The Second Generation: Twentieth-century Americans

The Grandchildren of Hendrik Bor and Bastiaantje Leenheer

It was the vision of Alexander Hamilton that the United States should become a nation of commerce and industry. Unlike Thomas Jefferson’s vision of a country filled with citizen farmers, he saw a country filled with manufacturers, bankers, thrifty shopkeepers, and hard-working, industrious laborers. By and large it was this vision that was realized in the lives of the grandchildren of Hendrik and Bastiaantje Bor, the second generation to be born in America.

Although the first of Hendrik and Bastiaantje’s grandchildren was born in 1877 and the last in 1911, most of their second generation descendents were born in the thirty years between 1880 to 1910. They thus came of age in turn-of-the-century America, as the country was rapidly turning into the industrial powerhouse of the modern world. Fields were giving way to towns and cities, and farms were being replaced by factories and offices. Even the relatively small city of Holland, Michigan participated in this process, becoming a manufacturing center for furniture, shoes, and furnaces, among other things.

The lives of the grandchildren reflect this change. Although they all grew up as farm children and several continued to work the family farms for as long as their parents were alive, by 1920 all but seven had given up the farming life, moved into the cities, and become factory workers, maintenance men, guards, and shopkeepers. Of the 135 known grandchildren of Hendrik and Bastiaantje Bor who lived to adulthood, only five are known to have spent the majority of their lives as farmers, and four of these were on the plains of the Dakotas where the factories never reached.

The size of their families reflects this change as well. While the children of Hendrik and Bastiaantje were all farmers and had farm-sized families, ranging from 7 to 12 children with an average of 8.5, the 39 of their children whose families are documented had an average of only 3.6 children. The largest had eight, and four couples had no children at all; six had only one child. But infant mortality was also lower; eight deaths are recorded out of 139 births, less than 6 %. Both economically and demographically, the children of the second generation had become urban Americans.

They had also become more American culturally. As far as is known, the children of the first generation spoke Dutch as their primary language for their entire lives. Certainly they could speak English and communicate in it, but it seems likely that Dutch remained their native tongue. Cornelia Borr, for example, remembered that Martha Bor, Henry’s wife, never spoke English at all, even though she could understand it when she heard it.

The children of the second generation, in contrast, all spoke English as their primary language. They certainly knew some Dutch, and could communicate in it, but it was clearly their second language. Their children, the great-grandchildren, remember that their parents only spoke Dutch when they were saying something they didn’t want the children to understand. Nor was it a very pure Dutch. Cornelia Borr called it "Yankee Dutch." She remembers that when she once hired a housekeeper from the Netherlands, a recent immigrant who spoke only Dutch, she could barely communicate with her.

By and large, the children of the second generation were also better educated than those of the first. While school records for that time do not exist, it is unlikely that any of the original children had any more than a basic elementary education in a one room country school. The grandchildren, in contrast, all had at least a ninth-grade education, and one, Elmer Herreid Borr, went to college and became a minister in the Reformed Church.

But while the grandchildren of Hendrik and Bastiaantje Bor were becoming culturally more American, they generally maintained their Dutch identity. Because some of their parents had moved out of the Michigan area, they were born in three distinct areas of the country–the central Dakotas, the Chicago area, and the Holland-Zeeland area–but these were all centers of Dutch settlement. Thus they stayed within Dutch communities and most of them married spouses who, to judge from their family names, were also descendents of Dutch immigrants. Most also remained in the areas where they had been born, with the exception of the children born to Peter and Gertie in the Dakotas. Only four of the eleven children raised there stayed there. Several moved back to the Western Michigan region, and two ended up on the West Coast, in Oregon and California. In contrast, most of the Boomkers appear to have stayed in Chicago, and the native Michiganders in the Holland-Zeeland area, although a few moved to Detroit.

