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My Grandfather’s Story, Part IV

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Adrian Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Photography early 20th century, Richard DeKorn, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 13, 2013| 7 Comments »

Click this link for Part I

Click this link for Part II

Click this link for Part III

Part IV

Grandpa always enjoyed watching and following sports.  Reading his story I now understand that his love of sports began when he was young.  We used to eat Thanksgiving dinner before the game, and I first learned about sports scores in the newspaper when he showed them to me.

It’s not surprising to me that Grandpa “was a good student and athlete.”  What I enjoy reading are the details.  That he played something called “soccer (rugby)” and was on the track team.  I was never an athlete, but I did enjoy track and tennis–especially track.  Maybe when I was in high school he told me he used to be on the track team, but I don’t remember .  I wonder what his events were.  I favored low hurdles and 100 yard dash.  Other than square dancing, it was the only PE activity I had talent at, but I didn’t have the guts to pursue it outside of class.  Other than that, I was always the 2nd to the last girl chosen for the team. However, other grandchildren were talented athletes, and at least three of his great-grandchildren are very accomplished athletes.

Curious about how rugby is parenthetical to soccer, I had to look it up.  Here is an interesting history of soccer in the United States which explains the rugby connection, as well as how soccer had come to very popular at the time Grandpa would have entered high school, in the early 1920s.

From 1875-1894

After the demise of college soccer in 1876, working class communities in the US adopted the game, taking on the rugby/gridiron form of soccer. It is interesting to note that this trend took place at the same time in Europe and the US. The development could be seen in New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York City, also spreading rapidly to Fall River and New Redford (MA) by 1870s. The game also clashed with the popular sport of baseball in the US, considered as American past time.

Beginning in early 1890s, soccer witnessed an average growth in Denver, Cincinnati, Cleveland and even San Francisco and Los Angeles by the end of the century. Owing to corporate sponsorships, some leagues attained semi-pro statistics. The American League of Professional Football collapsed owing to heavy financial losses during its first season.

In 1904, FIFA was established and was seen as lack of any national organizing association in the US. After FIFA refused an American application for membership during their 1912 congress, the speedily growing AAFA members formed the United States Football Association, which was accepted by FIFA. The main aim of the association was to end the struggle between amateur and professional soccer organizations.

Three of the early dynasties of American Soccer were,

  •  The Fall River Rovers- winners of the American Cup in 1888 and 1889,
•  Bethlehem Steel, who won the American Cup in 1914, 1916, 1917, 1918, and 1919
•  And winners of the National Challenge Cup in 1915, 1916, 1918, and 1919

The 1920s are popularly known as the golden era in the history of American soccer. The establishment of American Soccer League in 1921 was a mark as there was now a league that could compete with European players.

Grandpa must have had quite a walk to get to the track meets. I wonder where on campus they were held in those years.  Read Fieldhouse didn’t exist until 1957. Waldo Football Stadium wasn’t constructed until 1939, across from the baseball stadium. However, football had been on that particular property since 1914.   Since the school began as Western Normal School in 1903, only five years before Grandpa was born, I believe that at the time he was walking there, everything was located in that area off Oakland Drive (Known as Asylum Road).  It’s still quite a hike from his home on Burdick Street.

I had no idea that Grandpa had another major injury while he was still a child. A spike lodging near his spine?! That would be so frightening–for him and for his parents.  He was an only child, so his parents doted on him very much. Then to think that he missed a year and a half of school because of the injury makes me wonder what he did for that time. Was he around his mother a lot or was she at the shop? Did his grandfather still live there?  I know that his grandfather remarried when he was two, so I need to piece together addresses to see where all the family members lived each year. It seems that Grandpa’s grandfather may have moved next door when he remarried, but I can’t yet be sure.

I’m not surprised he joined the baseball team after that as he would have been “rarin” to  go, and baseball was another very popular sport.

Finally, don’t think that his comment about his teacher, Mrs. Dilts, is just an “aside.”  Grandpa loved finance.  He loved everything about money and how it worked–finance, economics, accounting.  Therefore, I suspect that he first got bitten by the love bug of finance in Mrs. Dilts’ class.  Every night, after his Sunoco station closed, Grandpa closed himself in the bedroom that served as an office and counted the money.

