#52ancestors - Will

Will was the topic to write about this week. I took a different look at the word Will.

This is a picture us on a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee.

My daughter Haley and I  went on a trip to Israel November 23 - December 2 , 2017. We traveled with a group of people we did not know, but by the end of nine days they felt like family. 
One day we were having a picnic near Mount Gilboa and Haley wanted something to do. So I gave her my phone and sent her around to snap some photos of the groups eating lunch. I posted the pictures to face book. That's where this story starts.

And this is a picture of the Wilderness of Judea, where Jesus spent 40 days. 

This was a photo I posted of a few people from our group. Kathy V on the left in navy, Husband Henry in aqua next to her and daughter Lori in aqua across from Henry.

  After the picture was posted my mom's cousin Harry DB left me a comment. He said the lady on left was a relative of my mom through her aunt,Katherine Boorsma. The next morning, I eagerly asked the Kathy V. about her relatives and sure enough ,we were related! Kathy said she was the granddaughter of Katherine (Catherine) Gritter Boorsma and that Katherine had married Ed Boorsma  My mom was a Boorsma and I remember she had an uncle Ed. I was thrilled...finding family from Michigan, while while on our trip in Israel. How cool is that!

After returning home, I started to dig into this connection. Katherine Gritter had indeed married my mom's Uncle Ed Boorsma, December 31, 1952 in Kent County Michigan.

                         With special thanks to cousin Jennifer BK, I have pictures to share.

Aunt Katherine & Uncle Ed

From left: Margaret Bont Boorsma, Aunt Katherine, Uncle Ed and John (Jan Jans)  Boorsma. 

 But Uncle Ed wasn't a Boorsma by blood. He was a Westra. His mother Margaret Bont had been married to,and divorced from man named Adrian Westra and he was Uncle Ed's birth father. Two years later, when Uncle Ed was four, Margaret would marry John Boorsma. John became Ed's father, but I am unsure if Ed was adopted legally.

So it looked like my connection to Kathy, from the Israel trip, was not a true Boorsma family connection but a marriage connection.
  I found that Katherine had first been married to a man named Arthur Gritter and they had eight children together. I could find the family in the 1930 and 1940 census but they were not listed in anymore records after that. I assume they were divorced because of Aunt Katherine's marriage to Uncle Ed. Arthur died in Kent County Michigan in 1982, so he was still around the area.

I looked at this second marriage record and saw the names of Katherine's father and mother. I remember my mom telling me about an Uncle Pete and Aunt Minnie. Things were starting to come together then I found this:

Minnie Boersma caught my eye. The  surname spelling was a little off, but I had seen that different spelling before.When I clicked on Minnie it listed her birthday as "about 1879" which gave me a date to work with. Back on Ancestry, I found this record.

 U.S., Dutch Christian Reformed Church Vital Records, 1856-1970, Archive at Calvin College 

This helped a lot. I knew my great grandfather Jan Jans (John) Boorsma's vital information including his parents Jan Jans II and Tryntje. I also had heard my mom talk about an Uncle Louie from Detroit. Here they were all three siblings listed in the Alpine Ave. Christian Reformed Church records. Minnie has her full dutch name listed as Willemke and the year of her birth is December 6 1878, very close to "about 1879".  

Left is Lieuwe Jan Boorsma, Jan Jans Boorsma II, Willemke (Minnie) Boorsma Dryer and Jan Jans (John) Boorsma

                                                              Immigration Record 

Jan II and the boys came to America August 16, 1886. Willemke came two years later to join her father and brothers.

 From left : Willemke "Minnie" Boorsma, Gerritt Kuipers, Lieuwe Jan Boorsma I, (Aunt) Boujke Boorsma Kuipers, Jan Jans (John) Boorsma III 

It turns out that Kathy V, her daughter Lori B., grandson Brady and I are related through parents, Jan Jan and wife  Tryntje plus the sibling ancestors, John Jan Jans Boorsma and Willemke Boorsma.  Not only did our Israel group feel like family, Kathy and I  discovered  we were actual family.

PS. An interesting side note, In the 1900 census of Pete and Minnie J Dryer, minnie's brother Louie then 18 is living with them and Katherine, age 4 months is listed as Trina. Because of naming patterns, I believe Katherine Dryer  was named after her grandmother Tryntje Kracht. Which also means Kathy V is named for her grandmother and great great grandmother!

Source Citation Year: 1900; Census Place: Grand Rapids Ward 5, Kent, Michigan; Page: 1; Enumeration District: 0061

#52Ancestors - Longevity

These wonderful people whom I never met are my great grandparents. Jan Jan (John) Boorsma was born 17 September 1877 in Kollum, Kollumerland,Friesland, Netherlands. Grietje (Margaret or Maggie) was born 30 July 1876, Netherlands. They are my mom's paternal grandparents.  These pictures were taken at their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 1954

Margaret and her family departed from Rotterdam, Netherlands on the ship Rotterdam. They  arrived in New York probably 15 June 1888. She was about 10 or 11 years old.

Jan (John) arrived 16 Aug 1886 on the ship Schiedam from Amsterdam. He was about 7  years old on the ships manifest. It looks like it is just the three of them, John, his  father Jan and sister Willemke,    aka Minnie. My great grandfather's mother, Tryntje Kracht and some siblings did not come along.
Jan and Margaret were married 24 July 1904 in Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan

Front row, left to right Theresa Boorsma Robinson, Jan John III Boorsma, Margaret Bont Boorsma, Angeline Boorsma Wademan
Back row, left to right Dena Boorsma, Louis (my grandfather), John IV (aka Shorty), Earnest, Edward, Henry, Wilhelmina (aka Wilma & Babe) Boorsma Boersen

The picture above includes all the children minus one son, Mike (Menno), whose photo is on the table to the left in the picture. Mike was killed and an industrial accident at the Continental Motors plant in Muskegon, Michigan in 1943.
  Continental made huge engines for World War II vehicles. He and my grandpa both worked there. My grandpa was coming onto his shift, when he heard about the engine accident involving his brother. He told my mom that when he got to the hospital, Mike was still alive but the explosion had taken off his arms and legs. He would not live long. Grandpa described it this way. "what was left of him could be put into a basket". It was a terribly site to see. Mike had a wife Marie (VanderLaan) and two small boys, Roger and David, at the time of his death.
  Great grandma Margaret died on 1 July 1955 and Jan (John) lived for three more years without her. My mom told me he that my grandpa picked him up a few times so he could take him to church. Great grandpa John died 18 February 1958.
My mom was getting married in July of  1958 so she was sad that her grandpa would not be there for her wedding.
They had 51 years of marriage together...their love and longevity is a blessing to our family.