In all, Hendrik and Bastiaantje Bor had 51 identified grandchildren who were born over a period of 35 years, from 1877 to 1911; seven of these died in infancy. Of the 50 whose gender is known, 35 were boys and only 15 were girls, giving a highly skewed sex ratio of 70 : 30, significantly different from the expected 50 : 50. However, because only two of the first-generation children were boys and two of the second died as infants, only 15 of these 35 boys were able to carry the Borr name into the next generation.

In the following pages I provide a brief summary what is known about some of these second-generation descendents. It has not been possible to produce complete histories for all of the 44 grandchildren who reached adulthood.

Ryk Van Eyck and Hannah Bor were married in 1875 and had 7 children in the 12 years from 1877 to 1889, five boys and one girl. One child died in infancy, but the year and gender are not known. All of their children were born and raised on the Van Eyck farm on the north side of Adams road in Holland Township and were baptized in the Ebenezer Reformed Church. Most chose spouses from the local area, but half of them eventually moved out of the Holland-Zeeland area. Two of the boys continued to live on and work the family farm until their father died, but sold it immediately afterwards and moved into the city of Holland. The Van Eyck farm thus passed out of the family after about 60 years.

The eldest child, Henry Van Eyck, was born on November 1, 1877, the first grandchild of Hendrik and Bastiaantje Bor. He apparently lived on the family farm until about 1900, when he became a conductor for the Pere Marquette Railroad. About 1910 he married a woman named Daisy, who is believed to have come from Ohio, and they had their first child, a son, in 1912. In 1917 Henry bought a farm on section 23 of Port Sheldon Township in Ottawa County and resumed farming, which he kept up until 1951. In that year he apparently retired and moved into Holland city, where he lived at 93 Spruce Avenue until his death on July 18, 1961 at the age of 83 and a half. According to his obituary, he had three children and ten grandchildren living at that time.

Marigje or Marie Van Eyck was born on February 26, 1880. On March 1, 1899, at the age of 19, she married Cornelius Klassen. In 1910 they were living in Highland Park, Michigan, where Cornelius was working as a butcher in his brother-in-law’s grocery. (see John Van Eyck below) However, by the 1920s the Klassens were back in Holland, where Cornelius operated a printing business. They had three children in all and lived most of their lives at 71 W 18th Street. After Cornelius died in 1963, Marie moved to Chicago to live with her daughter. By this time her other children had moved out of the area as well and contact with the family was lost, but Cornelius’s obituary says they had 6 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren at that time.

Gerrit Jan or John Van Eyck was born on February 27, 1882. At unknown times he married Kate Van den Brink and moved to the Detroit area, where, in 1910, he owned a grocery story in Highland Park, Michigan. They had two daughters, who married and moved out of the state. John and Kate followed one of them to California and died in Santa Barbara in the 1970s. John’s date of death is given as April 14, 1972, when he was 90 years old.

Peter Van Eyck was born on March 3, 1884. He apparently continued to live on and help operate the family farm for many years, even after marrying Katherina Venhuizen on March 25, 1908. However, the couple was living in Holland city by 1925. Their eldest son, Willard, was killed in the Army Air Corps during World War II, the first Borr descendent known to have died in the service of his county. They had six children in all, three boys and three girls. In their later years they lived at 533 W 21st Street. Katherina died on December 22, 1978, aged 93. When Peter died on May 3, 1984, he was exactly 100 years and 2 months old. His obituary reported he had 10 grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren.

Little is known about the fifth child of Ryk and Hannah Van Eyck, Bertus or Bert Van Eyck, who was born on May 29, 1886. He moved to the Detroit area and lost contact with his family. He is believed to have married but his wife’s name is unknown and it is not known if they had any children.

