I’ve traveled to California, Sedona, and Michigan in the past few weeks. Needless to say, I am behind in my work even more than usual. I want to continue Theresa Pake’s story and to explore the Jennie DeKorn Culver photos more, but these projects take a good deal of time.
Instead, I decided to take a look at an old postcard postmarked 1911. The postcard is to Alice Leewenhoek, Richard DeKorn’s granddaughter through his daughter Jennie. Alice was an only child who lived with her mother Jennie and her father who Grandpa always called “Uncle Lou”–Lambertus Leewenhoek.
In the photo below, Alice is sitting with a friend, neighbor, or relative against the exterior wall of Richard DeKorn’s house. She holds a doll in her lap and is petting Tom or Carlo (if I had to guess, I would say it’s Tom).
On this postcard, Nellie Bradt is thanking Alice for her “postal.” Nellie’s address is marked as 1130 S. Burdick Street. The photograph is Bronson Park, which is the beautiful “town square” of Kalamazoo.
After seeing that the mailing address is listed as Balch St. and doesn’t include Alice’s street number (not uncommon for that time period in Kalamazoo), I went to my family tree on Ancestry and discovered that I had never found the Leewenhoek family on the 1910 census. So I tried something different and looked for the 1910 census on Family Search. Bingo. Instead of Lambertus Leewenhoek, I found Lamburtos Leenwenhock, at 110 Balch Street, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Uncle Lou was living with his wife Jennie and his daughter Alice who was 13 years old in that year–and therefore around 14 at the time of the postcard in 1911. New info: According to Uncle Don, they lived in the wooden house just behind the Richard DeKorn brick house.
Can you read anything more on the postmark besides the city, state, and year? Is it December 9? Or does it say something else?
Grandpa and Alice were first cousins, their mothers were sisters.
I haven’t been able to find Nellie Bradt in the 1910 census, but I did find her in an 1899 city directory. I then found her parents in a 1905 directory. I think I can find them more years, too. But I don’t understand how to read these entries. The 1899 entries are entirely different from the 1905, but neither one really gives me the address.
Here is the 1899 that lists Nellie with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George A. Bradt. I understand they lived in the City of Kalamazoo. And I know “a” means acreage, but not how to interpret what any of this means or how it connects with an address.
Here is the 1905 directory entry. Nellie isn’t mentioned, but her parents are. What in the world does it mean?
Is there a way to search for Nellie in the 1910 census using the 1130 S. Burdick Street address she gives? Can I search the census by address?
Note that many of my relatives lived in this Burdick/Balch neighborhood. When I look at the census records from late 19th and early 20th century, I see that almost everyone, if not everyone, who lived there was Dutch.
My grandfather’s gas station was at the corner of Burdick and Balch, across the street from the Richard DeKorn house. Grandpa lived in that house for part of his childhood, with his parents and grandfather, Richard. When he built his house down the block on Burdick, he was staying in the same general area his family had lived in for decades. He continued to work at his station and live in his house until he retired and moved to Portage.
I remember as a child meeting Mrs. Bradt Braat who lived next door to the gas station. The name is pronounced, by the way, like the sausages that go with beer. I wonder if she was related to the Nellie Bradt who wrote this postcard. Mom? Uncle Don? New info: no, she must not be as they were a Belgian family (see comments below).
Alice Leewenhoek was my grandfather’s cousin. Note that the postcard is stamped with the name and address of Grandpa’s father, A. Zuidweg. I wonder why?
One postcard. So many questions!
The Family Kalamazoo 
Brandt could be the same if names were changed. In back of station lived the Braat family they were from Belgium and as I recall they had only boys ( jack and Pete) about my dads age or a little younger. They had a third interest in the garage behind the station.
Aunt Jen. Uncle Lou lived with Alice in the wood house behind the dekorn house until Alice married then they lived on garden street. For a short time they ran a grocery store in Vicksburg.
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Great info, Uncle Don! I was wondering if that gray house behind the DeKorn house is the original that Aunt Jen lived in or if that was torn down and this one built in its place. I remember reading a document that showed them living farther away at one point. Maybe that is when they had the store in Vicksburg!
Interesting about the Braats, too.
The A Zuidweg stamp on postcard was much after 1911 as the house at 1624 was not built until 1936 for $2700.
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More great info! I’ve seen that stamp on other documents, so I wonder if Grandma or Grandpa stamped those documents, postcards, etc. on purpose, to show ownership?
