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Archive for the ‘Cora DeKorn Zuidweg’ Category

2020 Fill in the Gaps Project: What Information Am I Missing on Adrian Zuidweg, Sr.?

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Adrian Zuidweg, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn surname, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Zuidweg surname, tagged , , , , , , on February 12, 2020| 16 Comments »

Now it’s time to turn my attention to one of my maternal great-grandfathers, Adrian Zuidweg.

I had Adrian’s birth (Netherlands), marriage (US), and death records (US). He is listed on the social security records, but I believe that is because he is listed as my grandfather’s father because Adrian died in 1929, several years before social security started. I have a photo of Adrian’s headstone and photos of him.

Last June I posted Adrian’s probated will at Great-Grandpa’s Will

Since I did not yet have Adrian and Cora’s wedding announcement from the Kalamazoo Gazette, I looked for that. I discovered that it was announced on four different days. The first two were standard announcements, and the other two were perhaps license listings. The two standard announcements were published with an egregious error. Cora’s surname was listed as Wilhelmina, her middle name. I’m sure that was disappointing to the young couple, and to Cora’s parents, Richard and Alice DeKorn. See third listing down.

The other error on the announcement is one that even I make when I am typing fast: the bridesmaid was Miss Jennie DeSmit, not DeSmith. Jennie was Cora’s first cousin and two years older than Cora.

Adrian’s files on my computer were a disaster, so I organized them. On Ancestry, I was missing his birth record, which I added. I also discovered an incorrect fact and document added on Ancestry. Yikes! It was a military registration for the OTHER Adrian Zuidweg, the one that lived in Grand Rapids. Yes, they were related, but not too closely.

I find no military records for Adrian, and that surprises me because I think he would have had to register for WWI. Wouldn’t he? So I looked it up. There were three registrations. The first one was for men only to age 30. The second one was ages 21 and up? Up to what? And the third one, in 1918, was up to age 45. Adrian turned 45 in 1916. He just missed the registration then, unless he qualified under the middle registration, which I doubt as he was still 46 in 1917.

What about his military records in the Netherlands, though? As you can see from the photo he was in the Dutch army as a young man. I am not sure how to find Dutch military records. I would really like to do so. There is a link on Family Search for where he might be located, but unfortunately I cannot figure out a way to search the website, only to browse.

I find no obituary for Adrian, and that also surprises me. I searched on Genealogy Bank in general and around the time of his death–19 December 1929. I submitted a request through the Kalamazoo Public Library to see if they could uncover an obit. Sure enough, the obituary was in an unindexed newspaper! Thank you to the library!

Like a lot of my immigrant ancestors, I have no immigration or naturalization records for Adrian. Since this is such a huge gap, and it seems to be a real weak point of mine, I enlisted Amberly Beck who is working on her genealogy certification to help me find this information.

Finally, I checked out his page on Findagrave. I sponsored his page some time ago, but now I put in a request for management of the page. Fingers crossed.

 

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2020 Fill in the Gaps Project: My Great-Grandmother Cora Zuidweg (Jacoba Wilhelmina DeKorn Zuidweg)

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn surname, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Michigan history, Richard DeKorn, Zuidweg surname, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 5, 2020| 33 Comments »

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.

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More Birthdays–and An Update on Last Week’s Post

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Adrian Zuidweg, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn surname, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Leeuwenhoek surname, Michigan history, Mulder surname, Richard DeKorn, Zuidweg surname, tagged , , , , , , , on April 17, 2019| 25 Comments »

My maternal grandmother, (Lucille) Edna Mulder Zuidweg, was born in 1912 on this day.  This is one of my favorite photographs of Grandma and me.

I’m about five and wearing my favorite violet striped dress. This was a time in my life that I was spending a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpa’s house because I went to kindergarten across the street at McKinley school and stayed the rest of the day at their house while my parents were working. In this photo, it is dark outside, and I think this photograph was taken at night when others were in the living room. I associate this photo with eating ice cream that particular night . . . .

Happy birthday, Grandma. You are very missed.

Last week I posted two old photos and didn’t have a lot of information about them. With the help of some people on a Facebook group, especially intrepid FindaGrave photographer Jeff Phillips, the two little kids have been identified as Alice Leeuwenhoek and Harold Remine. I’ve written about both of them many times.  My mother reminded me that yesterday was Alice’s birthday (1897).

The house in the other photograph has probably been identified as well.

Here it is at the address 110 Balch Street.

That is it with the fresh coat of gray paint. Now look to our right and you just can just the dark brown brick corner house between the trees. That is the Richard DeKorn house I’ve written about so much. This gray house is next door to that house.

Guess who lived in that house (where the four boys are standing) in those days? Take a look:

 

 

Yes, the Leeuwenhoeks lived there, right next to Alice’s maternal grandparents Richard and Alice, and possibly her aunt (my great-grandmother Cora and her husband Adrian who lived with Cora’s parents). It appears that sometime between 1900 and 1910 Cora and Adrian moved from a home on the other side of Balch to her parents’ house. It’s possible that Richard owned that home at 121 Balch, but I have not investigated land records.

Any ideas on how to go about doing so?

