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Archive for the ‘DeKorn’ Category

Cora and Alice in Living Color

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Alice Paak DeKorn, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Netherlands history, Paak, Peek, Photography late 19th century, 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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Genealogy Can Be a Pandora’s Box

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Adrian Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Mulder, Netherlands history, Photography late 19th century, Richard DeKorn, Zuidweg on January 31, 2018| 33 Comments »

The more I peer into the past, the more I feel like Pandora. In addition to discovering wonderful information about my ancestors, sometimes I discover sad, tragic, or even disturbing events.

For instance, I have found out more about the sentencing of my great-great-grandfather Johannes Zuijdweg (Zuidweg).

Unfortunately, what I discovered is not positive.

Here it is cropped a bit to make it easier (thanks for the idea, Amy!). His entry is the third down on both pages.

 

 

According to this document and the kind translators on Facebook, Johannes did serve two months in jail for theft, from July 15 to September 13, 1895. Imagine how Jennie felt. She had just lost her youngest child (of three) to a gruesome accident and now, a year later, her husband was serving time in jail. Everyone in their neighborhood and at their church must have known.

I don’t know if I will ever discover what was stolen or what the situation was, but I will always believe that the death of Lucas had something to do with it–given that death, the older age of Johannes, and his otherwise respectable history.

Remember for that last document when Johannes’ hair and eyebrows were translated as blond? The translation I received for this document for his looks is this way:

I can only read the enlarged part…. sex: male father: Adriaan mother: Johanna Maria Mulder nationality: Dutch civil status: married religion: reformed lower basic education: yes age (at inclusion) 52 behaviour (in institute (?) : good lenght: 1.64 m hair: greyish eyebrows: same (greyish) forehead : low eyes: grey nose: large mouth: ordinary chin: round beard: none face: oval complexion: healthy language spoken (literally: ordinary language) special features (?): none

“Greyish” hair and eyebrows!

I’ve sponsored Johannes’ memorial at Findagrave. You can find it here. I discovered that someone had posted an obituary for him on the site. Since the paper had apparently misspelled two names, I put a note explaining what the spelling should have been.

JOHANIUS ZUIDWEG. Following a long Illness, Johanius Zuidweg, aged 68, died at his home, 214 east Vine street, 9 o’clock last night. He came to this country from Holland nine years ago. He is survived by a widow, a daughter, Mrs. Marleilus Van Liere, and a son, Adrian Zuidweg, all of this city. The funeral will be held at the residence 1:30 o’clock Friday afternoon and from the Fourth Reformed church at 2 o’clock, the Rev. Mr. Frost officiating. The interment will be in Riverside cemetery. Kalamazoo Telegraph-Press May 17, 1911 (copied as written in paper)

Note:Johanius should be Johannes. Marleilus should be Marinus.

I was sorry to see that Johannes suffered a long illness before he passed away. 

However, when I look at the death certificate, his illness appears to have been 20 days. The cause of death was broncho pneumonia. I wonder if he had another illness that then turned into pneumonia.

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Looking at the Timeline for Clues

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Adrian Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Mulder, Netherlands history, Photography late 19th century, Richard DeKorn, Zuidweg on January 17, 2018| 37 Comments »

Up until now, I’ve written very little about my great-great-grandfather Johannes Zuijdweg (Zuidweg). He was married to Jennie Bomhoff Zuidweg. I wrote about her knitting skills for U.S. troops here. Johannes and Jennie were my grandfather’s paternal grandparents. He talked about Jennie to me, but he didn’t really know his grandfather who died when Grandpa was only three.

The birth of Johannes is an important moment in the history of our family because his parents tie together the Zuijdwegs/Zuidwegs and the Mulders. Grandpa was a Zuidweg, and Grandma was a Mulder. Both families were from Goes, Netherlands, and they both are descended from Karel Mulder, the jailer’s hand.