I hope you’ll stay tuned for Part V of Grandpa’s story . . . .

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My Grandfather’s Story, Part III

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Adrian Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Photography early 20th century, Richard DeKorn, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 6, 2013| 12 Comments »

Click this link for Part I

Click this link for Part II

Part III

As I grew up there were two ways I knew my grandfather was blind in one eye. One way was that I was sometimes warned, “Be careful. You don’t want to lose your eye like Grandpa.” Mom and Dad will probably disagree that Grandpa was used as a warning to me, but I know the truth in this respect . . . .  The other way I knew was that he had one blue eye, just like mine, and he had one green eye.

Everybody else I knew had two eyes of the same color.

In this next part of Grandpa’s story he tells Connie what happened to his eye.

In 1911, Grandpa’s eye was treated at the University of Michigan hospital in Ann Arbor, about 100 miles away from his home.  I imagine the worried parents and the frightened boy travelling all that way on “streetcar, train and horse-drawn carriages.”  What would that trip be like today?  A visit in the car or ambulance to the nearest hospital, then perhaps a drive of an hour and a half to the medical center?  In an ambulance or a car, depending on the urgency.  The car would have the boy’s car seat in it.  What was it like for him? Was he carried as they moved from one mode of transportation to the next?

I believe it’s likely that he was seen at the old hospital in Ann Arbor on Catherine Street.  It is no longer there as it was replaced by the 700-bed University Hospital in 1925.

Photo by Wystan

Photo by Wystan

Today it’s hard to imagine letting your three-year-old play with a needle, but in those days children learned how to perform daily chores and trades at their parents’ sides.

The description of Grandpa bouncing off the table from being shocked by the X-ray machine is frightening. When I looked up the history of X-rays on Wikipedia, it was even more frightening. Although a lot of research led up to the moment, X-rays were not actually “discovered” until 1895. The site states, “The first use of X-rays under clinical conditions was by John Hall-Edwards in Birmingham, England on 11 January 1896, when he radiographed a needle stuck in the hand of an associate.” Since Grandpa’s injury was in 1911 and UM had only had the machine for twelve years, that means that they bought one of the first machines in 1899.

1899 X-ray machine

1899 X-ray machine

I understand that Grandpa’s medical records from 1911 are still stored at the University of Michigan. I hope I will be privileged to see a copy of them some day.

Here is a photo of the cute little boy who got a needle stuck in his eye:

Adrian Zuidweg, 1908-2000

Adrian Zuidweg, 1908-2000

Grandpa’s stoic attitude about his blind eye was typical of his personality. He didn’t show emotion very often, and he was quite practical. He loved his routines. His talent with routines and his prodigious memory proved invaluable when he became completely blind.

I hope you’ll stay tuned for Part IV of Grandpa’s story . . . .

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My Grandfather’s Story, Part II

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Adrian Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Photography early 20th century, Richard DeKorn, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 30, 2013| 9 Comments »

Click here for Part I.

In my post of July 16, I shared the beginning of the story pieced together by Connie Jo Bowman in 1994, when she interviewed my grandfather Adrian Zuidweg.  Here is the next part.  Today I am going to focus on just one paragraph–to try to unpack it.

Here is what Connie wrote:

His father owned a fish market and Adrian’s earliest memories were of going to his aunt’s house while his mother helped out at the market. He remembers playing with his cousins around the big woodburning stove and the “outside toilet.” This was before 1911 because that was the year gas and sewer lines were brought up the street to their house.

I’ve written before about Grandpa’s father’s fish market in the post “My Great-Grandfather Reinvented Himself as a Business Owner in the U.S.” I share photos in that post of the interior of the fish market and the interior of the ice cream parlor Adriaan Zuijdweg (Grandpa’s father) owned after the fish market.

Adriaan Zuijdweg, Proprietor, standing

Adriaan Zuijdweg, Proprietor, standing

So that’s where Grandpa’s mother Cora went to “help out” at the market.  But Grandpa himself stayed at his aunt’s. There are two possibilities. One is his Aunt Jen, Cora’s sister. The other is his Aunt Johanna, his father’s sister.  Before 1911, Grandpa was a toddler–maybe two years old. Some people don’t have memories from that age, but I also have memories from when I was two years old.

