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Archive for the ‘Adrian Zuidweg’ Category

The Blog Will Now Come to Order

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Caledonia Michigan history, Family History, Genealogy, Lucille Edna Mulder Zuidweg, Mulder, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 4, 2013| 7 Comments »

This gavel belonged to my great-grandfather Charles Mulder of Caledonia, Michigan.

He was my maternal grandmother‘s father and his name at birth, in 1885 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands, was Karel Pieter Phillipus Mulder.  His great-great-grandfather was Carel Mulder, born March 8, 1780 in Goes, the Netherlands.  His occupation was a jailor’s hand.

This same Carel Mulder is also an ancestor of my maternal grandfather.  I wrote about the discovery of this coincidence in an earlier post.

Great Grandpa was a working farmer for many years.  I remember his farm with great affection because it had a rope swing from an apple tree, a barn, a chicken coop, outhouse, and fields where we once went on a hayride. Across the country road, a the thick woods nurtured a colorful assortment of wild flowers.

Great Grandpa, me (the first great grandchild), and Margaret

Great Grandpa, me (the first great-grandchild), and Margaret

In the above photo, Great Grandpa is with the only “great-grandmother” I knew, his second wife, Margaret, a very sweet lady.  My great-grandmother Clara passed away from uterine cancer two years before I was born.

Charles and Clara (Waldeck) Mulder

Charles and Clara (Waldeck) Mulder

My father told me that Great Grandpa held the position of Township Supervisor years ago and that is where he used this gavel.

On pages 252-256 of Ernest B. Fisher’s 1918 book, Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan: historical account of …, Volume 1, I discovered more specific information about Great Grandpa and Caledonia.

Fisher explains that Caledonia was a “wilderness” with narrow trails by the local Native Americans (“red men,” according to Fisher) when Europeans first arrived there.  He states:

At the mouth of Coldwater river was a great Indian camping ground and burial place. The Indians did not leave there entirely until a comparatively recent date. One of them, old Soh-na-go, or “Squirrel,” was seen at quite a late day visiting the burial place and the hunting grounds of his fathers, but the “white man’s axe” had been there and it was no longer a home for him.

He goes on to say:

Caledonia, situated on Section 29, is a prosperous village of 600 people. It was settled in 1850, the first plat was made in 1870, and it reached the dignity of an incorporated municipality in 1888. It is situated on the Michigan Central railroad and hence has good shipping facilities which make it the center of trade for a wide extent of fertile country. It has one Methodist and two United Brethren churches, a bank, and a weekly newspaper, the News, and the requisite number of mercantile establishments and general industries.

The township of Caledonia is one of the best agricultural districts in Kent county, and the thrifty farmers are profitably engaged in all classes of diversified farming.

What interested me is that I saw that inside one of Great Grandpa’s books he went to a (Dutch) Reformed Church in 1903.  He was so ensconced in life in Caledonia by 1915 that he was Township Supervisor (and Grandma was born in 1912 in Caledonia).  The quote above says that there was one Methodist and two United Brethren churches, and I do know that my grandmother was a Methodist and that we used to have family reunions in the basement of the Methodist Church in Caledonia when I was a kid.  So where did he go to the Reformed Church?

According to records I found through ancestry.com, he immigrated to the United States with his family when he was two or three and grew up in Grand Rapids, not out in the country on a farm, after all.

Back to what Mr. Fisher had to tell me about my great-grandfather:

Below is given a list of the supervisors of the township from its organization down to the present time: 1840, John P. McNaughton; 1842, Norman Foster; 1844, Roswell F. Tyler and William Gibson; 1845, John A. Cornell; 1846, Justus G. Beach; 1848, Reuben H. Smith; 1849, William H. Brown; 1854, Lyman Gerould; 1857, Zabin Williams; 1858, William H. Brown; 1860, Warren S. Hale; 1861, William H. Brown; 1863, William J. Wood; 1865, Adam B. Sherk; 1868, William J. Wood; 1869, Marcus Buell; 1870, Adam B. Sherk; 1871, Robert S. Jackson; 1872, William J. Wood; 1873, Martin Whitney; 1877, Austin W. Hill; 1878, Marcus Buell; 1879, Sherman T. Colson; 1889, Alfred W. Stow; 1891, Sherman T. Colson; 1895, Eugene Ward; 1900, Joseph E. Kennedy; 1901, Alfred Newman; 1904, EugeneWard; 1906, Alfred Newman; 1907, Frederick W. Ruehs; 1912, Merrill M. Kriger; 1914, John J. Luneke; 1915, Charles R. Mulder, present incumbent.

Great Grandpa was the Supervisor of the Township of Caledonia.  He used this gavel to call the meetings to order.  Maybe this desire for order comes to him from his great-great-grandfather, the jailor’s hand.

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The Left-Handed Link

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 2, 2013| 17 Comments »

My grandfather was left-handed.  And so am I.  I get it from him because my parents are both right-handed.

Grandpa holding me

Grandpa holding me, his first grandchild, 1955

I’ve written about both Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg (the elder) and Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, my great grandparents.  They had one son, my grandfather, Adrian Zuidweg (1908-2000).  He owned a Sunoco “filling station” on the corner of Burdick and Balch in Kalamazoo where his father had previously owned the soda shop.  In the photos above and below, he’s wearing his Sunoco uniform.

When I was a kid, I loved the fold-out maps Grandpa carried inside the station. Out back, he planted a strip of petunias and vegetables.  He knew how to make use of a small space for gardening.  When I visited, he would climb out of the pit where he worked under a car.  The most memorable part of the station for me was the lettering on the front door:

Adrian Zuidweg, Proprietor

A – Z Lubrication

I loved how it played off his initials A.Z.

"Adie" "Zuidy" by the pump

“Adie” “Zuidy” by the pump

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WHERE IN THE HECK IS KALAMAZOO?

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 19, 2013| 12 Comments »

This is another post which I dedicate to Yvette Hoitink at Dutch Genealogy.

I described in other posts that  Yvette Hoitink, a Dutch genealogist, quickly and easily found a wealth of information about the Zuidweg family–my grandfather’s Dutch ancestors. 

Where in the heck is Kalamazoo? 

I grew up hearing that expression (or a more direct variation of it which reminds with “bell”).  When Kalamazooans travel outside Michigan, they tend to hear people ask some version of the phrase.  Even today, living out west, I find myself being asked the same thing.  I do what I have always done:  open my right palm and point to the fleshy lower outside section.  “Right there.  That’s where Kalamazoo is.”

With the help of Yvette’s genealogical research, I can now say that approximately 3/8 of my more recent ancestors come from Zeeland, a Dutch province–and most significantly from the town of Goes.  When I was young my grandmother taught me how to say it.  With an H sound, instead of a G, and a double O (rhymes with “goose”), as if you’re blowing out air from the diaphragm.  I have no idea if that is the correct Dutch pronunciation, but that has been our pronunciation.  I never knew where it was located.  I didn’t even bother to look or to ask “where in the heck is Goes?”

I’m not sure I trust pronunciations which are passed on through the family.  My grandparents were “Grandma and Grandpa Zuidweg,” pronounced like Zould (as in “should”) and weg (as in . . . “weg”).  At some point my uncle and his family started pronouncing their own name to rhyme with the name “Ludweg.”  That sounds wrong to me, but then it’s their name and not mine.

Once you start looking back into the generations, my ancestors are a little more spread out.  This is what Yvette wrote in her report:

All the Dutch immigrant ancestors of Adrian Zuidweg were found in Dutch records. Using birth, marriage and death records from the civil registration, four generations of his ancestors were traced. For three ancestors, the family was traced one generation further. In total, all 16 great-great-grandparents and 6 g-g-g-grandparents of Adrian Zuidweg were traced. His ancestors came from different provinces in the Netherlands: Zeeland, Zuid-Holland and Overijssel.