Ryk and Hannah’s youngest son, Benjamin or ‘Bennie’ Van Eyck, was born on June 2, 1889. He was baptized in the Ebenezer Reformed Church and married a girl from the same church, Nancy Nies, about 1920. (Nancy came from a family of notable size, even for the large immigrant families of the era. Her mother, Beya Looyengoed. married Nies Nies at the age of 17 and had 14 children in 25 years, yet she was only Nies’s second wife. He had had two other children by a previous wife.) Benjamin and Nancy remained on the Van Eyck farm and helped Ryk operate it until he died in 1928. They moved into Holland city soon afterwards but their residences and occupations are not known. Benjamin died November 16, 1956, at 66 and a half; Nancy on October 8, 1984, a few months short of 92. They had 3 children in all, a boy and two girls, 11 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren.

As a group, the five surviving children of Ryk and Hannah Van Eyck for whom records are available had 17 children, giving an average family size of 3.4, normal for this generation. There were 8 boys and 9 girls, and all lived to maturity. There are no infant deaths recorded. We can also count 37 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren, but records of the later generations are not complete.

The Van Eyck family was particularly long-lived. Ryk and Hannah lived to 78 and 75 respectively, and the average age at death of the four children for whom the date of death is known is 85. The youngest, Benjamin, died the earliest, at 66, while Peter lived to be 100, still the record for all known Borr descendents.

Peter Bor(r) and Grietje or ‘Gertie’ Van Dyke were married in 1881 and had twelve children over a period of 22 years, from 1883 to 1905, eight boys and four girls. However, the youngest girl, Henrietta, died after only 3 days. The other eleven children all lived to adulthood, married, and had children of their own. Although born and raised in the Dakotas, most of them moved back to the Holland-Zeeland area or to other areas of the country.

Peter and Gertie’s first son was born on March 20, 1883, probably on the old Bor family farm in Holland Township. In accordance with the old Dutch tradition, he was named for his paternal grandfather, Hendrik Bor, the founder of our lineage, although his father Americanized the name to Henry Borr. His parents moved to the Dakotas when he was two years old so he probably had no memories of his Michigan home. Yet he married a girl from Michigan, Anna Bouma, and by 1931 they were back in Michigan, living in Zeeland. He worked as a general laborer and watchman at several local manufacturing companies, and served as an elder of the First Reformed Church of Zeeland. From 1942 until their deaths in the 1960s they lived at 37 N Jefferson Street. Henry died on July 26, 1963, age 80; Anna on June 15, 1968, at 84. They had 6 children and 13 grandchildren, two of whom were adopted.

Peter and Gertie’s second child, a daughter, Elizabeth Borr, was born in Herreid, South Dakota on August 13, 1886. She too was named according to Dutch tradition after her paternal grandmother, Bastiaantje Leenheer, which Peter somehow Anglicized into Elizabeth. Although raised on the frontier, Elizabeth married a boy from Zeeland Township, William G. Meengs, and they raised a family of 8 children on a farm near Vriesland. Elizabeth died on June 9, 1946, two months short of her 60th birthday. Her husband’s date of death is not known. Both were buried in the New Vriesland cemetery.

James Borr was born in South Dakota on July 26, 1888. Unlike his two elder siblings, he married a local girl, Helen Van Soest, and remained in the Dakotas for his entire life, raising a family of six children on a farm near Strasburg, North Dakota, which includes one adopted boy. The 75th Anniversary booklet of the Strasburg Reformed Church contains several testimonies to his importance as a member of that congregation, yet he died quite young, on October 29, 1930, when he was only 42. His wife lived until 1968. They are both buried in the Pilgrim Home Cemetery, Strasburg, North Dakota.

Cora Borr was born in South Dakota on October 19, 1890. On May 14, 1912 she married Dirk Lammers and had two children by him, but he died in Westfield, North Dakota on November 4, 1918. She apparently raised the children on her own, and did not remarry until January 1, 1935, to Raymond Volk. They did not have any children. She died in Bismarck, North Dakota on April 25, 1978, aged 87 and a half, and was buried in the Strasburg cemetery. Her two daughters married two brothers from Zeeland, where their descendents still live. Cora left a pleasant memoir of her father (see Appendix B, Document 3) and is primarily responsible for keeping the genealogy of her family.