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Grandpa’s Baby Pictures

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Photography early 20th century, Zuidweg surname, tagged , , , , , , on January 2, 2019| 33 Comments »

In scanning this newest batch of antique and vintage photos, I ran across these two photos of Grandpa (Adrian Zuidweg, Jr.) as a baby! They are set in this handmade paper frame, and his name is written on the back, so there is no doubt as to who it is. Plus those blond curls are a big giveaway.

Grandpa was born in 1908 in Kalamazoo. How old do you think he looks here? These photos are clearly before the accident with the needle that blinded his one eye. That happened when he was three. But I don’t think he’s very far into “being two” either.

It might help to know what in the world he is “in” or standing with in the photo on the right. It appears to have rockers at the bottom. Any ideas?

Click once and then once again should make the image large.

I’ll repost the other photos I have where he is young so you can see the comparison. I think that by comparison with these others, that he is strictly a baby in the photos above. So less than two. But let me know if you disagree!

Cora and little Adrian circa 1910

Adrian Zuidweg 1908-2000

Adrian Zuidweg

I know I’m pretty lucky to have all these wonderful photos of Grandpa and many other relatives. The curse, though, is that I am responsible for scanning and organizing digital images, organizing actual photos, and then deciding and implementing how these photos will be passed on to future generations! I may have mentioned before ;): I need an assistant!

 

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How Many Times Am I Related to Her?

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Alice Paak DeKorn, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn surname, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Michigan history, Paak surname, Peek surname, Remine surname, Richard DeKorn, Zeeland, the Netherlands, history, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 19, 2018| 48 Comments »

This is Richard and Mary (Paak) Remine and their daughter Therese (1895-1980).

Mary or Maaike Paak was born in Lexmond, Netherlands on 29 July 1859. She is my 3rd great-aunt. Her sister Alice was my great-great-grandmother.

Richard Remine was the son of Gerrit Remine (Remijnse) who was born in Kapelle, Netherlands. Gerrit was my 4th great-uncle. Richard or Dick was born in Kalamazoo on 10 May 1857. 

How can that be? Does it make your head burst? OK, follow this.

Mary is the sister of my 2xgreat Alice.

Gerrit is the brother of Johanna Remine DeKorn. Johanna is my 3x great-grandmother, the mother of Richard DeKorn, grandmother of Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, great-grandmother of Adrian Zuidweg, and great-great-grandmother of my mother Janet.

So Mary was connected to Alice who married Richard DeKorn who was connected to Richard Remine!

I am related to both Mary and Richard, so I am related twice to their daughter Therese, as well as their two other children, Genevieve Tazelaar and Harold Remine.

Do you have double cousins like this in your family?

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Some Recognition for Kin Types!

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Alice Paak DeKorn, Caledonia Michigan history, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, Dad and his family, DeKorn surname, Family History, Genealogy, Illinois history, Jennie DeKorn Culver, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Kalamazoo mid 20th century, Kent County history, Leeuwenhoek surname, Lucille Edna Mulder Zuidweg, Michigan history, Mulder surname, Noffke surname, Paak surname, Peek surname, Richard DeKorn, Waldeck surname, Zeeland, the Netherlands, history, Zuidweg surname, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 16, 2018| 28 Comments »

Those of you who have been reading The Family Kalamazoo for a time know that I published a chapbook this past year based on my research findings, my imagination, and some historical knowledge. Kin Types is a collection of lyric poems, prose poems, and flash nonfiction.

On Monday I woke up to discover that Kin Types was a finalist for the prestigious Eric Hoffer Award. It’s in stellar company.. This recognition validates the work I did on the book and on this blog. Best of all, the book gets a gold foil sticker for the cover ;).

It will kind of look like this when the sticker is put on the book (only not such a large sticker).

If you click through the link to the Amazon page, the book can be ordered for a real deal right now; check it out. To order through Barnes & Noble, try this link.

 

 

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Cora and Alice in Living Color

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Alice Paak DeKorn, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn surname, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Paak surname, Peek surname, Photography late 19th century, Zeeland, the Netherlands, history, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 5, 2018| 27 Comments »

Last week I showed you the beautiful work Val Erde at Colouring the Past did on my great-grandfather Adrian Zuidweg (Adriaan Zuijdweg) photograph, so I wanted Val to perform her magic on a woman or two in my photo collection.

Here is a photograph of Adrian’s wife, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, my great-grandmother. I don’t believe I have shared this one yet as it was in the beautiful old album I only recently scanned. This is the youngest I have seen Cora where I knew for sure that it was, indeed, Cora.

Cora hasn’t quite lost the “baby fat” in her face here.

She is beautiful, though the photo has damage, especially foxing stains, on it.

But look at Cora after Val gives her some color!

I also asked Val to color a photo of Cora’s mother, Alice Paak DeKorn. The one I gave her was quite faded, so the resulting work is not as vibrant as the others, but it still allows Alice to come off the page into my heart.

Here was the original:

That does it for now with the “in living color” photos. I ordered these two and Adrian’s for this blog, and I share two others on my blog Entering the Pale. I hope to order more sometime in the future. Don’t hesitate to check out Val’s blog for more examples of her beautiful work.

 

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