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.