So. I started searching for Garrit Vanderbie, and Ancestry.com brought up a family line that showed not only Garrit's parents, but his grandparents and great-grandparents! That was pretty exciting. So, as I was looking through the information, it showed Garrit's father died at sea...the same year that the family immigrated to Holland. A link was provided for the ship's embarking list. Garrit's father was on that boat to New York. He never got off. (Well, he did, just not the way that he or his family probably thought when they planned their future in the New World.) So there was Garrit's mother, Aaltje, a widow at 27. I wondered if there were other children, or just Garrit. So I found the passenger list in New York, and yep, there were siblings. Jaantje, aged 4, Garrit, aged 2 1/2, and Taani Peter, aged 1 1/2. A brand-new widow at 27 with three children aged 4 and under, on the boat to a country with a foreign language and foreign culture and how was she going to provide?
I searched census records for Aaltje, Jaantje, and Taani Peter. I expected Aaltje would remarry, so she would be hard to find, but the kids, especially Taani Peter, whose name wouldn't change, should have been findable. Nothing. I couldn't even find Garrit before he was married, and he never had his siblings or mother living with him. I searched Ancestry.com for all of them, and found another family line giving death dates for Jaantje, Gerrit, and Taani. But no references. According to this family line, Jaantje died when she was 25. I also found that Garrit served in the Civil War (on the Union side - it was specified on the registration slip) and withdrew Civil War pension in 1884.
And then, miracle of miracles, I found Garrit's obituary in the Preston, Minnesota Times. Here it is:
Gerret Vanderbie was born in Holland, July 21, 1845. Died December 13th, 1925, aged 80 years, 4 months and 22 days.
At the age of three, he, with his parent, one sister, and one brother, emigrated to America. His father died on board ship.
After landing in New York, the mother with her three small children came to Alto, Wisconsin, where in later years she married Abram Loomans. There the subject of this biography grew to manhood.
On August 12th, 1862, when but 17 years of age, he enlisted as a volunteer in the 32nd reigment, Wisconsin infantry, and was in Sherman's army in their march thru the south and to the sea, witnessing the surrender of Johnson to Sherman in April, 1865. On June 12th, 1865, he was discharged from military service and came back to Alto where he took up the trade of carpenter.
On Nov. 29th, 1870, he was united in marriage to Jane Pool and the following year moved to Minnesota. To this union nine children were born, three dying in infancy. The surviving children are: Mrs. H.L. Boland of Orange City, Iowa; Mrs. Wm. Elfrink, Charles, and Mrs. D.E. Nagel of Greenleafton; Frank of Minneapolis; and Roy of Lime Springs, Iowa.
On Oct 15th, 1923, his wife preceded him to the Great Beyond. Since that time he has been living with his children. On Nov. 20th, he went to Orange City, Ia., where he expected to spend the winter with his daughter, Mrs. Boland. There on Sunday evening, Dec. 13th, while sitting in his pew in church, he passed quietly and suddenly away.
Beside his six children, he leaves to mourn his departure, 11 grand children and one half-brother besides a host of other relatives and friends.
Mr. Vanderbie's life was one of activity, always ready and alert toward any forward movement which might prove a benefit to the community, politically, socially or religiously. He served two terms as county commissioner, several terms on the town board, was assessor and school officer.
Thruout his life he was one of the pillars of the Greenleafton Reformed Church, serving several years as one of its elders as well as Sunday School Supt. and teacher. He was also a member of the Underwood Post, G.A.R., No. 122, or Preston.
Funeral services were held at the Greenleafton church Wednesday afternoon and interment was made in the cemetery nearby.
Preston Times Dec 24, 1925 p. 11, column 2
Did you catch the interesting parts? I hope so, since I bolded and italicized them. Can you imagine dying in the pew at church? Traumatic for the whole congregation! But I suppose for a good God-fearing Protestant, there probably isn't a better place to die.
So his mother married Abram Loomans. I searched Abram Loomans, and he did marry an Aaltje Ellen Vanderbie in 1850 (She arrived in 1848, so I don't know if I'd call that "later years" like the obit, but whatever.) The census records in 1850 show Abraham (maybe his name was changed like the original Abram) and Ellen with a plethora of children. One is Jane, which I can see as being Jaantje, and Gerrit is there as well. But Taani Peter isn't. What happened to Taani Peter? The Ancestry.com family line that said that Jaantje died at age 25 had Taani Peter living until he was 66. Did Abram have several children of his own? Was he a widower himself? Abram, incidentally, was from Holland as well. He immigrated in 1844. I haven't had time to explore the Loomans much except to realize that they were very prolific. I was tired and hungry and that was the last straw.
Abram and Ellen/Aaltje continue to appear in census records until Ellen died in 1908 and Abram lived with one of his children. In one of the later censuses, there is some interesting information. Aaltje is listed as having three children, with only two living. That makes sense if Jaantje did die at 25, and if Aaltje didn't have any further children with Abram - which I think she did. But what happened to Taani Peter?
Now there's still the Vanderbies to sort out, and they were only the first on the list. Sometimes I think I'm going to do some family history to tie up loose ends, and it's more like opening a can of worms instead.
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