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Posts Tagged ‘family history’

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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The Confusing Saga of The DeKorns or Dekornes or de Cornes from Zeeland and Michigan

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Joseph Peter DeKorn, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Netherlands history, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 14, 2013| 17 Comments »

When I grew up in Kalamazoo in the 1960s and 1970s (OK, the 1950s, too), the name DeKorn as it applied to my family was no longer known. Richard’s only son, Joseph, had moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he raised his two sons.

At some point DeKorne’s Ethan Allen store opened up in Kalamazoo. I know it was there when I got married in 1975 because I bought my first couch and chairs there.That’s when I first heard the rumor that we were “shirttail relations.”

Nobody could ever give me any facts about this connection.

In 2000, with the beauty of the internet, I discovered that there was another family connected to Boudewijn DeKorn. Boudewijn, my great-great-great-grandfather, was born in 1816 in Kapelle, the Netherlands, and died 1873 in Kalamazoo.

This other family who had a Boudewijn was the furniture company Dekorne family from Grand Rapids.

But their Boudewijn didn’t match ours. Theirs died in 1929 in Grand Rapids! Ours died in Kalamazoo in 1873!! But how odd, considering that the name is unique, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids are not far from each other, and there was that rumor about us being related.

At the time (2000), I found an article about their Boudewijn and a rough family tree.  I printed it out and saved it, never knowing if it would be useful.

Here is their family tree:

Other Dekorne family tree

Other Dekorne family tree

I’m going to post the article that went with their family tree because I find it very interesting in light of Richard DeKorn’s talents as a mason and general contractor.

It’s an interesting story, but are they relatives of mine?

I didn’t know, and I couldn’t figure it out because on Ancestry more Boudewijn DeKornes starting popping up with different birth and death dates, but always from the same general area of the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands.

Then I gave Yvette Hoitink their family tree and she put it together with our family tree and investigated.

This is our family tree:Richard DeKorn family treeDo you see a connection?  Look at their Boudewijn who was born in 1700.  He’s married to Piatarnella Pieterse Michielse.  That is the same woman as Pieternella Machiels who is also found in old documents under the name Petronella Pieters.  We have a match for a husband and wife in both family trees.

That means that  my “7th great-grandfather” Boudewijn de Corne, born approximately 1730 and died 1734 in Goes is (I believe) the “3rd great-grandfather” of Boudewijn the wood-carver and furniture maker who died in Grand Rapids in 1929.

In the history of the family it seems that branches moved away from each other and then maybe moved near each other again, always staying in Zeeland and then in southwestern Michigan. It’s fitting then that Joseph DeKorn moved to Grand Rapids and raised his family there by the other Dekornes.

Note: so many spellings of the name!!  It makes it very difficult even to work at cleaning up my family tree on Ancestry.  Also, notice how the Dutch tend to name their children after the grandparents.

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Who Were the Champions of Michigan? Kalamazoo or Ishpeming? BREAKING NEWS–UPDATE UPDATE

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Joseph Peter DeKorn, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Photography late 19th century, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 4, 2013| 20 Comments »

Here is a photo which is in with all the other family photos, but I don’t know anything about it.  Somebody cared a lot about it, though, because the names of the boys are written at the bottom.  It’s titled “Champions of Michigan.”  On the right side, it says Lansing 0 Kazoo 30.  Maybe a game between Lansing and Kalamazoo determined the Michigan champions.  But on the left side of the photo it looks like it says Kazoo 21 Ishpeming 27.  Say it ain’t so.

I tried to research games to see which year this was, but the Michigan High School Football website only goes back to 1950.

Does anybody have any ideas on how to find more information about the photo? If this photo belonged to Joseph Peter DeKorn, who was born in 1881, it’s possible that the photo is from the late 1890s.

Get a load of the coach’s facial expression!  He’s at the back on our left.

###

Here is the breaking news update.

