Photography late 19th century | The Family Kalamazoo

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Mysterious Antique Photographs

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Netherlands history, Paak, Peek, Photography early 20th century, Photography late 19th century, Remine, Zuidweg, tagged antique photos, DeKorn, DeKorn family, DeKorn genealogy, Dutch Genealogy, family history, genealogy, history of Kalamazoo, history of The Netherlands, identification of antique photograph, Kalamazoo history, Michigan history, Netherlands, Paak genealogy, Pake family, Peek family, the Netherlands, Zeeland, Zuidweg surname on April 6, 2016| 35 Comments »

In my stack of anonymous family photos, I have two that are different from the others.

In the first one, the image is imprinted on metal and then painted with colored paint.

In the other, a couple appear to be drawn, rather than photographed.

It’s likely that the photographs came from Grandpa’s family: Paak, DeKorn, Zuidweg, Remine, Bomhoff, or his other branches. Or they could be friends or neighbors.

UPDATE: My daughter thinks the tintype woman looks like Grandma in the eyes and mouth. “Grandma” would be my mother, Grandpa’s daughter.

Any thoughts on type of photographs or on dating of these images?

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Tennyson’s Words for Henry Waruf’s Funeral

Posted in Alice Paak DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Netherlands history, Paak, Peek, Photography early 20th century, Photography late 19th century, tagged early 1900s, family history, genealogy, Goes, Hank Waruf, Henry Waruf, history of Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo Michigan, Langeland Funeral Chapel, Michigan history, Paak genealogy, Pake family, Peek family, Portage, Ramona Palace, Ramona Park, the Netherlands, Walraven family, Zeeland on October 5, 2015| 9 Comments »

In a post called “Who Was Hank Waruf, Kalamazoo Gunsmith?” I wrote about the husband of my great-great-grandmother’s sister, Carrie (Paak) Waruf. The couple owned the resort Ramona Palace and Ramona Park, as well as many cottages and their own home, at Long Lake in Portage, Michigan.

In my files I found the brochure for Henry Waruf’s (Walraven) funeral.

Henry Waruf’s wife Carrie and my GGGrandmother Alice Paak DeKorn had a sister named Mary. One of Mary’s daughters was Genevieve. She was married to Frank Tazalaar. Here are Henry and Frank together (with a little dog).

I get the impression from some of our photos that Hank Waruf was a man other men wanted to hang around .

***

I’ve written about the place and the people here:

Ramona Palace, View from the Lake

What Went On at Ramona Palace

Online Generosity and Family History

Paak-a-boo

A Re-telling of Ramona: The Park with a Literary Name

The Report from My Detectives

Living by Long Lake, Portage, Michigan

All the Peek Girls

The Park with a Literary Name

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Who Was Hank Waruf, Kalamazoo Gunsmith?

Posted in Alice Paak DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Netherlands history, Paak, Peek, Photography early 20th century, Photography late 19th century, Remine, tagged early 1900s, family history, genealogy, Goes, Hank Waruf, Henry Warrus, Henry Waruf, history of Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Gazette, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo Michigan, Michigan history, Paak genealogy, Pake family, Peek family, Portage, Ramona Palace, Ramona Park, the Netherlands, Walraven family, Zeeland on April 29, 2015| 7 Comments »

Henry (Hank) Waruf and his wife Carrie (Paak) Waruf owned the resort Ramona Palace and Ramona Park, as well as many cottages and their own home, at Long Lake in Portage, Michigan.

Since Carrie is one of the Paak sisters, and her sister Alice Paak DeKorn was my great-great-grandmother, I’ve focused more on the Paaks. But Henry Waruf is a very interesting character in Kalamazoo’s early history.

Adri van Gessel was so kind to do some research on the Waruf family. Henry himself appeared to be a bit of a dead end because the name Waruf seemed to come out of nowhere. But Adri broke through that brick wall and discovered Henry’s origins.

Who Was Hank?

