John DeSmit, Sr., had one child with his first wife, Jennie, and the rest with his second wife, Jacoba. I have only scraped the surface of researching the DeSmit family, especially this generation of John Sr’s children. So much more can be done. I will not be doing it; however, if you are related to the DeSmits and need help researching your own branch more in-depth, please contact me, and I will be happy to give you ideas of where and how to search. I am also happy to help if you would like to write more about the family for posting on this blog.
I’d also like to mention some stellar sleuthing on the part of Joel Reeves. He discovered that Riverside Cemetery, the cemetery of choice by the DeSmits (and also of my great grandparents, etc.) did not open until 1862. When Jennie DeSmit died in 1854 or 1855, she must have been buried some place. Here are some articles that Joel discovered about the possible site of her grave. I feel that the first article gives one big clue about the site of Jennie’s grave. This Pioneer Cemetery that is in the articles was in existence until Riverside opened. It was “bulldozed” later for a park. But the very last person buried at Pioneer was Rev. H. G. Klyn, who was the second pastor of First Reformed Church. I feel it’s very likely that the family belonged to First Reformed Church.
http://www.kpl.gov/local-history/cemeteries/pioneer.aspx
http://www.encorekalamazoo.com/dead-and-buried
https://www.kalamazoocity.org/cemeteries
This relates to two of John and Jacoba’s children, too. The first Adriaan and the first Francena died as infants in 1856 and 1857. They were possiby also buried in Pioneer Cemetery.
Today’s post will cover the children of John Sr.’s first born son, the son of first wife Jennie. The other children will be in next week’s post.
THE CHILDREN OF JOHN DESMIT, JR. AND MARY DEKORN
My great-great-grandfather’s sister, Maria Catharina “Mary” DeKorn, married John DeSmit, Jr., and they had far more children than any of John’s siblings.
Their first child, Janna (Jennie) DeSmit, was born 7 March 1873 in Richland, which is in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. She was baptized 3 August 1873 at First Reformed Church in Kalamazoo. (Oh, do I wish I could see a photo of that church in those days).
Notice what it says about her father on the baptism record. Keep in mind I don’t know her father’s baptism information.
On 14 June 1905, Jennie married Abraham Grofoert (1873-1926) in Kalamazoo. Unfortunately, Jennie passed away three years later, on 14 June 1908 in Kalamazoo. She was buried at Riverside Cemetery on 17 June 1908. This was only one month after her uncle, Richard DeKorn’s, wife Alice passed away on 5 May 1908. Here is Jennie’s death certificate.
The spelling on Jennie’s headstone (and that of her husband was Grofvert).
The next child was Boudewyn (Benjamin) De Smit, named for Mary’s father, my 3x great-grandfather. He was born 10 February 1875 and baptized 4 April 1875 in Kalamazoo at First Reformed Church. His father was “off the hook” for this baptism record.
Ben was a mason like his father and grandfather before him. He had brown hair and blue eyes, according to his WWI draft registration. The year after his older sister died, Ben married Jennie Alphreta White (1869-1930) on 5 July 1999 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Their son, Benny DeSmit, was born 10 December 1909 in Kalamazoo. Wow, that was a short pregnancy. Jennie passed away on 10 December 1930 in Kalamazoo at age 55. Ben died on 28 April 1958 in Mattawan, which is in Van Buren County, Michigan. He was buried on May 1 at Riverside Cemetery in Kalamazoo. I do not have his death certificate.
Next up was Jan or John DeSmit III. He was born on 16 July 1877 in Kalamazoo. John, with brown hair and blue eyes, was a brick layer like his brother, father, and grandfather. On 20 July 1899 he married Pieternella Paulina (Nellie) Schrier (1879-1900) in Kalamazoo.
You can see their wedding invitation with questions that arose in this post What About the DeSmits?
Their daughter Nellie D. DeSmit was born on 30 April 1900 in Kalamazoo. Sadly, John’s wife Nellie died 10 days later, on 9 May 1900. I had more answers to this story of John and Nellie in the post Another Mystery Solved.
John married again, on 15 December 1926 in Goshen, Elkhart, Indiana. His wife was Grietje (Margaret) Riepma (1873-1933). Margaret died on 31 July 1933 in Kalamazoo. John died in April 1964 and was buried at Riverside Cemetery on 30 April 1964. I do not have his death certificate either. I have not found the baptism record for John.
I would be willing to bet that I own photographs of one or more of the older boys of John Jr.; however, they are not marked (sadly).
UPDATE: As it happens, I just received a beautiful photo of John DeSmit III. The year might be 1955, and he is with three of Edwin Reeves’ cute-as-a-bug’s-ear grandchildren.
The next DeSmit child was Jacoba, known as Cora. She was born on 12 October 1880 and baptized on 6 February 1881 in Kalamazoo.
On 7 June 1899, Cora married Charles Howard Pierce (1877-1971) in Kalamazoo.
This is Cora.
Their daughter, Eleanor Ruth Pierce was born on 2 September 1907 in Kalamazoo.
Cora passed away on 26 July 1954. She was buried at Riverside Cemetery on July 29.
After Cora, Franciena Geertruida, or Frances Gertrude, was born on 22 November 1882 in Kalamazoo. She was baptized 11 February 1884 at First Reformed Church. This was a longer time period before her baptism, but since the baptisms were done in clusters, she could have been ill and had to wait for the next time the baptisms were performed.
