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Posts Tagged ‘Richard DeKorn’

A Mysterious Uniform (at least to me)

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Jennie DeKorn Culver, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Photography early 20th century, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 13, 2015| 35 Comments »

Remember the Culver family: my great-great grandfather’s sister, Jenny DeKorn Culver, and her daughters, Lela and Rhea, who moved from Kalamazoo to Seattle 100 years ago.

In the scrapbook which I received from a blog reader I found this photograph. Any ideas on the type of uniform? Since this would have been around the time of the end of WWI, does the uniform have to do with the war?

I don’t know who the man is. Most of the Culver photos are of women.

But the clues would leave me to believe the photo was taken in Seattle in or around 1918. But did Seattle have old elegant buildings like this at that time?

 

What about the building? My first inclination was a church, but I don’t see any crosses. Are those rosettes for ornamentation?

 

 

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A Postcard Brings Me Information and Even More Questions

Posted in Adriaan Zuijdweg/Adrian Zuidweg Sr., Adrian Zuidweg, DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Jennie DeKorn Culver, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Leeuwenhoek, Michigan history, Peek, Photography early 20th century, Richard DeKorn, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 5, 2014| 26 Comments »

I’ve traveled to California, Sedona, and Michigan in the past few weeks.  Needless to say, I am behind in my work even more than usual. I want to continue Theresa Pake’s story and to explore the Jennie DeKorn Culver photos more, but these projects take a good deal of time.

Instead, I decided to take a look at an old postcard postmarked 1911. The postcard is to Alice Leewenhoek, Richard DeKorn’s granddaughter through his daughter Jennie. Alice was an only child who lived with her mother Jennie and her father who Grandpa always called “Uncle Lou”–Lambertus Leewenhoek.

In the photo below, Alice is sitting with a friend, neighbor, or relative against the exterior wall of Richard DeKorn’s house. She holds a doll in her lap and is petting Tom or Carlo (if I had to guess, I would say it’s Tom).

 

Alice Leeuwenhoek with doll

On this postcard, Nellie Bradt is thanking Alice for her “postal.” Nellie’s address is marked as 1130 S. Burdick Street.  The photograph is Bronson Park, which is the beautiful “town square” of Kalamazoo.

Bronson park front postcard

 

After seeing that the mailing address is listed as Balch St. and doesn’t include Alice’s street number (not uncommon for that time period in Kalamazoo), I went to my family tree on Ancestry and discovered that I had never found the Leewenhoek family on the 1910 census.  So I tried something different and looked for the 1910 census on Family Search. Bingo.  Instead of Lambertus Leewenhoek, I found Lamburtos Leenwenhock, at 110 Balch Street, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Uncle Lou was living with his wife Jennie and his daughter Alice who was 13 years old in that year–and therefore around 14 at the time of the postcard in 1911. New info: According to Uncle Don, they lived in the wooden house just behind the Richard DeKorn brick house.

Can you read anything more on the postmark besides the city, state, and year?  Is it December 9? Or does it say something else?

Bronson park back postcard

 

Grandpa and Alice were first cousins, their mothers were sisters.

I haven’t been able to find Nellie Bradt in the 1910 census, but I did find her in an 1899 city directory. I then found her parents in a 1905 directory. I think I can find them more years, too. But I don’t understand how to read these entries. The 1899 entries are entirely different from the 1905, but neither one really gives me the address.

Here is the 1899 that lists Nellie with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George A. Bradt. I understand they lived in the City of Kalamazoo. And I know “a” means acreage, but not how to interpret what any of this means or how it connects with an address.

Nellie Bradt 1899 city directory

 

Here is the 1905 directory entry. Nellie isn’t mentioned, but her parents are. What in the world does it mean?

Nellie Bradt's parents 1905 city directory

Is there a way to search for Nellie in the 1910 census using the 1130 S. Burdick Street address she gives? Can I search the census by address?

Note that many of my relatives lived in this Burdick/Balch neighborhood. When I look at the census records from late 19th and early 20th century, I see that almost everyone, if not everyone, who lived there was Dutch.

My grandfather’s gas station was at the corner of Burdick and Balch, across the street from the Richard DeKorn house. Grandpa lived in that house for part of his childhood, with his parents and grandfather, Richard. When he built his house down the block on Burdick, he was staying in the same general area his family had lived in for decades. He continued to work at his station and live in his house until he retired and moved to Portage.

I remember as a child meeting Mrs. Bradt Braat who lived next door to the gas station. The name is pronounced, by the way, like the sausages that go with beer. I wonder if she was related to the Nellie Bradt who wrote this postcard. Mom? Uncle Don? New info: no, she must not be as they were a Belgian family (see comments below).

Alice Leewenhoek was my grandfather’s cousin. Note that the postcard is stamped with the name and address of Grandpa’s father, A. Zuidweg. I wonder why?

One postcard. So many questions!