Henry was born Hendrik Walraven on September 7, 1863 at Kloetinge, the Netherlands. Apparently Koetinge is part of Goes. Big shock there since the majority of my mom’s ancestors seem to have come from Goes.

He was married on June 2, 1882 at Kalamazoo (MI) to Cornelia Peek (Carrie Paak), daughter of Teunis Peek and Jacoba Bassa. Cornelia was born on May 8, 1862 at Lexmond and died in January 1957 at Kalamazoo (MI). Henry died on November 29, 1945 at Orlando (FL).

I don’t know if Henry was on vacation in Florida, living there part of the year, or if the couple (who had no children) had moved there and Carrie went back to Kalamazoo after his death. I could try to research this through city directories, phone books, etc. The research I have done was mainly through newspapers, and I discovered that, although Henry (or Hank) usually spelled his last name “Waruf,” sometimes it shows up as “Warruf.” Still, it looks to me as if Joseph is the one who changed the family surname to Warruf/Waruf in the United States from the original Walraven.

Henry had one sister, Maria Walraven, born March 3, 1866 at Goes, but she died before 1870 in the Netherlands.

Henry and Maria were born to Joseph Walraven (Joseph Warruf), son of Hendrikus Walraven and Elisabetha Resch, who was born on October 13, 1837 at Goes, died on December 11, 1910 at Kalamazoo (MI).

Joseph was married on May 21, 1863 at Goes to Melanie de Munck (Mary), daughter of Jan de Munck and Maria Joseph Bataille. Melanie was born on October 16, 1840 at Goes and died on March 18, 1914 at Kalamazoo (MI). Joseph, Melanie, and Henry immigrated to the U.S. in 1868, when Henry was 5 years old.

A Bataille Connection

Notice the name Bataille. I’ve previously written about a Bataille ancestor in these posts:

An Update on the Bataille Family

A Familial Occupation

How Did Etaples, France, Show Up in My Family Tree?

Hank Went into Business

As I mentioned, “Hank” (Henry) and Carrie (Cornelia) were married in 1882, when he was 19 and she was 20. By 1885, he was advertising a business selling guns in the Kalamazoo Gazette, where it’s noted that he took over the gun shop of W. Blanchard.

Sept 17, 1885 Click the link and scroll to the bottom for the ad. By September 1886, Hank added “gunsmith” to his name on the ads.

I was astonished to discover, in an 1897 Polk Directory, that Henry Waruf owned the gun shop in partnership with Richard “Ro-mine” who I take to be Richard Remine. Richard “Dick” Remine was Hank’s brother-in-law. He was married to Carrie’s sister, Mary, another sister of my great-great-grandmother. Richard was born in 1857 and so was six years older than Hank. I’ve written before that the person who inherited the Long Lake resort was Therese Remine, Richard’s daughter. So there might have been another reason that she was the sole inheritor of that property–because her father had been in business with Waruf. How long were they partners? I am going to guess that Waruf was the true businessman of the two–and an ambitious man.

Richard Remine

Hank Was a Man of Many Talents

Hank shows up often in the Gazette, and I was able to see that he became a talented shooter, a prize-winning breeder of English Spaniels (no wonder my grandfather’s family always had this breed of dogs), and a collector of real estate. He reported regularly to the State Board of Fish Commissioners on the fish in Long Lake.

Here is an article where he literally won all the prizes at a shoot. Sept 7, 1899. There are many articles about the shoots he attended and referreed. He also represented Kalamazoo at a state shoot in Bay City.

The award-winning dogs owned by Henry show up in publications by the American Kennel Club, The Field Dog Stud Book, and The Fanciers’ Journal. I traced the beginnings of this sideline to a Gazette article that mentions that Hank was going into the business of raising hunting dogs and had brought in a fine pointer from Lowell with a pedigree going “way back.” Click the link for the article–right side about 1/3 down.Feb 28, 1899.