On 26 November 1902, Frances married Charles Reeves (1876-1938). Their son, Edwin R. Reeves, was born on 19 March 1904. (DOD 1978). In 1911, the couple divorced, and on 17 September 1914, Frances married Jacob Flipse Jr. (1868-1940), who was forty-six years old and had been married to Frances’ Aunt Christina DeSmit who had passed away without leaving any living children.
On 29 May 1916, the couples’ son Richard Jacob Flipse (DOD 2001) was born. His father, Frances’ husband, was 47. He waited a long time to have a son! On 11 August 1940, Jacob passed away.
If you want to read more about the Flipse family, check out these posts:
The Mystery of Mrs. Jacob Flipse (about Frances Flipse)
Do You Remember the Mystery of Mrs. Jacob Flipse (this one gives a lineage of the Flipse family)
Frances’ older son, Edwin, passed away in Pasco, Florida, on 28 May 1978. Right around that time is when I met her at her home. Here is a photo of her from Joel Reeves from the 1970s.
Four years later, Frances passed away at age 96 on 15 January 1980 in Kalamazoo. She was still living in the Burdick and Balch neighborhood as of the time I met her in the late 1970s. She was buried on 18 January 1980 at Riverside Cemetery. I put in a request for a photo of her headstone, and less than ten minutes later I got an email letting me know it had been accomplished! I have to give a shout out to Findagrave volunteer Jeff Phillips who then went on to make sure all branches of the DeSmit family in that section were photographed and loaded onto Findagrave! Jeff is a real credit to Findagrave!
The next DeSmit child lived to adulthood, but died quite young. Dirk (Richard) was born 12 June 1887 in Kalamazoo and passed away on 29 April 1913, at the age of 25 in Detroit. He was buried on 2 May 1913 at Riverside Cemetery.
Geertruida, or Gertrude, was born on 3 September 1889. She died at age 13 on 29 July 1903. Or was she? She was buried on 23 July 1903 at Riverside Cemetery.
Look carefully at the dates on the death certificate. What do you think about the date of death?
Cause of death: Acute rheumatism with endocarditis.
I have this photo of three of the DeSmit sisters.
Note that the middle woman (in age) is clearly Cora who has a very distinctive look. Jennie was 1873 to 1908, married in 1905. Cora was 1880-1954, married in 1899. Frances was 1882-1980, first married in 1902. Gertrude was 1889-1903.
I have posted this photo in the past, and I couldn’t decide the date of the photo and why there are three sisters instead of four. The truth is that if the photo was taken after Gertrude’s 1903 death, Frances would have been married and not the little girl she appears in this photo. So what if the photo was taken much earlier. What if the youngest in the photo was Frances and she was 14? Then Cora would be 16 and Jennie would be 23. Those are plausible ages for this photo, I think. That would date the image to about 1896, and Gertrude would have been 7 and not in the photo.
Maybe Gertrude wasn’t in that photo because she as in another photo. What if the previous photo was meant to be the “young ladies” of the household, and this photo was meant to be the children? This would be about right to be Gertrude, Richard, and the youngest child Adrian (who I haven’t yet introduced). The date on the photograph is 1895 and WAS IDENTIFIED BY GRANDPA AS GERTRUDE, RICHARD, AND ADRIAN DESMIT!
Because both Richard and Gertrude died so young, Adrian was the only remaining sibling of this photo throughout much of the 20th century.
Lastly, Adriaan, or Adrian, was born on 9 December 1891 and baptized on 7 February 1892 in Kalamazoo.
Adrian was a sailor with the U.S. Navy at the time of WWI and after. He enlisted 12 June 1918 and was released 30 September 1921.
On 6 June 1923, he married Minnie Brondyk (born Groefsema) (1896-?). Minnie had been married to Jacob Brondyk and divorced him.
I see Adrian had a daughter born years before his marriage, on 30 March 1917–Dorothy Marie DeSmit. So was he Dorothy’s stepfather or did he adopt her?
Adrian died on 5 September 1988 in Gardena, Los Angeles County, at age 96. He was buried a week later, on 12 September, in Kalamazoo at Riverside Cemetery.
To sum up: I only looked for certain documents: photos, death certificates, baptism records, and headstones.
I am missing these items:
- Death certificates for Ben, John, Cora, Richard, Frances, and Adrian (these can be ordered from Kalamazoo County, if DeSmit family would like to do so)
- Baptism records for John, Richard, and Gertrude (more searching of Reformed records needs to happen)
- Photos for Ben and John (gosh, I wish)
- Graves for Jennie, John Sr.’s first wife–as well as the graves of the babies of Jacoba and John who passed away. If they were buried at Pioneer, this will not happen, most likely.
There are many other records which can be search for, including records for spouses and children.
Here is a special photo from around 1950 from Joel of my great-great-grandfather’s sister, Mary DeKorn, and the mother of all the children I’ve written about in this post. She lived to be 98 years old.
This is the same woman:
And now for a super special photo from Joel. Five generations!
From left to right: Mary DeKorn DeSmit, Donald Reeves, David Reeves, Edwin Reeves, and Frances Flipse.
Mary DeKorn was John Sr.’s DIL, who was gone decades before this photo was taken around 1950. Frances Flipse was Mary’s daughter. Edwin was the son of Frances. Donald was the son of Edwin. And David was the oldest son of Donald. Joel, who gave me the photos, is the brother of David.
Next time I will write about the other grandchildren of John DeSmit, Sr.
The Family Kalamazoo 