Last post I showed you the photo of my great-great-great-grandfather, Boudewijn de Korne. I just discovered new information about him written by his grandson Joseph DeKorn. Boudewijn, his wife Johanna, and their two children travelled to the United States with Gerrit Remine (Gerrard Remijnse), who was Johanna’s brother.
They travelled on a sailing vessel and arrived at Kalamazoo, Michigan on June 22, 1856. However, “they located in Zeeland, Michigan” for several years. “The voyage across was bad and long.” Joseph’s father Richard and Aunt Mary told him it took 90 days, but Joseph didn’t believe it was actually that long.
I mentioned that Boudewijn and his wife Johanna had two living children when they left the Netherlands. The older is Richard DeKorn; I have introduced him several times before. Note that Richard’s generation appears to have dropped the final E from their last name.
Richard: Dirk de Korne, born 21 Aug 1851, Kapelle, Zeeland, the Netherlands; died 26 Jan 1930, Kalamazoo,
Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. Also known as Richard and, when younger, Derrick.
Richard DeKorn (Dirk de Korne)
Mary: Maria Catharina de Korne was born on 4 Jan 1855 in Kapelle, Zeeland, the Netherlands. Mary married John DeSmit in Kalamazoo in 1873 and they had at eight children. Her daughter Frances married a Flipse. When I got married in 1975 my mother took me to Flipse Flower shop to order my bridal bouquet because they were “shirt tail relatives.” It’s hard to imagine it from this photo, but Mary only died two years before I was born.
Mary DeKorn DeSmit
After the family moved to the United States, Boudewijn and Johanna had another daughter, Adriana, in 1959, who is one year old in the 1860 census. Nothing after that.
However, a 10-year-old daughter Jennie shows up in the 1870 census, which Jose from Enhanced News Archive was kind enough to find for me.
Joseph DeKorn’s documentation mentions Jennie, but not Adriana. My grandfather identified the woman in this photograph as Jennie, Richard’s sister, who married a man named John Culver and eventually moved to Seattle, Washington. She died in Pierce, Washington, on July 4, 1947. According to her death record, she was born around 1861. One difficulty in searching is that there is another Jennie Culver (married to Earl) who lived in Kalamazoo during Jennie DeKorn Culver’s lifetime.
So the question remains: was there an Adriana born in 1859 as well as Jennie born in 1860 or 1861? Or are they the same person? If Adriana had lived and kept her name, she would have been mentioned in Joseph’s statement. So either she passed away as an infant or she became known as Jennie or, perhaps most likely, the census got her name wrong to begin with.
UPDATE: IT IS NOW 2018, FIVE YEARS LATER, AND I STILL DO NOT HAVE BIRTH OR BAPTISM INFORMATION ABOUT JENNIE OR ADRIANA. I AM GOING TO ASSUME FOR NOW THAT JENNIE IS ADRIANA–UNTIL I FIND OUT TO THE CONTRARY. THIS IS BECAUSE JENNIE IS A COMMON NICKNAME FOR ADRIANA.
Jennie DeKorn Culver
This is a photo of Jenny and John Culver’s children:
The Culver Children
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The Family Kalamazoo 