In 1919, there is a newspaper article about the houses that Waruf was selling. These houses were all on the north side of Kalamazoo. I know that he also owned all the cottages near the resort at Long Lake, so he was used to being a landlord. I wonder if he had been renting out all these houses or if he was flipping them. I suspect he had been renting the houses. Here is the article. April 2, 1919

Finally, on August 30, 1904, Kalamazoo Gazette published a cute story. A Gazette reporter climbed the water tower at the asylum. This is the tower that my great-great-grandfather Richard DeKorn built (click here). From that vantage point he was able to see all the way to Gull Lake in one direction and Long Lake in another. He mentions a great many notable people and what he claims he saw them doing at the time. About Waruf, he wrote, “‘Hank’ Waruf shining up his guns at Long Lake for the duck season.” The details in the article conjure up a Breughel painting, so I find it a little impossible, but definitely amusing. Here is the article: Aug 30, 1904

***

Here are some images I have previously published on The Family Kalamazoo:

Carrie (Paak) and Henry Waruf

Home of Hank and Carrie Waruf, Sprinkle Road

I’ve written about the place and the people here:

Ramona Palace, View from the Lake

What Went On at Ramona Palace

Online Generosity and Family History

Paak-a-boo

A Re-telling of Ramona: The Park with a Literary Name

The Report from My Detectives

Living by Long Lake, Portage, Michigan

All the Peek Girls

The Park with a Literary Name

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A Sailor’s Death

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Netherlands history, Photography late 19th century, Zuidweg, tagged Adrian Zuidweg, Dutch Genealogy, Dutch history 1890s, Dutch sailor 1890s, family history, genealogy, Goes, Netherlands, the Netherlands, Zuidweg surname on February 4, 2015| 23 Comments »

My grandfather’s father, Adriaan Zuijdweg (later called Adrian Zuidweg), was born in Goes, the Netherlands, on 3 January 1871. He was the oldest of three children. On 17 September 1872, Lucas was born. Then, on 23 December, 1873, Johanna Geertruida Maria was born. The children were barely a year apart in age. I find it interesting that their mother Jennie had a child every year for three years and then no more children. I wonder if she had a health problem after delivering Johanna.

Adriaan immigrated to the United States in 1893, but Johanna did not immigrate until 1904. She came to Kalamazoo, no doubt following her brother there. Lucas did not emigrate from Goes. Instead, on 4 April 1894, at the age of 21, he passed away. At the time of his death he was listed as a “laborer” in Goes; however, my grandfather’s story about his Uncle Lucas was different. Note that Lucas died not long after his older brother left the Netherlands.

Grandpa said that he was a sailor and, in a tragic accident, fell on the anchor of his ship and was killed.

It seems to me that Grandpa’s information has the stamp of authenticity, especially since Lucas did die at such a young age. But why was he listed as a laborer at the time of his death? Is that a term used for sailors? Maybe if he was hired as a sailor, but not part of the Navy?

I found a website with a photograph of a Dutch “Coast Defence” ship. This photo might be a ship called Piet Hein in 1894, the year of Lucas’ death. Would a ship this big have an anchor that would have killed Lucas? Or would it have been a smaller boat? Click through to the website if you like.

Hard to imagine a ship this big in this harbor!! Photo of Goes harbor.

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The Richard DeKorn House

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Photography late 19th century, Richard DeKorn, tagged 19th century brick mason, brick mason, DeKorn, DeKorn family, DeKorn genealogy, downtown Kalamazoo, Dutch-influenced architecture, family history, genealogy, history of Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo area lakes, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo Michigan, late 19th century architecture, Michigan history, Richard DeKorn on October 29, 2014| 30 Comments »

Richard DeKorn’s house is still standing, at the corner of Burdick and Balch Streets in Kalamazoo. Someone lives there, but the house needs some TLC, in my opinion. I wonder if the owner knows who built the house–or is interested. I love the distinctive light brick stripes on the dark brown brick. The house was most likely built in the 1880s. I would love to know the exact year.

Although the basic house hasn’t changed, the property has. In the old photographs, the house looks set back from the street. The house number is now different.

