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....

Hopefully a Clarification

Now that I've spent the entire day searching the internet for relatives, I wanted to try to clarify my family tree.  As I said in the first post, I began this search to try to find some Dutch relatives I could meet during my upcoming trip to the Netherlands.  I had no idea this searching would become an obsession with me. 

What I have found is that my grandfather was the youngest of 8 children, at least three of whom died as children or newborns.  I think he was the only one to come to America.  In fact, my parents used to hope my brother would have children so the name (Tuniman) would carry on.  We believed we were the only Tunimans in the US. 

My grandfather's father, (my great grandfather), was one of four children.  One of those four children, my grandfather's Uncle William, also came to the US in the late 1880s, along with his 8 children.  He and his wife had a ninth child in the US.  Most of William's children married and had many, many children of their own.  These family members, lived in Iowa, Minnesota, and North Dakota, among other places.  It is this group, my grandfather's first cousins, and their offspring, that I have been tracking.  It's been much easier of course, to track them down, mostly cause I can read English!  I'm able to read archived newspapers, which as I explained in the last post, print all kinds of interesting gossip which allowed me to piece families together.  In addition, relatives who have passed away in the past 10-15 years often have on line obituaries which provided me a treasure trove of info on family relationships.  Occasionally, I can even glean a bit of info looking at pictures of tombstones, as well as seeing which family members are buried near to each other. 

Along the way, I've come across some interesting stories.  Dorothy Bridgman Tuynman, who would be my dad's second cousin's wife, lived in Sarasota, Fl.  She worked for the fire chief there.  An article about the fire chief related:   Dorothy, affectionately known by the firemen as "Mother", was the department's sole secretary for many years.  The men recollect that, "Cowsert might have been the chief, but Mother kept the place running".

Florence Coyer De Vaul was another second cousin of my dad's.  She  passed away in 2007 at the age of 92!  During her life, she attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY (my mother is from Rochester), worked at an aircraft factory, was a librarian, an avid reader, enjoyed birding, traveling and loved watching the Chicago Cubs, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Minnesota Twins!  Below is a picture of Florence.








And next is a picture of Florence from her grandfather's 90th birthday party.

I found only part of a story about Margaret and Otto Coyer.  She was my grandfather's first cousin.  Here is part of that article:

She babysat in many homes and would stay with people when they weren't feeling well or recuperating......Members (of her church) still talk of the creamed chicken and biscuits she and Ethel Brown served for the Ladies' Aid in the 30's, the teachers would come after school and the business men around six, all enjoying their 25 cent meal.

She enjoyed gardening, her little corner of the block was filled with blossoms of every kind and many kinds of trees and bushes.

She loved life and made life happy for those around her.  Her children and grandchildren adored her.

Of course, I also came across much sadness.  Lorens Tuynman, another of my dad's second cousins, died at the young age of 20 in a car accident, shortly after his son, Lorens Jr. was born.  His sister, Margaret died at the age of 19.  She had been attending music school and became ill. 

Confusion and Organization

I realize that my posts have probably become more and more confusing.  It's pretty confusing to me, and I have a printed and on-line family tree to refer to, which I do constantly!  Instead of running back and forth to my laundry room, where the "tree" has been hanging, I've just set up a card table next to my computer desk and I have the "tree" lying there.  Hopefully later today, I will try to make things less confusing for all of my blog readers out there! 

By the way, I don't know who you are!  I've had over 180 views so far.  I know some are my immediate family, and I assume Marnie and her father.  But unless these few people are obsessively reading me over and over again, there must be a few more of you!  If you're reading this please send me an email or facebook message! 

