As I mentioned two weeks ago, both my maternal great-grandmothers were born in the United States, but their husbands, my great-grandfathers, were immigrants. At that time I discussed my maternal grandmother’s mother, Clara Waldeck Mulder. Today I will talk about my maternal grandfather’s mother, Cora Zuidweg. I wrote some anecdotes about her life in 2012 at this link: Cora DeKorn Zuidweg
I’ve posted this photo before, but it is my favorite one of her, along with the portrait that Val colorized. That’s her only child, my grandfather, with her.
Cora was born Jacoba Wilhelmina DeKorn on 2 January 1875, something I did not realize until I had been researching for a couple of years.
When I looked for gaps in my documents for Cora, I noticed that while I had her baptismal record, I did not have a birth record. There actually was a birth record, which is pretty remarkable, but she was listed under the name Minnie. I suspect that she was given that nickname by her parents as a baby (from Wilhelmina), but that she outgrew it at a young age.
Wayne Loney was able to get me this copy of the birth record.
I do have Cora’s other records: census records, obituary, death record, marriage record. and headstone. Here is her obituary:
I have asked to manage her page at Findagrave, and I also submitted a request for edits. I just don’t hear back from these people, and I guess I’m going to have to start to be get loud about it if I don’t get any satisfaction about my family’s pages.
Cora might be the last of my “easy ones,” as it has been more difficult to research my other ancestors.
The Family Kalamazoo 
I LOVE that top photo!
Me too. Thanks, Merril. Grandpa was a cutie, wasn’t he?
Yes, he was. 🙂
Wonderful photos. Is that your grandfather with her in the top photograph? She was so young when she died. 😦
Absolutely was Grandpa, her only child. He was such a cute little kid. Yes, she was so young, the same age as her mother when she died.
So sad.
I love that top photo too but I also love the cabinet photo. Thinking it would look great enlarged and in a bubble top glass frame 🙂 I imagine you know what the illness was from death certificate.
Oh, that would look beautiful!!! I love the idea of the bubble top.
She died of spindle cell sarcoma of the left thigh. The death certificate says it was caused by an injury. Grandpa always said she died of blood cancer that went to her brain. This type of cancer actually begins in the bone, not in the blood, so I’m sure where he got that idea. Because he always said that I imagined it was leukemia, but apparently not.
If it has been more than 30 days, you can submit an e-mail to support@findagrave.com to have her transferred to you.
Thank you. I will definitely do this as I am getting frustrated that these people take over my relatives pages and then don’t respond to me.
When requesting a transfer, I always click the send a copy to myself, and then forward it to support if need be.
With regular edits, they have 21 days to approve or deny them. If they don’t deny the edits, then they are auto-approved on day 21. If they deny them, you can submit to edit@findagrave.com which should approve them. It says wait 30 days in the Help section before going that route. They are also picky as to how many you edits you can submit/day and how many e-mails you can send to the edit e-mail address. They may request proof of any edits you send to them; seems to depend on which admin opens the e-mail as some are as sticklers on proof.
This is very helpful. I will make a note in my calendar for those dates!
Gosh, she was so young. I love the photographs – such treasures for you.
Always intriguing posts, Luanne.
So young. It was such a shame. Her illness cast a real pall over my grandparents’ wedding, and then my grandmother helped take care of her while she was dying.
Funny how some are so easy, and others – even siblings – are harder.
Sometimes it feels like someone is hiding from history! You look and look and find so little on him or her!
So true. I think some of them may have been hiding, or just led very complicated lives going by different names.
Why do we think we lead complicated lives and their lives were so simple? They had an easier time hiding than we ever would! Name changes, bigamists, etc.
True. And sometimes you don’t find a document (birth/marriage/death certificates) for someone for whom everything else is straightforward. And, of course, women can be a challenge. I have an ancestor whose father died. She was fostered by another family and usually went by their last name… but not always. Plus, she divorced her first husband (in the late 1800s! Supposedly for selling her horse without telling her!) And I’m thinking, “I like the sound of this woman.” But so many names! And her kids ended up being farmed out to two separate families too. Very different, but definitely not uncomplicated, lives.
WOW! That sounds like the tip of the iceberg of THAT story. I am starting to think this “farming out” of the kids was not very unusual for single parents who were not wealthy. They didn’t have very many resources.
True.
I can see why the top photo is your favorite. So sad that Cora died young.
Thanks, Liz. It truly is so very sad. My grandfather lost his grandfather (who he was really close to and grew up in his house) and father and mother within a three year period, and he was just entering adulthood.
That must have been devastating for him.
Yes, it was terrible for him.
Both wonderful photographs! I’m not sure that contacting FAG directly will get you anywhere. I tried more than once to get them to update (or allow me to update) some cemetery information and never had any success. Though I know it wouldn’t be their preference, if all else fails you can create your own memorial for her. I run across duplicates from time to time.
That’s an interesting idea about creating a duplicate. I wonder if they penalize you, though, if they catch you doing that? You know, like they do on Facebook (I have heard).
I doubt anything would happen. The site does not seem to be well-moderated. As I mentioned, I tried to get some information added to our largest local cemetery (there is zero information now) and I could not get it done. In the old format, anyone could add information to cemeteries, but they took that privilege away.
It never feels as if anybody moderates it!
I love photos with interaction in them.
I think it’s wonderful that you’ve been able to get back as far as you have in your family trees. I couldn’t get much beyond my gt-grandparents, apart from some names that weren’t checkable (all come down by word of mouth).
Yes, in the top photo it is good to see Cora being a Mom to Grandpa. The Dutch records are really good. I am back to 15XX (can’t remember exact year on at least one branch, if not more.
Beautiful lace collar in the bottom photo! Looks layered in the way it’s attached but I think it may just be gathered a bit.
Yes, I think the lace is gathered! I suspect that this was a dress she wore for her engagement as there is this photo of her and one of my great-grandfather–and it is NOT the same dress as her wedding dress.