It looks like a barn to the left, doesn’t it? Notice that the above photo is the same view as the first photo. Is that a fire hydrant in the same spot? Did they have fire hydrants in those days? Or is it something else?

Here is a photo of the area where the barn was. I wonder if the garage has the same footprint as the barn. And you can see the house that is next door. How old do you think the gray house is?

In the following photograph, Richard DeKorn stands by the house he built.

Richard DeKorn’s home at the corner of Burdick and Balch, Kalamazoo, Michigan

Here is another angle of the house today:

In the above photo, the right side (two windows in 2nd story, 1st floor, and basement) faces Burdick Street. The left side (two windows 2nd story and three windows on the 1st floor and basement) faces Balch Street. In the old photo, where is Richard standing? Is he at the opposite corner from the Burdick-Balch corner–at the back of the house?

Here’s a view from the opposite side of Balch. I think it shows that Richard has his back to Balch Street in the old photo.

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What Did She Keep in All Those Pockets?

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Adrian Zuidweg, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Netherlands history, Photography early 20th century, Photography late 19th century, Zuidweg, tagged Adrian Zuidweg, Dutch Genealogy, family history, genealogy, history of Kalamazoo, history of The Netherlands, Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo history, Michigan history, Netherlands, the Netherlands, Zeeland, Zuidweg surname, Zwolle on October 1, 2014| 12 Comments »

I haven’t written much about my grandfather’s paternal grandparents. I wrote about his aunt’s family, the Van Lieres, but we know very little about the parents of Grandpa’s father and his aunt.

His paternal grandmother was Jennegien (Jennie) Bomhoff. She was born 5 March, 1838 in Zwolle, Overjissel, the Netherlands. She passed away on 16 December 1924 in Kalamazoo.

She married Grandpa’s grandfather, Johannes (John) Zuidweg, in Goes, the Netherlands on 4 November 1869, when she was 31 years old and working as a maid.

Grandpa told me that she wore many layers of skirts and they all had pockets in them. Can you tell below that she was wearing layers of clothing? What do you think she carried in those pockets? He did tell me that he saw her pull an apple out from an under skirt.

The following photos were identified to me as Jennie. How old do you think she is in each one?

What style bonnet is she wearing? And how many decades did she wear that same bonnet?!

In the next photograph, she is the woman on the side, in the dark dress.

Here is some research Yvette Hoitink provided about this family:

In 1869, Jennegien married Johannes Zuijdweg in Goes, Zeeland, about 150 miles away. That is an uncommonly large distance for somebody to travel in the 19th century, especially for an unmarried woman from the working class. Further investigation showed that her brother Albert Bomhoff was married in Goes in 1867. It must be through this connection that Jennegien moved to Goes, where she worked as a maid prior to her marriage. A rich and easy to retrieve source of information for ancestors in the 19th century are the marriage supplements: the documents a bride and groom had to submit when they got married. Unfortunately, the Goes marriage supplements for the period 1811-1877 got lost in 1877. Since several marriages on the Zuidweg side took place in Goes, these records could not be obtained. Digital images of the marriage supplements of Lucas Bomhof and Jeuntien Dansser, the parents of Jennegien Bomhof, were retrieved from Familysearch.org. Lucas Bomhof was born as Nijentap, but his family took the name Bomhof around 1812. In the province of Overijssel, it was common to be named after the farm you lived on. It was only with the French occupation that people were obliged to take a hereditary surname. Nijentap may be the name of the farm that the family lived at.

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Jennie, Lela, and Rhea Culver from Seattle (and Kalamazoo)

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Jennie DeKorn Culver, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Photography early 20th century, Photography late 19th century, Richard DeKorn, tagged DeKorn, DeKorn family, DeKorn genealogy, early 1900s, family history, genealogy, history of Kalamazoo, Jenny DeKorn Culver, Kalamazoo history, Lela Culver, Michigan history, Rhea Culver, Richard DeKorn, Seattle history on September 24, 2014| 24 Comments »

Reminder: Jennie DeKorn Culver, 1857-1947, moved to Seattle from Kalamazoo with her two adult daughters, Lela and Rhea, around 1915

Since I did not have any photographs of Lela and Rhea Culver as adults until I received the scrapbook, I have had to make guesses on the identity of people in the scrapbook photos. I did have a good photograph of Jennie’s face as a young woman, so that does help.