Let’s say the year was 1910.  In 1910, Johanna Zuijdweg Van Liere had been in the United States for six years. She married her husband Marinus Van Liere in Goes, the town in the Netherlands they were both from. Johanna had two baby boys when she immigrated here, and by 1910 may have had six, seven, or eight boys. I’m not sure if they all survived infancy, but she was evidently quite busy.

Grandpa’s mother’s sister Jen, on the other hand, had one 13-year-old daughter in 1910.

If Grandpa played with his cousins around the stove and the outhouse in the yard, it would be Johanna’s children.  This led to me to search out where Johanna and Marinus were living in 1910.

Shed or outhouse?

Shed or outhouse?

The 1910 U.S. Census shows Grandpa living with both his parents, Adriaan and Cora, his grandfather Richard DeKorn, and his uncle Joseph DeKorn in the Richard DeKorn house at the corner of Burdick and Balch: 1324 S. Burdick Street. Since the house still stands today, if it wasn’t moved, the address numbers have been changed on Burdick. The VanLieres, Johanna and Marinus, and their six boys lived at 1338 S. Burdick Street. It looks like another family lived between them. About four houses down from the VanLieres lived John and Mary DeSmit and their children. Mary DeSmit was Richard DeKorn’s sister.

I found it interesting that the census shows Johanna and Marinus speaking English, although they had only been in this country for six years. A few of the neighbors spoke Dutch, but most of them spoke English.

Johanna Zuijdweg VanLiere and Marinus VanLiere with son Jacob

Johanna Zuijdweg VanLiere and Marinus VanLiere with son Jacob

In this section of Grandpa’s story, he remembers that gas and sewer lines were brought up to their house in 1911. It must have made a monumental difference in the quality of their lives. Because his grandfather, Richard DeKorn, was a building contractor, would they have been quicker to get connected or was it something they had to wait their turn for, like everybody else?

On a personal note, I was surprised that Grandpa’s family was as close with his father’s sister and her family as this research shows.  I knew that the family was often with Aunt Jen, as many of the family photos are of Jen and her husband Lou.  But there aren’t as many photos of Johanna, nor do I know the history of that branch of the family as the children all grew up.

I hope you’ll stay tuned for Part III of Grandpa’s story . . . .

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Another Sailor in the Family

Posted in Chicago history, Family History, Genealogy, Klein, Photography early 20th century, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on July 23, 2013| 12 Comments »

I’ll pick up Grandpa’s story again in my next post.

Today I’m doing a little detour away from Kalamazoo, heading toward Japan, Chicago, and Elmhurst, Illinois.

My parents gave me a pair of matching and beautiful Japanese vases which are family heirlooms. I used to see them in my paternal grandmother’s home when I was little. In later years, my parents displayed them in their home. I had assumed (you know about that word, right?) that my father or my uncle had brought them back from Korea or Japan when they were in the military.

Look closely at the fine gold leaf design in the solid black. Vase is hand-painted.

In my birthday card was a note which explained that these vases had belonged to my grandmother’s mother. Her son, my father’s Uncle Frank, had brought them back from Japan in 1920 and given them to his mother.

Frank Klein was a merchant mariner who travelled the world, including to Japan, during the years right after WWI.  Maybe this is where my Uncle Frank, Great Uncle Frank’s namesake, got his idea of sailing when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy.

I believe Great Uncle Frank may have been on a ship called the Eastern Queen as we have several family photos of that ship. This ship does show up in online lists of ships.

I also have information that he travelled on a ship called the Altamahan in 1922. I tried to find this ship, but all I could find was the Altamaha, which was built in 1941.