Here’s a quick thought about the city directory: George’s wife’s name is in parenthesis (Sophia). He is a vinegar manufacturer, and the “w” stands for work perhaps. The “res” stands for residence, so it looks like his work and residence are at the same place. The “res” means, most likely, that they owned their home as opposed to “bds” for boarding.
That sounds about right, Ruth! I wonder what it was like to be a vinegar manufacturer. Can you imagine the smell in your house?!
You can get close (street name) by using this “Steve Morse” tool. http://www.stevemorse.org/census/reelframes.html?year=1910&state=MI&county=kalamazoo&ed=145
The tool does not allow street number for 1910 but they will get you to the Enumeration page
1910 ED numbers corresponding to your location
kalamazoo-130, kalamazoo-134, kalamazoo-145, kalamazoo-146
You will have to view the pages to find where “Burdick” is listed.
I did a brief search and did not see 1130 but I might have missed it.
When you are looking for an address for 1910 you can also look at the top line on Ancestry.com and click on the buttons for the particular area: e.g.
Michigan, Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Ward 1, District 0130
click on District 0130 and you will get a list of all the EM Dist in Kalamazoo Ward 1. This list will give a description such as bounded by Bush, Pitcher…
You then read through those until you find Burdick then you have the census record which includes that street. You have to page through the collection and look for the number. The collections will vary 25 page to 42 pages.
I found Burdick mentioned on Ward 1, 2 and 4.
It’s a little bit harder than just getting some computer program to do the work but at least it gives you a place to look.
Interesting blog posting and all from just some post cards.
Have a safe trip and if you get near Clarkston, hook and wave.
Jose from Clarkston, Michigan
Jose, this is great info. Thank you so much! I will go through them this weekend! Have a wonderful rest of the week!
One more thing. I looked at a map of Kalamazoo and the address would be on South Burdick because that is where “the corner of Burdick and Balch” Balch St shows up.
Good Luck.
Jose from Clarkston, Michigan
Here is an addition to where you will find South Burdick. That street is listed in Kalamazoo, District 0156 but there are no house numbers. I did a quick search and didn’t see any Boadt or Bradt or any name close to it. District 0155 has North Burdick on it.
As you notice the computer program did not pick up on the fact that Burdick is in Kalamazoo, District 0156 and that is because it is not mentioned in the EM description. The description just has words like south to township line… I read the desc. and thought I would check it out since it is covering the south part of the area and sure enough there was South Burdick. So computer programs are fine but sometimes good old fashion searching works better.
Later.
Jose from Clarkston, Michigan
Sorry to be late in getting to this, but it looks like others beat me to the thoughts I had—in particular, using the Steve Morse page to find the address on the census. It is time consuming, and too many times I find the address, and the people I was looking for weren’t living there. Very frustrating! But when you do find the people, it’s amazing—and you often see that they were indexed under a completely different name. Just this week I saw a Nusbaum indexed as Maziotta! Good luck!
I also agree with Ruth Rawls about what the abbreviations in the second directory mean. I think it gives both their work and home addresses. I’ve seen that in many directories for other cities.
Seriously? How in the world do you confuse Nusbaum with Maziotta? Thanks so much, Amy.
Do you think that living in a house where they make vinegar would smell bad all the time? I can’t even imagine.
I bet they made vinegar at one address (Seminary?) and lived at the other. Or else their noses became acclimated to the smell!
Can you imagine?!
I think the 12 00 might be the time stamp, not the month. The letter M follows the numbers so the A or P might be missing.
Also the number 10 appears to come before the 12
Thanks, Deborah. This helps a lot!
I feel like I should drag out some of my older envelopes to compare… 🙂
Wow — what a lot of questions, Luanne. Good luck answering them!
Thanks, WJ! It’s so nice the help I get here from family history specialists!
I often have similar experiences–one old postcard or short clipping can lead to so many questions and a whole new area to research.
It goes to show how much “we” can overlook in the “fine print” of research if we’re not careful!
Luanne, The post date on the stop is Jul 19 1911 stamped at 1200 O’clock and as far as the City directory, back then it only listed children if they were working age or going to college. So the little girl would not have been listed. Best regards, P
Paula
Ah, thanks, Paula. You are certainly a wealth of knowledge!! That does help!
Yes, the Braats were well known to us. Lived right behind the gas station and their house faced Balch St. The rubber stamp on the postcard was probably done by your grandma and grandpa. Note that there is a zip code; zip codes were invented in modern times–maybe the 60’s or 70’s. That was our address–1624.
Mom
Mom, thanks for this great info. I hadn’t even thought of noticing the zip code. Major omission on my part! I really loved seeing your old house last month!