Doctor Grandma

Update: Been researching the Dutch today. I really feel for them, because they came to America, & they were poor. I found out some things about the grandparents of my grandparents.

Gerrit & Mathilda Plantinga were born in Friesland, Netherlands in the mid-1840s. In fact, Mathilda lists her town as Hallum (so we could even visit the town they were from). They were married in Holland in 1867. There is supposedly a marriage record in Dutch, but the website is also in Dutch so I could not get the record at this point.

They immigrated Oct. 18, 1890, coming into New York and having a destination of “Kensington”. Kensington is an area still shown on the map, just west of Hwy 94 in south Chicago. They had children with them:

Antje, Boutje, Loenwtje, and Renske.

Their children’s names were incorrectly transcribed as: Antie, Bouwtie, Leeunts and Renoke.

Gerrit & Mathilda settled in the big city. They lived INSIDE Chicago. (I think of all those pictures of slum quarters of immigrants with laundry out their windows and the kids running around kicking a ball in the streets of Chicago.) They also had 2 boys: WOPKO (who became William and my grandpa’s father), and GERRIT JR. (who is buried also in Chicago).

They lived in Dutch areas of Chicago. Lots of Dutch ended up in Chicago. WOPKO eventually married Katherine (Katie) and they came down to the Lafayette area.

In 1900, Gerrit Sr. was working as a “blacksmith helper” and they lived at: 233 103rd St., IN Chicago.

In 1910, Gerrit was in his mid-60s and worked as a “laborer in a car shop”. What this tells me is, they never had any money.

Gerrit dies in 1919. Mathilda is living with a daughter in 1920. The daughter’s husband worked as a “salesman of wholesale produce”. In other words, they grew vegetables somehow & managed to sell them. They didn’t have any money either.

Mathilda, it appears, never spoke any English. She was listed as speaking Dutch only in the census of 1900. She, as many Dutch women seem to manage to do, lived to be 90 years old, and died in 1935. Their death certificates put both Gerrit Sr. and Mathilda in Mt. Greenwood cemetary, Cook County, Chicago. Someone took their headstone photo for me. This is the same thing I do down here for others, wander cemetaries & take photos for family history. 

The Dutch names are amazing, and are also butchered terribly when transcribed. Mathilda was called “Tilke” for short, and in ACTUAL Dutch, her marriage name was: Tjipkje………..

Their children, as I have them all, were:

Antje (becomes “Annie”)

Bootje

Liewkje (becomes “Lucia,” then “Lucy”)

Loeuwtje (I think becomes “Rosie”)

Wopko (William)

Gerrit Jr.

and possible Rinske (This may be the one they call “Rosie” but I’m not sure if they are the same person.)

Wopko is the father of George, my grandpa. George hated his dad. He evidently was a mean person. George was born before Wopko and Katherine had been married 9 months. However, I’ve seen his picture and he looks like the spitting image of George, so I believe he is the father. Then they had 10 more kids.