The record of the marriage of Johannes and Jennie I found at wiewaswie. Here is a transcription of the marriage document:

BS Huwelijk met Johannes Zuijdweg

Groom
Johannes Zuijdweg
Profession
kruideniersknecht
Birth place
Goes
Age
26
Bride
Jenneqien Bomhoff
Profession
dienstbode
Birth place
Zwolle
Age
31
Father of groom
Adriaan Zuijdweg
Mother of the groom
Johanna Mulder
Profession
Arbeidster
Father of bride
Lúcas Bomhoff
Mother of the bride
Johanna Danser
Event
Huwelijk
Event date
04-11-1869
Event place
Goes

To read (in Dutch) the pages of the record, read the page on the right of the first image and the page on the left of the second image. If you look at the signers on the document itself you will see that one of the signers was a Van Liere. That is another family that has shared a path with my family.

Johannes was born in Goes on 23 December 1842. Here is the transcription on wiewaswie:

BS Geboorte met Johannes Zuijdweg

Child
Johannes Zuijdweg
Birth date
23-12-1842
Birth place
Goes
Gender
Man
Father
Adriaan Zuijdweg
Mother
Johanna Mulder
Event
Geboorte
Event date
23-12-1842
Event place
Goes
Document type
BS Geboorte
Institution name
Zeeuws Archief
Institution place
Middelburg
Collection region
Zeeland
Archive
25
Registration number
GOE-G-1842
Sourcenumber
171
Registration date
24-12-1842
Certificate place
Goes
Collection
Goes geboorteakten burgerlijke stand

birth record of Johannes Zuijdweg

In the Netherlands, Johannes worked as a grocer’s hand, a crier, and a merchant. Johannes and Jennie had three children. When Johannes was in his fifties, on 4 April 1894, the youngest child, Lucas (now a young man) was killed in an accident. According to Grandpa, he fell on a boat anchor.   Within a few months of the death of Lucas, there was an astonishing development in Johannes’ life. He was sentenced to prison!

 

On the Facebook group “Dutch Genealogy,” a kind person translated as much of the document as he could.

Column 1: (record number) 496 —
Column 2 (First Names and (last) names) Johannes Zuidweg —
Column 3: Occupation koopman (merchant) —
Column 4: (Location and date of birth) Goes on 20 December 1842 —
Column 5: (Place of Residence) Goes —
Column 6: (not sure, I guess date entered in the book?) 19 June 1895 —
Column 7: (again nit sure, I guess date of judgement) 31 May 1895, Jurisdiction Court Middelburg —
Column 8: (description of offense) Diefstal (Theft) —
Column 9: (Opgelegde Straf,, Punishment) twee maanden gevangenstraf (two month imprisonment) — \
Column 10: (dagtekening straf ingaat , start of punishment) 19 June 1895
Column 11: (dagtekening straf eidigt, end of punishment) 18 August 1895
Column 12: (again, nut sure. Date of transfer?) 19 June 1895 (and signatures)
Column 13: ( ) 19 June 1895
Column 14: () had te kenning gegeven dat hij een verzoek om gratie had ingedient ( he noted that he had requested clemency)
Column 15 (): Officier van Justitie, Middelburg, 19 June 1895 —
Column xx: () Geene (none)
Column xx () Geslacht (gender) Mannelijk (Male)
Vader (Father) Adriaan
Moeder (Mother) Johanna Mulder
Nationality : Nederlandse
Burgerlijke Stand (civil status): Gehuwd (Married)
Godsdienstige gezindte (religious affiliation): Gereform. (I think, reformed)
Lager onderwijs genoten (elementary education): yes
Ouderdom (bij opneming) (Age at time of entering prison): 52 years
Gedrag in het gesticht (behavior in institute): (not filled in; he may have served)
Column yy (): Length 1m 60 cm; Color Hair: Blond; Eyebrows: Blond; Forehead: low; eyes: grijs (grey) neus (nose): groot (large); mond (mouth) )can’t read; kin (chin) round; baard (beard) none, aangezicht (face) round; kleur (facial tint): gezond (healthy); gewone taal (ordinary language): (—) Byzondere teekenen: geene (none). Handteekening (signature) (blank space)

The attached page is a telegram from the courthouse in Middelburg to the Prison in Goes, stating that “Nu Zuijdweg verklaart gratie the hebben gevraagd moet hij niet worden opgenomen, doch moet de beslissing op zijn verzoek afgewacht worden” (Now that Zuijdweg declares that he asked for clemency, he must not be taken in, but await the decision on his request), signed by the officer of the court, Van Hoek.

