SNGF - The Time Machine

I've been away for a long time (doing research for a friend), but this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun has tempted me back!  The directive is to identify which event in ancestral history you would like to be a part of via Time Machine.  Well, that is easy for me -while any day in any life would be a thrill to witness, one event really struck me when I first learned of it.
I would like to be a part of the travels of my Great-great grandparents and family to America in 1856.  Teunis Snijders and Grietje van der Bie left their home in Goudswaard, Zuid-Holland and sailed from Rotterdam to New York with their 2 boys, 8 and 10, and my 3-month-old great-grandmother Trijnte (later Kate Snyder, married Levi Cole).  When I first found this passenger list (long before Internet databases) I had a young daughter myself.  I knew how difficult it had been for me simply to get this child a few miles down the road (in my car) to the grocery store!!  I could not (and still cannot) imagine traveling off to a whole new land, new language, new people with 2 kids and a three-month-old.  Oiy!  The Snyder family traveled somehow from NY to Michigan where they lived for a time in Washtenaw Co., then moved on to Kent Co.  Years later I learned that Grietje's mother, Trijntje van der Jagt and at least 3 brothers and a sister also came to the United States and settled in Allegan Co.
I have the greatest respect and admiration for these - and my other - immigrant ancestors and I wonder if I could do what they did?

Time off

I've been busy with other people's families for a while and have not had time to do any more here.  A little research for a former client and some research for friends to identify their ancestral towns of origin.  They are in Europe and hope to go visit towns if I can identify them, so there is a bit of a time schedule to work to.
I can relate to their interest as Karen and I went to many of our towns in the Netherlands on our trip - and had a wonderful time.  I hope to get back - maybe this fall - and visit some archives on the next trip.  Also visit some new towns, eat some pannekoeken, and take a lot of photos!

more on the Morrens

So now I know that the woman listed with the family in the church register is NOT the mother of the children.  But another interesting finding is that one of the children listed, Cornelia, actually died in the Netherlands and never was at the North Holland Church!

On the 17 April 1866, Cornelia Morren, age 14, daughter of Willem Morren and Lubbertje Hop, deceased, died.  It reported and signed by Willem Morren, father.  Signature is the same as on his marriage record.

Morren marriages

Once I found the birth registrations for the Morren children naming their mother as Lubbertje Aalts Hop, I had to resolve this conflict. Up 'til then, I had named Neeltje Dekker as the mother. After all, she is named in the list of the family in the North Holland Church register, census records and she is buried beside Willem Morren. SO next up was a search of the marriage registers.

Here is the marriage certificate of Willem Morren and Lubbertje Aalts Hop.

What this says is (briefly) that on the 19th of January 1848, Willem Morren, bachelor, age 24, farmer, born in Ermelo, living in Harderwijk, son of Jan Morren and Cornelia van Welsum
and Lubbertje Aalts Hop, maiden, age 24, no occupation, born and living in Harderwijk, daughter of Aalt Lubbertsen Hop and Petertje Willems, both deceased
were married, having filed the following papers: certificate of groom's military service, extract of the groom's birth record, extract of the bride's birth record, and extracts of the death certificates of both of the bride's parents. (That last part I cropped off)

Next to find was if there was a death certificate for Lubbertje Hop.  And, for sure, it was there.

It starts out with a staement of who is making the report of death and then states that on Wednesday the 26th of December 1860, Lubbertjen Hop, wife of Willem Morren, born and resident of Harderwijk, daughter of Aalt Lubertsen Hop and his wife Petertje Willems, died at the age of 36.

Thanks to all the detail in these records, it is easy to see that they are talking about the same person.
Just to put the final piece in place, I next found a marriage record for Willem Morren and Neeltje Dekker. I don't have the certificate scanned, but here is the online extract of the marriage:

This gives Willem's parents, so we know it is the same Willem, and also identifies him as the widower of Lubbertje Hop.  In 1865, Willem married Neeltje and a couple years later they came with the children to America.