Notable July Fourth Events in Our Family History

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Today is Independence Day in the United States, the 249th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by our founding fathers. On this day, Americans celebrate the birthday of our nation.

I thought it would be interesting to look through my RootsMagic family tree databases and see what significant events happened on July 4th in our family's history. I ran queries in my own database, my children's paternal lines database, and my grandchildren's paternal lines database.

There were many July 4th births, marriages, and deaths of individuals, mostly distant relatives. There were no July 4th burials, which makes sense. A burial is a sad occasion and Independence Day is for celebrations.

I won't list every July 4th birth, marriage, or death below, but I will list ones for direct ancestors or those which may have had an effect on a direct ancestor.

Births

Oddly enough, only one of the three July 4th ancestor births was on American soil.

My paternal great-great-grandfather, James W. Barber, was supposedly born on this date in 1841, somewhere in England. He is a brick wall ancestor, which means I know nothing about his family of origin: parents, siblings, etc. I also don't know where in England he was born or lived. The first record in which I can positively identify him is the 1871 Canada Census, although I did find an 1862 marriage record for a couple with somewhat wrong names in the correct location (that's a blog post for another day!).

Another July 4th birth belongs to John D. Concidine, my adoptive 3rd-great-grandfather, who was born to Dennis Concidine and Honora "Nora" Gilligan in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland. John's granddaughter Nellie May Concidine and her husband Alfred Henry Holst adopted my paternal grandmother, Jane Marie York, who became Jeanne Marie Holst.

Polly Emeline Dennis, my grandchildren's paternal 3rd-great-grandmother, was born on July 4th in 1840 in Tennessee. It probably was in Overton County, where her father James Thaxton Dennis was found in the censuses from 1820 through 1840, before moving on to Dent Co., Missouri. 

Polly's mother was Lucinda Catherine Hunter, which I find interesting because my grandchildren's surname is Hunter; their father's direct paternal line. But Polly and her mother Lucinda are found in their paternal grandmother's line. This means my grandchildren have Hunters on both sides of their dad's family tree. These lines don't seem to be related: on their dad's paternal side, the Hunters can be traced into early New Jersey, while Lucinda's line is found in South Carolina. But Hunter, after all, is a common occupational surname.

Marriages

My children's paternal great-great-grandparents, George Rice Westaby III and Rena Lerfald, were married on this day in 1915 in Glendive, Dawson Co., Montana. I've been spending a lot of time lately researching the Westaby family and am in the middle of a series about George's youngest brother Lynn.

In my own family, the only ancestor who had a July 4th marriage was Filippus Willems Jonker. He married his first wife, Grietje Eisses, on this date in 1812 in Kloosterburen, Groningen, the Netherlands. His second wife, Catharina Klaassens van der Laan, was my ancestor. They married 4 April 1831 after Grietje's death, and were my 4th-great-grandparents.

Deaths

No July 4th ancestral deaths were located in any of the three family trees. However, on this date my great-great-grandparents Tjamme Wiegers "James" Valk and Berber Tjeerds "Barbara" de Jong tragically lost two children, two years apart, in Grand Rapids, Kent Co., Michigan.

In 1895, their youngest daughter Chaterina died at age 5 months, 9 nine days of "summer complaint." This was an old medical term describing severe diarrhea and dehydration, usually in infants, typically caused by spoiled milk. Remember that pasteurization was not common until the 1920s and people in the 1890s relied on ice boxes or cellars to keep their food cool, but it was not reliable. What's especially sad is that Chaterina was the third and last daughter James and Barbara had named for James's mother in an attempt to carry on her name in the family.

In 1897, little Tjamme died from measles at one year old. The family had just celebrated his first birthday four days earlier. His name was recorded as Thomas on the death record; another anglicization variation. Pneumonia and encephalitis complications are the most common causes of death from measles. It would have been horrible for Tjamme's parents to watch him burn up with a fever they couldn't bring down and watch him struggle to breathe. We are so fortunate to have a measle vaccine available for our children today.

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What July 4th significant events have you found in your family tree?

