Book Review - Tierck Clafsen DeWitt and Descendants of His Son Luycas DeWitt

I am always interested in reading books that have a connection to my family. I recently found a book entitled, "Tierck Clafsen DeWitt and Descendants of His Son Luycas DeWitt," written by Vona DeWitt Smith. The book was published in 2004 in Victoria, Canada

I was so disappointed in the book as I found many errors in this book. The first error that I noted was in the title of the book. The author apparently does not know about the short or descending s. Clafsen should read Classen. Clas is a diminutive of the name Nicolaes and is often written as Claes. Tjerck/Tierck was the son of Nicolaes (Claes).

I found several errors in the locations of events, such as, Clinton, MI when the location was actually in Clinton, IL. I also found errors in dates. Birth, death and marriage registers, social security death index, draft registration and census records often conflicted with the dates presented in this book. And in some cases, the given name or surname in the book could not be found in an Internet search or in a search at many of the genealogical services to which I subscribe. However, I did find hits when I made some simple modifications to the spelling like changing the letter u to the letter a or adding a consonant.

Some of the errors should have been caught by proofreader. When a child's birthdate is within a few years of the birthdate of the parents, a proofreader would have caught that.

The book is available on Amazon but I would caution you to take whatever information is provided with a grain of salt and look for other records and documents to support your findings.

Hats and White Gloves

Today I was working on my family history, specifically on the Bogardus branch. I was looking for supporting information for a particular Bogardus on Ancestry.com when I came across a photo connected to a posted family tree. The people identified in the photo were Luella Bogardus and her sister Goldie.

Looking at that photo reminded me of photos that I have of my mother and her female relatives that were taken in the 1950s. In that photo, Goldie and Luella both were wearing white hats and white gloves. So based on the rules that my mother told me regarding proper dress, I believe the photo was taken between Memorial Day and Labor Day sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s.

I grew up with my mother reminding of rules regarding how a proper young lady presented herself. As it turns out my generation rebelled against those rules. But even as women of my age were overtly rebelling, my mother continued to remind me of the rules.

The rules included:

• Only wear white shoes and accessories after Memorial Day and not after Labor Day.
• Ladies wear a hat when going out in public.
• Do not wear sparkling jewelry with the exception of an engagement and/or wedding ring until 5 PM or later.
• Married women with long hair always wear their hair in an updo when in public.

Although I did not adhere to all of my mother's rules, she did have an impact on how I dressed. The impact was mostly how I dressed when I was around her. Her rules and how I lived my life were in conflict thus I became a closet dresser. I dressed one way when I visited my mother and another in my everyday life.

My mother's aunt had possession of the spinning wheel that had belonged to her sister, my mother's mother. My mother told me that her Aunt Eleanor was deciding which of her sister's granddaughters to give it. As my grandmother's eldest granddaughter, my mother was hoping that her aunt would give me that spinning wheel. Aunt Eleanor was coming for a visit so my husband and I made the trip to visit my parents when Aunt Eleanor was there. My mother reminded me how traditional her aunt was.

I came to my mother's house wearing designer jeans, high heeled shoes and a silk blouse. She was mortified and was convinced that I had blown any chance of getting her mother's spinning wheel. Later when I asked my mother what happend regarding the spinning wheel, she told my that her aunt had donated it to a museum.

As much as I would have liked to have something of my grandmother's, her spinning wheel in a museum was a much better place for it.