Bessie Borr was born in South Dakota on February 24, 1892. At unknown times she married Bert Van Beek, had two children, and moved to Portland, Oregon. She later remarried twice, first to Frank Sander, and then to Emil Radke. Her date of death is not known. It is believed that Bert and Bessie’s descendants still live in the Portland area.

Albertus or Bert Borr was born in South Dakota on January 26, 1894. He married Nellie Van der Vorste in 1918, had one child, and died in Linton, North Dakota on September 11, 1952, at the age of 58. However, during the 30s and 40s Bert and Nellie were living in Holland, where he worked for the H. J. Heinz Company.

Samuel Borr was born on February 26, 1896 and is believed to have spent his entire life in the Dakotas. He married Hannah Fjon, had two children, and died in Bismarck, North Dakota on May 11, 1976, aged 80.

Peter Borr was born in South Dakota on March 20, 1898. In 1926 he married Dena Dornbush. They had five children and sometime later moved back to Michigan. Peter was living in Grand Rapids in 1978 but his date of death is not known.

Chester Borr was born in South Dakota on March 1, 1901. Like his brother, he moved back to Michigan and may have lived in Grand Rapids for a time. He married Margaret Baumgartner and they had one daughter. Chester died very young, on September 6, 1933, when he was 32 and a half, and was buried in Pilgrim Home Cemetery in Holland. Margaret remarried and had two daughters by her second husband, Diemart Helder.

Elmer Borr was born in South Dakota on June 2, 1903. He married Minnie Roskins of Spencer, Iowa and became a minister in the Reformed Church. They served churches in Minnesota, Iowa, and California, where he died on July 14, 1946. He was only 43. They had three children, but the youngest, a boy, died after 3 months.

Ernest Borr was the youngest child of Peter and Gertie Borr. He was born in South Dakota on July 13, 1905. In 1933 he married Kathryn Schaffer and they had 8 children in all, although the last two, a set of twins, were born dead in 1940. It is believed they lived their entire lives in Strasburg, North Dakota. Their dates of death are not known.

Altogether, the eleven surviving children of Peter and Gertie Borr had 44 children of their own, an average family size of 4.0 and the largest number of third generation descendents in the six lineages. However, this total includes one adopted boy and four children who died in infancy. Of the 41 natural children whose gender is known, there were 18 boys and 23 girls, a ratio of 44 : 56. The total number of grandchildren is not known for certain, but is at least 66.

Although Peter and Gertie lived to 85 and 86 respectively, several of their children died unusually young, one at 32 and another at 43. However, the oldest lived until 87, raising the average age for the eight children whose deaths are recorded to 60.

Henry Bor and Martha Jacobs were married in 1891 and had 10 children over a period of 18 years, from 1893 to 1911. There were 9 boys and one girl, but one boy was stillborn and the youngest boy died of diphtheria at the age of 3. Henry inherited the Bor family farm after his mother’s death and ran it his entire life. All of his children were born on the farm and baptized in the Ebenezer Reformed Church, but none of them showed much inclination for farming. As they grew into adults one by one they left the farm and moved into the city of Holland, working in factories, marrying ‘city girls,’ and starting families of their own.

(standing) John, Alice, Henry, James, Matthew
(sitting) Richard, Martha, Willis, Henry, Simon

The eldest son, Henry Borr or ‘Hank,’ was born on April 24, 1892 and baptized on June 12. He was obviously named for his father and grandfather, with whom he must not be confused, nor with his cousin Henry Borr who was the son of his uncle Peter. About 1915 he moved into town to work at the Holland Shoe Company, and married Cora Molenaar on March 21, 1916 in her family home. During their early married years they lived at 404 Pine Avenue, where Cora gave birth to four children between 1916 and 1929. She died in 1930 and Hank remarried a few years later, to Frances Rimersma, the widow of _______ Caauwe, who had a son Neal Caauwe by that marriage. They had no children of their own. In 1935 Hank left the shoe company and joined the Holland Police Department, where he worked for about 10 years. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to a new home at 46 E 21st Street, where they lived their remaining years. After leaving the Police Department, Henry worked as a guard at a variety of manufacturing companies around town. He and Frances both died in 1975, she on January 30 as a result of a traffic accident; he on December 7 as the result of an apparent heart attack. He was 83 years old. They had 15 grandchildren in all.

