At age 29, Jan (pronounced yawn) married Janna Hendrika Wilterdink in Winterswijk. They lived on the Stroeterhaar farm in the hamlet of Kotten with two sons, Gerrit Jan and Jan Hendrik at the time of emigration, November, 1846.
After almost two months of travel across the Atlantic with a large number of pioneers from Winterswijk, this immigrant family of four arrived at the shores of New Orleans. From there the group traveled north on the Mississippi River fulling dreams of joining Dutch immigrants in Michigan settling "New Holland." Little more than three years later, Janna gave birth to Johanna Maatje Hesslink, from whom my sons descend. They would eventually have another daughter named, Geertruid.
His sister, Harmina, her husband, and their two sons, all died in the Phoenix Disaster on Lake Michigan 21 Nov 1847. They had landed in New York aboard the ship, France. The Phoenix was to take to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where they had planned to settle, but it caught fire and burned within sight of its destination. Over 200 people died, most of them Dutch immigrants from the same area as Harmen and his wife. Some believe her brother, Harmen Jan Wilterdink, was also on the Phoenix, but that is unconfirmed.
After almost two months of travel across the Atlantic with a large number of pioneers from Winterswijk, this immigrant family of four arrived at the shores of New Orleans. From there the group traveled north on the Mississippi River fulling dreams of joining Dutch immigrants in Michigan settling "New Holland." Little more than three years later, Janna gave birth to Johanna Maatje Hesslink, from whom my sons descend. They would eventually have another daughter named, Geertruid.
His sister, Harmina, her husband, and their two sons, all died in the Phoenix Disaster on Lake Michigan 21 Nov 1847. They had landed in New York aboard the ship, France. The Phoenix was to take to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where they had planned to settle, but it caught fire and burned within sight of its destination. Over 200 people died, most of them Dutch immigrants from the same area as Harmen and his wife. Some believe her brother, Harmen Jan Wilterdink, was also on the Phoenix, but that is unconfirmed.
At age 29, Jan (pronounced yawn) married Janna Hendrika Wilterdink in Winterswijk. They lived on the Stroeterhaar farm in the hamlet of Kotten with two sons, Gerrit Jan and Jan Hendrik at the time of emigration, November, 1846.
After almost two months of travel across the Atlantic with a large number of pioneers from Winterswijk, this immigrant family of four arrived at the shores of New Orleans. From there the group traveled north on the Mississippi River fulling dreams of joining Dutch immigrants in Michigan settling "New Holland." Little more than three years later, Janna gave birth to Johanna Maatje Hesslink, from whom my sons descend. They would eventually have another daughter named, Geertruid.
His sister, Harmina, her husband, and their two sons, all died in the Phoenix Disaster on Lake Michigan 21 Nov 1847. They had landed in New York aboard the ship, France. The Phoenix was to take to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where they had planned to settle, but it caught fire and burned within sight of its destination. Over 200 people died, most of them Dutch immigrants from the same area as Harmen and his wife. Some believe her brother, Harmen Jan Wilterdink, was also on the Phoenix, but that is unconfirmed.
After almost two months of travel across the Atlantic with a large number of pioneers from Winterswijk, this immigrant family of four arrived at the shores of New Orleans. From there the group traveled north on the Mississippi River fulling dreams of joining Dutch immigrants in Michigan settling "New Holland." Little more than three years later, Janna gave birth to Johanna Maatje Hesslink, from whom my sons descend. They would eventually have another daughter named, Geertruid.
His sister, Harmina, her husband, and their two sons, all died in the Phoenix Disaster on Lake Michigan 21 Nov 1847. They had landed in New York aboard the ship, France. The Phoenix was to take to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where they had planned to settle, but it caught fire and burned within sight of its destination. Over 200 people died, most of them Dutch immigrants from the same area as Harmen and his wife. Some believe her brother, Harmen Jan Wilterdink, was also on the Phoenix, but that is unconfirmed.