I’m hoping you can help me decide which photos do have Jennie, Lela, and/or Rhea in them. After the new photos, I’ll repost a couple I’ve posted before for comparison.

Because the photos were all in the scrapbook together–and some of them were loose–it would help to know what year fashion the clothing is in each photograph (since the years may be all mixed up). Clothes, hair, background, compare faces: whatever ideas you have, lemme have ’em, please! I’ve numbered the new photos. Also, you can click on each photo to enlarge.

From Scrapbook (haven’t posted before)

Photo 1

Photo 2 (I feel fairly certain this is Jennie and her daughters)

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 5

Photo 6

Photo 7

From scrapbook (posted in earlier posts)

Photo 8

Lela and Rhea Culver
Seattle, WA

Rhea and Lela Culver
Kalamazoo, Michigan

Jenny DeKorn Culver
1857-1947

What Did Lela and Rhea Culver Do at the Orphanage? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
Is This Jenny DeKorn Culver in A Velvet Coat? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
Why Did Jennie Move to Seattle? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)

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What Did Lela and Rhea Culver Do at the Orphanage?

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Jennie DeKorn Culver, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Photography early 20th century, Photography late 19th century, Richard DeKorn, tagged Children's Home Kalamazoo, Christmas 1896, DeKorn, DeKorn family, DeKorn genealogy, early 1900s, family history, genealogy, history of Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo history, Lakeside Kalamazoo history, Lela Culver, Michigan history, Rhea Culver, Richard DeKorn on September 17, 2014| 19 Comments »

I wrote that the Jennie DeKorn Culver’s daughters Lela and Rhea were at the Children’s Home in Kalamazoo during the divorce proceedings of their parents.

According to articles in The Kalamazoo Gazette, they were there from at least December 1896 to May 1897.

Here is an article about a Christmas program Lela performed in:

I find it curious that the backup singers or performers (Lela was one of them) are called “Nineteenth Century Children.” There were still three full years of the 19th century left at this point.

I’d love to know what gifts the children received–and if they were from the community. Would children like Lela and Rhea with living parents have also received gifts from their parents? Or would that have been against the rules?

1896 Christmas Tree

Since I had proof through the Kalamazoo Gazette articles that the girls were at the Children’s Home in 1896 and 1897, I contacted Lakeside Academy, the current name of what was the Children’s Home during the Culver girls’ time. I had heard through another blogger that they still had records from the late 1800s. Don Nitz, the CEO of Lakeside for Children, was so kind to search for me. Unfortunately, there are gaps in the records, and he could not find any documentation of Lela and Rhea’s stay with them.

Why Did Jennie Move to Seattle? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
Is This Jenny DeKorn Culver in A Velvet Coat? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
A Wishful Post, A Thoughtful Reader, and A Package (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
Uncertainty about Boudewijn’s Kids (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
A Sister and Her Family: How Can I Find Out More? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)

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Why Did Jennie Move to Seattle?

The story of Jennie DeKorn Culver begins in Michigan. It turns out that, even with the beautiful scrapbook, she is one of the biggest mysteries of my family tree.

Jennie’s birth name was Adriana. She was named after her grandmother, Adriana Krijger (the mother of Johanna Remijnse, Jennie’s mother). According to Adri van Gessel, in the dialect of the Goes region at that time, she would be called Joâne–a name that doesn’t sound like Joanne. There is no English equivalent, so she was called Jennie.

Jennie was born in Ottawa County, Michigan, in 1857 or 1858, one or two years after her parents moved to the United States, so she never lived in The Netherlands herself. Her mother passed away in 1864, so Jennie would have only been 6 or 7.

