My not so Dutch great-grandfather - part 1

Five years ago I wrote a blog about my great-grandpa Nicholas (Nick) Denhof's father Nicolaas Denhof.  I mentioned that Nick was proud of his Dutch heritage but that his grandfathers listed Germany as their place of birth on some of their records (I doubt he ever knew that).  Having not been able to verify the German with actual records I included what was listed on the records, but I've always kind of discounted it, especially since I couldn't find the alleged cities listed anywhere.  

I have mentioned in multiple posts working with Robert Albert Jr. of California for several of my German lines (he's done some amazing work for me and broken down several brick walls).  I decided to work on the Denhof line some more and reached out to him to see if he would be able to find anything.  I (again) couldn't have been happier with the results.  I titled this post "part 1" because I couldn't possibly squeeze everything he found into one post.  There is so much German in my grandma's (Nick's daughter) ancestry, that I hesitate to even claim her "Dutchness".  

Let's start with the direct Denhof line.  I've been able to establish with actual records that Nicolaas Denhof was born 30 Apr 1854 at Uithuizen, Groningen, Netherlands to Jacobus Jacobs Denhof and Lammina van Heuvelen.  I briefly mentioned them in the above blog link.  Jacobus was born 17 Apr 1819 to Jacob Klaasens Denhof and Elisabeth Hendricks Sprik.  He married Lammina 24 Apr 1841 at Kantens, Groningen Netherlands, and died at Uithuizen 12 Feb 1896.  So we have Nick's grandpa Denhof completely Dutch.  What about his great-grandpa Denhof?

Jacob Klaasens Denhof was found in the Dutch records when he married Elisabeth 5 Jun 1812 at Uithuizen, and when he died at Kantens 29 Sep 1840.  So his birth?  We're back to the 1700s and birth records aren't available in the Netherlands but his marriage record lists his birth at Uithuizen 8 Feb 1772 at Uithuizen.  Then why does his death record list birth at "Waan Duitsland"?  I searched high and low for "Waan" and never found anything.  He listed his parents as Klaas Jacobs and Aaltje Stevens when he married Elisabeth and I had a bit of information about them in my tree as well.  

I hired a researcher in the Netherlands in the late 1990s (before the records were so readily available online) and they had Klaas' death 4 Jan 1823 at Uithuizen (having been born at Zandeweer, Netherlands).  His wife was listed as Hindrikje Harms, and that marriage record was also found.  As I paid a reputable researcher in the Netherlands I took this information as gospel, added it to my tree, and moved on.  

When Robert and I started discussing this Robert found a possible city in Germany called "Wahn" (which from this post doesn't exist anymore).  Of course a possible city doesn't mean anything without records.  Robert hunted down the marriage bann for Jacobus and Elisabeth and noted if you go and look at the MARRIAGE BANN record from 1812 for Denhof/Sprik, you will see that it states that his father is Klaas Jacobs, and he is living in Werlte, a town near Sögel in Germany, and that his wife Aaltje Stevens is deceased by 1812. Will keep you posted. I am hoping to find some more clues, and fyi, the Werlte parish has lots of folks from Sögel and Wahn and area listed in that church, so I may have to expand catholic church searches in this area. Fortunately they list when catholic churches were built over time, so for instance on the Sögel main page it tells me that Wahn got a catholic church in 1869. Werlte is an oldie that goes back to the 1600's too.

So now we have a likely town, we just need records to prove it's correct.  Given that I already had a death record for Klaas Jacobs I was finding it odd that Klaas was born in the Netherlands, moved to Germany and had a family, lost his wife and moved back to the same area of the Netherlands and remarried.  We're not talking a simple road trip in the late 1700s - it wasn't making sense to me.  Then Robert found the actual birth record:

BIRTH1772JacobKlaasensSögelCathChurchPg33of66

Even if I'd have had access to these records I'd have never found this one as I can't read it without it being pointed out to me but there it was: I went back and just started to go through the entire year of 1772, when I got to the SEVENTH of OCTOBER I found it. Jacob Klassens and his wife Adelheid Steffens are the parents, and Joannes Steffens and Catharina Nordberg are the witnesses. You will see on the entry above his, that person's record is the 30th of a month. Right below you see 8ber. That is Acht ober, or October. They use this abbreviation frequently for 7ber, 8ber, 9ber, 10ber, for Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec. It was also on the next to last page of the records of births for that year, so no clue as to how they got February out of it, and the day is clearly listed as the 7th. I'm just glad it was there.

MAR1771JacobsSteffensSögelCatholicChurchPg32of63

DEATH1823NicolausJacobsWerlteCatholicChurchPg41of63

Nicolaus Jacobs and Adelheid Steffens married 26 Nov 1771 at Sögel.  He can't find a death record for Adelheid but he did find that Nicolaus remarried to a Gesina Kuper/Cuper 18 Nov 1778, also at Sögel.  That remarriage was key to proving the death record was the correct subject.  

Nicolaus Jacobs died at Bockholte 4 Jan 1823 and was buried 7 Jan 1823 at Wertle, the town his son listed him living in in 1812.  His death is the bottom listing at age 96 (which is ironic as my grandmother, his 3rd great granddaughter is currently 96).  The name of his 2nd wife is clearly listed there, proving it's him.  Does anything strike you odd about the death record?  This "Klaas Jacobs" (actually Nicolaus Jacobs) ALSO DIED 4 Jan 1823???  What are the chances that my Dutch researcher got this wrong so many years ago but had the right death date?  Seems implausible to me but having been witness to it, I can't deny that it happened.  When I noticed the death date I mentioned it to Robert (I was not questioning him as we'd discussed this evidence and I was convinced he's correct).  I re-sent him the Dutch Klaas Jacobs death record and he sent the following: 

Thanks for sending that. Of course I had seen the record before and looked at it, just never realized that the two folks had the same date of death and for all intents and purposes the same name as well. The difference between the 2 records is that nothing on this record is obviously connected to your ancestor. The witnesses submitting the information 2 months after that man died in the Netherlands, or the wife, etc. etc. Your original tree had the date and the wife added, but nothing on it really links it to your tree other than the name.

On the German records, as you know we have:

1- place of birth (Wahn) in Germany of his son which we have from the Netherlands docs

2- son's marriage bann where it says the very town that his father was living in 1812

3- the marriage of the father to Adhelheid Steffens and children born to them in Sogel

4- the second marriage of his father and children born in Werlte

5- the death record for the father listing his second wife's name

6- the death record for the father.

If I had seen in that first record anything at all that really linked him to your tree, I would maybe have paused even longer, but there is just so much evidence that the latter is the correct one for sure and this is just one of those freaky coincidences.

So my great-grandpa Denhof's dad was Dutch, and his grandpa Denhof was Dutch, but the great-grandfather and likely way beyond has now been confirmed as German.  That's only one of Nick's ancestors - was Robert able to prove more?  Stay tuned.......

As an aside - my youngest was named Jacob Nicholas (both of my dad's grandfathers were named Nicholas).  Robert finding that "Klaas Jacobs" was actually Nicolaus Jacobs means that the name Nicholas or Jacob goes straight back in this line until at least about 1727:  Nicholas Paul>Nicolaas>Jacobus Jacobs>Jacob Klaasens>Nicolaus Jacobs.  It wasn't deliberate but I think it's pretty neat.   

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.