Genealogy Story – The Vander Laan Family

Recently I was investigating the ancestors of someone at our church and ran across the surname of Vander Laan. Since that is also the name of the person who is on the video series that we are viewing in our Sunday School class, I wondered if there was a connection. In the process, I have discovered a very interesting genealogy story that I thought worthwhile to share.

Since I do not have a personal connection to anyone in this family, I do not know any of the family stories, therefore, all the below is based on the information I could glean from various census records and other documents.

Derk Vander Laan was born in Stedum, Loppersum, Groningen, Netherlands in 1835. He married Geertje Bolwijn in 1860 when they were each about 25 years old. They had a total of six children – Hendrik (b. 1863), Engelina (who went by the name Lena) (b. 1865), Jakob (b. 1867), Gerhard (b. 1871), Jan (who was also called John) (b. 1873), and Grietje (b. 1875).

However, the late 1870s were tragic years for the family. In 1875 Hindrik died at the age of 11, in 1876 Derk died at the age of 40, in 1877 Geertje died at the age of 42, and in 1878 Gerhard died at the age of 7. This left four children (Engelina, Jakob, Jan, and Grietje) who would have been 13, 11, 5, and 3 when their mother died.

For the next decade it is not known where the children lived – but likely they were taken care of by relatives in the area. In the early 1890s all four children (by now young adults) emigrated to the United States – specifically to the area around Grand Rapids, Michigan, where there were large Dutch settlements. According to ship registers, Jakob came first in 1888. Jan and Grietje came together on the ship Rotterdam on 23 September 1891. Lena came on the same ship six months later in 28 April 1892.

All four children settled down in the Grand Rapids area, married and had children.

·       Lena married Hubregt Wagemaker in 1893. See more on this below.

·       Jakob married Jacoba Jaspersse in 1889. They had two children. When she passed away he married again in 1897 to a widow, Fannie [Kremer], who had one other child from her first marriage.

·       Jan married Florence Wildeboer and had two children.

·       Grietje married Berk Sikkema in 1896 and they had four children.

As noted, Lena married Hubregt Wagemaker. He was born in 1836 (making him about the age of Lena’s parents). He had been married previously and had nine children (two died young), but his first wife had passed away in 1890. Thus, when he married a second time in 1893, Lena was 28, only 5 years older than her oldest stepson. Her step-children were at the time 23, 20, 19, 16, 15, 13, and 10.  Lena and Hubregt went on to have five more children together (two died young), the last born in 1904 when Hubregt was 68. Hubregt passed away in 1911, leaving 46-year-old Lena with her three children at home – then being 16, 13 and 7.

Lena had spent the majority of her life caring for children – first her younger siblings after the death of her parents, then the large group of step-children from her marriage, then her own children. When her youngest child was of marriable age in 1924, she would have been taking care of others since 1877 – a total of 47 years! Fortunately, Lena lived a long life and finally passed away in 1947 at the age of 82.

Lena’s daughter Jennie (Wagemaker) married Siebert Sterkenburg in 1918 when she was only 19. They had three sons, the youngest of whom was Walter Earl (b. 1925). Walter married Carol Howlerda and one of their sons was Mark Walter Sterkenburg who is a member of our church.

One of Jan’s sons was Harold Vander Laan (b. 1926). He was the father of Raynard Vander Laan who is the individual who produces the video series we have been viewing at church – That the World May Know.