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!