I went to bed last night with this post set to publish early this morning.  When I woke up this morning, I suddenly thought of my “training” from Jose at Enhanced News Archive:  check the newspapers!  And since I recently found Genealogy Bank to be such a wonderful resource, I checked in there.  Guess what?  There are articles which show that I was wrong about the 1890s–it was 1901–and  unfortunately correct that Ishpeming won.  What a fabulous article that details the game (I hope it’s not too hard to read since I had to copy it in 4 parts):Michigan championship 1Michigan championship 2Michigan championship 3Michigan championship 4

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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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The Mulders pre-1917

Posted in Caledonia Michigan history, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Lucille Edna Mulder Zuidweg, Mulder, Photography early 20th century, tagged , , , , , , on April 27, 2013| 17 Comments »

I just found a photo which goes with one I posted last week.  Last week was the anniversary of my grandmother’s birthday and I posted a page from her high school graduation scrapbook.  Then I posted a photo my father had taken in the eighties of her with her four siblings and all their spouses–the whole Mulder family.

Here is a beautiful image of the four oldest Mulder children (Dorothy, Edna, Vena, and Pete) with their parents, my great-grandparents, Charles and Clara Mulder.

This photo would be before 1917 as Charles wasn’t yet born. Notice how Dorothy and Edna have matching plaid dresses on.  Although they were a year apart in age, they graduated high school at the same time.  It looks like they were almost treated as twins.  Vena (Alvena), the youngest daughter, is wearing an outfit which matches the older girls’ dresses, but appears to be a skirt with straps.  How do you like those “Dutch boy” hair cuts from almost 100 years ago?!

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Good Manners and Genuine Dutch Intrepidity in Fierce Battles

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Leeuwenhoek, Netherlands history, Photography late 19th century, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 23, 2013| 12 Comments »

Remember Lambertus Leeuwenhoek (Uncle Lou), husband of my great grand-aunt Jennie DeKorn Leeuwenhoek?  He’s the one who owned the Bibles I showcased in one post.  He and Aunt Jen owned a general market in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Grandpa gave me this photo of Uncle Lou’s younger brother Gerrit/Garrett (five years apart in age) and told me Uncle Lou and Gerrit were orphans, and that they both lived in Kalamazoo. Years later, I wondered why there were no more recent photos of him or stories of who he married or children he might have had.

In doing a newspaper search for the name Leeuwenhoek in Kalamazoo on Genealogy Bank, I discovered why.

He was a war hero who met an untimely death at age 21. (Yes, another family hero!)

As the July 26, 1898 Kalamazoo Gazette article states, Gerrit, who was born to Arie Leeuwenhoek and Mary Hoogedoom Leeuwenhoek in the Netherlands, had only been in the United States for a year when he heard the whistles blow in Kalamazoo that war had been declared on Spain (Spanish-American War).  He immediately enlisted in the army, was sent to Cuba, where he died of malaria.

Notice that it mentions Uncle Lou in Kalamazoo, but it also mentions two brothers and two sisters left behind in the Netherlands, as well as a brother who is in the Holland regular army in the East Indies.

I think it’s possible that my grandfather did tell me that Gerrit died in the war, but that I didn’t remember it and, if I took notes, I don’t know where they are.

His death even made the news in the Muskegon Chronicle on the same date.

On August 17, 1898, the Kalamazoo Gazette published a letter Uncle Lou received of his brother’s service and death.

To put the letter in the context of Uncle Lou’s life, he’d been married 26 months, and his daughter Alice was 15 months old, when he got word his young brother had died.

This letter makes it look as if Gerrit was buried in Cuba. Here is the interment control form which I found on ancestry.com.

Garrett Leeuwenhoek interment control form

What I suspected from this form is confirmed in the following article in the Kalamazoo Gazette on April 5, 1899.

Garrett’s body was re-buried in 1899 in Kalamazoo.  There are conflicting reports of his death date and name of his Company, but I feel pretty confident about the date of July 23, 1898 as the day he died.

Today he is honored with a brick at the Rose Park Veterans Memorial Park–a memorial park which my father Rudy Hanson and the Kalamazoo Sunrise Rotary Club were instrumental in bringing to the city.

