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Archive for the ‘Richard DeKorn’ Category

Curious about George

Posted in Alice Paak DeKorn, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Paak, Peek, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 27, 2014| 14 Comments »

Let’s go back to George Paake/Paak/Peek/Pake today.

I mentioned that George was married at least three times–possibly as many as five times. It was pointed out to me that it would be very unlikely that George was married more than three times.

Take a look at the timeline:

George immigrated to the United States when he was ten or eighteen years old. I have conflicting sources on this. Either way, he married his first wife, Lucy Kliphouse, in Kalamazoo, on December 17, 1886, when he was 36 years old. The couple had five children, named after the grandparents. George was married to Lucy for fourteen years, when she passed away.

In 1902, at the time of the fire, George was a widower.

On April 15, 1906, George married Esther M. Cook. Adri van Gessel mentioned to me that by February 14, 1906,  the oldest daughter Cora (who, according to the newspaper article about the fire, was taking care of the household) was already married, so there was no one to take charge of the house. On Nov 21, 1907, Esther died of pneumonia.

On July 11, 1908 George was married to Addie Amelia Gifford (Wilder). Addie seems to have outlived George.

  • According to the 1910 Census, George (listed as Joseph G. Peake) was still married to Addie. He was listed with his wife Addie, his daughter Fanny, his son George, and Addie’s daughter Florence Wilder (from her previous marriage).
  • According to the 1920 Census, George (listed as George J. Pake) was still married to Addie. He was listed with his wife Addie, his son George, and Addie’s daughter Florance D. Wilder.

George died on December 9, 1925 after being married to Addie for seventeen years.

This photo of George (using the spelling Pake) and Addie and their family was taken not long before he passed away.

 

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A Series of Disasters

The Children After the Fire, 1902

Paak-a-boo

Saved from the Fire

 

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Who is George Paak, Sr.?

Posted in Alice Paak DeKorn, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Paak, Peek, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 6, 2014| 15 Comments »

Let’s continue the Paake/Paak/Peek/Pake family saga.

I grew up not knowing that great-great-grandmother Alice had had a brother named George. When I discovered him, it was, in part, because of a newspaper clipping I found among the family papers. I’ve already written about George’s family here:

A Series of Disasters

The Children After the Fire, 1902

Paak-a-boo

Saved from the Fire

In the Paak-a-Boo post, I contemplated whether an unidentified photo I owned could be George Paake, based on the resemblance to great-great-grandmother Alice.

It turns out we still don’t know who is in that photo, but I now know what George looked like!

 

Here is a photo of Lucy Kliphouse (her name was Anglicized from the original Dutch: Lukkien Kliphuis ), the mother of George’s five children.

This is his first wife. After she passed away in 1900 (two years before the fire), George went on to marry a few other women. It’s said he might have had five wives.

Stay tuned for more information about the leaves and blossoms of George’s branch of the family!

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The Children After the Fire, 1902

Posted in Alice Paak DeKorn, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Paak, Peek, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 15, 2014| 24 Comments »

Just over a year ago, in A Series of Disasters, I posted a newspaper clipping that I found tucked in with the family photos. This is the copy of the article:

The residence of George Paake at 1016 Trimble Avenue was burned this morning about 10:30 o’clock and a worthy family which has had a series of disasters, left without a home.  The house which Mr. Paake was paying for in the Building and Loan Association was entirely ruined although most of the contents of the home were saved. Mr. Paake receives no insurance whatever and the little which had been accumulated by the family was lost.

The fire is only an incident in the history of the family. Mrs. Paake died a short time ago leaving five children, the oldest being fourteen years old. Since the mother’s death the little girl has had entire charge of the house and the four little children and has had all the responsibility of the family except the support which Mr. Paake gave as a laborer.  Recently he has been unable to work and was ill this morning when the fire occurred.

The neighbors have taken in the little ones and are doing all that is possible to alleviate the sufferings of the family. Mrs. Carrier has been responsible for raising a sum of money to which the neighbors have liberally contributed.

At the end of this post I will re-post the newspaper clipping for documentation. I want to apologize for spelling the surname every which way, but at every turn the name is spelled differently. Family members changed the spelling, and different documents recorded it differently. Paak-Peek-Paake-Pake: they are all the same.

Eventually, I discovered that this man was George Joseph Paak, Sr.,  the brother of my great-great-grandmother Alice Paak DeKorn and that the fire occurred on Wednesday, September 3, 1902.

George’s wife Lucy Kliphouse passed away in 1900, leaving 5 young children in their father’s care.  George (born Joost) was 50 at the time he was left a widower. At some point he had changed the surname to Pake.