The Short Life and Tragic Death of Maria "Maggie" HOEKSTRA (1878 - 1890)

It was a typical evening; nothing out of the ordinary. Twelve-year-old Maria Hoekstra was heading home with her father and two neighbor boys from a visit to a family friend. Likely it was chilly that evening of December 7, 1890 as they made their way toward their home on Thirteenth Street near Market (now Central). Their route took them where the Chicago and West Michigan Railroad tracks crossed Tenth Street between Fish and Land Streets (now Columbia and Lincoln) on what was then the eastern edge of Holland, Michigan, just a couple blocks east of Hope College. In their way was a parked train. Not to be deterred, 15-year-old Jerry Dykstra and 22-year-old Peter Van Dyk jumped over the couplings between two freight cars. What happened next is unclear. One version says Maria's father was helping her over the couplings. A more detailed account said she was attempting to scramble over by herself. But then, the train started to move....

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Historical map of Chicago and West Michigan Railroad crossing at Tenth Street, Holland, Michigan. Digital image from page 41 of Standard atlas of Ottawa County, Michigan...., compiled and published by George A. Ogle & Co., 1897. Loutit Library Local History Resources. http://www.loutitlibrary.org/local-history-resources : 2015.

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Modern map of Amtrak Railroad crossing at Tenth Street, Holland, Michigan. Digital image. Google Maps. http://maps.google.com : 2015.

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She had to have been brave; perhaps a bit of a tomboy. Skirts wouldn't have held her back. Can't you see her trying to keep up with the two older boys? She had to have had spunk, that girl. Yet her short life and tragic death were not given much note in the Family Record book of my maternal great-grandparents, John and Lillian Hoekstra. On page 94, in the section titled "Husband's Uncles and Aunts - Paternal," John had written just a few lines regarding his paternal aunt, who died two years before he was born:

Full name: Maggie Hoekstra

Place and date of birth: Holland Mich. about 1877

Language: Dutch

Date and cause of death: Accidental death when 13 years old.

Where buried: Pilgrim Cemetery, Holland Mich

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Hoekstra, John Martin and Lillian Fern (Strong). Family Record Book, Chicago: S. B. Shaw, 1902. Privately held by Miriam Robbins, Spokane, Washington. c. 2000.

Like much of the information in this book, the details of Maria's life are a bit off from the facts, mainly because it was written down from memories and oral history, rather from researching records. But I immediately recognized an untold story. What was the accident that killed young Maggie/Maria? Could I find more? How? It's difficult enough to locate records and stories of ancestors that lived long lives; unfolding the details of a short life would be even more challenging.

1852 painting of the Arnold Böninger. Palmer List of Merchant Vessels. http://www.geocities.org/mppraetorius/com-ar.htm : 2003.

On a late spring day in 1867, a weary middle-aged man boarded the Prussian sailing ship Arnold Böninger in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Accompanying him was Geertruida, his 15-year-old daughter, the only survivor of three sets of twins that Jan Martens Hoekstra and Pieterke VanTil had borne. Pieterke herself had died only two years earlier; this move to America was Jan's chance for a new life. He and Geertruida had made their way south from their home in Ulrum in the northern province of Groningen. Their destination was Holland, Ottawa County, Michigan, a city of Dutch expatriates seeking religious freedom and a better economy who had settled the area under the leadership of Pastor Albertus C. Van Raalte of the Christian Seceded Church, of which Jan was a member. After arriving in New York City on June 11th, the Hoekstras made their way to Holland, where Jan found work as a servant.

Only eleven days earlier, the British steamship Iowa had arrived in New York City from Glasgow carrying another widowed Dutch immigrant, 35-year-old Grietje (Jonker) Dekker, her twelve-year-old daughter, Cathrena, and nine-year-old son, Freek. Like Jan, Grietje had known her share of sorrow. Within five years she had buried her husband, a son, and her parents. Her orphaned younger brothers, Willem and Henderikus, ages 25 and 15 respectively, were traveling along and looking forward to a new beginning as well. Grietje also became a servant and her brothers found jobs as carpenters in nearby Spring Lake Township.