The second child of Henry and Martha Bor was a girl, Alice Borr, the only female in the family. She was born on April 13, 1894 and baptized on July 8. As the only girl in a family of 8 boys, she no doubt did a good deal of mothering long before she married William Huizenga of Zeeland about 1920. He eventually became the owner of the Huizenga Gravel and Ready-Mix Company. They had seven children in all and lived in their later years at 2082 104th Avenue. They were members of the North Street Christian Reformed Church in Zeeland for 30 years, where Alice served as the organist, but they left in order to become charter members of the new Haven Christian Reformed Church. Alice died on December 12, 1973 at the age of 79; William two years later on April 4, 1976, aged 72. The newspaper reported 26 grandchildren at the time of his death

James E. Borr was born Peter Jacobus Bor on June 2, 1896 and baptized on September 13. It is not known how his name was changed, but his brothers always called him ‘Jim.’ Like his elder brother Hank, he moved into Holland to work at the shoe factory, but in 1922 decided to open a retail shoe store of his own, the Holland Boot Shop located at 232 River Avenue. In 1925 he married Kathryn Bremer, an immigrant who had been born in the Netherlands. They had a son the following year, their only child. In 1929 his younger brother Matthew joined the store, whereupon they changed the name to Borr’s Bootery and moved it to 8th Street, where it remained until they sold it about 40 years later. The new owner, Tom Mulder, however, kept the name, as it had become something of a downtown landmark. In their later years Jim and Kathryn lived at 7120 Butternut Drive, near Port Sheldon. Kathryn died on August 12, 1972; Jim on May 10, 1982, one month short of his 86th birthday. He had two grandchildren at that time; two more were born later.

According to family tradition Matthew Borr was born on February 17, 1898, although the Ottawa County birth records list the date as February 15. He was baptized in the Ebenezer church on June 12. Like his elder brothers he moved into town to work at the Holland Shoe Company, probably about 1916. On Christmas eve 1919, he married Cornelia Van Duine of Zeeland, and their first child was born in Holland the following year. But later that year Cornelia’s mother became seriously ill and the two moved back to her house so she could care for her, her father, and two younger brothers. Her mother died in December, but they remained there until the summer of 1922, when her eldest brother married and brought his new bride into the house. During these years Matthew worked in furniture factories in Zeeland and they had a second daughter. They moved back to Holland and were able to pay off a house at 43 E 16th Street within a short time, but then mortgaged it in 1929 in order to become a partner in his brother Jim’s shoe store, which was renamed Borr’s Bootery. (see James E. Borr, above) Unfortunately, the timing could not have been worse and they lost the house during the depression. They rented a home at 87 E 17th Street for many years, but in 1942 were finally able to purchase another house of their own, at 79 E 15th Street. During these years they had five more children, six girls and one boy in all. By the time Matthew sold the store and retired in 196_, they had 20 living grandchildren. For several years thereafter they were able to spend their winters in Bradenton, Florida. Matthew died on January 17, 1979, a month before his 81st birthday. Cornelia lived until June 17, 1997, a few months after she turned 97. They were life-long members of the First Reformed Church of Holland, where Matthew served as an elder several times and particularly enjoyed playing on the church bowling team.