The five children were Cora, the eldest mentioned in the article, Jennie, Theresa (also called Tracy), Fanny (also called Frances), and George Jr. Cora was born in 1888; Jennie (who later changed her name to Jane) in 1890; Theresa in 1893; Fannie in 1896, and George in 1898.  George was only four when the fire occurred. Imagine Cora, at 14, taking care of the others–ages 12, 9, 6, and 4. What a burden on such a young girl. And when her mother died, she was only twelve and young George was two!

Since the time of that post, George’s grandson, Professor Edgar Lawrence, discovered this blog. He’s been able to fill in many of the missing pieces about this branch of my family. His mother was Theresa, the middle child.  Here is a photo, taken at least a decade after the fire, showing all five Pake children.

Front row: Theresa and Cora Back row: Frances, George Jr., Jennie (Jane)

Front row: Theresa and Cora
Back row: Frances, George Jr., Jennie (Jane)

 

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A Family Horror Story

Posted in Alice Paak DeKorn, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, Family History, Genealogy, Jennie DeKorn Culver, Paak, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 4, 2014| 32 Comments »

In the last two posts, I told you about the series of disasters that befell the Paak (Peek/Paake/Pake) family.  As I started researching for more information, I came across a worse and more horrific family disaster.  And this one happened to my very own great-great-grandmother, Alice Paak DeKorn, Mrs. Richard DeKorn (born Aaltje Peek in the Netherlands), on May 26 1891.

Alice Paak DeKorn

Alice Paak DeKorn

If you remember the post with the pretty shawl, that was her shawl.  She’s the one with the 3 Peek sisters; Alice was  the prettiest one.  Poor George was her brother. She was also the mother of my great-grandmother Cora DeKorn Zuidweg.

Read it and weep:

At the time this happened, Alice’s children were 18 (Jennie), 16 (Cora), and 10 (Joseph).  For the next week, the local newspaper provides updates about Alice’s condition, which seems to be improving.  Alice did live another 17 years after the accident.

The “comfortable house” she lived in is said to be at Burdick and Balch.  That would be this house, built by her husband Richard DeKorn who stands in front:

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

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

I would like to know more about “Dutch Pete’s,” where the oil stove was purchased.  What happened in those days with an accident like this?  Would there have been an investigation to see if there was a culprit responsible for the stove or if it was human error that caused the fire in the first place?

Notice how Alice was being a hero, trying to help out the neighbors so that they didn’t lose their house and belongings and so that they were safe.  I always had a good feeling about her.

Finding this accident in the newspaper archives did shake me up somewhat. After all, she looks like such a sweet lady, and I can only imagine how horrifically painful her injuries must have been–and what a frightening experience.

Strangely, my favorite contemporary children’s book (and one I taught several times) is Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse.  At the beginning of the book, the book’s protagonist Billie Jo loses her mother by an accident which is very similar. I remember that Hesse said in an interview that she found the accident in a newspaper article and put it in her book.  There are differences as in the book the cause seems to be an accident where the family confused kerosene with water, and in this newspaper account it seems to hint at a defective oil stove. I imagine there were far too many of these kinds of accidents in those days.

Alice’s terrible accident must have left her family very shaken up. I’m sure it made an impact on her children’s lives.

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Dogs in the Family

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Adrian Zuidweg, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Photography early 20th century, Photography late 19th century, Richard DeKorn, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 25, 2014| 16 Comments »

When I was a little girl, my aunt was in college and still lived at home. Her dog, the family dog, was an English Springer Spaniel named Sandy. That dog had bitten me near the eye when I was a baby so everybody was always warning me not to go near the dog and to be careful of the dog. In kindergarten, my grandmother babysat me and I had to negotiate my way through the house with Sandy. I tried to make peace with him by making him a meat pie (with Grandma’s help) for his birthday.

What I didn’t realize was that dogs had been part of the family for generations.

Grandpa shared these photos and told me which dog was which. They belonged to Richard DeKorn, and Grandpa and his parents lived for some time with Richard (Grandpa’s grandfather). It means that they lived well over 100 years ago. I’m sorry the quality of the following photos isn’t better.

TOM AND CARLO DEKORN

TOM AND CARLO DEKORN

BOBBY DEKORN

BOBBY DEKORN

Is the dog running toward Richard DeKorn?

Is the dog running toward Richard DeKorn? Adriaan Zuijdweg in the background.

The dogs with Cora, Adrian, and Alice

The dogs with Cora, Adrian, and Alice

That’s Grandpa as a baby in his mother’s lap, so he grew up with the dogs.

Bobby in the yard

Bobby in the yard

For those of you who know about dog breeding or shows, can you tell me anything about the following?

I’ve owned dogs, too, but now I have four cats. Did my family have cats 100 years ago?  Here’s the answer:

Baby Alice playing with the kittens

Is that baby Alice playing with the kittens?

