Wordless Wednesday - in Hulshorst

This is the village of Hulshorst, Gelderland, Netherlands. Willem Morren was from here.



The view from the mill.


This is a flour-mill, not water mill. Karen went up - not me!

Tombstone Tuesday - the Morren family

Another Geneabloggers weekly prompt, and a good way for me to move on to the next research topic.
Many years ago when I first went to the cemetery where some of the ancestors are buried, I was disappointed to find many of the gravestones worn or vandalized and unreadable. I went back in July 2009 and took new pictures:


This is the gravestone of Willem Morren, my great-great-grandfather. The stone is just barely legible.

Alongside it is the stone of his wife, Neeltje Dekker Morren. All that can be read is his name where is says "wife of." When I first saw these, her stone was lying in pieces on the ground - it has since been repaired.


I could not (then or now) read her dates of birth and death. Luckily, there was a book with that information:


The name is misspelled as "Marren" but it does give her place and date of birth (Ned Sept 10, 1830) and death (North Holland, Mich. July 10, 1881).


I found this information in a Genealogical Records Committee report of the local DAR Chapter. Back in 1932-1941 when the DAR ladies went out and recorded the gravestone data, Neeltje's stone was still legible.

Recently, Michigan death records for this time frame have become available on two fabulous websites. I searched for Neeltje's official death registration at www.familysearchlabs.org but was unable to find it by searching for her name. Because I knew from the book that she died in 1881, I could search for all deaths in Ottawa County in 1881 and narrow it down.



Her name is recorded as Neetje (or Neltje) Maren. She was married, 53 years old, died of Billious Fever, born in the Netherlands. She was a housekeeper [housewife] and her parents names are not given, just the fact that they died in the Netherlands.

Not perfect, but it does give me more to go on.

The second death record, that of Willem Morren was found at seekingmichigan.org



He died Feb 10, 1908 (same as the gravestone says). The stone says he was born "te Hulshort, Ned" - in Hulshorst, Netherlands. The death certificate gives his birhdate (July 28, 1823) and his father's name (Jan Morren)and reports he was the parent of 5 children, three still living. He was a farmer and died of apoplexy. His death was reported by Mrs. Douwma -- that would be his daughter Aaltje who was my great-grandmother.

So now -- on to this line of the family and a big surprise.

Wives of the Coles

One of the wonderful things about the Dutch records is that women usually retain their surname. This make it much easier to find their children - especially when there may be a number of men with the same name - and also to find their parents.
Levi Cole, born in Michigan, was the son of the immigrant couple Pieter Koole and Thona van Beek. Thona was born 1829 in Zeeland, Netherlands, daughter of Barend van Beek and Neeltje Kramer.

Pieter Koole was the son of Lieven Cole and Adriaantje (Aarjaantje) Leeuw, daughter of Barend Leeuw and Cornelia van Bloois. Aarjaantje was born 24 Jul 1787 in Dreischor, Zeeland, Netherlands.



Lieven Koole's mother was Ariaantje (Adriaantje) Jonker. She was born 3 Nov 1765 in Oosterland, Zeeland, Netherlands, daughter of Lieven Jonker and Jannetje Onderdijk.



The parents of Cornelis were Pieter Mattijsse Koole and Maria Beluijts. She was the daughter of Cornelis Borluijt and Adriaantje Bouman. No exact date of her birth has been found, but she was baptised 19 Oct 1732 in Zonnemaire, Zeeland, Netherlands. Customarily, in this time and place, children were baptised the Sunday following their birth. Which would make Maria born somewhere between Oct 12 and 18.




The next step back in time is Pieter Matthijsse, son of Mattheus and Maria Stoudens. This Maria was born in Dreischor and baptised 25 Oct 1705. Her parents were Joost Stouten and Adriana Cornelisse. The database index gives her the surname Kleijn, but it is not shown on Maria's baptismal record. One more thing to investigate.



This takes us back to Pieter Koole and Lijsbeth Robberegts, the earliest couple identified in this line (so far!). And now I have these surnames to research: van Beek, Leeuw, Jonker, Borluijt, Stoutens, all the spelling variations, and the wives of these fathers!!

other Cole marriages

So far I have only reported on the Cole surname line. As I worked back in time to my earliest Koole, I found marriages for each generation in the records. Each gives the maiden name of the woman, so I now have more names to track through the records, which I will be working on in the future. Here are prints from the online index at Zeeuwengezocht.nl and scans from copies made of microfilm of the early 20th century copies made of records of some of the marriages:

From my immigrant ancestors Pieter Koole and Thona van Beek (see my April 12 post), his parents were Lieven Koole and Adriaantje Leeuw:

Lieven Koole
Bridegroom on Friday, March 12, 1813 Dreischor
Gemeente : Dreischor
Aktenummer (number) : 1
Aktedatum (date) : 12-03-1813
BRUIDEGOM : Lieven Koole
Leeftijd (age) : 25 jaar
Geboorteplaats (place of birth) : Zonnemaire
Beroep (occupation) : Journalier
BRUID : Ariaantje Leeuwe
Leeftijd (age) : 25 jaar
Geboorteplaats (place of birth) : Dreischor
Beroep (occupation) : Particuliere
VADER BRUIDEGOM (father bridegroom) : Cornelis Koole
Beroep (occupation) : Cultivator
MOEDER BRUIDEGOM (mother bridegroom) : Adriaantje Jonker
VADER BRUID (father bride) : Barend Leeuw
Beroep (occupation) : Particulier
MOEDER BRUID (mother bride) : Cornelia van Bloijs

The parents of Lieven were Cornelis Koole and Adriaantje Jonker:

Cornelis Koole
Bridegroom tax of marriage on Friday, April 14, 1786 Zonnemaire
Bruidegom : Cornelis Koole
Bruid : Arijaantje Jonker
Datum betaling trouwgeld : 14-04-1786
Plaats : Zonnemaire
Bron : Archief Rekenkamer Zeeland D inv.nr 45401



Cornelis was the son of Pieter Matthijs Koole and Maria Borluijd:


And the parents of Pieter Mattijsse Koole were Matthijs Koole and Maria Stoutens:



More later on these women!

So, before the wordless day, I mentioned that I have this Cole line traced back to my 7th great-grandparents. We very boringly call them great-great-great, etc., grandparents. Dutch is way much cooler - they have a name for each generation of grandparents up to the 64th generation and beyond!

Parents are ouders and grandparents are grootouders. So far, pretty much the same. But then they start a system of names for each earlier generation. Great-grandparents are overgrootouders. Great-great-grandparents are betovergrootouders. then come oudouders (3rd great-grands), oudgrootouders (4th), oudovergrootouders (5th), oudbetovergrootouders (6th) and stamouders - 7th great-grandparents. This, to me, would be Pieter Koole and Lijsbeth Robbregts.

If you notice the pattern - after the first four are repeated with a prefix term. First "oud-" is added before each of the four terms. Then "stam" is added to each term (8th great would be stamgrootouders). But then it carries on with the next four - so "stam" is added to the "oud" series of 4 also. Then "edel" is added before the whole string and after that "voor" is added to begin the string.
That takes one up to generation 64. So you eventually get to vooredelstamoudbetovergrootouders. What a kick!!
Of course, not many of us have documented lineage going back that far, and not many people use these terms. But fascinating, anyway.
You can look up the whole string, plus additional terms to continue on for generations more on Wikipedia < http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voorouder >

Oh, by-the-way -- child is kind, grandchild = kleinkind. Next comes achterkleinkind. But that's it - no more special words.