John Borr was born on September 7, 1901 and baptized on March 30 of the following year. He also moved into Holland but became a metal worker at a number of companies in the city, principally Holland Furnace Company and Crampton Manufacturing. He married Lena Poppema and they had one son, their only child, in 1929. John and ‘Leen’ lived at 33 E 21st Street their entire lives, and were members of the Trinity Reformed Church. He died on July 3, 1973, two months short of 72; she on October 11, 1986 at 81.

Richard B. Borr was born on November 16, 1903 and baptized in February of the following year. Like three of his elder brothers he moved into Holland to work, initially starting at the Bolhuis Lumber Company for 35 cents an hour, but soon switched to the Holland Shoe Company where his brothers were working and he could get 39 cents an hour. He married Gertrude Hoffman on March 4, 1926 and they had six children in the 20 years from 1927 to 1947, but one died in infancy and the youngest was tragically killed in a train accident in 1968. During their early years they lived at a number of houses on W 14th Street while Richard worked a number of different jobs, but by 1940 they had settled into 268 W 19th Street, where they remained for the rest of their lives. Eventually Richard took a job at his brothers’ shoe store, but as an employee, not a partner. He later complained that they paid him less and worked him harder than any other job he had. "Never work for your brothers," he said. "They were cheap." Richard retired in 1970 but lived until February 6, 1997, a few months after he turned 93. Gertrude had died a few years earlier, on June 16, 1993. They had twelve grandchildren from their four surviving children.

Simon or ‘Sy’ Borr was born on March 8, 1906 and baptized on July 1. Like all of his other brothers he soon moved into Holland to work in the factories and for a time worked as a sales clerk in his brothers’ shoe store, but by 1930 he had set up his own insurance and real estate agency and married Geraldine Tuls. They had four children. He operated his agency for his entire life and became a leading member of the community, helping to found the Holland Heights Christian Reformed Church and the Holland Kiwanis Club. He also served for a time as chairman of the Ottawa County Zoning Board. Although he was the second youngest of the Borr brothers, he died the first, passing away on July 5, 1960 at the relatively young age of 54.

Willis E. Borr, the youngest of Henry and Martha’s children to reach adulthood, was named William Edward at his birth on June 18, 1908. It is not known when or why he changed his named to Willis. He was baptized in the Ebenezer Reformed Church on December 13, 1908. As the youngest son he remained on the farm and ran it until his mother died, and brought his new wife, Gertrude Van Wyk, there after their marriage on January 22, 1931. Their first two children were born soon afterwards. In 1935 they moved into Holland were he worked a variety of factory jobs, including many years at the Western Tool Company. During most of this time the family lived at 249 W 13th Street and were members of Trinity Reformed Church. Willis died at home on March 12, 1988, a few months short of his 80th birthday, leaving six children and 21 grandchildren. One more grandchild was born after his death.

In all the 8 surviving children of Henry and Martha Bor had 36 children, an average of 4.5 per family. This was a higher average than their Dakota cousins, but because there were eleven of the latter they had fewer total descendents. This includes one infant death, whose gender is not known. Of the remaining 35, 14 were boys and 21 girls, a ratio of 40 : 60 in favor of girls. They also had more than 93 grandchildren, but the exact number is not known. This latter number includes five adoptions and three infant deaths.

The children of Henry and Martha lived, on average, longer than their parents. Not counting the two infant deaths, the average age at death of the eight adults was 78, ranging from Simon, who died at 54, to Richard, who lived to 93, Henry and Martha had died at 64 and 67 respectively.

John Boomker and Sara Bor were married in Chicago in 1888. She was the only one of the Bor children to "fly the coop" and leave the local area, although she continued to maintain close contact with her Michigan relatives for many years. John and Sara had seven children over a period of 14 years, from 1890 to 1904, five boys and two girls. All of them lived to adulthood and all of them married, but two did not have any children.

Walter Boomker was born in Chicago on December 12, 1890. He married Wilhelmina or ‘Minnie’ Madderom and they had two children, Muriel in 1920 and Shirley in 1925. Walter died on June 6, 1943 at the age of 52 and a half.

