No News (:

I had high hopes that Rosalinde would answer my email!  Of course, the email address I had used to write to her was from a couple of years ago, so maybe it's not one that she checks often ( I have one of those!)  In any event, I'm still hopeful that I'll be able to contact her or one of her family members eventually.

Just a note of interest, my son recently visited Ellis Island.  My grandfather, Reindert Tuinman passed through there in 1914 when he arrived in the US.  There is a place where all the names are listed, and my son thoughtfully took this picture.  (center column, 5th from bottom)

It is interesting to note that his first name is spelled differently from the way it was spelled in the Netherlands, but seems to have been Americanized.

Recently, I have begun researching my grandmother's genealogy.  It's a bit easier because she comes from several generations of Americans.  Perhaps I'll start another blog......

Sent an Email!!

Although I already wrote one post today, I am so excited I had to write again!  I was just fooling around on my computer googling the name Rosalinde Tuinman. 

On the funeral program from Kees' funeral, I thought she was one of Kees' children, married to Martin Hurkens.  I got a number of "hits" for the name Rosalinde Tuinman.  As I was going through them, I found a website with a picture of a band from the early 60s.  A bunch of people had written comments, mostly relatives of the band members, etc.  One of them was Rosalinde Gardener (remember...Tuinman on google translate is Gardener).  I was able to click on her name and an email popped up with her email address of "mhurkens", which of course, led me to believe my assumptions are correct that she's Mrs. Hurkens! 

So, I sent her an email, explaining that if my research is correct, she and I are third cousins!  Hopefully she's a nice lady and doesn't think I'm a stalker and decides to write back!  I also found what I think is her picture on a facebook type page called Hyve.  However, I won't post her picture here without her permission.  Hopefully she checks her email regularly and writes back!!!

Success!!

Well, my message on ancestry.com worked!  Today I got an email with an attachment of Kees Tuinman's funeral program.  I typed it all into google translate and here is what it said (not all in correct English, but understandable):

Kees was in his life caring for the children dutifully Mies and his surroundings. He is also enjoying life.  Interested to the wellbeing of others, he was always up for a good conversation and socializing with family and friends.  He could enjoy nature, forest, sea, beach and the sun.  As the sun was shining! With incredible will power, he yielded to succeed in life, able to overcome.

Just because he managed to enjoy life and had a cheerful,  humoristic impact. 53 years has Kees with Mies shared life and enjoyed by children and grandchildren.
In recent years begun the physical and mental limitations (which) may play a role. With much love and care has been at his side Mies
We are grateful that we, Mies, children and grandchildren, a dignified farewell were able to take. Kees, it will be very different now you're gone.

For your interest and sympathy after the death of my dear husband, our father, father and grandfather are proud we are sincerely grateful.

Mies Tuinman – van Bemmel

Rosalinde Tuinman en Martin Hurkens

Maaike – Jochem

Anne – Bas

Kees en Henriette Tuinman – Vermeulen

Rob – Nathalie

Michel

Louis

Breda, 31 december 2004

I am assuming that Mies was, of course, his wife, maiden name van Bemmel.  I guess that Rosalinde was their daughter, married to Martin Hurkens, with possibly four children, Maaike, Jochem, Anne and Bas.  Also a son named Kees married to Henriette,maiden named Vermeulen, with three children - Rob, Nathalie and Michel.  The last name on the list had an asterisk, but nothing to refer to.  Maybe it's a child who passed away or even a beloved pet?? 

I've found a Maaike Tuinman and a Henriette Tuinman on facebook and have sent messages to both.  Hopefully, one or both of them will be my relative.

This is particularly exciting for me because Kees is the first offspring of one of my grandfather's siblings - he was the child of Cornelius Tuinman and Agatha Speets.  He would have been my father's first cousin.  His children would likely be around my age and his grandchildren members of my children's generation. 

On another note, yesterday after I received the other email which led me to Kees' siblings, I continued to search the Archives for other "Tuinmans".  I came upon my great, great grandfather's baptism documents.  Seeing this kind of paperwork brings my ancestors to life for me.  Amazing!

Back to Work

Now that we have returned to the US, I have resumed my genealogy research.  I tried to pick up where I left off but the task seemed overwhelming.  Once again, I tried searching for the various names that had been dead ends to me before, but try as I might, I found not a single piece of new information. 

