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Archive for November, 2020

What was Kalamazoo Like for My Family in 1884?

Posted in Alice Paak DeKorn, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Paak, Peek, tagged , , , , , on November 25, 2020| 21 Comments »

My family first arrived in Kalamazoo, Michigan, between 1860 and 1864, when the immigrant Boudewijn DeKorn(e) family moved from Zeeland, Michigan. Their residence was still Ottawa County in 1860, but the mother, Johanna Reminse DeKorn, was buried in Kalamazoo in 1864. This nails the time period unless, of course, Johanna was first buried near Zeeland and then her body later buried in Kalamazoo. I find that to be highly unlikely for many reasons.

In 1869, Alice Paak and her family (her father Teunis and her siblings) immigrated from the Netherlands to Kalamazoo.

In 1872, Richard DeKorn, the only son of Boudewijn and Johanna, married Alice Paak in Kalamazoo.

Richard DeKorn
picking strawberries
on Maple Street

In 1878-79, Richard was brick mason for the new and gorgeous building for the Ladies Library Association. In 1895 he would be lead brick mason on the Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital Water Tower. According to his obituary he also was the contractor for the Pythian building and the Merchants Publishing Company building.

Richard built the brick house at the corner of Burdick and Balch Streets in Kalamazoo for his family in the early 1880s.

In the beautiful video I am posting here, Kalamazoo is “seen” during 1884, the year the village of Kalamazoo (the largest village in the entire country) became a city. My relatives are not mentioned in the video, but the Ladies Library Association and the “asylum” (where Richard would build the water tower 11 years later) are mentioned. To give you an idea where my family fits into the city at that time, using the terminology of the film, they had arrived in the United States from the Netherlands, but quickly could be classified as “middle class.” They were literate people as they could read and write. In some cases, they had trades, although I think they mainly learned their trades on the job as young men. Teunis became a successful farmer and land owner. Boudewijn’s son Richard became a successful building contractor and brick mason.

Kalamazoo was founded by mainly English settlers, beginning in 1829, but the Dutch began to immigrate to southwest and west Michigan in increasing numbers in the 40s and 50s and 60s. My ancestors were part of this group that ended up becoming a sizable chunk of the Kalamazoo population. If I have any quibbles with the video it is that other than mention of the first Reformed church in town, it is that there is no recognition of how the Dutch would help shape the City of Kalamazoo, but in all fairness it’s possible that the influence wasn’t yet felt in 1884.

(This film lasts about a half hour. If your interests are not with the city, I won’t be insulted if you decide to skip it; however, it gives a nice overview of the time period, as well). Either way, Happy Thanksgiving and please stay safe!

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A Christmas Salute to Veterans Day

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, U.S. military, tagged , , , , , , on November 11, 2020| 43 Comments »

I was so intrigued to see the project that my 4x cousin Joel’s wife, Peggy Davis Reeves of Williamsburg, Virginia, undertook. Joel, who is descended from Boudewijn DeKorne (1816-1875) as I am, wrote, “Peggy decided to do a research project on family members that served in the military. She called this ‘My Family Heroes’ and collected information on 100 individuals that represent the period from 1746 (Virginia Militia) to 2020 (West Point graduate). This represents only a small sample of the number of our relatives that have served in the military.”


Peggy first spent six months doing the research through Ancestry and Fold3. Joel sums it up this way: “She learned a lot about these brave individuals. Some families were divided during the Civil War – 2 brothers on the Union side and 3 brothers on the Confederate side. A set of twin brothers enlisted together. Other were prisoners of war, wounded or lost their lives. Some died of disease, such as bronchitis or rubella. Some won medals of honor, such as the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and Oak Leaf Cluster. Other received land grants for their service. All these individuals took a stand to join the military to serve their country in war time and peace. We are proud of these service men and women that protect this country and our freedom. This is our way of saying thanks to all of them on this Veterans Day.”

When she was ready to create the ornaments, Peggy used Dollar Store plexiglass magnetic refrigerator frames and removed the magnets from the back. Then she set up a template in Photoshop with a red-white-blue border and added an image of the individual or tomb stone or flag on one side and military information on the person on the other side.

Charles is the husband of my first cousin three times removed

After getting the pictures printed, she added a ribbon bow which varies by when the individual served or the branch of service. I particularly love that special touch. Peggy also created a Shutterfly book so that the family would have access to this wonderful work throughout the year.


I love the anchors on the ribbon for those that served in the Navy.

Isn’t this inspirational? What a great way to honor the military members of our genealogy family trees! Thinking of making a tree like this? If you have done a lot of research on your ancestors who were in the military you might be able to pull together at least a small tree by Christmas. If not, you can do what Peggy did and take a year to do the research and create the tree.

Peggy, thank you for letting me share your inventiveness and hard work.

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2020 Fill in the Gaps Project: My 4XGreat-Grandparents, Willem and Pieternella (Filius) Hijman

Posted in Family History, Genealogy, Lucille Edna Mulder Zuidweg, Netherlands history, tagged , , , , , , on November 6, 2020| 24 Comments »

Today I am sharing the last of my 4x great-grandparents. Luckily, I had posts and research prepared before I got this Valley Fever pneumonia, but I won’t be able to work on 5x or greater until I get rid of this brain fog. But because of the records I already have, I believe I have the names of most, if not all, of my 5x, as well as many of my 6-8x greats. I can only hope that a lot of their records are online.

This couple is Willem Hijman and Pieternella Filius. By the way, I think I have the names of my 9x greats through Willem.

Ancestry life stories:

When Willem Hijman was born on March 19, 1812, in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands, his father, Gerrit, was 33 and his mother, Hendrika, was 22. He married Pieternella Filius on May 5, 1836, in his hometown. They had six children in 19 years. He died on January 19, 1875, in Kloetinge, Zeeland, Netherlands, at the age of 62.

When Pieternella Filius was born on January 30, 1813, in Kloetinge, Zeeland, Netherlands, her father, Pieter, was 33, and her mother, Cornelia, was 29. She married Willem Hijman on May 5, 1836, in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands. They had six children in 19 years. She died on February 14, 1889, in her hometown, having lived a long life of 76 years.

The information about Willem and Pieternella is accurate as I have their baptismal, marriage, and death records. But what the life stories don’t mention is that of the six children, only four survived into adulthood. One child was stillborn (levenloos) and not even given a name. In fact, the stillborn record takes the place of birth and death records. Another, the first Gerrit, died an infant in 1844. Kornelia, Pieternella, Gerrit, and Willem survied. Kornelia, the eldest, was my 3x great-grandmother.

Here is the levenloos document, entry #3:

Both Willem and Pieternella are listed in records as arbeider and arbeidster respectively. These terms mean worker, but I don’t know what kind of work they did. They are another couple who were born and died in Goes. Goes is the city where my grandparents’ ancestors intertwined.

My parents actually visited Goes, and while my father was very good about recording all his travel with his camera (and even sending me CDs with the photos), for some reason I never got any photos of Goes from their trip.

All the images of Goes that I have seen, including the one below, make it look very picturesque. It’s hard to understand why someone would want to leave such a beautiful place, but lovely scenery is obviously not all there is to having the best life one can achieve. It is nice to know, though, that all the generations that did live in (and stay in) Goes could look out upon the beauty of the area.

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