One very amusing thing that I've become aware of has come from reading the old archived newspapers of the midwest in the early part of the 20th century.  There are entire, long articles of local gossip.  For example, things like "Mrs. Mary Jones and her daughter are spending the next four days visiting her mother in law, Mrs. Tammy Jones in Sioux Falls."  There are pages and pages of this stuff!  This is how I have so easily pieced together the American branch of the family.  Birthday parties, family reunions, and the recounting of who attended a funeral allow me to match names of "new" family members with the names I already have.  I can't imagine these kinds of items being published in the papers today.  Of course, we publish all of this gossip on our own on facebook!

Obsessed!!

So today, I sat down for a few minutes to try to find some more ancestors.  I ended up at my computer (and running back and forth to my laundry room) for almost the whole day!  Fortunately, I have posted the family tree in the laundry room so at least I got the laundry done!  I was able to easily track down some of the descendants of William, my grandfather's uncle.  There are several newspapers archived that have mentions of my Iowa ancestors.  William must have been a very prominent resident or not much was happening in Sioux County, Iowa in the 1930s because his 90th birthday party which I discussed in an earlier post made the papers!  In addition, I have come across at least three articles about his death at the age of 94.  And I don't mean obituaries - full, front page of the paper articles!  Along the way, I've found some more pictures.

Although it's hard to see here, it says Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Hazlitt, born in Sioux County (him) and Netherlands (her) 1873.  Nellie Tuynman Hazlitt is one of William's daughters, and my grandfather's first cousins.  Below is their grave in Iowa.

This is young Hobart Hazlitt, born in Sioux County on Nov. 30, 1897.  Hobart was the oldest child of Alfred and Nellie (above).  He is one of five children.  Although Hobart is about 25 years older than my father, they were first cousins. 

Next is Cornelius Tuynman, one of my grandfather's first cousins, (William's oldest child), and his wife, Nellie / Neeltje.  I wonder if my grandfather knew he had cousins in the United States when he came here?  Grandad didn't arrive until 1914, and to my knowledge, never went to Iowa.  Perhaps if he'd joined his cousins instead of settling in Maryland, I would never have been born!  Below their picture is the Cornelius' grave.  He only lived to be 45.

Another Relative in the US

In searching for "new" relatives, I have spent a lot of time looking at the family tree I created.  I need to check names or birth/death dates to see if I'm on the right track.  Looking at the family tree on line allows me only to see one section of the tree at a time, so I decided to print the whole thing out and hang it up.  I decided to hang it in my laundry room as printed family trees do not fit in with the decor of any part of my house! 

So, I spent a good deal of time on Friday figuring out how to print it all in a size that would fit on the wall, but big enough to be able to read!  Below is a picture of my family tree:

Today, I tried in earnest to find someone new.  I had read somewhere that Albert Noot, one of my grandfather's first cousins, had three children with Grietje Mooi, his wife.  Search as hard as I could, I was unable to find any of these children.  However, I did find a long and detailed translation of someone's family tree.  Two thirds of the way down, there was a mention of Hendrick Noot and his wife Antje.  They were my grandfather's aunt and uncle.  This family tree discussed the children of Hendrick and Antje.  I already knew about Albert, as he was the one who's children I started looking for today.  I knew there was another Albert who died just weeks after birth, and Catharina, who also only lived a few weeks.   Willem Noot and his younger brother Gerrit were also known to me, but I don't know if they married or had children.  However, I was surprised to find another child, Cornelius Hendriksz Noot who was born on March 4, 1872.  Cornelius was the oldest child of Hendrick and Antje.  Surprisingly, he moved to the US, to Rock Rapids, Iowa, and lived to be 93 years old!  A death certificate was issued in Nobles County, Worthington, MN in 1966.  There is no indication that he ever married or had children, but I'll keep looking into that!  This translated family tree specifically states that "Elizabeth Noot from North Dakota" provided the information about Cornelius.  So now I'll try to find Elizabeth!

One Correction, Some New Pictures

My new, good friend Marnie has been following my blog and noted that I made an error in identifying her grandmother, Mildred (Mid) Coyer.  I had zoomed in on who I thought was Mildred, but was actually her sister, Florence.  The real Mildred is below.

