Early on in my research I found the immigration record of Pieter Koole. Nothing in any of the family stories gave me any indication any other relatives also came to the US. But after masses amounts of research tracing the lineage back in time, I started to search sideways - the siblings of my ancestors and even spouses families. Well, I'd always had some information on them, but not much. And, of course, someone had invented the Internet by now, and more and more information was available there. (Many Dutch record indexes are online, now more scanned records are going up.)
Well, surprise, surprise! Leendert Koole, brother of Pieter, also came to the US. Leendert was about 5 years younger and arrived with his wife in 1853, one year after Pieter and Tona arrived. Leendert also went to Kent County, Michigan where he was known as Leonard.
Indexes are wonderful things, but no match for the actual records. On the passenger list, next after Leendert and Willemijna, was listed Barend Koole - another brother. But the list also notes that Barend died aboard ship.
Just recently, doing some more searches with the online indexes, I found long after, in 1881, a nephew, Adriaan Koole, son of a fourth brother Cornelis, also came to the US. Adriaan traveled with a wife and 2 children. So far I have not found his family in the US.
By just 2 generations later no one in the family seems to have had any contact with these relatives. Pieter was my great-great grandfather, so Leendert was a great great grand uncle to me. Maybe one of these days I'll track his or Adriaan's descendants to find present days cousins.
18 April 2009
12 April 2009
The last Dutch marriage for the Coles
I've had a lot going on this week, writing a new class on DNA testing for genealogy and getting side-tracked with fun research on my brother-in-law's ancestry, so have not had time to work on this Cole line.
But working backwards from the immigrant couple's arrival in the US, here is a certificate from their marriage record.
Pieter Kole, age 26, laborer, son of Lieven Kole and Arjaantje Leeuw and Tona van Beek, age 20, daughter of Barend van Beek and Neeltje Kramer have filed the appropriate marriage notices on the 6th and 15th of September 1850. Recorded in the municipality of Nieuwerkerk, Duiveland, Zeeland, Netherlands.
But working backwards from the immigrant couple's arrival in the US, here is a certificate from their marriage record.
Pieter Kole, age 26, laborer, son of Lieven Kole and Arjaantje Leeuw and Tona van Beek, age 20, daughter of Barend van Beek and Neeltje Kramer have filed the appropriate marriage notices on the 6th and 15th of September 1850. Recorded in the municipality of Nieuwerkerk, Duiveland, Zeeland, Netherlands.
03 April 2009
first and latest
Today we welcome the arrival of the latest member of the family (hello, Ariana!) so I'm posting the record of our first arrival in America.
This is from the passenger list showing Pieter Kool, wife Tona and daughter Adriana (close!). Pieter was 28, Tona 22 and the baby 11 months old. I cannot imagine traveling across the ocean to a new country with AN 11 MONTH OLD!! (Although, one other immigrant ancetral family came with a 3 month old - more on them later.)
The date: 17 May 1852, the ship Factory arrived in Boston from Rotterdam.
This is from the passenger list showing Pieter Kool, wife Tona and daughter Adriana (close!). Pieter was 28, Tona 22 and the baby 11 months old. I cannot imagine traveling across the ocean to a new country with AN 11 MONTH OLD!! (Although, one other immigrant ancetral family came with a 3 month old - more on them later.)
The date: 17 May 1852, the ship Factory arrived in Boston from Rotterdam.
31 March 2009
a bit more on the Coles
I left out the best part of the comments on the back of the photo, written by Grace (my grandmother), "Anna made all our dresses."
The first of this family in the US was Peter Cole who came with his wife Thona van Beek in 1852. Their son Levi was born 2 years later in Ottawa Co., Michigan. Levi was the father of these 7.
I have been searching the Koole family (and the alternate spellings) in records of Zeeland. Sadly, many of the records were at Middleburg when it was bombed in World War II and were destroyed. Happily, many had been transcribed, or at least indexed earlier in the century, so those copies are available. At this time I think I have the line traced back to Pieter Coole who married in 1702 in Zonnemaire. He had been married before, so he probably was born before 1675, but I have not yet found a record of the earlier marriage (possibly a different town).
The first of this family in the US was Peter Cole who came with his wife Thona van Beek in 1852. Their son Levi was born 2 years later in Ottawa Co., Michigan. Levi was the father of these 7.
I have been searching the Koole family (and the alternate spellings) in records of Zeeland. Sadly, many of the records were at Middleburg when it was bombed in World War II and were destroyed. Happily, many had been transcribed, or at least indexed earlier in the century, so those copies are available. At this time I think I have the line traced back to Pieter Coole who married in 1702 in Zonnemaire. He had been married before, so he probably was born before 1675, but I have not yet found a record of the earlier marriage (possibly a different town).
29 March 2009
and so it begins...
Most recently I have been trying to extend the Cole line back. I currently have some FHL film I'm looking at. I knew the Cole family was Koole in the Netherlands, but have found in these records that it was also spelled Kole, Coole, Kool...
Here are the Cole siblings in Grand Rapids in August, 1904, about the time their father died. From left: Cornel 22, Jennie 15, Pete 28, Grace 17, Tunis 24, Mabel 13, Anne 26.
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