So, I decided to go back to the beginning and reread this entire blog from the start, taking note of any loose ends.  I found several places where I had meant to continue researching but never did. 

While I was thrilled to find all of my great, great uncle William's family here in the US, I kept hoping to find someone a little more closely related.  Someone who was the descendant of one of my grandfather's siblings.  If you remember, he was one of 8, and at least two of them didn't survive childhood.  Of the remaining 6, four (besides my grandfather) married and may have had children.

The one that intrigued me the most was Kees Tuinman because he only died in 2005 - well into the "internet age".  I can't believe there isn't more information about him!  But every search led to a dead end.  Actually, there are tons of "hits" for Kees Tuinman, but they are all business people who are clearly still working.  My Kees would have been at least 75 when he died. 

I was getting ready to break down and join ancestry.com, but at nearly $30/month, without any proven results, I keep hesitating.  However, I've had some success with posts on their message board in the past.  So, I posted a message with all of the info I knew about him.  Next, I spent a lot of time recreating my enormous family tree onto their website.  Maybe some other person will stumble upon it and find me!  Before the day was over, I had a response to my message board post!  A very nice Dutch gentleman had done my research and found Kees! 

He gave me specific directions on how to find the correct records on line.  I followed his steps and found what he found!  Not only did Kees exist, but he is the youngest of 4!!   He had translated the info for me and told me the following:

My grandfather's brother Cornelius, born on July 27, 1884 and married to Agatha Alida Speets (born April 2, 1888) had four children:
           Elisabeth Catherine, born 1913
           Catharina, born 1916
           Anna, born 1918
           Cornelis (nickname Kees), born 1927  

Further, I learned that later in her life, Catharina moved to Amsterdam, while Anna and Cornelis moved to Laren.  I had also learned while reviewing some of my older notes, that Kees/Cornelis died in Breda. 

I am of course hoping that all four of these "children" grew up and had lots of babies so that I can track one of them down!!  Stay tuned!

Knicky Noot! (Ya Gotta Love that Name!)

In my last post, I had discovered that there was possibly a son of Antje Tuijnman (my grandfather's aunt) and her husband, Hendrick Noot.  It seems that my new friend Vicki has it correct.  Cornelis "Knicky" Noot is the firstborn son of Antje and Hendrick. 

Cornelis came to the US on Oct. 22 (my dad's birthday!), 1914 aboard the SS Potsdam.  My grandfather, his first cousin, sailed here on the SS Rotterdam just ahead of Knicky in April 1914.  I wonder if they were aware of each other's trips?  Knicky came to live with his brother Albert in Rock Rapids, Iowa.  He didn't stay with Albert too long, however.  By the 1920 census he was living with and working for the Francis family, also in Iowa.  He also lived with another of his cousins, Trintje and Theodorus Noot, also in Iowa, for some time during the 1930s.  At some point, Trintje decided he was a freeloader and got him to move on.  He never married and we don't know if there were children.  He died on Feb. 24, 1966 at the age of 94 in Nobles County, Minnesota.  Thank you to Vicki and her book "My Dutch Family", available on http://www.lulu.com/ for all of the above info.

As we are nearing the time for our trip to the Netherlands, I am sorry to admit that I haven't got a single living Dutch relative with whom to try to make contact.  However, I have been told that the genealogical archives in Amsterdam are "amazing" and so I hope to visit there. 

I also wanted to look into what kinds of foods I might expect to eat while we're there.  I know there are all kinds of cheeses, and herring's a popular item.  But what else?

Well, there's snert.  This is pea soup with sausages.  Ok...   Then we have stamppot.  This is a dish with vegetables, potatoes and meat mashed together in one stew. There are varieties with kale, sauerkraut, onions, carrots, sausages and bacon. The final touch is an indentation in the middle of the stew that is filled with gravy. 

Gotta have fries, right?  They have patatje met, which are fries with mayo.  Also, the previously mentioned herring is known in Holland as haring.  It's the most popular fish in Holland.  They eat it on a bun with onions or pickles, or eat it the original way and bite while holding the fish in the air by its tail.  What?  No cream sauce??