By late October, Jan and Grietje were married. Neither the short four months between immigration and marriage nor the twelve-year age difference between the couple were surprising; Grietje's home town in the Netherlands was Kloosterburen, situated a mere seven-kilometer (4.3-mile) walk northeast of Ulrum. It was very likely the Hoekstra, Jonker, and Dekker families knew each other prior to immigration. Even if they hadn't, Holland was a small town. Jan and Grietje may have worked in the same household and likely attended services together, probably at the Ninth Street Holland Christian Reformed Church. Besides, marriage in those days was as much about necessity and survival as about love.

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Michigan. Ottawa County. Birth Records. 1878. Digital image. FamilySearch.org, "Michigan Births, 1867-1902." http://www.familysearch.org : 2014.
Maria's birth is record 190; the 10th entry on these pages.

Jan and Grietje added more children to their blended family. Their first child was my great-great-grandfather, Martin, born in 1868. Then came the first Maria, born in 1870, who died shortly before her third birthday from liver cancer. Fonytje ("Finnie") was born in 1874, and the second Maria, the subject of this story, was born 4 April 1878. In addition, the Family Record book states that two sets of twins were born to Jan and Grietje and died in infancy. In those days, families generally had children every two years, a natural cycle of pregnancy, nursing (which usually suppresses conception), and weaning; it's possible those sets of twins were born in the years 1872 and 1876. A burial of 10 September 1874 for "a child of Jan Hoekstra" has been found in the Pilgrim Home Cemetery records; whether that is one of the twins born c. 1872 or a possible twin of Finnie is up for speculation. Perhaps it is a different family altogether. Although Michigan kept birth and death records beginning in 1867, until 1897 (deaths) and 1902 (births) they were done annually census-style, and thus many individuals were missed. Regardless, we know from the 1880 Federal Census that only three children survived the very dangerous years of infant and early childhood mortality: Martin, Finnie, and (the second) Maria.

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Michigan. Ottawa County. 1880 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital image. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com : 2007.
The Hoekstra family is enumerated on lines 16-20.

Typical of many of my Frisian-Dutch immigrant family members, Maria was known by several names. She is recorded as Maria (misspelled "Maia") in the county birth record. But we know from a later newspaper account that she generally went by "Maitje," which to the ears of English speakers probably sounded a lot like "Maggie." While the official recorders of that time were probably familiar with Dutch names, they may not have been as familiar with Frisian spellings and name variations. These English, Dutch, and Frisian variations and spellings create challenges when attempting to locate individuals in official records. For instance, I have yet to find this family enumerated on the 1884 Michigan State Census, even after scrolling image by image through the online pages at Seeking Michigan.

With these difficulties, could I find the complete story of Maria? I was able to locate her record in the Return of Deaths for Ottawa County that gave me an important detail: the cause of death was a railroad accident.

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Michigan. Ottawa County. Death Records. 1890. FamilySearch.org, "Michigan Deaths, 1867-1897." http://www.familysearch.org : 2015.
Maggie's entry is record 275; the 11th entry on each page. The date of death is incorrect; according to a newspaper article published on 13 December 1890, she died on the 7th (not the 17th) of December.

In 2006, I created a memorial page for Maria at Find A Grave, after discovering her burial while searching for other family members in the Pilgrim Home Cemetery tombstone transcriptions on microfilm. In 2013, a Find A Grave volunteer kindly took this photograph for me of the tombstone Maria shares with her mother (the birth and death years are off):

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Grave of Maria Hoekstra, Block M, Lot 35, Pilgrim Home Cemetery, Holland, Ottawa County, Michigan. Digital photograph by Find A Grave volunteer "Scout" and privately held by Miriam Robbins, Spokane, Washington. 2013.

But what was the story? Attempting to locate online newspapers or city directories for further information on the family proved futile. However, one day in April, a Find A Grave volunteer contacted me and informed me that the Saline Observer from Saline, Washtenaw County, Michigan, had an online article about the accident:

“State News Condensed,” Saline (Michigan) Observer, 18 December 1890, p. 8, col. 2; digital image, CMU Online Digital Object Repository (http://condor.cmich.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/salineobs : 2015), MDNP-Washtenaw-Saline Observer.

