Siblings Saturday: Children of Emigration

Kornelis Bolhuis & probably Hilje Vos, his third wife
I wrote in My Dutch Heritage, that according to kin related to the Timmer family in the Netherlands, Kornelis Bolhuis advised his children to leave Europe and emigrate to America. All but the oldest daughter did so. 

Family here in America stated that after the marriage of my great-grandparents, Martha Bolhuis and John Timmer, in 1906, they emigrated to the United States for their honeymoon with Martha's brother and sisters. 
John Timmer, 1906
original cdv photo owned
by Dawn Westfall

 A check of the online Ellis Island records showed that John and Martha arrived in America on 5 June 1906 on the ship called Ryndam, from the town of Stedum in the Netherlands. Martha's brother Gerrit Bolhuis and sister Johanna Bolhuis were also listed on the ship's manifest. A record of Winnie's immigration was not readily located, either by her maiden name or married name. The 1930 Census for Georgetown Township in Ottawa County, Michigan indicates that Dick and Winnie (Bolhuis) Dyke emigrated in 1908.

 Online records from the Netherlands give the marriage date for John and Martha as May 14, 1906. These photographs of them were taken in the Netherlands. They are identified as John and Martha and their ages are written as 26 and 21 respectively. These then were likely taken around the time of their marriage

Martha Bolhuis-Timmer, 1906
original cdv photo owned
by Dawn Westfall






I also have this wedding photograph of Gerrit Bolhuis and his bride Gerritdena Dijkema. They were married in Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan on May 14, 1914.
Gerrit Bolhuis & Gerritdena Dijkema, Grand Rapids, MI 1914

 I do not have any photographs of Winnie or Dick Dyke and until recently, this newspaper clipping was the only photograph I had of Johanna.
Martin DeVries & Johanna Bolhuis-DeVries, 1969


 Just recently, a new cousin found me through this blog. She is descended from Kornelis' daughter Johanna who later married her cousin Martin DeVries. She graciously shared some photographs of the family, including this one below showing Johanna, Marten and two of their sons. The cousin estimated the photo was likely taken around 1911 or 1912 and said that her grandfather (the taller of the children in the photo) told her that the other gentleman in the photo was a cousin visiting from the Netherlands. I don't know the identity of this cousin. He is likely a DeVries and I will have to leave that mystery to a DeVries researcher. There were probably several other family members who emigrated as well, but my focus at the time was just on Bolhuis and Timmer. 
Johanna Bolhuis-DeVries, Cornelius DeVries, Edward/Egbert DeVries, Martin DeVries
(man on left identified only as "a cousin visiting from the Netherlands"), taken in Wisconsin ca. 1911-12

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bannerman Family Mystery

Image
Among the many old photographs originally in my grandfather's possession, there is one that has haunted me and has remained a mystery all these years. The photograph is of three children with their names and ages typeset at the bottom of the photograph. “William, 10 years, Robert 8, and Maggie Bennerman, 4 Years Old.” Who were they? My grandfather was not able to identify them, though his memory was remarkably sharp and accurate until his death at the age of 96. I first noticed this picture and the others that my grandfather had in 1989 when I embarked on the adventure of genealogy. Since then I have traced all of my father's ancestors at least back to the early 1800s (and a lot beyond). But I never ran into the Bennerman name, anywhere. Not as ancestors of mine, not even as neighbors. I am lucky enough to even have a name to match the faces in the photograph in the first place. Early in my research, I visited the Tampa stake of the LDS church and I mentioned the Bennerman na
Read more

Friday Faces from the Past: Moorefield

Image
I am perusing through old photographs from my paternal grandparents side these days. In essence, I have been visiting Kentucky although really only in my mind. Things like this come and go in spurts. I have not looked at the research I have done on these lines in a number of years but every now and them something draws me back. What pulled me this time was an email from a gentleman who saw a photograph on my blog that was taken by Randolph in Cadiz, Kentucky (see the photo here ). This gentleman informed me that he and another local historian were doing research on this photographer who did work in Cadiz from about 1893 to 1913. He wanted to know if I would share an electronic copy of the photograph and also asked if I had anymore photographs taken by Randolph. I hunted around and found one more. This is a photograph identified by my grandfather as "My daddy's first cousin [John Willis Watts], Otis Moorefield." Otis Moorefield (1875-1958) Until I put the two tog
Read more

COG: The Love of Reading

Life is funny sometimes, wouldn’t you agree? I sit here this evening checking out my blogger dashboard and find Jasia’s post about reading for the Carnival Of Genealogy . Ah, reading! One of my absolute favorite pastimes. And Jasia wants to know my family’s history of reading? How ironic that on the third anniversary of my father’s death, I am asked that question, for he was influential in the development of my love of reading. Furthermore, I was in a training at work today and we were asked to discuss characteristics about our fathers that we would like to keep, toss, or add in reference to their values, beliefs, etc. One of the items I listed in the “keep” column was his emphasis on the importance of reading and education. My mother tells the story that my father had heard that reading to your child was a good thing, so he instructed my mother to read to me every night. (Until I was about eight, he was often away because of his Navy service.) He purchased several books for me,
Read more