I sense that you want to know about my cats ;), so here is a slide show of my beautiful cats, as well as my grand-cats.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Paak, Remine, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 11, 2014| 14 Comments »

Last year, I published a post about a park that once belonged to family members and that had an inpact on me when I was growing up. Ramona Park, on Long Lake, outside of Kalamazoo, Michigan, featured a pavilion called Ramona Palace.  Ramona was named after the “Indian Princess” in Helen Hunt Jackson’s popular novel Ramona, which was published in 1884.

When I was growing up, the property was owned by a relative named Therese Remine.  Therese’s mother was Mary Paak (Peek), the sister of my great great grandmother, Alice Paak DeKorn.

Therese had inherited the property from Henry and Carrie Waruf, who had owned it for years.

Here are some photos of the pavilion and property that I inherited from the Waruf/Remine family:

Although these photos were taken before my time, not that much had changed by the time I hung out there–except that things had slowed down considerably. There were fewer picnic tables and fewer people.

You see that long dock in the 3rd photo? It’s so long it needs to be called a pier, I think! I don’t remember that either.

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Pulling Together Information on The Bosman Family, Part II

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Jennie DeKorn Culver, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Photography late 19th century, Remine, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 4, 2014| 19 Comments »

Last week I shared a photo and information I have pulled together on the Bosman family. Let me share a little more.

This photo is two little Bosman boys, sons of my first cousin 4x removed, Adriana Remine Bosman. But which two boys are these?

The oldest was Garrett. He was born in 1873 and passed away between 1880 and 1885.

Then came John, born 1876, who survived until 1943.

James was born in 1879 and died between 1880 and 1890.

Adrian, 1880-1884.

Carrie, 1882-1884. (Double sadly, she died 4 days before Adrian).

Gerritt, 1885-1921.

Jennie, born 1889.

Cornelius, born 1890.

This simple list tells a very sad story: lots of babies, born fairly close together, and many of them not surviving into adulthood.

Here’s a thought: in 1884, there were five Bosman children. Two of these children died in November of 1884. I don’t yet know when the other two died (only John survived out of that group). What if all four died at the same time or in the same month?!  I don’t know, but something tells me I need to find out.

So which two are in the photo?

It could be Garrett and John. The only other pair that works out with the dates would be John and Adrian, I believe.  My vote is with Garrett and John. For one thing, being the oldest, it’s more likely that the family would have had the portrait taken. (Another mystery is why it and the photo shared last week were taken in Goshen). Another reason is that the sweet-faced older boy here doesn’t really look like John in the photo I posted last week.

The main reason, though, is that my intuition tells me that the photo is Garrett and John.

Have you ever had intuition about the identity of a person in an old photo? Or about when or why something happened in your family history? If you found the answer or solved the mystery, did your intuition turn out to be right or wrong?

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Pulling Together Information on The Bosman Family, Part I

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Jennie DeKorn Culver, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Photography late 19th century, Remine, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2014| 17 Comments »

I only knew that the Bosmans existed because Grandpa told me that this photo was John Bosman.

This is what I wrote on the back of this photo, at Grandpa’s instruction:

John Bussman

2nd Reformed Church

on Park Street

Aunt Jen went there

Hmm. I have no idea what that means. I spelled the name “Bosman” incorrectly because Grandpa pronounced it “Bussman,” and I either didn’t ask how to spell it or he didn’t know.

Aunt Jen is Jennie DeKorn Leeuwenhoek, Richard DeKorn’s daughter, the sister of my great-grandmother.

The matriarch of the Bosman family was Adriana (also called Johanna and Jennie–very confusing) Remijnse or Remynse.  She was my first cousin 4x removed. She married Dirk Pieter Bosman, and John was one of their children. Grandpa told me that John was the oldest child, but according to the following information, there was another son, Garrett, who died between the ages of 7 and 12.

Dirk and Johanna/Adriana gave birth to eight children. At least four of them died as children.

In this photo, John looks like a boy who likes hunting. He was born 14 March 1876 in Kalamazoo. He grew up to marry Nellie Robb on 14 May 1903 in Windsor, Canada. On 30 April 1943, he passed away in Detroit. Please note that Windsor and Detroit are right next to each other, although they are in different countries.

Back to what I wrote on the back of the photo. Grandpa said Aunt Jen went to Second Reformed Church on Park Street, not that his mother did. The story he told me was that his mother donated a quilt to the church (Second Reformed or a different Reformed Church?) and saw a woman hanging it on her own clothesline, signifying that the woman had appropriated the quilt. Great-Grandmother Cora quit going to her church after that incident.

I’ve looked online for a photograph of Second Reformed Church on Park Street, but cannot find anything. It is probably gone, but I hope to find a photo eventually.

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Who Was Graduating?

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Joseph Peter DeKorn, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Michigan history, Richard DeKorn, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 4, 2014| 18 Comments »

Remember that genealogy research “to do” list I made back in December?

