My next fill-in-the-gaps couple is Grandma’s great-grandparents–my 3x greats, Jan Gorsse and Kornelia Heijman Gorsse.
Here are the Ancestry-created bios:
Jan Gorsse was born on October 29, 1840, in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands, the son of Neeltje and Willem. He married Kornelia Heijman on September 4, 1862, in his hometown. They had two children during their marriage. He died on April 25, 1911, in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands, at the age of 70.
When Kornelia Heijman was born on February 1, 1840, in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands, her father, Willem, was 27, and her mother, Pieternella, was 27. She married Jan Gorsse on September 4, 1862, in her hometown. They had two children during their marriage. She died on December 20, 1909, in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands, at the age of 69.
Notice that the bios state that the couple had two children. That is all I know about right now. It is possible that there were more. Since I am so focused this year on my direct ancestors I am not putting the time into searching laterally right now. The two children I know about are my great-great grandmother Neeltje Gorsse Mulder and her sister Wilhelmina. Because Neeltje wasn’t born until almost seven years after the couple married and then her sister two years later, it is possible that the couple did have other children before Neeltje–children that either lived or died in infancy.
I read over that paragraph and thought: why not do a quick wiewas wie search. Just for a few minutes. Guess what I discovered? Three children of Jan and Kornelia who all died in February 1879: 5-year-old Gerard, 3-year-old Jan, and 15-month-old Hendrica. So I did some conjecturing. These children were younger than Neeltje and Wilhelmina, thus more vulnerable. One of Neeltje’s descendants believed that the tuberculosis that killed her was something that she brought with her from the Netherlands. Could her younger siblings have died from it?
I am guessing that Neeltje named her sons Jan and Henry after her deceased siblings, but it is possible she only used the names for her father and another family member. Here are the death records.
Keep in mind that I need to do a more exhaustive search in the future. I need to look for the birth records for these children, as well as seeing if there were other children in the family.
For both Jan and Kornelia I am lucky enough to have birth, marriage, and death records. Maybe it helps that they both were born, lived, and died in Goes–all in one city.
From Yvette, I obtained Jan’s military record. Here is a summation:
- 29 October 1840, Goes m. 4 September 1862, Goes
Jan married in a period where marriage supplements do not survive. He married at 22, so either he did not have to serve, or got permission from his commanding officer. Enlistment records in Goes were checked.
Jan Gorsse in militia registration, 1859 Source: Goes, lists of men registered for the National Militia, levies 1851-1862, 1859 no. 21, Jan Gorsse; call no. 1438, archives of the city of Goes, 1851-1919, Goes Municipal Archives, Goes; scans provided by Goes Municipal Archives.
Abstract:
Jan Gorsse, born Goes 24 October 1840 Physical description: 1.683m, oval face, narrow forehead, blue eyes, ordinary nose and mouth, round chin, blond hair and eyebrows, no noticeable marks. Son of Willem [Gorsse] and Neeltje Reijerse. Occupation: laborer, father broom maker. Informant: himself.
This record gives Jan’s name as Jan Gorsse, not Gorsee and has a slightly different birth date than the date provided by Luanne Castle. The original birth record showed the name as Jan Gorse, born 29 October 1840. The birth record named the parents as broom maker Willem Gorse and Neeltje Reijerse.1 This information perfectly matches the information in the militia registration, proving this is the correct record.
1 Civil Registration (Goes), birth record 1840 no. 184, Jan Gorse (29 October 1840); “Zeeuwen Gezocht,” index and images, Zeeuws Archief (http://www.zeeuwsarchief.nl : accessed 13 March 2020).
Jan Gorsse in militia enlistment, 1859 Source: Goes, lists of men registered for the National Militia, levies 1854-1862, 1859 no. 17, Jan Gorsse; call no. 1484, archives of the city of Goes, 1851-1919, Goes Municipal Archives, Goes; scans provided by Goes Municipal Archives.
Abstract:
No. 17.
Jan Gorsse, born Goes 29 October 1840, height 1.683, son of Willem [Gorsse] and Neeltje Reijerse. Occupation: laborer, father: broom maker. Informant: Himself
Assigned lot number 61.
Designated for duty.
Entered into service in the place of Petrus Arnoldus Franken, levy 1858, deceased. 2nd regiment infantry. Passport 1 March 1863 muster roll no. 48491.
This record has the correct birth date of 29 October 1840.
This shows that he was initially not supposed to serve, but entered in the military to make up the numbers because another man in his levy passed away.
Military record of Jan Gorsse Source: 2nd Regiment Infantry (Netherlands), muster roll of petty officers and men, 1859-1860, no. 48491, Adriaan Zuijdweg; digital film 008341183, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSTP-QWV9-4 : accessed 10 March 2020).
Abstract:
No. 48491.
Jan Gorsse Son of Willem [Gorsse] and Neeltje Reijerse Born Goes 29 October 1840, last residence Goes
Physical description at arrival: 1.709 m, oval face, narrow forehead, blue eyes, ordinary nose and mouth, round chin, blond hair and eyebrows, no noticeable marks.