Johannes was 5’4 1/2 inches tall. While this seems short for a Dutch man by today’s standards (today the average height for a Dutch man is over 6′ tall), it probably was not that unusual in the 1800s.

According to the translation, Johannes was sentenced to two months in the penitentiary. The person who translated the document believes that Johannes was given clemency and did not serve the time. There might be other documents relating to this issue, and I will keep probing to try to find out more information.

I have been told by several Dutch people that times were very different then, and that it was very “easy” to end up in jail over minor infractions. I believe that this had something to do with the death of Johannes’ youngest son a few months before, but that is just a guess. I do wonder if this happening had something to do with the decision of Johannes and Jennie, both older people, deciding to emigrate.

In 1901, Johannes and Jennie followed their son Adriaan to Michigan. Three years later, their remaining child, Johanna Zuidweg Van Liere, immigrated with her husband, Marinus, and son to Michigan. Marinus owned a shoe store on Burdick Street.

In Kalamazoo, Michigan, Johannes and Jennie lived in at least two different homes, if not more. For a while they lived in one of the houses owned by Richard DeKorn. Sometimes Johannes’ name is spelled John. He passed away after living in the United States for ten years.

In one of the many changes in birthdates I’ve found in researching family history, Johannes’ birth record shows that he was born in 1842, but his headstone states that he was born in 1843. I believe the birth record, as the Dutch records are astonishingly well documented. I wish I knew more of what Johannes’ life was like in that last decade of his life. He was surrounded with male grandchildren as Grandpa was the only child of son Adrian and daughter Johanna and Marinus had eight boys!

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Photo Identification Isn’t Always Helpful!

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Bassa, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Jennie DeKorn Culver, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Netherlands history, Paak, Peek, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 28, 2017| 20 Comments »

These photos have been a mystery to me since the 1970s. On the back of the woman’s photo it says “Mother’s aunt.”

 

Notice that the photo says the photographer was in the city of Groningen. This is the largest city in the north of Netherlands, and a very old city. But it’s not where my family came from. And here is another photo that was right next to the lady’s photo.

 

These are the only photos I have from Groningen, to my knowledge. The people don’t show any familial resemblance, but that–as we know–doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

What is more confusing is whose aunt she is. I have to assume that “Mother” means Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, Grandpa’s mother. It couldn’t be Grandma’s mother. Not only are most of our photos from Grandpa’s family, Grandma’s mother wasn’t Dutch, but Prussian.

So Cora. Or Cora’s mother? Or Grandpa’s father’s mother?

First, I looked at Cora’s aunts. Her aunts all came to the United States. They were the Paak sisters–none of whom look ANYTHING like the woman in this photo. And then on her father’s side, Mary DeKorn DeSmit and Jennie DeKorn Culver were her aunts. NOT these ladies.

Second, I went back a generation. Alice Paak’s aunts were the Bassas–no Groningen there–and the Paaks–no Groningen there either.

What about Richard DeKorn’s aunts? His mother had a lot of brothers, but only one sister–and she remained in Kapelle her entire life. His father had one half-sister (and a lot of half-brothers and one brother), Pieternella DeKorn. That family is still a bit of a mystery. She might have been born in Kruiningen, but I don’t know where she lived or when she died.

So how can the lady in the photo be “Mother’s aunt”??? The only other possibility that I can think of would be Jennie Zuidweg (Jennegien Bomhof), Grandpa’s grandmother. Let’s say his mother Cora wrote “Mother’s aunt” and meant her mother-in-law’s aunt. Is that possible? Jennie is from the only branch that was completely outside of Zeeland (until she came to Goes and married Johannes Zuidweg). She was born in Zwolle, Overjissel. That is 66 miles from Groningen, whereas Goes is 205 miles away.