Don’t forget:  Adrian Zuidweg, my grandfather, is two generations before me, so this is actually going back pretty far.

English: Map of The Netherlands (including the...

You can see from the map that Zeeland and Zuid-Holland are the two southernmost provinces along the North Sea.  According to Lonely Planet, these provinces are the areas that give rise to our stereotypical ideas of “Holland.”

These two provinces are home to some of the strongest imagery – and biggest clichés –

associated with the Netherlands. You want dykes? Uh-huh. Windmills? Yeah. Tulips? OK.

Well, alright fellas, let’s gooooo…

The Keukenhof gardens are a place of pilgrimage for lovers of the lancelike leaves and

bell-shaped, varicoloured flower of the tulip, and the Zuid (South) Holland area is great for

biking and hiking, with trails and paths everywhere. Meanwhile, the built-up beaches of

Noordwijk aan Zee and south to Scheveningen are popular with locals.

Further south, Zeeland (Sea Land) is the dyke-protected province that people often associate

with the Netherlands when they’re not thinking of tulips, cheese and windmills.

Middelburg is the centre, with a serenity belying its proximity to the tragedies that spawned

the Delta Project.

Zuid Holland’s major cities are the biggest attractions: there’s Leiden, with its university

culture and old town (and proximity to the bulb fields); Den Haag, with its museums, stately

air and kitsch beach; charming, beautiful Delft, the home of Jan Vermeer; and mighty Rotterdam,

blessed with an edgy urban vibe, gritty cultural scene, and innovative architecture.

Several smaller places are also worth your time: Gouda is a perfect old canal town, while

Dordrecht has its own surprises – for humans and sheep alike. Just east and south of Dordrecht

is Biesbosch National Park, a sprawling natural area along the border with Noord Brabant.

What I want to know is if Spiced Leyden cheese comes from Leiden.  It’s my favorite cheese.  My husband’s is Gouda.  And what do you know, but I have family photos taken in Gouda, including this one of a beautiful baby:

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The Park with a Literary Name

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Paak, Remine, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 14, 2013| 23 Comments »

The property at Long Lake in Portage, Michigan, known as Ramona Park and featuring a pavilion called Ramona Palace was in my family for many years.  Ramona was named after the “Indian Princess” in Helen Hunt Jackson’s popular novel Ramona, which was published in 1884.

When I was a little girl, my father Rudy Hanson tried to re-create the heyday of Ramona Park and its pavilion.  He was  young and ambitious and wanted to restore the place.  Although Ramona Palace had a magnificent ballroom, the owner had sold the liquor license in 1956 or 1957 to Airway Lanes (according to my father).

So my parents held teen dances and concerts; The Association performed there. I remember my parents taking tickets out front, seated at a table.  One time a kid broke in when a dance was going on.  Dad took off running after this high school “track star,” caught him, and turned him over to the police.  It was mentioned in the paper.

My father preferred booking picnics because he could obtain a one day liquor license.  Continental Can held their company picnics at Ramona.  Sometimes I helped out or hung out during events.  The German-American Club held a dance, and I remember a couple dressed in lederhosen, the girl’s thick blonde braid swinging to her dancing.

My father had invested in this property and lost money on the deal.  It was actually owned by a relative named Therese Remine.  Therese’s mother was Mary Paak (Peek), the sister of my great great grandmother, Alice Paak DeKorn.

Therese had inherited the property from Henry and Carrie Waruf, who had owned it for years.  Carrie was born a Paak, and I believe she was one of the Paak sisters: Mary, Alice, Annie, and Carrie.  This is an area for future research.  I don’t know why only Therese inherited and not her brother, Harold.  Or why the cousins, such as my grandfather Adrian Zuidweg, did not inherit it.

Therese Remine

Therese Remine

At some point after my father no longer was affiliated with the property, Therese sold and donated it to the City of Portage.

