Descendants of Thomas Anthony Hellegers

                                                Introduction

The stories related by family members are interesting. Like most of the accounts that make up history, the major life changes experienced by our ancestors are not fixed in time and place; they shift as memories reconstruct them. Sometimes variant tellings bring out some dramatic element, celebrate a valued trait, or conceal an embarrassment, but mostly they just seem to vary with each person's natural tendency to merge their own recollections with the recollections of others and to merge both with what they imperfectly remember having been told as children. As with events, places, dates, and even names are mutable, little susceptible to unambiguous certainty.

This refusal of the past to be pinned down for study lends interest to family history, as it does to all historical work. It especially does so, at least for me, in this web page exploring the history of Thomas Anthony Hellegers and his family. On this page I give the remembered stories of those Hellegers who joined millions of other late 19th-century immigrants to America and who eventually became the ancestors of myself, my siblings, and my cousins. These men, women, and children emigrated from the Netherlands to New Jersey, departing with the primary aim of escaping grinding poverty and only secondarily hoping that the new land truly promised opportunities for achieving prosperity. The hardships they endured in the old world helped them cope with the hardships they encountered in the new one. They stuck together, worked hard, supported one another in adversity, and, like hundreds of thousands of others, paved the way for their children and children's children to live as well as the prevailing economy, their luck, and their native persistence would allow.

Like so many others, these individuals — Thomas, Belia, Anthony, Thomas Anthony, Dena, Nellie, and their families — were variously victims or perpetrators of religious antagonism and thwarted love, illegitimate birth, alcoholism and business failure, theft and imprisonment. They farmed, worked as domestic servants, were wage slaves in spinning mills and rubber factories, ran retail businesses, and kept house and home. They kept strict religious observance. They died quietly in bed, fell ill and died in agony, or quietly did away with themselves. They lived through hard times and prosperous ones, times of conflict and ones of easy contentment.

Background

I inherited a single file folder from my mother. It contained a few sheets of ancestors' names and dates, some copies of letters giving family stories and reminiscences, and a booklet by a cousin who contacted relatives in a formal effort to compile a family tree. These are my main sources. I've also benefitted from expert and most welcome help from a distant relative, Anke Hettema, whose genealogical work is on view on the genealogieonline web site and her own web page: The Fennema/Hettema Family. For more on this subject, see the section on sources below.

As a companion to this web page I've prepared a genealogical database for the Hellegers family. You can see it here: Hellegers Family. You will notice that it includes data on the Hettema family as well. My web page for that family is located here: Five Generations of the Hettema Family

I've also done other family history web pages and databases for ancestors including one for the Windmuller/Heynen families. The web page for those families is here: Louis Windmüller and Family. The companion database is located here: Windmuller Family.

Some Useful Information on Naming Conventions

People doing genealogical research are constantly troubled by errant names. You'll see examples of this problem in the Hellegers family tree that I sketch below. Records often give names phonetically making it difficult to distinguish one family from another and to locate members within a family. Given names are as much a problem as surnames. Their spelling is erratic in local records, but even more perplexing is the recurrence of the same name over and over within families, not just between generations, but even among siblings of a single generation. Children were often named after their relatives, especially their grandparents. If a child died at an early age, the next baby of the same sex frequently got the first name of his deceased sibling.1

A key given name in our family is the one I render as Anthony, but which often appears as Antonie or Antonij. The slipperiness of this name is illustrated by the names by which the famous Antonie van Leeuwenhoek is called. He was christened as Thonis but always signed his name Antonij and is cited in reference sources as Antony, Antoni, Antonie, Anthony, and Anton.

Even the use of a surname cannot be counted upon. Until 1811 there was no requirement that a family have one and many didn't. People would be called "Jan Janszoon" (Jan, son of Jan",) or "Jan van Ouddorp" (the village where he lived), or "Jan van Bruggen" (his occupation as bridge-builder), or even "Jan de Groot" (big Jan).

The surnames in the Hellegers family tree are fairly common ones. For the past few centuries there have been lots of people named, Helleger, Hellegers, Hilliger, Hillegers, Hellegerd, and the like. No one seems to know where the name came from. There's a story that it was originally written as Hilliger and was of French Huguenot origin but there's no evidence that this story is true and it seems to me that it's just as likely that it's German and derives from Heidelberger.

There are two main sections on this page: the family tree directly below and, below it, a section of extracts from family papers.

Hellegers Family Tree

This table is centered on Thomas Anthony Hellegers. It includes his immediate family and ends with the children of my grandmother, Nellie Hellegers Hettema. Click this link to view the companion web page centered on the family of Nellie's husband Guy Myron Hettema.

I'd be grateful for corrections and further information about either of these families. Although I've not consciously given private personal information about any living person nor made conjectures about the information I've acquired regarding those who are deceased, I'll be happy to correct or remove any erroneous or misleading statements or anything at all that causes offense. You can contact me via this link.

I. The Family of Thomas Hellegers and Tezina Moijzes

Thomas Hellegers — one of quite a few of that name — has online records showing him as Tomas Hellegers, Thomas Hilliger, and Thomas Hellegers, with birth years of anywhere from 1789 to 1800. He married a woman whose given name is given variously as Tesina, Tezina, Tizina, Jezina, Fezina, Fizina, and Gezina, and whose surname is given as Moijzes and Moijses. Her birth years are given in the same range as her husband's.

