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.