Service: On 14 May 1859 assigned as soldier for the time of four years as a conscript of the levy of 1859 from Zeeland, Goes no. 61. Replaces the deceased soldier Franken, Petrus Arnoldus of the levy of 1858 see no. 25 regiment grenadiers and hunters. reserve On 17 April 1860 inactive On 15 July 1861 on grand leave
Promotions [blank] Campaigns [blank]
End of service: 1 March 1863 received passport of for expiration of military service.
This confirms he served in the place of someone else. He served for four years, including two years of training and two years of grand leave. He got out of the army on 1 March 1863.
Let me sum up the summation (haha). At first Jan (pronounced Yahn) did not have to serve (he won the lottery so to speak), but then he had to take the place of someone who had passed away in order to keep up the numbers for his area. He ended up serving for four years, being discharged on 1 March 1863, which is a half year after he and Kornelia married.
Something I have started to notice from the descriptions that I have been provided for the men on my maternal side. I haven’t found one yet that wasn’t a blue-eyed blond. When I was little, I remember my father telling me about how blue eyes were a recessive gene, which of course went way over my head. What I took away was that he was surprised that I had blue eyes since he had brown eyes and my mother blue. But at least one of Dad’s grandparents was blue-eyed (his mom’s mother) and it looks like my mother’s family was awash in blue eyes, so I guess it makes sense that my eyes turned out blue. Of course, I still don’t understand recessive and dominant genes!
This is a windmill in the hometown of Jan and Kornelia, Goes in Zeeland, built in 1801. it’s called De Korenbloem.
The Family Kalamazoo 
You’re making such great progress in cleaning up, filling in and knocking down walls Luanne with this project. thumbs up on this!
Thank you, Sharon! I sure feel as if I am getting things organized–and that is a good feeling in such a chaotic time. I highly recommend doing this just so there is a list of what is missing for each direct ancestor. Of course, some people already have this organized and on spreadsheets ;).
I need to get a check list sheet to use for each person. You must be using one, I think you might have showed it. Can you send me a copy via email to look at 🙂 TY
I emailed it to you. It’s very “loose,” so I hope it has a little value!
Nice job. Every time I read one of your post I want to jump into my “WayBack” machine and talk to the people. The records we find tell us so little yet from them we are able to glean some family history. I almost stopped reading the first paragraph to go find some records for the old couple… luckily I read a bit more and saw that you too had done the same thing and did find some new info about children.
Thank You for the good job.
Please stay safe.
I want to do that, too! Did you invent it already? Eventually I will check more thoroughly for other children, but this year I have very limited time and want to finish this fill in the gaps of the directs so I am stopping myself from a lot of tangents ;). You stay safe, too, Jose. It’s brutal out here. I hope it’s not so bad there.
I know just what you mean about the urge to jump into the “WayBack” machine and talk to people!
Glad to see your post – am worried about you two and your family in Arizona. Is everything just crazy out there?
We are hiding in the house, Sheila. It’s kind of scary right now. I hope you and T are well.
T hides me in the house except for grandbaby visits! We are hanging in.
I’m glad!
Losing three young children in one year. Unimaginable. And likely there were other born before your GGGM.
My father had blue eyes. My mother has brown eyes. Of their three children, two have brown eyes, one has blue. So my mother carried a recessive blue gene from one of her parents. I have brown eyes, but one blue gene from my dad. Harvey has blue eyes. Of our two daughters, one has blue eyes, the other green (which is tied to the blue, not the brown, color DNA, I believe). So it’s always a 50 50 chance as long as the brown eyed person had an ancestor with light color eyes that the DNA for somehow carried through.
So somewhere in your father’s ancestry a blue eyed gene was carried down to you!
Three young children in a few days, really. I mean, it’s possible it was an accident, like a fire or something. If only big sister Nellie had told somebody years later who had told somebody else who could now tell me! I suppose it’s possible that there is something in a newspaper, too, if it was an accident. But I don’t read Dutch.
Interesting about the eye color! So brown didn’t predominate in your family either. My dad’s grandmother had light blue eyes so it’s most likely he inherited the recessive blue from her.
How traumatic for them to lose three young children so quickly. It happened to my gr-gr-grandparents. I can hardly imagine it. The military service regulations seem odd – having to bring up numbers for a particular geographic location like that.
Glad to see you’re making progress on this project. Sometimes I feel like I’m at a complete standstill.
So traumatic. I can’t begin to imagine it. I was just writing to Amy that it’s possible it was an accident and not an illness because they all died within days of each other.
There might be a certain fairness in the way they had to send a certain number of men (boys) from each region. That way one place didn’t end up sacrificing too many of their sons to the military while another got off easier.
I would like to be at a complete standstill right now. I’m so tired that I tried to take a nap, but I’m kind of too tired for a nap, if that makes sense. I couldn’t sleep!
I’m not trying too hard, either. I’m sort of back to square one, reviewing all my research, getting it organized and then I will try to get a more thorough summary of various people in the story and the events and places. Overwhelming! I can’t nap, either.
I wonder what that napping things is. Need one, can’t take one. All I want to do is organize. Even my cleaning is all about organizing. Maybe this is a way we have to get through this period before we can be truly productive!
It’s good to read that you’re still making progress on your project, Luanne, despite the conditions in your state. Please, please, stay safe.
Thank you, Liz! I keep plugging away! You stay safe, too! I’m halfway through Telling Sonny and loving it!