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!