BUT!!! Before we get too excited, what years did Reinier Uges have a photography studio? 1889-1914!!  How can that be the aunt of a lady (Jennie Zuidweg) who was born in 1838 (and died in the U.S. in 1924). This lady would have to be a generation younger than Jennie, wouldn’t she?

All in all, I’m pretty sure that “Mother’s aunt” meant Grandpa’s mother’s aunt, thus an aunt of Cora DeKorn Zuidweg.

But that is impossible.

You see how frustrating this is?!

Any ideas about the age of the woman and the age of the man would be helpful!!

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Another Photograph to Identify: Alice and Who Else?

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Joseph Peter DeKorn, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Leeuwenhoek, Michigan history, Photography early 20th century, tagged , , , , , , , on November 22, 2017| 22 Comments »

In the collection of images derived from Joseph DeKorn’s glass negatives, there are photos of children. Unfortunately, children are hard to identify, and I don’t know who most of them are. In this beautiful photograph, Grandpa’s first cousin, Alice Leeuwenhoek, is shown with three friends, neighbors, or relatives. The girls and their clothing remind me of the book and movie Pollyanna. The novel was written in 1913, and Alice was born in 1897, so this is close! Alice is the tall girl in the double-breasted coat.

Alice was married at age 26 to Clarence Moerdyk. They never had any children. Alice was a successful seamstress. Sadly, she passed away at age 66, leaving behind her husband and her mother, Jennie Leeuwenhoek. She was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Kalamazoo.

 

As usual, if anybody has any ideas about the identities of the other girls, please let me know!

I hope you have someone or someones to spend a happy Thanksgiving with! This year it’s just my husband and me, and I accidentally bought a 24-pound turkey (don’t ask). Any ideas on dishes I can make with the turkey and then freeze? Besides soup, of course.

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George Paak’s Legacy, Part VIII: His Grandson’s Photographs

Posted in Alice Paak DeKorn, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Paak, Peek, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2017| 12 Comments »

I’ve published so many posts about the Paak* family that I thought I would share with you a photograph of Professor Lawrence, the man who provided me so many photos and much information on the family, and two of his siblings (children of Theresa Pake Lawrence).

 

In the turquoise dress is Una Orline Lawrence Shultz, in the middle is Professor Edgar “Ed” Lawrence himself, and on the right is brother Richard “Dick” Lawrence. These are the three children of Theresa Pake Lawrence.

When she married Roy Lawrence, he had three children, Duane, Caryl, and Audrey, so Professor Lawrence and his siblings had three half-siblings.

Here is a photo of Professor Lawrence with his half-sister, Caryl Ruth Lawrence. Caryl retired from the U.S. Army as a Major. Professor Lawrence is also a veteran of the army.

The siblings had a younger brother Robert J. Borger (foster brother who was a Lawrence in every way but legally) who died at age 42 in a motorcycle/pickup accident in 1977 in Schoolcraft, Michigan.

Now let’s back up a generation. Remember that Theresa and her siblings lived with their father George/Joseph after the death of their mother. Then their house burned down. After that, Theresa went to live with the Pickards as their foster child. Theresa is in the front on the left. Sister Jane is in the back on the right. She was called Jennie as a child.

To show the link between Theresa’s generation and that of her children, I am sharing a photo of Professor Lawrence’s sister Una, the niece of Jane, with her Aunt Jane at the nursing home on the occasion of Jane’s 100th birthday. Jane had no children, and I like to see her sibling’s children were watching over her.

Jane ultimately lived to be almost 108 years old. She passed away in 1998. Think of all the changes in the world that she experienced!

Professor Lawrence gave me an invite to his family tree, so I am going to go through and make sure we both have the same information. Anybody know if there is a comparison tool on Ancestry? Or some way to more easily compare two trees?

I admit that I bounce around from one branch to another, but if I stuck with one branch I would never move forward on anything else because each branch has so many individuals and stories and details.