Until I saw his picture a few years ago, I didn’t realize Great Uncle Frank existed. After I learned about him, I wanted to know more, so I wrote to both the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Archives and Records Administration, searching for his Merchant Marines record. The Coast Guard couldn’t help, but the NARA found a record for Frank. They gave me some preliminary information and then suggested I do more research on the premises in Washington D.C. Here are a few things I learned from the records they sent me:

  • He was issued a license for “steam. 2d Ass’t.Eng.,3000 G.T., 3d Ass’t.Eng., any tons, condg.” at Cleveland, Ohio, on September 5, 1918, for “Ocean” waters.
  • He was issued another on September 5, 1919.
  • He was 22 on June 14, 1918.
  • I have a headshot and thumbprint of Uncle Frank.
  • He was a citizen and born in the U.S.
  • A vessel he was on was the “Altamahan” with a U.S. Flag, which arrived on 3/5/19. His next vessel wasn’t yet known.
  • He was 5’9 with a dark complexion, brown hair, and gray eyes.
  • He had a physical mark: “Sc palm rt hd”–I take this to be that he had a scar on the palm of his right hand. On another page it is noted as 1/2 inch.
  • He was a 2d Engr.
  • On his application he marked his mother “Mrs. F. Klein” as his nearest kin. He gave 3 references, and one was his brother-in-law, Peter Van Gessel.
  • Best of all, he gave a work history for himself, which I will post here. Several jobs were as an “oiler.” According to Wikpedia, an oiler is a worker whose job is to oil machinery.

Here is a picture of Great Uncle Frank when he was home on leave:

Uncle Frank and Grandma Marie Klein c. 1920

Uncle Frank and Grandma Marie Klein c. 1920

Frank Anthony Klein on born in Chicago on June 14, 1896.  He grew up in Elmhurst and was the only boy. He had four sisters, including my grandmother.  Frank never married, but he was living with my grandmother and her family in Chicago when he was killed in a car accident in 1931.

According to his death certificate, this is how he died: “Fractured left mandible, compound fracture of left tibia and fibula, hemorrhage and shock  Deceased was driving his auto and suffered an attack of epilepsy seizure and struck a tree.” I suspect his parents were devastated by his death as he was the only boy and the second youngest. He was 34 years old. Fifteen months later, his mother passed away from cancer.

His death date is noted in official records as February 24, 1931, but his gravestone is marked with the date February 23, 1931.  Because he was buried in Elmhurst on February 25, I would deduce that February 23 was the correct date of death.

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My Grandfather’s Story, Part I

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Adrian Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Photography early 20th century, Richard DeKorn, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 16, 2013| 24 Comments »

In 1994, five and a half years before he passed away, my grandfather, Adrian Zuidweg, was interviewed by Connie Jo Bowman, the head of residents at Crossroads Village, a retirement community in Portage, Michigan. Connie was taking a course about the elderly at Western Michigan University and chose Grandpa as her subject.  I’ve written about Grandpa in a post about our left-handed connection.

The entire interview is eight typed pages, so I’ll divide it among a few blog posts.

Adrian Zuidweg 1908-2000

Adrian Zuidweg 1908-2000

Connie begins by introducing my grandfather, Adrian Zuidweg.  To read the excerpts of Connie’s report, you can click them for a better view (I hope):

Connie identifies my grandfather here as a “tall, gentle dutchman with a big friendly voice.” That would probably be how Grandpa thought of himself. He identified strongly with his Dutch heritage.  He had a lot of jokes, but one of his favorites was to say, “If you ain’t Dutch, you ain’t much.” He didn’t really mean it, which you will see by the end of the interview, but he was very proud of being Dutch.

She also notes here how after talking with Grandpa for two years it wasn’t until she began interviewing him that she realized how much there was to know about Grandpa. Grandpa’s powers of observation were impressive to her, especially in light of his blindness. He only became completely blind in his old age, but he had been blind in one eye since he was a small child.

Connie was right–Grandpa had an amazing memory. He also loved to tell stories, especially stories about the past. As the oldest grandchild, I was privy to more of them than the other kids, but I still only know a few from his vast store.

Now that I realize that Grandpa knew the name of the midwife who delivered him, I wish Connie had put that information into her report, but perhaps it didn’t fit with the class assignment.

Here she mentions how Grandpa’s father came to the U.S. from the Netherlands when he was a child. This was Adriaan Zuijdweg, who I have written about in the past. He owned a fish market and then a candy and soda shop.  You can find a story about his retail businesses here.

When Grandpa was a baby his parents moved in with “his recently widowed grandfather,” Richard DeKorn, the brick mason and contractor. You can read more about Richard in the following posts:

Richard DeKorn: Brick Mason and General Contractor

More Mighty Kalamazoo Buildings from Richard DeKorn

Richard DeKorn and His Bride Tied the Knot in Kalamazoo

By the way, a big thank you to Linda at Living with My Ancestors for her help with watermarking my photograph.

