Mystery solved!!!!
Yvette Hoitink at Dutch Genealogy has done it again! She led me to the answer of whose house burned down and when. I first wrote about this in my post A Series of Disasters.
A newspaper clipping, saved by my family, reported the story of a house fire. A George Paake of Trimble Street in Kalamazoo, Michigan, lost his house. He was ill, his wife had recently died, and he had 5 children ages 14 and under at home. The unidentified paper called their recent lives a “series of disasters.”
I wasn’t sure if this was Teunis Peek, the father of my great-great-grandmother Alice Paak DeKorn (are you confused yet by Paake/Peek/Paak? I am!! Oh, and there is Pake, too. They are all the same name . . .) or someone else as I had no idea when the fire took place.
Through Yvette’s research, she was able to determine that George Paake who lost his house was actually Joost, the “missing” son of Teunis and brother of my great-great-grandmother.
His wife Lucy passed away in 1900, leaving 5 young children. George/Joost was 50 at the time he was left a widower.
With Yvette’s research results, I was able to get a better notion of George who had married a Dutch woman Lucy Kliphouse and had five children with her and was buying the house with a mortgage with the Building and Loan Association.
In Genealogy Bank I had not been able to locate a Kalamazoo Gazette article about the fire, but after Yvette narrowed the fire down to just past 1900, I used the search terms “fire” “Kalamazoo” and “Trimble,” rather than using George’s name. In that way I did find the Gazette article, which deems Mr. Paake “a worthy man.”
The fire happened on Wednesday, September 3, 1902, and the Gazette reported it the next day.
Within two years (1900-1902) George lost his wife and then his house.
Is it any wonder that in 1906 he married Ester Cook? Unfortunately, after living in Kalamazoo for one year with George, Ester too passed away. One more disaster in the series for George (and for Ester).
In 1908 he married Addie Amelia Giffos (probably Gifford) Wilder. When he married Addie his children were ages 10-20. I have no idea if this was a love marriage or a marriage of convenience, but it would be understandable that he would have liked some help raising these children. Also, it appears that Addie had at least a 5-year-old daughter at the time of her marriage to George.
One last comment: if you have family history trails that run back to the Netherlands, you will want to contact Yvette. She can break down those research barriers you think will never open to you.
The Family Kalamazoo 
How wonderful that you found the article! And thank you so much for the endorsement 🙂
By the way, if you pronounce Pake the American way (rhymes with ‘Take’), you have the exact sound of the Dutch name Peek. So the name change actually makes some sense after all!
Thanks, Yvette! Well, I’m glad that this wasn’t some dialect thing as it was with Goes 😉 and is the standard Dutch pronounciation. When Grandma and Grandpa told me that Alice’s last name was Paak, they did pronounce it Pake. I don’t know why they changed it right off the bat from Peek to Paak and the other variations, but it sure makes researching more difficult.
So amazing that you found this article, you are an inspiration.
Ah, thanks, Jackie. So glad you enjoyed it!
I’m very happy you got the answers so soon. George, I hope, had the enjoyment of companionship with Addie.
Thank you! At least his marriage with Addie did last, so they were able to see the children grow up (I think). I still have much research to do on the children.
I’m enjoying a ringside seat on your researches!
Thanks, Wilma! Pretty exciting!
Don’t you love it when you get a new piece of the puzzle?? Good one.
Sheila, I was so thrilled when I found this other newspaper article! I looked and looked one day and couldn’t find it, then got one other piece of info and it gave me the new idea for searching and there it was!
It’s awesome that you got the pieces you needed to solve the puzzle. It sounds like George had a rough life.
The only ones with a rougher life were, I guess, Lucy and Ester, the 1st and 2nd wives!! But, yes, what a run of bad luck!
Poor George! Hopefully he and Addie lived a peaceful, happy rest of their life together! 😉
Addie lived to be 86. George goes by Joseph G, or George J. depending on the record. I put all this on Family Tree.
Michigan, Deaths and Burials Index, 1867-1995
Name: Addie Amelia Pake
[Addie Amelia Gifford]
Birth Date: 25 May 1862
Birth Place: New York
Death Date: 24 Aug 1948
Death Place: Kearney, Antrim, Michigan
Burial Date: 27 Aug 1948
Burial Place: Alden, Michigan
Cemetery Name: Helena, Twp.
Death Age: 86
Race: White
Marital Status: Widowed
Gender: Female
Father Name: Daniel J. Gifford
Father Birth Place: New York
Mother Name: Susan A. Negus
Mother Birth Place: Ledgyard, New York
Spouse Name: Joseph Pake
FHL Film Number: 2109830