamazoo 
Very interesting. I wish my mind were sharper to take it in better. The photos made a strong impression — appearance and personality. I see a resemblance between Jenny and you. The children in the third photo are beautiful.
I was glad to know that your kin the U.S. were living longer lives than those in the old country. Did I ever tell you this? –> At one time the Dutch were the smallest people in Europe, and it was thought that they were just small people. However, once their diets improved (after WWII) and the population enjoyed a few generations of good health care (also after WWII), the Dutch became the tallest people in Europe. Check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height .
In a way, this goes along with what you wrote about the success story of the grandson of laborers in Holland getting a superb education and achieving much in the U.S. Better food, better healthcare, greater opportunity, etc.
However, as I recall — and this was from an article I read long ago — descendants of Dutch people in the U.S. are not now as tall as the Dutch in Europe. From this I deduce that nutrition and healthcare in the U.S. are not currently as good as it is in Holland.
Human height is a measure of good nutrition and healthcare. Children have growth spurts and whenever a child is sick during a growth spurt, it is reduced.
Wilma, thanks for this fascinating info! I’m on my iPad and need to be brief, but I will read about this!
I have visited several Dutch settlements in the US and was surprised how short people were. Those villages were almost 100% Dutch in origin and people from the villages they came from in the Netherlands were on average 4-8 inches taller. In the Netherlands, I’m not that tall for a woman (5’9″) but in the US I was taller than most men! I didn’t bring my 6’6″ husband but he would have been a giant where in the Netherlands he’s just ‘tall’. I know several people who are taller than him, including a former classmate who is 7’3″.
Thank you for the mention of my blog in this piece. I still have the family tree and with the new information you put here I am adding it to the tree. If Adriana is on 1860 as being 1 year old and Jennie is on 1870 as being 10 years old then when was Jennie born? I wonder if there are school records which would tell us what she was called when she registered for school. So many questions.
Thanks for the interesting piece.
Take Care.
Jose
What an excellent lead, Jose! Thank you so much.
Jennie is a common English version of Adriana. The nickname for Adriana in the Netherlands could have been ‘Sjaan’ or ‘Jaantje’, which sounds similar to Jennie. My own great-aunt Adriana has been called Jeanny since she moved to the US in 1948. So chances are that Jennie and Adriana are indeed the same person.
Yvette, thank you so much! That is great info and explains the mystery. The names seemed so different to me. By the way, I need to email you.
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