On December 25 (Christmas Day!), 1882, Jennie married John P. Culver in Kalamazoo. John was born in 1854,1855, or 1856 in Climax, Michigan, to Oliver C. and Almira Carney Culver. John had six siblings. He was about 12 years older than Jennie who was 25 or so.

The couple had two daughters:

Lela Almira Culver, born in Kalamazoo, on September 27, 1888
Rhea A. Culver, born in Kalamazoo, on November 13, 1890

The Culver girls before their parents divorced

At some point before 1898, the couple divorced. I know this because John remarried on July 7, 1898, at Muskegon, Michigan. His new bride was Florence V. Potter (Flora), daughter of William H. Potter and Florence King. Florence was born in 1876 and died after 1940, possibly as late as 1964.

Florence was married about 1900 to Norman Brant. The couple had two daughters. Florence went on to marry again, too.

John Culver himself probably had a 3rd marriage, possibly to Gladys E. Simmons.

Back to Jennie. I couldn’t find a divorce record online for her divorce from John, so I resorted to Genealogy Bank to look up the local newspaper, The Kalamazoo Gazette. That’s when I found articles that show that the couple certainly did divorce, and while the girls were so young. Jennie didn’t come from people who divorced, so for her to divorce her husband (and with young daughters at home, too), they must have had a drastic problem.

The following newspaper articles tell part of the story. Several of them are attached in .pdf form because they were too long for me to take screen shots of them. If you click the links you will find the newspaper articles. Be sure not to pass by the last one without clicking and reading.

Before the storm you could get lunch at Culver’s: Jan 5, 1895 lunch at Culver

It begins in the fall?

Kalamazoo Gazette
4 October 1895

The Gazette had a list of Circuit Court cases in the paper on Dec 6, 1895. Jennie Culver v. John P. Culver was listed as a divorce case.

More about the divorce on May 8, 1896 .

As if to counteract the bad publicity the day before, the Gazette lists something innocuous about John on May 9, 1896. It merely states that he has been given the refreshment concession at the Recreation Park.

On May 14, 1897, there were two articles. One was in Jottings and shows that John Culver has changed something small or large about his livelihood.

Apparently, one can no longer get lunch at John Culver’s on North Burdick.

There there is one that tells me that the divorce was finalized before May 14, 1897. Heart-breaking. This one you need to click through to read.

The children were at the Children’s Home! Not with their mother! I tried to find something about the Children’s Home in Kalamazoo at that time. All I could find was a list of the children in the home in 1900.

CHILDREN’S HOME LIST 1900

Note that the girls are not on the list, so it’s likely that they were living with their mother by 1900.

Here are some articles about the Children’s Home:

1. General history

2. More general history

I’ve written to the blogger who wrote both these articles because it appears that her relatives lived at the home at the same time the Culver girls lived there.

When did Jennie move to Seattle with her daughters? And why?

Rhea and Lela Culver
Seattle, WA

The 1910 census shows Jennie still in Kalamazoo, and the city directory shows her there in 1915.

Many of the Seattle photographs in the photo album seem to be from about 1915-1925. Remember that Jennie would have been around 58 years old in 1915!

Jennie died in Seattle on July 4, 1947.

The answer to the title is: I don’t know! I guess I have to keep researching. Jennie doesn’t appear to have remarried, although it is possible. The daughters remained single for a long time (not sure if one of them ever married), so it wasn’t to follow a daughter’s husband’s job or family.

Any guesses on why she would have moved to Seattle in or just after 1915?

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Is This Jennie DeKorn Culver in A Velvet Coat?

We will get back to Theresa Pake, but I am working on so many branches of the family. I can’t let the other leads I have lie there untracked. I need to follow them, too ;).

Let’s start to explore the wonderful scrapbook of the DeKorn-Culver family again (while not forgetting about Theresa or Jennie DeKorn Culver’s sister Mary DeKorn DeSmit’s family either). For more information on this story, see the related posts below.