In addition, I never posted the picture of the "Tuynman homestead" in Iowa! 

I like how they're out there working in suits and long dresses!  I guess that's how it was then!

Marnie also sent me some gravestone pictures, which are below.

Perhaps this is a family plot marker.  Otherwise, I'm not sure whose grave this is.  Below, is the grave of Willem Tuijnman.  It's hard to see, but it says

Father

Apr 7, 1844

Dec 26, 1938

The next grave stone belongs to Willem's wife, Antje Tijsen Tuijnman.  It says:

Mother

May 14, 1849

July 30, 1917

 Next is the grave of Peter, William and Antje's third born child.  You will notice that the name has been "Americanized" to Tuynman.  My grandfather changed it to "Tuniman".  It's no wonder it's been hard to find each other!  It says

Father

Peter F. Tuynman

1873-1956

Finally we have Peter's wife, Hannah.  Her stone says

Mother

Hannah M. Tuynman

1878 - 1963

Family in the US

As mentioned earlier, I have been in contact with Marnie, who serves in the US Army in Fort Bragg, in North Carolina.  Marnie is the great, great granddaughter of Willem Tuijnman and Antje Tijsen Tuijnman.  Willem was my grandfather's uncle.  Willem and Antje had ten children, the first nine born in Holland and the last child born in the US.  The ninth child of Willem and Antje is Grietje (Margaret in the US) and she was born on 1/16/1885.  She lived to the ripe old age of 96, passing on Aug. 15, 1981.  Grietje/Margaret married Otto Coyer and had four children, three daughters and a son.  One of those daughers, Mildred Coyer, married Arnold Gilbertson.  They had four children as well - two sons and two daughters.  Marnie is the daughter of one of the sons. 

Marnie has kindly emailed me a few pictures to share.  Below is the passport picture of Willem, my great, great uncle, her great, great grandfather.

Next is a group picture taken at a 90th birthday party for Willem. Willem's daugher (Marnie's great grandmother) Grietje/Margaret is in the back row in white.  Her daughter, (Marnie's grandmother) is in the middle row, fourth from the left with a plaid collar.

Below, I've zoomed in on Mildred Coyer.  She would be my grandfather's cousin's child (first cousin once removed??).  She is also Marnie's grandmother.

Marnie has also graciously provided me with a list identifying all of the people in the "party" picture above.  The birthday boy, William, is sitting in the front.  William was one of my grandfather's uncles.  This party took place on April 8, 1934, the day after William's 90th birthday.  It was a sit down dinner at the Rudolph Hotel in Canton, SD.  Seven of William's ten children attended with their families.  On the menu was peach and pineapple cocktail, wafer, tomato salad, potatoes, chicken, gravy, peas, biscuits, coffee, sherbet, and strawberry shortcake birthday cake.  Standing next to William was his only great grandchild at the time, Billy Beeghley. 

Four New People!

When I wrote to Marnie on ancestry.com, my messages were posted on a public message board.  Today I got two new messages.  Both were from people trying to help me.  One was merely a link to some information I have long since had.  The other was that one of my grandfather's sisters, Anna Tuijnman Roomeijer, had three children.  One of these three I had known about but have not been able to locate anything about her.  This is "Beth", who helped her mother in a shop - I believe I wrote about her earlier.  However, I was given the names and birth dates of two other children, plus Beth's full name.  All three of these "children" (I'm sure they're all dead by now, or VERY old) would have been my father's first cousins.  They are:
Elisabeth Maria Roomeijer, born 5/18/1908 (Beth!)
Jan Cornelius Roomeijer, born 9/12/1909
Maria Hendrika Roomeijer, born 6/7/1911

I have already begun to search for them, with no luck as usual.  The only thing I did find is that Jan got married to Saartje de Korver on March 23, 1936.  I think they were divorced in the 80's, but I'm hoping that there were some children produced from this union that I could find alive!  They would likely be in their 60's by now.  Perhaps I can find them or their children/grandchildren on facebook???