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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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 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

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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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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , 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

Lela and Rhea Culver
Seattle, WA

Rhea and Lela Culver Kalamazoo, Michigan

Rhea and Lela Culver
Kalamazoo, Michigan

Jenny DeKorn Culver 1857-1947

Jenny DeKorn Culver
1857-1947

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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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 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

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.

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Why Did Jennie Move to Seattle?

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2014| 27 Comments »

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

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.

May 14, 1897 article about property in jottings

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

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?

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 6, 2014| 22 Comments »

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

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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Online Generosity and Family History

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Kalamazoo history, Mulder, Noffke, Paak, Peek, Waldeck, Zuidweg, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 10, 2014| 23 Comments »

I started this blog in September 2012 with three private posts and then didn’t write again until November. The idea was that I would start to put the photos and stories I had accumulated “out there” for family members to access. Although the details aren’t that memorable to me, it seems that I switched to public but didn’t tag the posts at first, hoping that the posts wouldn’t get picked up by Google. That way, relatives could easily find the blog, but I was in hopes that nobody else would find it.

It didn’t take too long to see that some family members (Hi, Mom and Dad haha) and a few friends liked the blog and I thought it might be better just to tag the posts and connect with other WordPress bloggers. What I had seen of the bloggers working on family histories interested me a lot, so I wanted to feel more involved.

I had no idea what would happen. No, I don’t have an amazing number of blog followers, but those that do follow tend to be loyal and friendly. They are also kind and generous and have helped with looking at the details in photographs and giving me clues about where to search–as well as giving me some behind the scenes help.  You know who you are and you are fabulous.

Another aspect of blogging that I could not have predicted is how many wonderful non-bloggers have found the blog through internet searches and have shared information with me. I hesitate to name people because I don’t want to leave anybody out, so I will list just a few of the insights I’ve gained from these generous souls.

  • One of the biggest mysteries was the Paak family fire and that branch of the family–now I have info and photos to sort through and a new “cousin”
  • Information and photographs about my great-great grandfather Richard DeKorn’s second wife and her daughters.
  • Dates and names beyond count from a very kind and hardworking soul in the Netherlands
  • Through the previous individual, I found a first cousin once removed (I think that’s right) with a big heart–and photos and info–from my dad’s family
  • Photos and information of my ancestors in the Netherlands
  • Found the Noffke line
  • Found out more about the Jenny DeKorn Culver family–and received the gorgeous album of photographs and postcards
  • Information and photographs relating to Ramona Park, Long Lake, and the Waruf family
  • Learned more about the Bosman family
  • Learned more about the VanLiere family and corresponded with that branch and, yes, photos
  • Traced a branch from the Netherlands to the Holland area of Michigan
  • Identification of various photographs

I could continue as there are more goodies that have come my way since starting this blog. I am so grateful for the generosity of everyone involved. If I had kept this blog just to “us,” I wouldn’t have known how large my family truly is and how kind strangers can be.

That’s all I wanted to talk about today: how grateful I am and how thrilling it is to look back at all the information that has been shared here from such generous souls.

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A Wishful Post, A Thoughtful Reader, and A Package

Posted in DeKorn, Family History, Genealogy, Jennie DeKorn Culver, Kalamazoo history, Kalamazoo late 1800s - early 1900s, Photography early 20th century, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 3, 2014| 25 Comments »

In January I published a post called A Sister and Her Family: How Can I Find Out More?. At the time I was wishing for more information on the family of my great-great-grandfather’s sister, Jennie DeKorn Culver, and her family. They had moved from Kalamazoo to Seattle, Washington, over a hundred years ago, but there the trail ran cold.

Readers were very generous with their suggestions, and as I delve more deeply into this branch I plan to act on more of them.

In the meantime, at the end of April the ideal person, a woman named Joyce, a complete stranger to me and to my family, read my blog post and commented. She had a photo album of family photos that belonged to one of the Culvers!

The story of how this album came into Joyce’s possession is a study in respect and appreciation for history and family. Joyce’s father worked at a retirement community with nursing facilities called Bayview Manor in Seattle. Joyce says, “When the residents left, what ever was left in their apartments was given or thrown away. The things thrown, my father liked to pick up, as a lot was still usable. This album was one of them.” Joyce has kept the album for thirty years.

And now she has given it to me for our family. What a kindness. My daughter plans to scan the photos, and I will get Joyce a copy of them. And I plan to post some of the photos over a few posts after they are scanned. They are absolutely beautiful.

Here is a sample:

 

Imagine how I felt when I pulled this album out of the shipping carton!

Many of the photos are loose.

But some are affixed. These will be harder to scan.

Look at their lovely outfits!
I have not yet discovered which Culver left the album at Bayview Manor, but Jennie’s daughter Rhea died in 1976, which is 38 years ago. I have not yet found sister Lela’s obituary, but she was still alive in 1964.

Thank you so much, Joyce, for this wonderful treasure. My family and I thank you for your great kindness and compassion.

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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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