I hope you’ll stay tuned for Part II of Grandpa’s story . . . .

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Who Wants to Destroy History?

Posted in Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Lucille Edna Mulder Zuidweg, Photography early 20th century, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 13, 2013| 12 Comments »

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is begging Western Michigan University not to destroy history–its own, that of the Kalamazoo area, and that of higher education. There are four old buildings which represent the origins of the university which those who head up the school want to demolish.  Here‘s an article that Mom clipped and mailed me. It was printed in the Kalamazoo Gazette on June 27, 2013.

Click here for the Kalamazoo Gazette article

Click here for the Kalamazoo Gazette article

Click here for the Kalamazoo Gazette article

Click here for the Kalamazoo Gazette article

I keep asking myself  the question, “What kind of people want to destroy history?”

My family has graduated from Western Michigan University for four generations. As I explained in a previous post “Western State Normal School, Kalamazoo, Michigan: A Personal View,” my grandmother, L. Edna Mulder Zuidweg, graduated from the school when it was Western State Normal School, a teacher training school. Both my parents, my aunt, my brother, and yours truly also graduated from WMU.  In addition, my husband graduated with a BBA degree, as well.  And at least one member of the most recent generation–my cousin’s daughter– has graduated from Western.

Because my husband and I both got business degrees (I also majored in history and he did so in political science) in the late 70s, we spent a lot of time on the oldest section of the university–East Campus, which housed the business school.

If you follow this link you will read a good history of the old campus.  They have some beautiful photos posted, too.

State Normal Kalamazoo front

HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP FROM THE FRIENDS OF HISTORIC EAST CAMPUS WEBSITE:

1.  Be an advocate for smart adaptive re-use!  Tweet, display yard signs, display bumper stickers,write letters, TELL YOUR FRIENDS and ASK THEM TO HELP!  ACT NOW.  Click here for  Action Plan

2.  Join our “cast of thousands!” 
     Click here for details of our quest to post pix of you holding the Save East Campus sign for Youtube

3.  Click here to get your printable pix-poster for Youtube video

4.   Express your concerns to WMU’s Board of Trustees [go HERE to email the Board]

5. Express your concerns to elected officials:
Governor Rick Snyder
P.O. Box 30013
Lansing, Michigan 48909
https://somgovweb.state.mi.us/GovRelations/ShareOpinion.aspx
517-335-7858

State Senator Tonya Schuitmaker
mailto:SenTSchuitmaker@senate.michigan.gov

State Representative Margaret O’Brien
mailto:MargaretOBrien@house.mi.gov

State Representative Sean McCann
mailto:seanmccann@house.mi.gov

Mayor Bobby Hopewell
mailto:bobbyhopewell@borgess.com

6.  Express your concerns to WMU’s Board of Trustees [go HERE to email the Board]

7. Sign a petition here 

8. Write to news media in support of the FOHEC request for a moratorium and community input.

9. ASK:  How much will taxpayers/students have to pay to demolish the buildings?  How much will taxpayers/students have to pay to transport resulting debris to landfills?  How much will taxpayers/students have to pay to pave over historic East Campus to create the proposed parking lot?  How much does it all add up to?  

10. ASK:  How much will it cost to save the buildings and make a serious survey of ways they could be used to serve and educate students?

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Old Photos of Tom Sawyer and Pollyanna (Not Really)

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Peek, Photography early 20th century, Photography late 19th century, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 9, 2013| 10 Comments »

A couple of years ago we digitized the glass negatives of photos taken by Joseph DeKorn. In those photographs I found many children who remain unidentified. Because children change their looks rapidly–some kids more than others–they are harder to pin down than adults.

Here are a few:

This is just a sampling, but it’s important to concentrate on the details, so three is enough for now.  All of these would have been taken in or around Kalamazoo, Michigan. I am fairly certain they were taken on DeKorn property on Burdick Street.

