Contributed by:
Jane Goodrich
On May 11, 1882 Sybe (Siebe)
Jans Palma from
Hogebeintum,
widower of Grietje Joekes Riesema and greatgrandson of the wellknown
Secessionist
Jan Sybes Palma (vide also: Secessionists
Ferwerd), married at Grand Rapids, Michigan to Sara (Sarah) Gerrits
Engbrenghof from Marrum. While doing research in Michigan a couple of years ago, I found a bit more on Sybe & Sarah and some of Sarah's siblings: -
Sybe
Jans Palma b. March 18, 1855 Hogebeintum, Friesland, Netherlands, died:
January 27, 1910 at Grand Rapids, Michigan of heart
valvular
disease. - Sarah Gerrits Engbrenghof b. February 5, 1854 Marrum, Friesland, Netherlands, died: May 11, 192 at Grand Rapids, Michigan of apoplexy.
Sources: Sarah and Sybe's children: - Anna
Palma
b December 31, 1883 Grand Rapids Sybe was a "string butcher" in Grand Rapids which means he was a sausage maker. The family endured some hard times during the mid 1880's and moved north to Grant, Michigan and to some other addresses while Sybe did some farm work. The little daughter Sjoukje who died in Grant was buried there, but when the family was finally able to return to Grand Rapids when times got better, they had Sjoukje's body exhumed and moved back to Grand Rapids to be reburied. This was a somewhat unusual thing to do and may indicate the strong family ties as well as the ties the family had to the Grand Rapids area. Along with quite a few childhood deaths, the family was also plagued with children who were born mentally handicapped. Family history has it that one of the children was functionally "retarded" whereas two others were "slow" and never moved away from home or married. Gerrit, Jantje, and Sadie all lived together in their family home until they all finally died. Sarah, the youngest child, lived some of her early years with her siblings and helped to take care of them. She worked all her life in a factory that manufactured industrial belting, never married and assumed financial responsibility over her siblings Gerrit, Jantje and Sadie. Despite this, Sarah earned her driver's licence, succesfully speculated in the stock market and led a fulfilling life as an early model of the "liberated woman". Sarah Gerrits Engbrenghof's sibling Lieuwe Gerrits Engbrenghof and his wife Hiltje Douwes Jeltema were struck by misfortune too: there were many deaths for the children of Lieuwe and Hiltje who, so I've been told, owned a hardware store in Grand Rapids. Hiltje's name is also given as Helen and Lieuwe's name was sometimes given as Lewis. The below records show the children who died at a very young age: -
Harmke
Engbrenghof died March 17, 1890 Age 5 Book 3 Page 206 Died of
"croup" In other words: none of these children lived to be older
than 6
years.
However, the obituaries of Lieuwe and Hiltje both show that nonetheless
they were survived by three sons: Douwminecus (Menus), Garrit
and
Martin.
|