[13 October 2012]
http://vanderwielen.com/genealogy/dutchinlafayette.html--henk 15:04, 13 October 2012 (EDT)
Another family, whom Lucas does not list, was that of Sijds Theunis Crap, the leader of the 1847 group. [SLIDE 2] I'm quite sure that he continued on to Lafayette for he died and was buried in Creenbush Cemetery in 1849. His widow Froukje de Bildt later married Willem Jacobs Jonk. Their graves are beside that of Mr. Crap. I took a picture of their stones too, but the slide came out blank. Many of the immigrants changed the spelling of their last names as well as the first names, perhaps to "Americanize" them. Krap, K-R-A-P became first C-R-A-P and then C-R-A-P-P. A son, Thomas S. Crapp is listed in the 1881 Lafayette Directory as a carpenter, lumber dealer and builder of stairways with his business on Ferry Street east of the Wabash Railroad (now the location of Muinzer Moving and Storage). Willem Jonk, J-O-N-K became William Y-O-N-K and, in some records, Y-O-U-N-K; Froukje became Flora. That occurred also in later years [SLIDE 4] as you can see from this stone which is between the graves of my paternal grandparents and those of my parents. Pieter and Tietje de Jong came to America in 1912 with their son Dirk and were advised to make their names more "American" so they became Peter, Mathilda, and Dick DeYoung. [SLIDE 5] When Dad bought this stone my sister and I encouraged him to show that the spelling change occurred in his generation so that future searchers for roots would have a clue. [FLASH TO SLIDES 4 & 5] [SLIDE 6 blank]
According to Mijnheer Boswijk more families and single persons emigrated from Het Bildt in 1848, 1859, 1867, 1872, and 1880. Other people continued to come over the years, whether to improve their condition or to join family members and friends already here. John Bart who owns farmland east of Lafayette has shared information from his family tree. His great grandfather, Dirk Bart and family came to the United States in 1868. John's grandfather, Jan, was born in Haarlem by the Lake, Netherlands in 1850 and died here in 1915. The names, Dirk or Dick and Jan or John appear alternately in seven succeeding generations.
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