Topics we study in
history books affected our ancestors in ways we may never realize. For most of
my ancestors, I know little about them, but they are my history.
Gerardus
Vogelzang, My 2nd Great-Grandfather
2
June 1823 • Sambeek, Boxmeer, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
5
Sept 1876 • Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA
When I first began
studying my family’s genealogy, I thought I had 3/4 German ancestry, 1/8 Belgian,
and 1/8 French. Years later, I learned the Belgian and French Canadian were
both 1/16, and I have 1/8 Dutch ancestry.
My
great-great-grandfather Gerardus Vogelzang (bird song) had Americanized his
name to George Vogels, making his history hard to trace. Once I knew he was
Dutch, I found him on the CD, “Immigration Records, Dutch in America 1800s.”
He was born in
Sambeek in southern Netherlands, close to the German border. In 1850, Sambeek
had a population of about 1,300. At age 33 in 1857, George emigrated to
America, hoping for economic improvement. He was a farmer, in the “less well to
do” social class.
Some time in the next
eight years, he married Theodora Maria Van der Heiden, now known as Mary
Vogels. They had six children, the youngest being my great-grandmother Kate, born
in 1875. According to the 1870 census, George’s three teenage nephews had come
from the Netherlands and were living with the family. His brother and
sister-in-law had died in 1867 and 1861. George too died in 1876, nineteen
months after Kate was born.
Typical for widows with
young children and a farm, Mary remarried a year later and had three more
children.
One of my favorite
genealogical websites for Dutch ancestry is https://www.wiewaswie.nl/en