I looked through my family tree, as it stands right now, and the kids who are closest in age would be the youngest DeSmit children (children of John and Mary DeKorn DeSmit).  Could it be Frances herself or a younger sister? Or are they unrelated neighbor children? Because the bottom two photos seem to be the same girl, at least, I suspect they are family.

Why would the boy in the top photo be wearing overalls and a straw hat? This seems more casual than the kids usual dress. Was he ready to go fishing?  If so, wouldn’t he have a pole in his hand?

The Van Lieres, another branch of the family, had a bus load of kids, starting in 1902, but from everything I can find they were all boys, and I think this photo is too early for them.

Any details which speak to you?

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The Report from My Detectives

Posted in Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Paak, Peek, Photography early 20th century, Remine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 21, 2013| 20 Comments »

Some time ago I posted about a house which I remembered from my childhood. The house had been built on Sprinkle Road in Portage, about a block from the Long Lake shore. It was originally owned by Carrie Paak/Peek Waruf and her husband Henry Waruf.

When Therese Remine inherited Ramona Park from them (her aunt and uncle), she also inherited their house.  She divided her time between this house and a house she owned in Detroit.

I had heard that the house was relocated and mentioned that I had set my Kalamazoo sleuths on its trail.

Today I am happy to report that my detectives (Mom and Dad, also known as Janet and Rudy Hanson) have done their legwork.  They discovered that, in 1990, the house was moved much farther south on Sprinkle–past Bishop road.  It was replaced by a fire station.  The new owner took the house apart “brick by brick” to move it.  He enclosed the porch and put in an elevator.

Here are the new photos, taken by my father just as the current owner was trying to mow the lawn!

The house is now owned by Patrick “Mick” Lynch and is inhabited by his company, American Hydrogeology Corporation.  They are an environmentally friendly company which helps with the clean up of water.

Mick has plans to re-roof the house and paint it white, which as you can see was the color in the old photo.

The other posts where you can read about Ramona Park, Long Lake, and the Waruf/Remine house can be found at Living by Long Lake, Portage, Michigan and The Park with a Literary Name .

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Aw Shucks and Shout Outs

Posted in Caledonia Michigan history, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Mulder, Netherlands history, Photography early 20th century, Photography late 19th century, tagged , , on May 11, 2013| 23 Comments »

This post is meant to show my gratitude to two wonderful bloggers who have nominated this blog for awards and to pass on the shout outs to some bloggers who are so deserving of mention.  Actually, there are too many bloggers deserving of mention to mention, if that doesn’t sound too confusing!  I’ve got my “regulars” I read, but every day I find new blogs I want to add to my regulars list.

The Red Man and Sheila from Red’s Rants and Raves visited me bearing the WordPress Family Award.  They say that the award “was started by someone who wanted to say what being a part of cyberspace had meant to her and what a family atmosphere existed in her WordPress World.”  Yes! I can relate to that.

Thank you, Sheila, Red Man, and Team Red Man.  Check out their fun blog-with-personality right away!

I’m supposed to nominate 10 bloggers for this award.  I’ll raise it to 11 and include it below.

Later, Martha at Home Thoughts from Abroad came calling with the Liebster award. It means dearest and is meant to help promote new blogs.  I’m not sure which blogs are new and which are old standards, so I won’t be too fussy about that.  Thank you so much, Martha!

Martha keeps up so well with her blogging.  She alternates yummy food and fascinating history posts as fast as I can read them. If you haven’t checked out her blog, you will want to run there.

These are the rules from Martha. The award is a “pay-it-forward” thing as you must complete these requirements:

1.  Post the award on my blog.

2. Thank the blogger who gave me the award and link back to her site.

Thank you, Martha  at Home Thoughts from Abroad!