 

* I’ve changed his surname spelling to the one that my great-great-grandmother used because I see that he did also use that spelling in addition to other spellings.

Here are the other Pake/Paake /Paak //Peek posts:

A Series of Disasters

The Children After the Fire, 1902

Paak-a-boo

Saved from the Fire

Who is George Paak, Sr.?

Curious about George

George Paak’s Legacy, Part I

George Paak’s Legacy, Part II: Theresa’s Pre-Professional Education

George Paak’s Legacy, Part III: Theresa’s Professional Education

George Paak’s Legacy, Part IV: A Letter to His Daughter

George Paak’s Legacy, Part V: Theresa Gets Married

George Paak’s Legacy, Part VI: Who Were the Pickards

George Paak’s Legacy, Part VII: Imagining the Man and His Home

 

 

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Pulling Together Information on The Bosman Family, Part V

Posted in Chicago history, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Kent County history, Michigan history, Photography late 19th century, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 11, 2017| 13 Comments »

Back to Jeanette Bosman Harter (1888-1978). Readers urged me to ask the owner of the photos of Jeanette on Ancestry for permission to post here, and she did give me permission.

The above is the photo of Jeanette when she lived, obviously, in Chicago.

You can see she is the same person as in the image I found in the antique photo album.

 

And here is the photo of Jeanette with her younger brother Cornelius when they were 12 and 9 in 1900.

And at age 15.

Perhaps a wedding portrait with George Harter.

And in 1940 at age 52.

Woohoo, what a wonderful treasury of photos of Jeanette, my 2nd cousin 3x removed.

Interestingly, not only was Jeanette related to my family, but when she was born her parents lived at 1412 S. Burdick St. in Kalamazoo, right near my relatives.

On another note, something has budged in that brick wall of hubby’s grandparents from Ukraine and vicinity. First, Montefiore Cemetery has sent me photos of the headstones. Thank you to Sharon at Branches of our Haimowitz Family Tree for letting me know I could order photos directly! That gave us the Hebrew names of the fathers of both his grandfather and grandmother! And I found a passenger list for his grandfather. A professional is going to help us break down the wall a little further at this point because she can communicate in the proper languages to try to obtain birth records. I’ll keep you posted. Ukraine and Moldova are not easy to work with and nearly impossible for amateurs.

 

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Pulling Together Information on The Bosman Family, Part III

Posted in Chicago history, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Kent County history, Michigan history, Photography late 19th century, Remine, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 20, 2017| 29 Comments »

It’s been so long (years) since I posted Parts I and II about the Bosmans, but I found this photograph of Jeanette Bosman (my 2nd cousin, 3x removed) and thought I’d share it.

I love the serious pintucks on the dress, and the watch or locket pinned to it.

How do I know it’s Jeanette? Because it says so on the back!Don’t you LOVE when the info is on the back of the image?! It says: Jeanette Bosman / Grand Rapids / 1906.

Jeanette was born 30 June 1888 in Kalamazoo. That would make her 18 in this portrait. Wow, she sure looks older to me. But then her skin does not, and maybe it is the type of looks that she has.

On Ancestry, I found a photo of Jeanette as an older woman in Chicago. I hesitate to post it here because I am not sure if we are allowed to take images off Ancestry and share elsewhere. But she looks like the same person, with the same hairstyle decades later.

When I first found the Bosman children (children of Dirk Bosman and my 1st cousin 4xremoved Johanna/Adriana Remine) I posted in two posts. Part II listed the children and Part I was focused on John, Jeanette’s older brother. Jennie was listed as second to youngest.  Jeanette is Jennie.

When she was three her mother passed away in Kalamazoo. Then I don’t have any information until she got married in 1908 to George M. Harter in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I don’t know if she had a stepmother, for instance, or if the family moved to Grand Rapids right after the mother’s death.

Jeanette had three children, all born in Chicago, so the family must have lived in Chicago after Grand Rapids.

Jeanette and George had three children, all born in Chicago, so the family must have lived in Chicago after Grand Rapids.