Henry Boomker was born on November 24, 1893 and died in 1965 at 72. He married Dorothy Ross but they did not have any children.

Andrew Boomker was born on February 1, 1895. On August 9, 1934 he married Adriana Hammekool in Chicago, but they did not have any children. He died on March 3, 1963 at the age of 68.

Johannes Joseph or ‘Joe’ Boomker was born in Chicago on January 25, 1897. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War I and married Mabelle Blink in Chicago shortly after his discharge, on October 23, 1919. They had 3 children between 1920 and 1933 and 7 grandchildren. Joe died on August 7, 1974, at the age of 77 and a half, but Mabelle lived until January 12, 1990, aged 91. She died at one of her daughter’s homes in Greenville, South Carolina.

Grace Boomker was born in Chicago on April 26, 1899. She married Bruce Strain of Chicago. They had one son, Bruce, and adopted a daughter. Grace died in 1978.

Theodore Boomker was born in Chicago on August 18, 1901. On July 19, 1927 he married Annette Doezema in Chicago, and they had three children between 1929 and 1942. They later moved to Park Forest, Illinois where he died on July 15, 1979, a month short of his 78th birthday. Annette lived until July 19, 1987, six days short of 83. Their three children had relatively large families, and gave them 14 grandchildren in all.

The youngest daughter, Sara Boomker, who was named after her mother, was born on September 7, 1904 in Chicago, Illinois. She married Raymond Fieldhouse and they had twin boys. They later adopted a third boy who, it is said, they found wandering on the streets. Raymond died in 1967, but Sara lived until 1984, her 80th year.

As a reproductive group, the Boomker children fell far behind their Michigan and Dakota cousins. Although all seven married, two had no children and the other five had only eleven children of their own, 4 boys and 7 girls, a ratio of 36 : 64 strongly in favor of girls. Two more children were adopted, to give an average family size of 2.6, but only 1.9 if one counts all seven couples and 1.6 if one excludes the adoptions. These 13 children, however, had a respectable number of 33 grandchildren.

The average age at death of the Boomker children was 72; the youngest died at 52, the oldest at 80. John and Sara had also died fairly young, at 59 and 74 respectively.

The Boomker family also illustrates how quickly a family name can disappear. John Boomker had five sons, sufficient, one would think, to continue his family name. Yet two of the boys did not have any children, two more had only girls, and the youngest had just one boy and two girls. Thus after only two generations there was just one male Boomker left to carry on the family name.

John Mulder and Alberdina or Delia Bor were married in 1889, six months after her mother had passed away. John was a member of the same church who lived on a farm in Allegan County. They lived there until 1913 and had 7 children between 1890 and 1904, the same number over the same range of years as her elder sister Sara. However, Delia had three boys and five girls. In 1913, while all of the children were still in school, the family moved into the city of Holland, where Mr. Mulder worked as a general laborer and factory worker. They all became members of the First Reformed Church of Holland and lived at 345 E 7th Street. Detailed histories for most of the Mulder children are not available.

The eldest, Jennie Eva or ‘Geneva’ Mulder, was born on January 9, 1890. She married Harry Burch and had one child, Micky. Their occupations, residences, and dates of death are not known.

Bessie Mulder was born on February 28, 1892, married L. W. Gray, and had three children. Further information on this family is not available.

The eldest boy, Harry Mulder, was born on March 21, 1894 and baptized in the Ebenezer Reformed Church on July 8. He and his wife Mary did not have any children.

William Mulder was born on March 25, 1897 and baptized on June 13. About 1920 he married Cornelia Anna Wentzel and they had eight children in all. They were life-long members of the First Reformed Church of Holland, and lived for most of their married life at 130 W 14th Street.

Oscar Mulder was born on February 25, 1899 and baptized on June 17. He married Minnie Nykerk and they had one daughter, Betty. Oscar and Minnie were also members of the First Reformed Church of Holland.