My father has many other memories of the park.  He says Ramona was used as storage for years for ice, which was cut from the lake and packed with straw.  It lasted throughout the summer and was hauled to town by a train.  The tracks ran halfway between the pavilion and Sprinkle Road.

In that front lot off Sprinkle, in the 10s and 20s, was a building and home field for various ball teams.  Later on, Airstream trailers held their annual meetings.  The circus was set up on the Ramona property; I remember the circus billboard which was up for weeks ahead of time.

When I was young, a row of cottages on the property were leased out to renters by Therese.  Sixty years before that, Richard DeKorn, my great great grandfather, had leased his own summer cottage from the Warufs.

Therese’s summer house was on Sprinkle, and a gravel road led back to the park, pavilion, and the lakefront.  My friends and I found arrowheads in the cornfield behind her house.

Ramona Park is a thriving park in Portage, Michigan, still today.

Possibly Long Lake, according to Adrian Zuidweg

Cora DeKorn at her father Richard DeKorn's cottage on Long Lake

Cora DeKorn at her father Richard DeKorn’s cottage on Long Lake

Richard DeKorn enjoying the lake

Richard DeKorn enjoying the lake

 

 

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My Great-Grandfather Reinvented Himself as a Business Owner in the U.S.

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Adrian Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 1, 2013| 18 Comments »

As I shared in my last post Intriguing Coincidence or An “Of Course” Moment?, Yvette Hoitink, a Dutch genealogist, quickly and easily found a wealth of information about the Zuidweg family–my grandfather’s Dutch ancestors.  Dutch Genealogy is a site which describes Yvette’s amazing services.

I knew that the father of my grandfather, Adrian Zuidweg, born 1908 in Kalamazoo, was Adrian Zuidweg, born in The Netherlands.  Adrian Sr. owned a fish market when Grandpa was young.  In this photo he stands with an unidentified young employee.

Fish Market on Eleanor Street

Fish Market on Eleanor Street

My grandfather, Adrian Jr. told me he used to clean fish at the fish market when he was 8 or 9.

Adrian Zuidweg, Jr.

Adrian Zuidweg, Jr.

Eventually, the man who was my great-grandfather opened an ice cream parlor and candy store, and according to a story Grandpa told me, during the height of the Great Depression, he was able to buy a $1,000 marble countertop for his business.

Ice cream parlor and candy store

Ice cream parlor and candy store

All I knew of this man was of his life in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  I knew that he died at approximately age 50 of what might have been Bright’s (kidney) disease.  My grandmother told me that he didn’t eat all day long at work and would come home and eat a steak the size of a plate.

What I discovered from Yvette is an idea of who he was before he emigrated from Holland.  He was born Adriaan Zuijdweg on 3 January 1871 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.  He was a “letterzetter,” compositor or typesetter–possibly for a newspaper.  This fits with a photo I published on an earlier post of Adrian Sr. and another relative working on a newspaper in Kalamazoo.

Printshop at Holland American newspaper, 1899Adrian Zuidweg 3rd from left; Lou Leeuwenhoek 5th from left

Printshop at Holland American newspaper, 1899
Adrian Zuidweg 3rd from left; Lou Leeuwenhoek 5th from left

So it seems that Adrian took his typesetter skills to the United States, but decided to become an American “entrepreneur” by opening the fish market.

According to Yvette, it was in the United States that he lost the other “a” in his first name and the j in Zuijdweg–becoming Adrian Zuidweg.  The son he eventually had in 1980 was also named Adrian Zuidweg (no middle name, which is according to Yvette the Dutch tradition) and it was young Adrian who eventually changed the ice cream parlor into a Sunoco gas station.

One of the photos I have yet to know more about is one of him in what Grandpa said was his Dutch army uniform.

Adriaan Zuijdweg

Adriaan Zuijdweg

Four years after emigrating from the Netherlands for “amelioration of existence,” Adriaan/Adrian married my great-grandmother Cora Wilhelmina DeKorn.  The date was 18 May 1897 and the place was Kalamazoo (of course).