 

 

If you would like to see first-hand newspaper accounts of the war from a Michigan newspaper, these links to articles in the Ludington Appeal show the general climate in Michigan at the time Gerrit decided to enlist.  These were provided by Jose at Enhanced News Archive.

Newspaper : Ludington Appeal – Apr 28, 1898
Ludington Appeal – May 5, 1898

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Faces to Go with the Names

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Caledonia Michigan history, Family History, Genealogy, Lucille Edna Mulder Zuidweg, Mulder, tagged , , , , on April 20, 2013| 2 Comments »

Photo by Rudy Hanson

After reading another post on Wednesday about Grandma’s high school graduation scrapbook, I thought you might like to see the Mulder family from Caledonia. Remember that in Edna’s scrapbook she memorialized the graduation of herself and her sister Dorothy. This photo must be from the 1980s.

From left to right, standing:

  • Conrad Plott
  • Edna Zuidweg
  • Ruth Ann Mulder
  • Chuck Mulder
  • Adrian Zuidweg
  • Alton Stimson
  • Dorothy Plott

From left to right, sitting:

  • Ruby Mulder
  • Pete Mulder
  • Vena Stimson

The five Mulder siblings in order:

Dorothea Rosa Mulder (1910-1996) who married Conrad Plott (1905-1889)

Lucille Edna Mulder (1912-2000) who married Adrian Zuidweg (1908-2000) [my grandparents]

Alvena Mulder (1913-2000) who married Alton W. Stimson (1911-1996)

Peter Godfrey Mulder (1915-1986) who married Ruby Elizabeth Ayers (1920-2007)

Charles Peter Mulder (1917-1989) who married Ruth Ann Holton (born 1924)

Ruth Ann, a very special lady, is the youngest of the group, and she lives near her daughter.

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Scrapbook Treats

Posted in Adrian Zuidweg, Caledonia Michigan history, Family History, Genealogy, Lucille Edna Mulder Zuidweg, Mulder, Photography early 20th century, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 17, 2013| 19 Comments »

Today would be the birthday of (Lucille) Edna Mulder Zuidweg, my wonderful grandmother, born April 17, 1912. We lost her on September 21, 2000.

In honor of Grandma, I’ll share more from her high school graduation scrapbook, which has quite a few goodies in it.  I wrote about it before in the post Who Put the Ring Stain on the Scrapbook?  Today I’d like to share one page of the scrapbook.

This page is my favorite because I learn more about my grandmother here.  In the upper left is a photo of my grandparents, which means that they were dating by the point she glued that photo in the book.  Aren’t they cute?  When and where did they meet?

In the upper middle is a photo of Grandma’s best friend Blanche Stauffer, Class Valedictorian.  Grandma was Class Historian and her older sister Dorothy was Salutatorian.  The newspaper clipping on the upper right explains all that.

The congratulations note by Elsa looks treasured.  At the bottom left is a newspaper clipping which is from April 1920:

Miss Edna Mulder celebrated her eighth birthday anniversary with a party Saturday.  Twenty little people were present.

In the bottom right corner is another clipping.  This one is also from 1920:

The first of the spring flowers again comes to our desk through the thoughtful kindness of little Edna Mulder.  Flowers while we live to enjoy them are far sweeter than those at death for does not some one tell us that “Flowers on the casket can cast no fragrance backward over life’s rugged way.”

One more scrapbook treat is the “entertainment” for Grandma’s 8th grade graduation, which took place  in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on June 12, 1925:

Happy birthday, Grandma.  I miss you! xo

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A Series of Disasters

Posted in Alice Paak DeKorn, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Paak, Peek, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 28, 2013| 22 Comments »

I’m picking up here from my post All the Peek Girls.  In that post I showcased photos of my great-great grandmother Alice and her sisters.

The girls’ parents, my great-great-great grandparents, Teunis Peek (born on 5 Jun 1822 in Everdingen, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands) and  Jacoba Bassa (born on 18 Jun 1824 in Lexmond, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands) were married on 21 Dec 1848 in Everdingen, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands.

