My grandparents lived on Burdick Street in Kalamazoo. In fact, most of the family history on that side seems centered in the Burdick-Balch neighborhood. But as a kid I remember seeing a street sign on the right side when we drove south from Grandma and Grandpa’s house. It said “Remine.” I always thought that was such a funny coincidence because I knew we had Remine relatives. I imagined that it was an extremely common Dutch name.
But when I was searching Genealogy Bank for Kalamazoo Gazette articles about the Remine and Tazelaar families, I encountered this little gem from August 22, 1918:
Look at the first item under REALTY TRANSFERS. “Richard Remine and wife to City of Kalamazoo, strip of land known as Remine avenue, Kalamazoo, $1.
Richard Remine is the father of Genevieve (and father-in-law of Frank Tazelaar), of Harold, and of Therese (Theresa, Tracy).
Was this common, to deed a piece of land to the city for the purpose of a road? And would it really have only been $1? Would there have been other parts of the negotiation? A discount on taxes, for instance? Or was it in order to have a way to develop a piece land and sell off lots?
Here is the intersection of Burdick and Remine according to Google Maps.
Richard lounging, years after the street was named
Found This Week–What a Treat!
I was looking for a book I can’t find. Instead, I ran across this photo–and it was labelled on the back! “Jane Remine Tazelaar.” So this is Genevieve with a smile on her face. She looks so much prettier smiling so sweetly! It’s easy to see why Frank would want to marry her. This is more proof that the family called her Jane, not Genevieve and not Jennie.
Jane Remine Tazelaar
The Family Kalamazoo 
Very interesting find, Luanne. In Texas it was common practice to deed land for a road right-of-way and the common amount was $1. I think it has something to do with the law of eminent domain – or maybe I just made that up. 🙂
Love the pictures of Jane and Richard!
I have seen a lot of these $1 real estate transfers listed in the Kalamazoo Gazette, so you are probably right that it is done for this reason. Jane sure looks happier in this photo!
Great post, thank you for sharing. I am going to start looking into the names of roads named after some releatives.
I started thinking that this is probably a ripe area for genealogy research! I can’t figure out why I didn’t even bother to research Remine Avenue before! Good luck on your search. Don’t you still have your blog? Your link here isn’t working . . . .
What a lovely photo! A treasure for sure. I love that you found it looking for something else. 😉 That happens to me all of the time. And then I inevitably think about how I need to be more organized. I don’t even know if that is possible anymore! With the rate my family keeps giving me boxes filled with treasures I am going to need to build my own small private library soon. Haha!
I was so thrilled to see Jane/Genevieve looking so happy and lighthearted! Don’t even go there: organization! I try to organize, but it all takes so much time it gets away from me. I move forward a bit, but not nearly fast enough. Haha, I hear you about the private library! What a good idea ;).
🙂
You rarely see such a wide smile in old photographs—what a delight to see this one! Great find, and I have no answers on the deeding of lands for a road. But he was clever to have them give the road his name!
I agree with you about the smile, Amy! It makes me happy to see her looking happy.
It’s interesting that you found the old clipping that tells the story of this street. So many streets have unusual names – and usually no one knows the reason behind it.
Now I think it’s a big area to be explored by genealogy buffs. It probably would be very helpful!
Hi;
I learned about your blog via Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog.
Reading it, it struck me that there are many Dutch surnames in your blog. Being Dutch myself, I was very much interested. I also have a blog with many genealogical subjects. One of my posts shows a survey of foreign genealogical blogs/sites showing Dutch origin surnames. The URL is http://www.patmcast.blogspot.com/2012/05/dutch-ancestors.html. The idea is to try and establish contacts between people who have an interest in the same surname. There are numerous cases in The Netherlands where people emigrated centuries ago without leaving a trace in Dutch archives. With my blog I try to bring Dutch and foreign (mainly US/CAN) genealogists together.
Therefore, I like to have your permission to show your site in my a.m. blog.
I look forward to your reaction!
