On my Ancestry DNA account I probably have more matches to this branch of the family than any other. The Mulders were also the extended family we shared holidays and visits with more than the rest. They were my mom’s aunts, uncles, and cousins. The oldest person I knew in that branch was my great-grandfather, Charles Mulder.
Peter (Pieter) and Nellie (Neeltje) were his parents, and they immigrated from Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands when Charles, their first born, was just a toddler. He had a baby brother Jan who did not survive to grow up in the United States. After moving here, they had more children.
Here are a couple posts about this couple:
Pieter the Orphan Peter was sent to the orphanage.
Mulders Everywhere This post has a lot of photos of Nellie and Peter
The Treasure that Arrived in an Email This letter was written by Peter after Nellie passed away
When I went to organize what I had on Peter and Nellie, it was pretty easy because I already had so much information. What I do not have is Peter’s obituary, and I will order it when offices open back up. They are currently closed because of the pandemic. I do have Nellie’s meager obituary. I apologize that it appears blurry. That is the best that can be done with this article from 1932. It gives the list of those that survive her, her address, about the funeral and viewing. It also mentions she was 64-years-old.
From Nellie’s death certificate, we know she died of “pulmonary TB.” Her granddaughter Mary, one of Henry’s (Charles’ brother) daughters, recalled that her grandmother was sickly. She thinks she was even sick when she came to the US from the Netherlands. It is possible that she had TB when she emigrated to the US, and if so, very likely that she exposed/infected her family members with TB. (info from cousin Merry)
Amberly worked on the immigration and naturalization of Peter and Nellie, but I already knew the couple had arrived on the Zaandam on 29 August 1887. There is one more piece of information we need, but I cannot order it until the archives open back up.
I also needed military information on Peter, which I did get from Yvette:
So Peter did not serve in the military. He was able to marry at age 19 and immigrate to the United States at age 21. This would not have happened if he had had to serve.
I’ve been blessed with a lot of information on Peter and Nellie. I also wrote about them in my chapbook Kin Types, imagining them as a young courting couple.
The Family Kalamazoo 
The obituary is legible when twice biggified
Oh thank you, Derrick! Good to know!
I love that – twice biggified ~ so I tried it and yup it works. Always love finding an obit, the information found can be like ‘buried treasure’ Great portrait photo of them 🙂
Yeah, twice biggified LOL! So glad Derrick figured it out! I agree with you about obits. They can provide such needed info and give us an idea of who died before whom, for instance. I was lucky that a 2nd (3rd?) cousin provided so many photos of them a couple of years ago!
Makes such a difference when we actually interacted with our extended families…even if the memories are vague. Great work!
Oh, it makes such a different! And my mom of course remembers Peter! So that is especially nice. Thanks, Sheila!
The one good thing about our isolation is that we have time to sort everything. I have digitised all my pieces of paper & filed all the hard copies as well as the electronic info. Feels very good to be so organised. I had found all that info on my various research trips but never got it sorted. Cheers Di
It must be so frustrating to be doing this now when so many libraries and other organizations are closed.
Where did you find the obit? Was it a clipping your family had or did you find it online? I wonder why it’s so blurry.
It was from my second cousin. She gave it to me with the pix. It’s very frustrating to have to wait for records. Then I’m sure they will be super busy.
I agree with comments about obituaries. Just yesterday I found one that proved all the trees on Ancestry for that person were using records for a different person of the same name! Completely different birth and death years and places.
Oh, Eilene. That gave me a sick feeling if I understand you correctly. So the wrong info keeps getting passed on and on?
Hopefully that will start getting corrected, now that I have put the right information into place.
I sure hope so. Pretty disturbing.
This blog post has great information and a nice story as usual.