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Van Raalte Family Genealogy
A report from Karen Schakel
In the fall of 1998 we began what we thought would be a one- or
two-year project - to write and publish a definitive genealogy of
the Van Raalte family. We met with Marie Zingle and Sara Simmons
to lay out plans. Marie is a well-known local genealogist; Sara is
a Van Raalte descendant. Both had expressed great interest in working
on such a genealogy. Sara had contacts with many living Van Raalte
family members and would gather information and photos from them.
Marie would do additional research and the actual writing of the
genealogical information.
| Elton Bruins would guide the project
and write two chapters - one giving the story of Albertus C.
Van Raalte to flesh out the dates and facts given in the genealogy
and the other telling the history of the Van Raalte house.
Karen Schakel would edit all of the material and document it.
The Van Raalte Institute would give the project a home and
make its files available to it. |
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We are now entering the fourth year of this project.
It has taken much longer than we anticipated, but we
have learned a great deal along the way. We have combed
files minutely, have written letters to archives, public
record offices, and relatives to find correct and new
information, and have sifted through Dutch documents
to glean information about ancestors. These documents,
which often needed to be translated, helped us to trace
various family lines back to the 1600s. Two Van Raalte
family reunions held in August 2000 and 2001 in Holland
gave us an opportunity to fill in many details about
living relatives.
We are hopeful that the genealogy
will be completed by spring 2002,
as we are now entering the final
stages of checking facts and
revising the written material.
We believe the final product
will be excellent, interesting
not only to Van Raalte relatives
but a wider audience as well
and important to immigrant history.
All of the information given
in the book will be well documented,
making this a very valuable work
for future researchers and historians
who will build on what we have
found. The photos we will include
will make the dates and details
come alive. We will let you know
when the volume is available.
As in many families,
the generations spread
apart. Although Holland
was home to many in
the second generation,
and has continued to
be the home of many
in later generations,
the descendants of
Albertus and Christina
Van Raalte live in
many parts of America
and the rest of the
world. The generations
spread apart in time,
as well. Albertus was
seven years older than
Dirk, but Albertus'
first child was born
in 1859, Dirk's first
child thirty years
later. More than three
decades - 37 years
- passed between the
births of the first
and last of the Van
Raalte grandchildren.
More than a century
- 123 years - separated
the first and last
deaths in that generation,
from the first dead
infant mourned by Mina
and Pieter Oggel to
the death of Mary and
Gerrit Kollen's only
child, Estelle Kollen
Pelgrim, at the grand
age of 98, in 1984.
Albertus
Van Raalte's
family honored
his name by using
it often. Albertus
Christiaan Van
Raalte IV was
Allie, pronounced
ah-lee, and descendants
wondered how
they were related
to the Ollie
they heard talked
of. When he died
in 1932, a newspaper
article identified
him as "the grandson
of Dr. A. C.
Van Raalte, founder
of Holland, who
settled in this
wilderness before
a tree was cut" and
went on to describe
his own interests: "Mr.
Van Raalte was
quite a horseman
in his day and
for many years
owned 'Turk,'
considered Holland's
'wonder horse'
forty years ago." Albertus
Christiaan Van
Raalte Gilmore
was known as
Raalte - perhaps
even as a child,
when he was tucked
in beside his
visiting grandfather
on cold winter
nights. "The
little Van Raalte
sleeps with me," Albertus
Van Raalte wrote
to Dirk. "He
is a precious
talker. I hope
that God will
use him as a
preacher of the
gospel." It was
yet another Albertus
Christiaan Van
Raalte, whom
his grandfather
never knew, who
grew up to become
a minister -
Dirk's first
son, born a generation
later than his
first cousin
with the same
name.
From "God's
Temporal Deliverances
Are Many; Each
Settlement and
Family Has a
History of Its
Own"in Albertus
C. Van Raalte:
Dutch Leader
and American
Patriot by
Jeanne M. Jacobson,
Elton J. Bruins,
and Larry J.
Wagenaar. |
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