More interesting to me is poffertjes, a kind of mini pancake, but thicker and sweeter which is often served with sugar and butter.   Not too bad!  Also hagelslag - chocolate sprinkles on a sandwich!  Finally, one I've heard of (besides herring) - stroopwafel is a flat waffle which is a typical Dutch treat. So, I guess if I don't like the food, I can go straight to dessert!

New People, a Mix Up and a Complaint

Early on in my genealogy search, I discovered that one of my grandfather's aunts, Antje, married Hendrick Noot.  According to my research, they had five children, two of whom died almost immediately and one lived less than two years.  That left two children, one I found almost no information about and the other who married and supposedly had three children I had no information about.  Yesterday, I rediscovered a website that I guess I had seen at the beginning of my search but forgot about.  This site is called geneanet.org.  At that site, I searched the name "Tuijnman" and found 12 pages of hits!  These "hits" were family trees that people had put together and somewhere in their family tree was the name "Tuijnman".  I clicked on the first one and immediately found references to Antje Tuijnman Noot!  I was so excited!  I carefully read through all the information there and it discussesd a son of Antje and Hendrick named Cornelis "Knicky" Noot.  This was a son I hadn't heard of!  I quickly emailed the author of this family tree, Vicki.  She wrote back to tell me that she'd been researching her family tree for years and had published a book about her findings, "My Dutch Family".  She was kind enough to tell me where to buy or even download her book for free (http://www.lulu.com/).  She also gave me access to her detailed family tree. 

As you can imagine, I couldn't wait to read her book and look closely at her family tree.  Right away, I saw that she had completely different children for Antje and Hendrick than I had!  Panicked, I double checked my dates of birth and death for both of them - did I have a different Antje and Hendrick??  I was afraid none of her information would be relevent to me at all!  Luckily, we had the same birth/death dates and same small town in the Netherlands, so they must be the same Antje and Hendrick. 

Vicki had told me that her mother had actually met Cornelis "Knicky" Noot, and I have less confidence in my research than I have in hers.  I sent her another email with the names and information I had and how they differed from hers.  She hasn't responded yet, but hopefully she will soon.  I also skimmed through her book, finding pictures of Antje (!!) and Cornelis too.  Vicki is related on the "Noot" side and they are related to my family only by Antje's marriage to Hendrick, so only the children born to Antje are my relatives.  I plan to read about these people in Vicki's book more carefully to see if I can determine to whom I am actually related!

So I've written about the new people I discovered (both Cornelis and Vicki herself!) and the mix up with Antje and Hendrick's children.  Now for my complaint...

Much earlier in this blog, I explained how useless I found ancestry.com to be.  I had signed on with them for the free trial period and then discontinued before I had to pay them as I hardly found any useful material.  Yesterday I was searching for some information related to Cornelis "Knicky" Noot.  It turns out he also came to the US and lived in Iowa and died in Minnesota.  In trying to verify his info and find any possible spouses or children, I was searching through census records and death records.  These kinds of records are state and/or federal records that should be freely searchable.  Well, they are searchable, but only thru ancestry.com!!  Why has our government turned over all of these public records to a privately owned website??  I can accept that maybe ancestry.com is a one-stop-shopping site for geneological information, but US citizens should be able to search for public records without paying a private entity!  And that's my gripe for today!

Another Cute Story

Way back in August, I wrote about Anna Tuijnman Roomeijer who had a daughter "Beth".  Anna was one of my grandfather's sisters.  I wrote that Beth helped Anna in a store.  I have continued to search for Beth, to no avail.  However, today I again came across the story about the store and I think it's kind of charming.  I'm going to reprint the story, but I'm somewhat paraphrasing. Now, be advised, this was a Google-translation, so it's far from exact, but you'll get the drift.

Anna Roomeijer ran a grocery on the corner of 36 and Poldedrweg Bothastraat. They took the existing store in May 1919 and passed on the emerging competition from the big (stores). But in the late sixties it was the canvas. (maybe this means she 'hit the canvas', as in knocked out??)  Anna Roomeijer did definately not part time.  She worked through Friday night at the shop in shape for the Saturday.  The shop breathed its own atmosphere, that of a grutterij (grocery).  "The smell of coffee, cheese and sugar vemengede(??) themselves.  And of course all over the customers desired quantities."  Anna was assisted by her daughter Beth.

Anyway, I loved the part about her not being part time and the the line that the shop breathed its own atmosphere - you can almost smell the fresh coffee....