One of the surnames that I trace is Bogardus. Anneke Jans married Evarudus Bogardus in the early half of the 1600s in Nieuw Amsterdam after the death of her husband, Roelof Janszen. Roelof and Anneke had a daughter from whom I descend. After the death of her first husband, Anneke Jans married Domine Bogardus and had four sons. That makes the Bogardus descendants my cousins.
The other day, I came across a Tomás Andrew Morales Bogardus. I was so intrigued with this name because it was not typical of names that I had encountered as I researched the Bogardus family. Based on Hispanic naming traditions, I suspected that Tomás Andrew Morales Bogardus was born in one of the southwestern states in the United States.
Indeed he was. He was born in California around the same time as my own children were born. So I was curious to figure out how Tomás was connected to Everardus Bogardus. I still have work to do to make the connection, but as I was doing my Google searches, I came across a Klondyke Bogardus.
What an odd given name! I found lots of things about him. He spent his life in Lima, Ohio. One of his great-granddaughters fell out of a second or third floor window in Cleveland when she was the age of three.
Klondyke seems to have been a clerk at the Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company. He was born in 1897 in Lima, Ohio.
I learned that the Klondike gold field in Alaska was opened in 1896. So it looks like Klondyke was named from this gold mine. At this point, I haven't been able to ascertain if any close family member had participated in the gold rush in 1896 or if he was named Klondyke as a joke.
My Godfather was Roy Bogardus, Klondyke was his father. Roy and his wife Elsie were amazing and I loved them like a 2nd set of parents. They lived in Strongsville, Ohio and later moved to Berea, Ohio on Front Street. Roy owned Suburban Clock and Repair on Front Street. My father and Roy grew up together from the time they were about 5 years old and stayed thisclose until Roy's death around 1977. I remember the story about his father's name "Klondyke". He was indeed named due to the Gold Rush. I told my co-workers about this and they did not believe me. I googled his name and your site came up! Roy grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.
ReplyDeleteI found this while doing some research on the Bogardus name. My granfather Noel Bogardus was cousins with Klondyke if my family connection is correct. Klondyke's father Chauncey and Noel's father Lewis were brothers.
ReplyDeleteWhat intrigued me was the reference to a great granddaughter falling out a window in Cleveland.
If it is the same person, it was my sister Diane who fell out that window in Cleveland in 1955. The age is right, the circumstances are right.
Diane leaned on a window, the screen fell out. She narrowly missed a street sign that would have impaled her.
All she suffered was a punctured lung and a cracked rib.
So...this was not Chauncey's family, it was Lewis' via Noel.