To remind you, I had wondered what happened to one of the sisters of Richard DeKorn (my great-great-grandfather). Her name was Jennie, or perhaps Jennie Adrianna, and at some point she moved with her two daughters, Lela and Rhea, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, to Seattle, Washington. She may have been divorced in Kalamazoo. A lot needs must be explored at this juncture because why would a woman with two daughters move so far away from home–especially in those days?

A reader in the northwest United States who happened to have a scrapbook that belonged to Jennie’s family contacted me. What a surprise! She was so kind to send me the scrapbook. When I finish making both .tif and .jpg copies of the photos I will send her a CD of the photos. My daughter did the preliminary work on the copying, but I need to do more and to “cut apart” the copies that were taken of multi-photo scrapbook pages. In other words, my daughter copied pages so as not to damage the book, but I want to copy the copies and then crop the photos so that they appear separately on the screen.

I wrote to Bayview Manor in Seattle to try to find out if this scrapbook belonged to Lela or Rhea Culver. This is the facility where the scrapbook was found. Unfortunately, I have not heard back from them.

To begin to identify these photos I need to start with what I know. I have a photo of Jenny when she was a young woman. And there is a photo in the scrapbook which I think looks strikingly like Jennie. I want to see if you agree or if you think these are different women.

THIS IS JENNY DEKORN CULVER (1857-1947):

Jenny DeKorn Culver
1857-1947

HERE IS THE WOMAN IN THE VELVET COAT. IS IT JENNY?

And is the coat velvet or fur? I am assuming it is velvet, although I did find a picture of a fur coat from around 1920 that had a similar look. However, the main reason I think it’s velvet is that it looks like velvet at the points where the fabric bends.

What do you make of the shadow at the bottom of the photo? Is the setting a garden or a lawn?

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Cover photo shows flooding at the Water Works Bridge in Kalamazoo, March 26, 1904. That spring, the water got 6″ higher than the photo shows.
ORDER ERIC HOFFER AWARD FINALIST KIN TYPES: FAMILY HISTORY MEETS LITERATURE
KALAMAZOO AND SW MICHIGAN: This blog shares the photographs and stories of my mother's family--the DeKorn, Zuidweg, and Mulder families which settled in southwestern Michigan. It also occasionally shares the photographs and stories of my father's family from Chicago and Elmhurst, Illinois. Many of the posts are centered around the locations of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Goes, Zeeland, the Netherlands. *The PAGES listed BELOW tell about this blog and summarize the main family branches appearing on this blog. *The TABS at the TOP of the page are a quick way to find posts related to particular family branches.
All images from author’s collection © Luanne Castle and The Family Kalamazoo, 2012-2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without written permission from this blog’s author is prohibited. The piece can be re-blogged, and excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Luanne Castle and The Family Kalamazoo, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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A genealogical site devoted to the history of the DeKorn and Zuidweg families of Kalamazoo and the Mulder family of Caledonia

Archive for the ‘Photography late 19th century’ Category

Any thoughts on type of photographs or on dating of these images?

Who Was Hank?

A Bataille Connection

Hank Went into Business

Hank Was a Man of Many Talents

Reminder: Jennie DeKorn Culver, 1857-1947, moved to Seattle from Kalamazoo with her two adult daughters, Lela and Rhea, around 1915

From Scrapbook (haven’t posted before)

From scrapbook (posted in earlier posts)

Related articles

When did Jennie move to Seattle with her daughters? And why?

Any guesses on why she would have moved to Seattle in or just after 1915?

THIS IS JENNY DEKORN CULVER (1857-1947):

HERE IS THE WOMAN IN THE VELVET COAT. IS IT JENNY?

And is the coat velvet or fur? I am assuming it is velvet, although I did find a picture of a fur coat from around 1920 that had a similar look. However, the main reason I think it’s velvet is that it looks like velvet at the points where the fabric bends.

Related articles

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ORDER ERIC HOFFER AWARD FINALIST KIN TYPES: FAMILY HISTORY MEETS LITERATURE

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