I have also found one downside to blogging.  Every now and then as I'm skimming down a page of results while searching for a name, I come across not only the name I'm looking for but several other of my family names.  I get so excited that perhaps I've stumbled on something directly about my family, only to realize that I've merely stumbled on my own blog!  What a disappointment! 

A Few New Tidbits

I decided to be persistent today in my searching.  I found some old threads of a conversation I had on ancestry.com two or three years ago.  I had been just fooling around on that site and searched for my last name.  There was a little bit of information shared by several people.  One of them was named Marnie who asked if we were related.  She explained that her great, great grandfather was William (Willem) Tuijnman, married to Antje Tijsen.  William was a brother of my great grandfather Reindert Tuijnman.  In that email, Marnie had explained that William and Antje moved to the US, specifically Iowa, in the 1880's.  I looked Marnie up and found her on facebook.  I've sent her a message and also referred her to this blog.  Hopefully she'll respond.  I may not have found anyone in Holland yet, but maybe we have some distant family in the US! 

Also, I have found that my grandfather's brother, Cornelius, married to Agatha Alida Speets Tuijnman had two children.  The first was stillborn but the second child was named "Kees" (I think this is a male name) who was born in 1930 and died in 2005.  Kees would have been a first cousin of my father's.  I've tried to find Kees, but he's been elusive so far.  In truth, I've found lots of Kees Tuijnmans, but most of them are still alive!  Hopefully I'll track him down soon!

Family Pic

I've been off line for a while due to computer malfunctions but today I got right back on the genealogical trail.  Unfortunately, I've been hitting dead ends everywhere I turn in my quest to find a living relative in Holland.  So, I decided to post this picture of my father's family, all now deceased, unfortunately.  From left to right is my Aunt Rosemary, my dad Philip, my grandfather - the starting point of this research - Reindert Tuinman, my grandmother Agnes (Aggiema to everyone she ever met), my Aunt Sally (real name Lois, but Sally to the world) and my Uncle Nanas (to us but legal name Reindert Leo, or maybe Leo Reindert?)  This photo was taken in my grandparents' house probably during the 1940s.  I think it's the only pic of all of them.

Found Someone New!

Today I again continued my search for some living ancestors.  I have traveled down a lot of dead ends.  Of my grandfather's 7 siblings, two died as children and I knew three of them married.  One of those who married was Cornelius (born in 1884).  He married one Agatha Alida Speets in 1913, but I have been unable to locate any children produced from this union.  Anna Tuinman (born 1882) married a James/Jacobus Roomeijer.  There was one article I found that described Anna in later years, working hard in some kind of shop that (I think) she owned, and was assisted by her daughter, Beth.  I have been searching for Beth (or possibly Elisabeth) for quite a while, but haven't found her.  There have been no further mentions of a daughter named Beth on any documents I have examined. 

Today, however, I stumbled upon a site that listed all kinds of names, including the many spelling varieties of Tuinman.  The site is maintained by, of all groups, the Church of Latter Day Saints!  That's right......the Mormons!  (Maybe this explains my fascination with the TV show, "Sister Wives"?)  Now I have heard that the LDS people keep meticulous family tree records, but, I thought only of their church people.  However, these records, some of them at least, date back to the 1700s, and possibly further.  Most interesting to me was that the records include the name and address of the person who submitted the information.  And the person who submitted the information on several of my ancestors is named Arie Leeflang, with an address in Salt Lake City, Utah.  You may recall that Leeflang is the maiden name of my great grandmother, Elisabeth Leeflang.  So, now I am trying to find an email address for "cousin" Arie.  Otherwise, I'll have to write an actual snail mail letter. 