Good, I’ll forget about it, too.

I’ve been so busy at work lately that I am behind in everything. But readers are so helpful, that I will post something that is a bit of a mystery to me (what isn’t?!).

This “Class Day Exercises” announcement for the Kalamazoo High School Class of 1902 was with some other papers and clippings my grandparents held for years.

But who did it originally belong to? Who in the family graduated from high school in 1902?

My first guess was Joseph DeKorn because he seemed about the right age. Joseph Peter DeKorn: June 30, 1881. Look at that! He was born under the astrological sign of Cancer, just like me.

How old would he have been in 1902? My advanced math skills tell me he would have been 21.  Hmm, that seems a little old for graduating from high school. Especially for a very smart young man like Uncle Joe.

Grandpa wasn’t born until 1908. I wondered about Alice Leeuwenhoek, but she was born in 1897. The daughters of Richard DeKorn’s second wife were born in the 1890s, as well. The first VanLiere boy wasn’t born until 1902 (in Goes, the Netherlands). It is possible that it could belong to a child of Mary DeKorn DeSmit and John DeSmit, but that seems unlikely.

It could have belonged to a friend, but then why would the family have held onto it all these years?

Any ideas on how I get a list of 1902 graduates of Kalamazoo High School from the comfort of my computer chair?

Another thing I wonder about is exactly what Class Day Exercises are. I believe they are still held today, but what role does it play in the graduation process that includes commencement, baccalaureate service, etc.?

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Christmas 1907 in Kalamazoo, Michigan

Posted in Alice Paak DeKorn, Cora DeKorn Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Jennie DeKorn Culver, Joseph Peter DeKorn, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Leeuwenhoek, Michigan history, Netherlands history, Paak, Peek, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2014| 27 Comments »

My great-great-grandmother Alice Paak (the brave woman who survived a horrific near-tragedy that I wrote about last spring) gave her middle child Cora a gift for Christmas 1907. Perhaps she gave one to each of her three children.

You can see from the photo that it’s a hand-painted genealogy shell.

My grandfather and grandmother inherited it, and my grandmother gave it to me.

Let’s take a look at what she wrote over one hundred years ago, and how it relates to the information I have received more recently.

Alice Paak

If you remember my story about Alice’s near tragedy, you might also remember the post I wrote about her beautiful handmade shawl. Or the post I wrote about Alice and all her sisters.

On the shell, she names herself “Alice Paak ,” which is the name Grandpa had told me.  But genealogical research in the Netherlands shows that she was born Aaltje Peek. The source used for that name was this:

Lexmond, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands, birth record, 1852, 36, Aaltje Peek, 9 September 1852; digital images,
Familysearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-159370-202016-19?cc=1576401&wc=6426532 : accessed 23
December 2012)

Apparently, she accepted the American name “Alice.” Her granddaughter, Alice Leeuwenhoek, the daughter of Jennie and Lou Leeuwenhoek, was named after her. Later, my own aunt, the granddaughter of Alice’s daughter Cora, was given the name Alice.

Alice Paak’s birth date is given on the shell as 17 September 1852.  But my genealogical information (the source I listed above) shows that she was born on that same month and year, but on the 9th, not the 17th. Wouldn’t she know her own birth day? That confuses me.

On the shell, she lists her birth place as Leksmond, Nederland. That sounds right, and I think it’s the same place as Lexmond, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.

Richard DeKorn

My great-great-grandfather Richard DeKorn was born Dirk de Korne.  But he clearly changed both his first name (Americanized it) and the spelling of his last name (maybe to make it easier for others).

He was born on 21 Aug 1851.  The shell corroborates the date.

However, his birth place is listed on the shell as Goes, Zeeland, Nederland. But wait!  In another post I mentioned that I had always thought he was born in Goes, but the genealogical documentation shows that was born in Kapelle, Zeeland, the Netherlands! This is the documentation:

Kapelle, Zeeland, the Netherlands, birth record, Dirk de Korne, 21 August 1851

Jennie DeKorn

Born March 18, 1873. That’s according to the shell. But my information is March 8, 1873. I have to check on this!

Cora DeKorn

Born January 2, 1875. That’s according to the shell and to my records.

Joseph Peter DeKorn

Born June 30, 1881. That’s according to the shell and to my records.

The treasure itself

The design is beautiful with holly branches. The berries are raised to look like real berries. Originally there was a gold leaf paint trim around the shell, but it has worn off in many places.

Her use of “Xmas” because it fit better on the small surface seems astonishingly modern, as does the use of metallic gold and red and green for Christmas.

What I find particularly poignant, though, about this family heirloom is the date. She gave this gift to her daughter on Christmas 1907, and on May 5, 1908, a little over four months later, she passed away.

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