At the time of their marriage, Teunis was a “farmer’s hand” in Everdingen.

On 23 November 1865, Jacoba died at the age of 41 in Lexmond.  At that time, Teunis was a farmer in Lexmond, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands.

Teunis and Jacoba had the following children:

Joost Peek was born on 25 Aug 1850 in Lexmond, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands.

Aaltje Peek, born 9 Sep 1852, Lexmond, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands; died 5 May 1908, Michigan,
United States.  This is my great-great grandmother, Alice Paak/Peek, who married Richard DeKorn.

Anna Catharina Peek was born on 6 Jan 1855 in Lexmond, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands.

Maaike Peek was born on 29 Jul 1859 in Lexmond, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands.

Cornelia Peek was born on 8 May 1862 in Lexmond, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands.

Willempje Peek was born 17 dep 1856 in Lexmond, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands. [Additional info:  must do research to see if Willempje survived or not]

Teunis and his children emigrated in 1868 to the United States.

After reading this information on the family, I speculated that Joost probably stayed behind in the Netherlands.  He would have been eighteen and might have already started his own life.  I had photos of the four girls (Alice, Annie, Mary, and Carrie), but no information from my family about the oldest, the boy Joost.

I recently discovered a clipping tucked in with the family photos.

There is no date or newspaper name on this clipping.  Here is an excerpt:

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.

So many facts here.  But more questions.

Since the clipping was in with our treasured family photos, was this my family described in the article?

The size of the family seems to fit with the family of Teunis Peek, as is the recent death of the mother.  The impression is of an immigrant family who has been beset with many tragedies: the death of the mother, either the death of the first son (or him staying behind), the illness of the father, the loss of their home and the value they had in it.

Is Teunis George?  Most of the family changed their first names from a Dutch first name to an “English” first name.  It’s possible.

Although the Dutch records show the last name as Peek, my grandfather told me that the family was Paak or Paake.

However:  Jacoba, the wife of Teunis, passed away in 1865, and the family emigrated in 1868.  Alice, my great-great-grandmother, was born in 1852.  She would have been 16 when they arrived in Kalamazoo and caring for the household and her four younger siblings.    The very ancient clipping is now a deep gold color and very crisp.  If it’s from 1869 or 1870, and the family was that of Teunis, then Alice was probably 17 or 18, not 14.

In a 1906 City Directory, George is still listed at the same address (a rebuilt house?) and Cora W. Paak is listed as a boarder.  I wonder if that is his sister because Alice named one of her daughters Cora W (for Wilhelmina). Could be Cornelia (Carrie).

Or was George a brother of Teunis? (NO)

I’m waiting with bated breath for Yvette Hoitink to find me a little more information which might shed light on this mystery.  As of now, I don’t have any information on siblings of Teunis Peek.

EVENTUALLY we discovered that the fire happened to George (Joost) and his family.

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Living by Long Lake, Portage, Michigan

Posted in Family History, Genealogy, Paak, Peek, Remine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 25, 2013| 14 Comments »

Over two months ago I posted about The Park with a Literary Name , Ramona Park in Portage, Michigan. This lake property was in my family for many years.

It was owned by Carrie Paak/Peek Waruf and her husband Henry Waruf. These photos are of their home, which was situated on Sprinkle Road in Portage, about a block from the Long Lake shore.  The above photo is a side view–Sprinkle to the left, Long Lake to the right.  The porch was eventually remodeled to a large enclosed porch.

Any car experts can tell us a date by looking at the automobile here?

The photo below is the front of the house.

This house was inherited by Therese Remine, Carrie’s niece, and became part of the Ramona Park estate. In more recent years, it was relocated. My Kalamazoo sleuths (aka Mom and Dad) are working on its location.

When I was a little kid, we hunted for arrowheads in the field behind the house. The vintage (at the time) dining room furniture was beautiful.

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