As I was saying above, my grandfather had three siblings who married.  Cornelius to Agatha, Anna to James, and also Trijntje to Gerhardus Hermanus Sijbrand Gijsberts (that's a name!)  I have not been able to locate children from any of these marriages.  If I did find children, those children would have been my father's first cousins.  Then there was January (born 1880).  Up until today, I had assumed that January was a female (a la January Jones of "Mad Men" fame).  However, today I found out that January is a male name, at least in the Netherlands, if not in Hollywood.   Finally Jacob (born 1878 - the Jacob who survived childhood)......today I found out that Jacob was married after all!  His bride was Maria Suzanna Hendrika Labij and they were married on June 25, 1903, just over 108 years ago.  So my next search is to see if Maria and Jacob produced any cousins for my dad. 

A Quick Note

I hadn't realized until I posted yesterday and actually sat there and wrote out the dates, that my great grandfather's first wife, Gretchen King (which in Dutch is Grietje Koning), died immediately after marrying.  I researched it some more because I thought perhaps the dates I had were incorrect.  But it seems to be true.  I have not been able to find any information about the cause of death, as newspapers were obviously not posted on line then!  So I wonder.....  Was she already dying of something and he married her for some reason?  Was there some kind of accident?  More sinister - did he kill her?  But dying two days after marriage........that's a real mystery. 

Also, in searching for more family members yesterday, I came across a facebook page for an Elisabeth Leeflang.  That is the same name as my great grandmother (before marriage).  I sent her a message - let's see if she responds!  I have also discovered, that as rare as the name Tuniman is in the US, it is a very common name in the Netherlands!

Finally Finding Family!

So I continued to google Reindert Tuinman and the name came up on several different Dutch websites.  I had heard that the Dutch are somewhat known for geneology and that there are many accurate records kept there.  Of course, the Dutch websites are ......... (surprise surprise!) in Dutch!  Fortunately, there's Google-Translate.  So, I kept translating the various websites, most of which were intricately researched family trees.  On one of them, I found a "Reindert Gardener", and he had the same birthday as granddaddy, also born in Anna Palovna (alternate spelling).  Now this seemed odd.  Suddenly, I remembered hearing as a kid that my maiden name - Tuniman (or Tuinman) - meant gardener in Dutch!!  Of course!  Google translate doesn't distinguish names from other words and had translated Tuinman to Gardener.  A quick check of the website written in Dutch confirmed this.  I had found my grandfather's immediate family. 

And they were:  Parents: Reindert Tuinman and Elisabeth Leeflang

Children:
Cornelius - born Oct. 15, 1875, died July 10, 1883 (only 8 years old!)
Jacob - born Oct. 6, 1876, died May 10, 1877 (less than 1!)
Jacob - born Feb. 8, 1878
January - born April 21
Anna - born May 9, 1882
Cornelis - born July 27, 1884
Trijntje - born Oct. 10 1887
Reindert - born Oct. 27, 1889 - My grandfather!!

I was surprised by the sad fact that their first two children died so young.  Oddly, they gave their third son the same name as their second son who had died.  Also surprising was that they waited until their 8th child to give the same name as the father, and that none of the girls were named for their mother. 

That same website informed me that my great grandfather, also named Reindert, was born on Aug 27, 1841.  He was a farmer, merchant, and butcher.  His parents were Cornelis Tuinman and Trijntje Slikker.  He was married to Gretchen King from Feb. 29, 1872 till (is this really possible????) March 2, 1872, when she died.  I'll try to research this more - hard to believe she died just 2 days after they married.

He then married Elisabeth Leeflang on Oct. 15, 1874.  He was 33 and she was just 21.  She was the daughter of Jacob Baker Leeflang and Naatje. 

Going back another generation, my great grandfather, also Reindert, is one of 4 siblings.  They are Grietje, Marigold (or Antje in Dutch), and William, all of whom grew up and married.  These would have been my grandfather's aunts and uncles.  I have all of this on a "family tree" that I have created to keep me organized.