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.

Planning a Trip!

My husband and I decided to decided to travel to Holland. After making this decision, booking the trip, etc., I wanted to research my Dutch roots. My paternal grandfather emigrated to the US from Holland. Unfortunately, there is no one left alive from my parents' or grandparents' generation from my dad's side of the family - the Tunimans. In fact, excluding my mom, a Tuniman by marriage, I am the oldest Tuniman alive from our family!
So, with all the ancestry websites around, and after watching shows like "Who Do You Think You Are?", sponsored by ancestry.com, I decided to try to find out if there are any living relatives out there that we could meet. And I found it's not as easy as tv makes you think! I started out by googling my grandfather's name. This, in itself was a challenge because while I was growing up, it was spelled TUNIMAN. Some time after my grandfather died, we discovered the correct spelling was TUINMAN. I also started a membership with ancestry.com. They had almost no information about him. This was surprising because he lived in the US from about 1915 until his death in 1962. During almost all of that time, he lived in the same house in which my dad grew up, paying taxes, voting, getting married and dying - seems like there should be something with his name on it! So I tested ancestry.com by "searching" for my parents, who spent their entire lives here. I was able to find a census record that listed my mother when she was about 5!! That being said, ancestry.com is pretty much useless!

However, I did find one important piece of information. I found a copy of the Manifest of the ship on which Grandaddy sailed to the United States. There, at the bottom of the page, was his name, Reyndert (as it was spelled) Tuinman, age 24, occupation butcher, able to read and write, most recently living in Amsterdam, father: (unreadable initial) Tuinman, Anna Palowna . I was so excited because I thought I had just read the full name of my great grandmother - Anna Palowna. However, after 30 seconds of research, I discovered that Anna Palowna is NOT a person, but the town where Grandaddy was born!! Now I had a place to start searching!