Kind regards,
Peter
Yes, Peter, you are free to do so. Thank you very much. After work I will check out your blog!
Hi Luanne, it appeared that your blog is already mentioned in mine since November 2012… I now just added the Tazelaar name. Thanks!
I will check with my brother if he remembers my mother talking about a person with the name of Remine. If I learn more I will let you know!
Thank you so much, Ed!
What a COOL post! I love that you did so much legwork…and what a wonderful story! I’m working on my family tree and trying to gather information to write a thesis on my great-uncle’s military service…either that or write it about the Socialist commune in Louisiana where my great-grandparents lived for a period of time…thanks for liking my post! You should check out Finish the Sentence Fridays on Facebook – just a group of us who write about Stuff and Things. Kristi Rieger Campbell of Finding Ninee is the moderator.
Ah thanks so much, Deborah. I love what you wrote in your blog post because I agree that it’s the history that is really important. And like the article you linked, I love the idea of searching for that individual history relating to the soldier’s footlocker!
Hmm, living in a Socialist commune in Louisiana. I think that is a pretty good story to go after!!!!
It’s so nice when these little discoveries add up to a good story!
Thank you. Isn’t it, though?!
Enjoyed the article and the pictures.
All very interesting. I think the city might have told people something like, “We are taking your land to make a street and here’s a dollar for your trouble.” Maybe something like that also happened when the state took farmland, mainly, for the interstate highways. It would be nice, though, to know for sure.
You are probably right that it was a type of eminent domain. They should have paid $5!
What an interesting “article” about the Family Kalamazoo.
I also followed the Remijnse family as I am doing genealogy for many years. I am Efa Reinewald from Amsterdam / The Netherlands and my mother is also from the province Zeeland in The Netherlands and many of my site lines immigrated to the US and it is so interesting to see that most immigrants from here also married people with Dutch names. I also have Remijnse ancestors and I also follow all the site lines.
I also found the Culver girls. They both died in Chicago.
Rhea was not married and Lela was married to Henry Washington Lee (1879-1950). If they had children I do not know. And Jennie Remine Meyer was probally Janna or Adriana, but then the first Adriana must have passed away very young. Jennie and Carlo Meyer had 5 children.
Well I loved to read this all and so much information about the families.
Kindly Efa Reinewald
Hi Efa,
Thank you for writing. I guess we are cousins of sorts (haha) if you have Remijnse ancestors. On my Ancestry tree, I have more information about the family. Some of my blog posts were written before I had as much research as I do now. The records I have show me that Lela and Rhea died in Seattle, which makes sense because if you found the blog posts about the photo album that was sent to me, clearly one of them was in a retirement home before she died in Seattle. https://thefamilykalamazoo.com/2014/06/03/a-wishful-post-a-thoughtful-reader-and-a-package/ Neither of them had children because Rhea never did marry, as you say, and Lela married when she was too old to have children. I hope you found all my posts about the Remijnse family. On another note, I am the manager and sponsor of these family members on Find-a-grave, and I got two notices by email about your suggestions. When I went on the site, there were more. I still haven’t quite figured out how to work with these. But I wanted to let you know how I made a couple of choices on that site: 1. I tend to use the name that was used at end of life–such as the name on the gravestone, and 2) I did not include John Culver on purpose. The couple had a very nasty divorce, and I think Jennie most likely despised him and was possibly afraid of him. So I omitted him as I felt that is what she would wish. He is, though, on my Ancestry family tree, along with the rest of his family. Another thing about Find-a-grave. I tend not to put too much on there and leave it for my Ancestry account. When I have more time I can add more, such as names at birth as well. But I have a question. You put forward a suggestion that Jennie DeKorn was born in Holland township, Missaukee County, Michigan. I would be happy to make that edit if you can you point me to the record that documents her birth there. If you have a copy or a link, feel free to email me at luanne.castle[at]gmail.com. Thank you for reaching out, Efa. Nice to hear from you.