When I posted my find on Facebook, an Ottawa County genealogy friend of mine volunteered to look in the Holland City News archives at the Herrick District Library in Holland. She hit pay dirt:

“A Tragic Death,” Holland (Michigan) City News, 13 December 1890, p. 4.

So now I have the rest of the story. Ironically, in 2000, my family took Amtrak from Spokane, Washington back to Grand Rapids, Michigan. We would have crossed the very site of Maria's tragic death, shown here in Google Maps Street View:

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Amtrak Railroad crossing at Tenth Street, Holland, Michigan. Digital image. Google Maps Street View. http://maps.google.com : 2015.
View looking west on Tenth Street.

What remains to finish my research and honor the life of young Maria? I hope to access the original inquest report and perhaps discover church records for this one whose life was cut much too short. Someday, I'd like to visit Holland again, find the home (or site) where the Hoekstra family lived, visit this railroad crossing, and lay a flower at Maria's grave.

(Coincidentally, today marks 125 years since Maria's death. I did not even realize this until I opened the draft, written months ago, to add citations and put in the finishing touches. She has been "haunting" me to tell her story all year. I hope she rests in peace.)

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I could not have fleshed out the skeleton of Maria's story without help from a number of people. First of all, thanks to Find A Grave photo volunteers "genealogymaster1" and "Scout" for taking photos of Maria's grave. Secondly, to Find A Grave contributer Pat Harney, who discovered the Saline Observer article, and took the time to contact me. Huge thanks is due to genealogy Facebook friend, Mary Raper, who went to the Herrick District Library and found the detailed article in the Holland City News and verified the publication date, which clarified Maria's death and burial dates (there were conflicting dates in various records). Finally, I thank my cousin Michelle "Missy" (Hovenkamp) Alkema, who is a descendant of Finnie Hoekstra VanTil, sister of my Martin and of Maria. Missy researched and provided evidence of Grietje's immigration on the ship Iowa through a very incorrect passsenger list and a number of vital and immigration records in online Dutch collections. It is so fun to have a co-researcher on our mutual Hoekstra line!

Friday Findings: DeVRIES and other Dutch Lines

The last couple of weeks have just been rather crazy and chaotic, and although I did have some great finds, keeping up with blogging about it wasn't easy.

The first big find was when Henk van Kampen read my DeVRIES Surname Saturday post and left a comment, having found more information on this family. I am so excited, because I was able to trace this line back another two generations, using data that has been added to Tresoar (the Frisian Historical and Literary Centre) since I last researched this line!

Then my distant VALK cousin, Anja van Huesden, was looking at my online database and found more information on my JONKER line in the Province of Groningen. Groningen has long had their marriage records indexed on Genlias, but thanks to Anja, I discovered that birth and death records for my ancestral town of Kloosterburen have been added to Genlias. I was able to obtain specific birth and death dates for a few of my ancestors (instead of the "c. 1809" type dates used from their ages at the time of marriage). Plus, I discovered that my HOEKSTRA 3rd-great-grandfather and his first wife actually had eight children, instead of two before the wife died. Most of these were twins, and all died young, except for Gertrude, who accompanied my widowed 3rd-great-grandfather to America in 1867. When my uncle brought me a bunch of old family photos, I found a couple of Gertrude as an elderly lady. She was my 2nd-great-grandfather HOEKSTRA's older half-sister.

One of my husband's maternal cousins friended me on Facebook. Besides being glad we are back in touch after so many years, I am delighted to be in contact with her because she has always had an interest in genealogy. I have asked her to keep an eye out for old family photos, since there seem to be so very few in existence in my mother-in-law's family.

Genealogical Publishing Company has been having fabulous book sales on Fridays. Last Friday, I ordered Virginia Genealogy by Carol McGinnis. I have her Michigan Genealogy, which I've raved about before on this blog many times, so I expect to learn much about how to research in Virginia and how and where records were/are kept. Although I have no Virginia ancestry, my husband has a multitude of lines from that state. (Yippee! It just arrived in today's mail!)

Speaking of ordering, I'm going to renew my Footnote subscription for another 12 months at the reduced rate of $59.95 ($20 off the cost of annual subscriptions after today).

Lastly, I received the July issue of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Interesting and scholarly reading here, impressing me on the importance of citing one's sources!

