Person talk:Albertus Huisinga (1)

Albert Huisinga [31 January 2012]

Hi, I received an email from a descendant of Albertus Huizinga, saying that his great grandfather was born in 1854.

Hereby a copy of the mail I've got:

Albertus Huizenga/Huisinga and Jennie Knott are my great-grandparents. I grew up in the house Albertus built. My records show Jennie was born 7 Feb 1859 but your date of the 6th might be correct since it is also shown in a Knot genealogy that can be found online elsewhere.

We know little about Albertus prior to his marriage to Lucy Beaumolt, the widow with two sons from Peter Van Den Einde, in Chicago in 1882. However, I question that the "Albert Huisinga ... born on 22-09-1835 in Usquert, Groningen" is the same as my great-grandfather. Here are points against that match:

1) That spelling has never been associated with Albertus. 2) Albertus was born 31 Dec 1954, twenty years later than the Albert in question. I just verified the date from a picture of his headstone. 3) Information from the Prinsburg community and from a couple from Huizenga, Netherlands points to birth in the area of Leens and Ulrum rather than Usquert.

Albertus had an older brother Johannes Huizenga who stayed in Chicago. From Census records I found Johannes was born in 1853, immigrated in 1972, died 1939.

Johannes and Albertus could have been related to the Tamme Alberts Huizinga line - perhaps the Albert you found was their father or uncle - but every time I look at the Tamme line I conclude there is no relationship.

The Leens / Ulrum area was a Mennonite area so records are scarce. The Tamme line is seen in the Sweringa emigration research but I found no evidence of Albertus and Johannes or their rumored brothers. However the Sweirnga data assembled ~1970 is not as comprehensive as originally thought. I'll quote a note to myself on this situation:

"RE References to Robert Sweringa's word on Dutch Emmigration/Immigration"

"At the same time that I found the Sweringa book review (May 2004) I read a summary of some consistency analysis (done by Sweringa?) regarding coverage of the population that his survey works addressed."

"My earlier writings assumed fairly complete coverage, so not finding Albertus and Johannes was puzzling. However, the analysis that I read (but did not save) indicated that perhaps only a third of the population was actually surveyed, leaving plenty of opportunity for Albertus and Johannes to be omitted from the lists."

"Furthermore the Huizenga geneology book from Peter and Wayne illuminates the role of the state church in recordkeeping. Those not in the church were non-persons: no records were kept by the official record keepers and some religious groups had an aversion to keeping records."

So, I think this Albert is a false lead for your research on the Knots. Please let me know if you have other questions.

Jack Huisinga Formerly of Prinsburg mailto:jack@huisinga.us

--henk 10:03, 30 January 2012 (EST)

Hi, Henk,

Looks like I need to go back to school and learn some arithmetic! The estimated birth date I used for Albertus is from the 1895 census, when he said he was 40, which does give a birth date of about 1855. I'll change that. If you want to add a source to your date and make that the birth date -- deleting my estimated date -- that would be even better.

As for Jennie, I do have that as the 7th of February, and that's from the Bergerlijke Stand, so I feel quite comfortable with that.

I did find a marriage record for Albertus and Lucy, and will add those; as well as an 1885 census.

If Albertus emigrated as a single young man, I'm not surprised there is no record. I suspect a lot of young men worked their way across and that's why they don't show up on passenger lists.

Thanks for passing this on.

Maybe Jack would like to add his information to WeRelate?

Gayel--GayelKnott 21:42, 30 January 2012 (EST)