3.  Post 11 random facts about myself.  I’m going to post 11 family stories and whether or not I have discovered anything about their veracity.

a. That my grandparents were cousins.  Yes, they share a common ancestor way back.  I shared that in this blog post

b. That we have French Huguenots as ancestors.  The genealogist Yvette Hoitink believes the name DeKorn could have its origins in ancestors who moved from the village of  Corné in France to Holland.

c. That my grandmother was smart.  Yes, she was because as you know she did very well in school.

d. That Uncle Lou and Aunt Jen owned a general market in Kalamazoo in the early 1900s.  When I searched the name Leeuwenhoek in the newspaper archives at Genealogy Bank I discovered ads for their store.

e. That my great-grandfather Adrian Zuidweg owned a fish market in downtown Kalamazoo.  When I searched the name Zuidweg in the newspaper archives I discovered ads, but I also saw a notice that you could get fresh halibut at Zuidwegs.  I also found a photograph of the store, which can be found in this blog post.

f. That we had a wee smidgen of African ancestry.  I took the 23andme DNA test, and nope, that was not true.  I think it might have been a story that came about because of ancestry from countries where the people might have had darker hair, eyes, and skin tones, in the way that people talk about “black Irish.”

g. That Uncle Joe went to the University of Michigan to study engineering.  His son, Phil DeKorn, confirmed to me that he also went to Kalamazoo College, before he moved on to UM.  He took a majority of our old family photos, and Phil says that his father continued his love of photography into his later life.

h. That Richard DeKorn was a prominent mason and contractor in Kalamazoo, and through the research I have done, especially old newspapers it appears that that is the case.

i. That my relatives came from Goes in the Netherlands.  Yvette Hoitink discovered that many of them did come from Goes–both my grandfather’s and my grandmother’s families.  But they also came from other villages in the province of Zeeland.  Grandma told me it was pronounced Hoos, rhyming with goose, and Yvette confirmed that it is pronounced that way in the dialect.

j. That Uncle Lou was a descendent of the inventor of the microscope, Anton van Leeuwenhoek. I don’t have a confirmation on that because that would involve a lot of research far back, using sources written in Dutch. Grandpa told me that and he also told me that Uncle Lou and his brother Gerrit (the boy who died in the Spanish-American War) were orphans. I thought it was just them in the world, but apparently they had other siblings we didn’t know about who had stayed behind in Holland.

k. When my mother-in-law, who was an artist, met me she said she thought I must be part Chinese. I thought she was kidding, but then a rheumatologist told me he found a “Mongolian spot” on me.  This is a birth mark that looks like a bruise. He said I had to have Asian ancestry.  I thought it was an apocryphal story, but my DNA test confirmed that I do have .1% East Asian ancestry. I’d love to find out the story behind that!  This was mildly interesting to me since my kids, both adopted, are Korean ;).

4.  Answer 11 questions that the presenter of the award has asked.

1. What is your favorite book?  The Dollmaker by Harriet Arnow

2. What person influenced you most when you were growing up? My grandmother and Captain Kangaroo

3. If you could travel the world, where would you go first? Let me check my schedule

4. What is your dream car? Jaguar from days past

5. What are three things on your bucket list that you hope to do soon? I’ve been thinking about starting a bucket list . . .

6. Which was your most memorable birthday? My 40th at my parents’ lake house

7. What was your favorite year and why? 1984 and 1988 when my kids arrived from Korea

8. Who is your favorite singer or musician? My daughter

9. What did you do for the Millenium New Year’s Eve 1999/2000? I can’t remember

10. What is your greatest accomplishment? My kids

11. Of what are you the most proud? My kids

5.  Nominate 11 new bloggers with fewer than 200 followers who I want to pass the award on to.  These are the 11 blogs I nominate for the Liebster AND for the Family Award.  A few of these blogs I nominated last time as well, but they continue to be inspirations.

“Greatest Generation” Life Lessons

Pacific Paratrooper

Always Backroads

Enhanced News Archive

Explore Newness

Child Out of Time

Fashion A Hundred Years Ago

Jackie Dinnis

Living with My Ancestors

Relatively Frank

Genealogy Lady

6.   Ask my nominees 11 questions of my own.  Please share 11 facts about your ancestors (yes, parents count) and come tell me after you post so I am sure to read them!

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A New Family by Second Marriage

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Photography early 20th century, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 30, 2013| 16 Comments »

After my great-great grandmother Alice Paak DeKorn passed away, Richard DeKorn remarried a woman named Jantje, called Jennie.  Her story begins this way . . .jenny j from ann marie

Once upon a time –well, in the 19th century–in the province of Groningen, the Netherlands, Martje Derks Wiltje married Harm Jansen.  They had two daughters, Kate and Jantje, who were both born in a town called Uithuizen. After Martje passed away, Harm and his daughters immigrated to the United States, where the family adopted the surname Johnson.