HOEKSTRA - JONKER - TON - ZIGTERMAN - DICKINSON marriages, Ottawa Co., Michigan

I went to my local Family History Center this evening. The film I had ordered (FHL microfilm #0984231: Ottawa County, Michigan Marriage Records, Vol. 5 - 7, 1867 - 1902) was in. I had a number of marriages to search. The first was for my great-great-great-grandparents, Jan Martens HOEKSTRA and Grietje JONKER. Both widowed, they emigrated separately to the U.S. from Kloosterburen, Groningen, the Netherlands to Holland, Ottawa County, Michigan. Jan came in 1867 with a daughter, Geertje "Gertrude", from his first marriage. I haven't been able to find Grietje JONKER's immigration information, but it had to be between 1862, when her youngest son, Filippes DEKKER, died in Kloosterburen, and 1867, when she married Jan.

I found Jan and Grietje's marriage in Volume 5, page 3. It was record #45, and extremely difficult to read. They were married in Holland (Michigan) on 28 Oct 1867, a mere short four months after Jan emigrated. The officiant was J. B. DeBEE(K?), officiant of the "T. Ref. Ch." Now looking at the Ottawa County GenWeb site, I cannot find a Reformed Church that starts with a "T." It might be a "J" or maybe a "1". Couldn't find a pastor's name with DeBEE or DeBEEK, either. More investigation needed. Also, I had a difficult time reading the witnesses names: J. HUIGESTAGES (?) and E. HATLE/HIGTE/SLIGTE (?), both of Holland.

The second important marriage record was for Jan and Griete's son and daughter-in-law, Martin HOEKSTRA and Jennie TON (my great-great-grandparents). I had long suspected that the "Martin HOEKSTRA - Jana FOW" marriage I had seen listed in the bride's index at the Ottawa County GenWeb site was for my ancestors, with TON misspelled. I found their record (#233) in Vol. 6, pg. 59. Yes, TON was misspelled as FOW on the record itself...which probably was copied from the original marriage certificate or the clergyman's records incorrectly. Martin and Jana/Jennie were married 27 Nov 1886 in Holland (Michigan). I know this is their record, because Jennie's birthplace is correctly listed as Ohio, and Martin's parents, Jan and Grietje, were the witnesses. It also matches the information Martin and Jennie's son, John (my great-grandfather), wrote in his Family Record Book, that his parents were married November 1886.

A fun new discovery was a marriage record for Catherine DEKKER, Grietje JONKER's daughter by her first marriage to Jans Freerk DEKKER, and a half-sister to Martin. She married Bene HAIT of Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan on 12 Jan 1874 in Holland (Michigan), according to their marriage record (#83) found in Vol. 5, pg. 98. It lists Catherine's birthplace as Kloosterburen, which is terrific! Groningen does not yet have all its birth/baptisms listed online at the Dutch National Archives website, so I did not have a specific birthplace for Catherine before now, although I did find other family records (marriages and deaths) located in Kloosterburen. I suspect now that the E. HATLE/HIGTE/SLIGTE witness to Jan and Grietje's marriage may actually be HAIT. UPDATE: I've since discovered that this difficult-to-read surname was actually STUIT, and not HAIT. The witness was very likely Hattie STUIT, mother of Beene STUIT, who married Grietje's daughter Catherine.

Other marriage records found of lesser importance include those for Zigert ZICHTERMAN - Anna BRONSEMA (Zi was a brother to my step-ancestor, Trientje ZIGHTERMAN BOS BARSEMA); and Wallace William DICKINSON - Elizabeth GARRISON (Wallace was a brother to my ancestor, Lucy May DICKINSON). I could not locate a marriage record for Fonytje "Finnie" HOEKSTRA (Jan and Grietje's daughter) to Riekel VanTIL, although a descendant of theirs lists 27 Oct 1892 in Holland (Michigan) as their marriage date and location. I found Sherman DICKINSON (a brother to Wallace and Lucy) in the index, but ran out of time to locate the record. And I still need to investigate all DEKKER listings to see if I can locate Fredrich DEKKER's marriage (brother to Catherine/son of Grietje from her first marriage).