Adrian Zuidweg (Adriaan Zuijdweg) 1897

Adrian Zuidweg (Adriaan Zuijdweg) 1897

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Intriguing Coincidence or An “Of Course” Moment?

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Family History, Genealogy, Lucille Edna Mulder Zuidweg, Mulder, Netherlands history, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 28, 2012| 25 Comments »

This post is dedicated to Yvette Hoitink at Dutch Genealogy.

Two wonderful events have occurred recently which add to my treasure trove of genealogical information and old family photos.  One is that my mother sent me my grandmother’s high school graduation (and beyond) scrapbook.  In my last post I showed off my grandmother’s teacher contract from 1931-32 and a photo of my grandparents two years before they married.  These were from the scrapbook.   I will be posting more of these treats in the future.

The other event is that Yvette Hoitink, a Dutch genealogist, quickly and easily found a wealth of information about the Zuidweg family–my grandfather’s Dutch ancestors.  Dutch Genealogy is a site which describes Yvette’s services.  You can contact her through that site.  What would have taken me years of effort and a good knowledge of the Dutch language, took Yvette a few hours.  In the next few posts, I’ll be examining some of the information Yvette found.  Among other tidbits, she discovered incorrect information I had catalogued, information which discredited family stories, and an intriguing coincidence.

Today’s post is to share the coincidence.  My grandfather, Adrian Zuidweg, born in 1908 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, married my grandmother, Lucille Edna Mulder, in 1932.  See the last post for a photo of them as a young couple.  Here is a wedding photo.

Adrian Jr. and Edna (Mulder) Zuidweg

Adrian Jr. and Edna (Mulder) Zuidweg, 1932

Grandma’s father was Charles Mulder, of Caledonia, Michigan.  His name at birth, in 1885 in Goes, the Netherlands, was Karel Pieter Phillipus Mulder.

My great grandfather Charles Mulder with his parents and siblings. He's front row, second from the right.

My great grandfather Charles Mulder with his parents and siblings. He’s front row, second from the right, with the curly dark hair.

In the 5th generation of the Zuidweg family, Yvette discovered a Carel Mulder, who was born about 1781.  She writes, “On 5 May 1836 he was a jailor’s hand in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.  He died on 19 May 1847 at the age of 66 in Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands.”  I’ll hazard a guess that this is a common name, but the same town name is certainly intriguing.

Looking back a little further, I see that my great grandfather’s grandfather was Karel Mulder, born February 21, 1837 in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands.  He died in April 22, 1881, also in Goes.  Obviously not a match.

Not his father either.

But look!  Another generation back was yet another Karel Mulder, born March 8, 1780 in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands.  He died  May 19, 1847, also in Goes.  HE’S A MATCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And now I know that this ancestor of my GRANDMOTHER and of my GRANDFATHER was a “jailor’s hand.”  Whatever that is.

My husband isn’t as excited about information like this.  He says, “Do you know how many people were alive in those days?  It’s not that big a coincidence to have that happen.”  And actually today, in the land of Facebook, where I’m two degrees removed from almost every other American Facebooker, it might not be that big of a deal either.  But to me it was fascinating to see that name which is a “staple” of my grandmother’s line show up on my grandfather’s!

According to Ancestry.com the “jailor’s hand” is my “5th great grandfather”:

Karel Mulder (1780 – 1847)
Son of Karel
Son of Karel
Son of Karel
Son of Pieter Philippus
Daughter of Charles Peter (Karel Pieter Phillipus)
Janet Ann Zuidweg
Daughter of Lucille Edna
Moi
You are the daughter of Janet Ann
This is the marriage which connected the Zuidweg and Mulder families back then: Adriaan Zuijdweg, a tailor who was born about 1801 in Goes married Johanna Mulder on 5 May 1836 in Goes.  She was born about 1807 in Goes.  She worked as a maid and a laborer and died on 11 June1878 at the age of 71.

This is a family rumor which proved to be true.  My mother has always told me that my grandparents were cousins of sorts.

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