Amy Mulder was born on May 1, 1902 and baptized on September 9. She married Philip Hansen but they did not have any children. They later moved to Grand Rapids and retired in Florida.

Mabel Mulder was born on August 18, 1904 and was baptized on November 6. She never married and died around 1955.

Altogether the six Mulder children who married had 13 children of their own, for an average of 2.2 children per family, but this is quite deceiving. Two couples did not have any children and two had only one child each. Most of the grandchildren were produced by one couple, William and Cornelia, who had eight children.

Dates of death are not known for any of the Mulders so it is not possible to calculate their average life span.

John Hieftje and Mary Bor were married in 1889, less than a month after her mother had passed away. An aura of scandal may have surrounded their marriage, as their first child was born only four months after the marriage. Nevertheless, the couple remained in the Zeeland area until 1910 and had 8 children between 1889 and 1909, five boys and three girls. However, three of them died within the first year of life, the highest rate of infant mortality for any family in the Borr lineage. They moved to Grand Rapids after 1910 and detailed records for only two of their five surviving children are available.

Their eldest daughter, Bessie Hieftje, was born in September 1889. In 1909 she had a daughter, Angeline, by Cornelius Diepenhorst, who is described only as a laborer. They did not marry and Bessie continued to live with her parents on their farm in Holland Township until about 1911, when she married John C. Heyboer of Zeeland. John had been born in Blendon Township on December 13, 1879 and married Gertrude Holstege there on April 13, 1900. They had a daughter, Anna, born in Zeeland on August 30 of the same year, but Gertrude died in 1910. John and Bessie thus brought one child each to their marriage. They went on to have nine more children of their own, born between 1912 and 1934, although two of these died in infancy. John and Bessie lived their entire lives in Zeeland where John worked as a wheelwright, plumber, and general laborer at a number of Zeeland companies, including BJW Berghorst, Sligh-Lowry Furniture, and Colonial Manufacturing. They lived at 222 Ottawa Street and were members of the First Reformed Church of Zeeland. John died on August 19, 1957, a few months short of his 78th birthday, and Bessie on October 6, 1972, aged 83. They were both buried in the Zeeland Cemetery. Her obituary reported 32 grandchildren and 35 great-grandchildren.

Johannes F. Hieftje was born in Zeeland on April 19, 1894, and named for his grandfather, who had been born in the Netherlands in 1841 and brought to America at the age of 6 with the first group of Zeeland settlers. The younger Johannes, however, was generally called ‘Joe,’ probably to distinguish him from his own father, also named John. Nothing is known about Joe’s life.

Henry L. Hieftje was born in Holland Township on September 3, 1898. The middle initial was apparently given in order to distinguish him from another boy who had been born the previous year and also named Henry, but died after a few weeks. Nothing more is known about Henry’s life.

Neal Hieftje was born about 1902, and at birth given the name ‘Nealie.’ He was living in Grand Rapids in 1987 but it is not believed he married or had any children.

Louis A. Hieftje was born in Zeeland in 1904 and died in Grand Rapids on October 20, 1987. At that time he and his wife, Goldie, had 8 surviving children, 12 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren. A ninth child, the youngest, had died in 1949 after living for only three months. Louis worked for many years at the Diesel Equipment Company in Grand Rapids and they lived at 637 Coit Avenue, NE.

Although records are available for only two of the Hieftje children, it is clear that these two had more children between them than any of the other Borr descendents in this generation. John and Bessie Heyboer had nine children of their own, plus each had had one child by previous relationships. Two of their children died in infancy, leaving nine surviving adults. For their part, Louis and Goldie had nine children, only one of whom died in infancy. Thus the two couples together had 20 children in all, an average family size of 10, far above that for the other children of this generation. As far as family size goes, only three other couples came close–William and Elizabeth Meengs, Ernest and Kathryn Schaffer, and William and Cornelia Mulder each had eight children.

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