George, Jeanette’s husband, passed away in 1940, when she was 51 years old. She didn’t die until 1978 in Rochester, New York. I can’t help but wonder what her life was like for the last 38 years of her life and how she ended up in New York State.

Her son Wilmar died in Montana, and her middle child Georgia died in Cook County, Illinois, years after the death of their mother. So did Jeanette follow her daughter Eileen (Ellen) to Rochester? I don’t know because I can’t find what happened to Eileen after the 1930 census. She was 12 years old.

So what about Jeanette’s siblings? We know John survived until 1943, but most of the other children died in childhood. And apparently Cornelius, the youngest (and only one younger than Jeanette), survived. At age 63, he married Evelyn MacLeod in Cleveland.

Oh, by the way, I found a cute pic on Ancestry of Jeanette and Cornelius when they were 12 and 9 (so the year 1900), but again am afraid to share it. Their older brother John would have been 24, so was probably already out of the house and therefore not in this photo. He married Nellie Robb in 1903 at age 27.

Anybody know the rules for Ancestry.com photos?

I suspect there will be a Part IV eventually.

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Grandma and Grandpa Got Hitched

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Caledonia Michigan history, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn, family heirloom, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kent County history, Lucille Edna Mulder Zuidweg, Michigan history, Mulder, Photography early 20th century, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on August 30, 2017| 39 Comments »

When my grandparents, Adrian and L. Edna (Mulder) Zuidweg got married on 21 May 1932, Grandpa’s mother, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, was dying of cancer. He was staying home to take care of her because his father had died in 1929 and he was an only child.

In 1931, Grandpa had asked Grandma to marry him as he drove her in  the car from Kalamazoo to her parents’ farm in Caledonia. But Grandma had to wait a year to teach and give the money to her family who were struggling financially because of the Great Depression.

So there was no big celebration for my grandparents. Aunt Jen, Cora’s sister stayed with Cora while they got married. They drove to South Bend, Indiana, although Grandpa was from Kalamazoo and Grandma from Caledonia, two southwestern Michigan towns. They could get a marriage license and marry immediately in South Bend.

Traveling with them were Grandma’s sister Vena and her boyfriend Al Stimson’s cousin, Herb Thorpe. They had forgotten to get flowers, so they plucked spirea along the way.

On the way back, they ate dinner at a restaurant in Cassopolis.

Grandma immediately moved into the house at 1520 S. Burdick Street. She helped take care of her mother-in-law who died on 16 September 1932.

When the school year began, Grandma continued to teach that first year and would come home on the weekend. So that Grandpa wouldn’t be alone, Al Stimson moved in with him. Al was a student at WMU. His job was to help Grandpa with the housework. His way of handling the dishes was to load the dirty ones under the sink all week and then just before Grandma was due home for the weekend he would wash them all.

I imagine Grandma was happy to quit teaching and get rid of living in the “frat boy” atmosphere haha.

I’m happy they managed to send out some engraved wedding announcements.

And their portrait, too.

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Guest author: Luanne Castle – Kin Types

Posted in Book review, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Paak, Peek, Photography late 19th century, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 23, 2017| 9 Comments »

A huge thank you to Sue Vincent who featured KIN TYPES on her blog today! I’m so grateful to you, Sue! And another poem from the collection revealed.

Sue Vincent's avatarSue Vincent's Daily Echo

Jennie Bomhoff Zuidweg

The poems and flash prose in Kin Types were begun as I accumulated family stories and information over the years. My grandfather had an excellent memory and was an enthusiastic storyteller, so over time I came to feel that I knew his parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, although they died decades before I was born.

When my grandfather got older, he gave me a collection of glass plate negatives that had belonged to his uncle, as well as antique photographs. As my family noticed my interest, they began to send me other heirlooms, including documents and more photographs. I started to research my family history, using online websites. Then I started a WordPress blog called thefamilykalamazoo.com, and readers from around the world contacted me, sending me yet more information.

As I became more knowledgeable about my family, the stories I heard at my grandfather’s knee were enhanced…

View original post 550 more words

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