More that my great-grandfather (probably) didn't know

Last post I wrote about my great-grandpa's father and all the information I'd been able to find that I suspect he didn't know.  In this writing I'll share what I've found about his mother, Margaret Cook.

Margaret was born Margritha Kuis 20 Aug 1859 at Uithuizen, Groningen Netherlands, the illegitimate daughter of Johanna Kuis (1834-1907).  She was the 2nd illegitimate child born to Johanna, as their was a brother Hindrik born 28 Dec 1857, who died 8 Oct 1860 (both at Uithuizen).

Margaret's birth

Marriage that legitimized her birth.

Johanna married Bernardus Henderikus Kock 2 Nov 1859 at Uithuizen, and the marriage record states that it legitimized 2 children.  They had 10 additional children:

Hendrikus 1 Jul-9 Jul 1862 at Usquert
Hinderikus 13 Jun-18 Jun 1863 at Usquert
Gezina 15 Jul 1864-???, born at Usquert
Henricus 4 Jul 1867-??? born at Grand Rapids, Kent Co MI (as are the remainder of the children)
Lucinda 1868-Jul 1868 (at this point the family name is recorded as Cook)
Henry 1868-4 Jul 1868
Henry Aug 1868-3 May 1870
Bertram Sep 1869-29 Jun 1870
Henry 7 Apr 1872-28 Mar 1873
Catherine 21 Feb 1875-2 Dec 1942 - she married Louis "Luke" Denhof, son of Nicolaas' brother Jacob.

As you can see, Bernardus and Johanna had a hard time keeping their children alive.  The records for these children are spotty and most were obtained from the records of St. Andrews Catholic Church in Grand Rapids by another Denhof cousin.

As I wrote in my last blog, Margaret married Nicolaas Denhof 5 Nov 1877 at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Wright Township, Ottawa Co MI.  After his death in 1917 she remained widowed, heading the household with her younger children in 1920 and living with her son Peter and his family in 1930.

1920 census -I have no idea who the boarder is with the family.

1930 census with son Peter and his family

I have asked my grandma (who was just shy of 10 when Margaret passed away 5 Oct 1937 at Conklin MI) about her recollections of Margaret and she only recalls visiting her aunt "Rick" (Henrietta Denhof Torrey) on Spencer St NE (Grand Rapids) and seeing Margaret on the front porch using a Singer sewing machine.  Given my relationship with my grandparents I find it hard to fathom that that's all she remembers BUT I have to remember that she was born to the youngest child (her dad was an uncle to several people at birth) and that Margaret had 33 living grandchildren and 25 living great-grandchildren at the time of her death (in spite of her inaccurate obituary).  She had already buried 4 grandchildren and a great-grandchild as well.  To put it in perspective, my grandma only had 3 grandchildren.

Margaret passed away of chronic myocarditis and was laid to rest beside her husband and near her mother at the St. Francis Xavier church cemetery.

I wish I had more photos of the Denhof family, but was told by one Margaret's grandsons that the old farmhouse burned down and took the photos with it.  I do have a few scant photos of Margaret, all from around the same time frame.

The family picture is her and all her children, presumably on her 69th birthday (her clothing/appearance match that of the photo that has the 69th birthday sign).  The woman in the photos with her is her sister Catherine Cook Denhof.  My great grandpa Nicholas is seated in the front of the family photo, with a deck of cards against his shoe (he loved cards).

Stuff my great-grandpa probably didn't know

As I wrote in my first blog, my great-grandpa's refusal to answer my questions is what fueled my genealogy interest, resulting in 26 years worth of research.  Now that I'm changing directions in my "goals" I thought I'd start with what I was able to find about his parents.  I'll start with his father Nicolaas Denhof.

Nicolaas was born 30 Apr 1854 at Uithuizen, Groningen Netherlands, the 7th of 9 children to Jacobus Jacobs Denhof (1819-1896) and Lammina van Heuvelen (1817-1889).  I paid a researcher in 2006 to research this family and in his notes he wrote "in 1863, Lammina went to a hospital for the mentally insane in Delft. She died there on 6 October 1889."  There is no documentation in the file he sent me but I have no reason to doubt the validity of this.  Jacobus remarried a year after her death to Elizabeth ten Boer (1841-1928).  He also noted that the family was Roman Catholic.  Interestingly, although my great-grandpa took great pride in being Dutch, both of his grandfathers list Germany as their place of birth in their records.