Harm Johnson

Harm Johnson
Probably a copy of his wedding photo from 1858 (copied 1891)

Jennie Johnson (eventually Sootsman and then DeKorn) and her family traveled to the United States on the SS Castor, arriving in New York on May 4, 1881. Below is a copy of the manifest and a photo of the Castor.SS Caster Page 1 Janssen immigrationSS Caster Page 5 Janssen Immigration name listMedia0050

Kate married Hemmens Edward Siertsema.  Kate and Hemmens had several children, including Annetta Lucile (Harmens) who was born in 1884 and died on 16 Dec 1974 in Kalamazoo.  Eventually Annetta had her own daughter named Annetta (born 1910), as well as a son, Lowell (born 1913).

Jantje (Jennie) married Oscar Sootsman.  They had two daughters:

1. MARION SOOTSMAN was born on 30 May 1892 in Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County,

Michigan, USA. She died on 21 Apr 1948 in Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County,

Michigan, USA. She married John Ewart McQuigg, son of Moore McQuigg and

Lizzie on 11 Aug 1928 in St Joseph Co. IN. He was born in 1894.

2. MAJORIE (MARGE) SOOTSMAN was born in Apr 1896. She married GEORGE OWENS.

3. There might have been a son, but if so, I haven’t been able to locate him yet.

Oscar Sootsman passed away in Kalamazoo in 1907. Three years later, Jantje married widower Richard DeKorn (you were waiting for the DeKorn connection, right?).  Richard died in 1930, eighteen years before Jantje, who passed on in 1948.

So these girls, Marion and Marge, were Richard DeKorn’s stepdaughters.  When Richard and Jennie married, the girls were 18 and 14. In the family photographs I have the girls are sometimes in family group shots.  Here is a photo of Alice Leeuwenhoek (Uncle Lou and Aunt Jen’s daughter) with Marge Sootsman.  To clarify, Alice’s grandfather was married to Marge’s mother.

On the following page, first photograph, you can see Jantje (Jennie) with her daughter Marion.  In between them is Jennie’s sister Kate’s granddaughter Annetta (1910 – 2005).  The top middle photo is Marge (Marjorie) and Marion Sootsman.  Below that is a photo of Marge by herself.  The next, or fourth, photo is Richard and Jennie DeKorn.  The man at the right is George Owen, who married Marge Sootsman.

In this next set of photos, we have the granddaughter of Kate, Annetta in two photos by herself and one perhaps with her brother Lowell (1913 – 2004).  There are three photos of Marion Sootsman.

The final set of photos shows Annetta at the piano and Lowell playing, Comstock, Michigan.  Then Richard (“Uncle Dick”) and Jennie DeKorn are pictured with Annetta, Lowell, and their parents, Everett William  and Annetta Harmens VanHoeve.   The center photo is Annetta at Comstock School.  The top right photo is in front of the Bath House at Ramona Park at Long Lake, which was owned by Richard DeKorn’s sister-in-law from his first marriage and her husband.  Annetta is seen here with her cousin Herman Harmens.  The bottom right photo seems to be Annetta with Lowell’s bicycle.

The following obituary belongs to Jantje/Jennie Johnson Sootsman DeKorn:

Blog reader Grady Ellis sent me these copies of scrapbook pages, as well as some family history from that family group.  These photos came to Grady from Susan A. VanHoeve McEwen, who owns the originals. He says that the Harmens family owned the Shell Service Station on Portage Street, just north of the Lovers Lane intersection.  He worked there while he was going to college in the early 70s “back in the days when you really received service in a gas station . . .  long ago.”

Grady shared the contents of an obituary in the Kalamazoo Gazette on July 19, 1907 for Oscar Sootsman:

“Funeral for Oscar Sootsman.

The funeral of Oscar Sootsman who was killed by being run over by the city sprinkling wagon Wednesday night, will be held at the home, on South Burdick street at 3 o’clock Saturday afternoon.  The Rev. William Pool and the Rev. Mr. Koolker will officiate.  Interment will take place at Riverside.”

Here is another:

What a sad death.  He was run over by the truck he drove. No wonder the paper said he was a man of great courage.  Here is his death certificate:

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