Nicolaas' siblings included:

Jacob 1841-1910 - came to America in 1866, coming to Grand Rapids MI before settling in Chester Township, Ottawa Co MI (Nicolaas followed him here).  Was married to Margaret Drieborg.
Klaas 1843-1847
Jan 1844-1869 - also came to America in 1869, also to Grand Rapids but died there 12 Mar 1869.
Albertus 1846-1848
Bernardus 1848-1860
Trientje 1851-1909 - married Hans Diemers Veenstra and had 7 children in Uithuizen but ends up in Buenos Aires Argentina prior to the birth of their last daughter Paulina in 1892.  Trientje died as Catalina Fenstra and her husband as Juan Fenstra.
Willem Guillelmus Fredericus 1857-???? - appears to have followed his sister to Buenos Aires.  He married Geessiena Nieman and had 2 children at Uithuizen before having a son Federico in 1892 in Argentina.  In census records Geessiena is married to Federico Stoffel by the birth of their daughter Cherina in 1894 so I'm guessing Willem is deceased by then.
Petrus Jacobus Frederikus - 1858-1883 (never married).

Nicolaas left the Netherlands, and came to America via Liverpool on the "SS Nevada", arriving in America May 1873.

This is the manifest from when Nicolaas left the Netherlands.  Interesting that Jan Kuis is with him - more on that in a bit.........

 This is the manifest that was turned in in New York.  The snippet with Nicolaas' name gives no further useful information.

So why did Nicolaas leave the Netherlands?  I don't have any definitive proof but I have to guess it's related to this snippet below:

1119. Amongst others Nicolaas Denhof was mentioned in the “Politieblad”, a kind of paper, which was sent to the police stations as a kind of “wanted” paper.

Mentioned he was living in Uithuizen and probably left for North America.

He was sentenced for 3 days imprisonment or paying 25 guilders because  he didn’t show up for his military service.

Still wanted in 1875 and 1878.

It's interesting that Nicolaas fled the Netherlands to avoid a 3 day imprisonment and even more interesting that his brother Willem appears to have fled to Argentina for a petty issue as well:

Wilhelmus Fredericus Gulielmus Denhoff.

Inprisoned in (hard to translate) a kind of prison in which mostly poor people are placed for little crimes. I guess just want to put them away.

Willem was deserted the 5^th of July 1888 and was wanted. Description: farmhand, length 1 meter, 74 centimeters, face: round, hair, blond, nose and mouth ordinary, chin round

Nicolaas married Margretha "Margaret" Cook 5 Nov 1877 at Wright Township, Ottawa County MI.  I have misplaced that marriage record so will have to see about getting another copy.  I do know that the marriage was found in the parish records only, not at the county clerk.  Remember Jan Kuis from that ship log that was with Nicolaas?  His sister Johanna (Kuis) Cook was Margaret's mother.  I'm only speculating at this point but I'd bet that's how they were introduced.  I'll blog about Margaret next.

On Feb 4, 1888 Nicolaas became a naturalized citizen in the Kent County Circuit Court at Grand Rapids:

Nicolaas and Margaret settled in Chester Township and attended St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, which his brother Jacob's family was one of the founding families of.  Nicolaas was a farmer and lived the typical farmer life of the day.  Between 1878-1901 the he and Margaret had 10 children, my great-grandfather Nicholas being the youngest.  

1880 Chester Twp - living next door to Margaret's parents Bernardus and Johanna (Kuis) Cook

1900 Chester Twp - living next door to Ida (Cook) VanderLaan, 1st cousin of Margaret

1910 Chester Twp (not in order due to split pages)

I don't know much about Nicolaas but the little bit that my grandma's brother told me stands in stark contrast to what his obituary tells about him.  From what I was told he drank quite a bit and could have a terrible temper, so bad that my great-grandpa and his brother Pete buried his pistol somewhere on the farm to keep it away from him.

Nicolaas passed away 4 Sep 1917 at his home in Chester of carcinoma of the liver and was laid to rest in the church cemetery at St. Francis Xavier.

Nicolaas was even tough in his will, leaving everything to his wife until her death, at which time the children were to split everything unless of course, she had the gall to remarry (instead of spending her last 20 years as a widow like she did) then everything was to go straight to the children.  I guess this wasn't that uncommon back then so perhaps I'm judging the time he lived in more than his words.  I'm thankful to live in an age where women aren't treated like this.