Although there is no hard evidence of his parentage, it's possible this Thomas was the son of another Thomas Hellegers, born in 1758 or 1760. Dutch online records regarding this conjectured father are unclear. There are records for a Thomas Hellegers born ca. 1758 and for a Thomas Hellegers born ca. 1760. The first shows a wife named Maria Meijer (born ca. 1758) and the second shows a wife named Johanna Meijer (born ca. 1760). The first record shows a son named Antonij Hellegers (born ca. 1798) and the second shows a daughter named Johanna Hellegers (born ca. 1801). It's a reasonable conjecture that these two entries are for the same family. and it's possible that Thomas Hellegers' wife was called Maria Johanna.2

Neither of the online records for Thomas Hellegers shows the birth of a son named Thomas. He may have been their son all the same. Records for this period are incomplete and thus the absence of a birth record is not surprising; the generational time span is about what it should be; and, though Maria does not show up as a common given name after this time, Thomas, Antonij and its variants, and both Johanna and the male equivalent are do appear.

The birth records for offspring of Thomas and Tezina are more meticulous. The two of them endured quite a few infant deaths and eventually raised four children: Antonij, Belia, Cornelis Wouter, and Johannes.

Family members of my grandmother's generation said that Thomas was a Roman Catholic who earned his living as a goldsmith. A distant relative, Eric Eijgelsheim, reproduces his goldsmith's master sign. He was an alcoholic who, after marrying and fathering four children, drank away his business, impoverished his family, and, in the late 1830s, passed away. Having enjoyed a life of prosperity, Tezina came down far in the world. My grandmother said, "instead of having servants and being 'Merroew', G.Grandma became a servant and worked hard bringing up our Grandma and Uncle Corneil." (She probably did not mention Thomas Cornelis, Antonij, and Johannes because they were not among the family in New Jersey.)

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Sources of this information:
1. Letter from my grandmother to her sister Etta.
2. Extracts from a follow-up letter from Nellie to Etta
3. Extracts from a circular letter from Nellie one Easter
4. Narrative of Jeanne Wells (Mrs. Donald R. Wells), ca. 1979
5. Narrative by Etta Hellegers, (Mrs. Jake Borgeman), 1979
6. Story related by Seba Grunstra of an incident in the life of Thomas Anthony Hellegers
7. A posting by Eric Eijgelsheim on the now-defunct Rootsweb Genealogy Forum

Children of Thomas Hellegers and Tezina Moijzes

1) Children who died young:

There were four daughters named Belia who died young. Their birth years are 1814, 1815, 1818, and 1819.

There were two sons named Cornelis who died young. One born about 1807 and the other in 1817.

One source says there was at least one other son who died young.



2) Thomas Cornelis, born 7 March 1812 in Goedereede. The record in the Dutch genealogical database, Genlias, gives Hellegerd as his surname. There is no other online or family information for him.

3) Antonij Hellegers was born 17 February 1814, in Goederede, South Holland. In 1857 he moved to Rotterdam and remained there until 14 March 1876, the date of his death . He married twice, first, on 17 August 1844, to Neeltje Grinwis in Ouddorp, South Holland. She was born in Ouddorp 29 December 1819. Her parents were Teunis Jansz Grinwis and Willemje Koole. I've found no records of children from this marriage. On June 21, 1865, Antonij married a second time. His new wife, Gerritje Eijgelsheim, was born in 1833 in Leiden and died in 1900 in Rotterdam. They had a daughter, Johanna Fredrika Hellegers, born in Rotterdam on May 24, 1866.

With his first wife, Antonij adopted the fatherless son of his sister Belia. There's no online record of the adoption, so it's possible it was never formalized. With the adoption, this nephew, Thomas, was given Anthony as middle name and ever after was called Thomas Anthony.

Eric Eijgelsheim says Antonij took his father's profession of silver and goldsmith. In 1838, while in his mid-twenties, Antonij was convicted of stealing money from his landlord and sentenced to five years imprisonment. Shortly after his release he created a small silver piece showing himself and a police officer on opposite sides of a seesaw with the latter defiantly on top.

One family source says he took his nephew Thomas Anthony to America when the boy was about 12. This source says that Antonij, having too many mouths to feed in his own large family, put Thomas Anthony out to support himself. I believe this source confuses two uncles. It was Antonij's older brother, Cornelus Wouter, who brought Thomas Anthony to America and it was his family that was too large to support the young boy. If Antonij ever did support the boy, it seems more likely to me that he did so with his first wife and ended the arrangement when she died. He probably then tried to get the child's mother to take him and, failing that, placed the child with his own mother.

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Sources of this information:
Narrative of Jeanne Wells (Mrs. Donald R. Wells), ca. 1979
Een aangetrouwde Eijgelsheim in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam (I give an English summary here)

4) Belia Hellegers was the fifth of this name in her family and the first to survive into her teens. Her name is given as "Bella" in family documents. I've used both versions of the name on this web page. She was born 3 October 1820 in Goedereede. She lived to be nearly 100 years old and was somewhat senile in her late years. When she forgot where she was, her son would humor her. "Tom, take me home now," she would say, and he would hitch up the horse and take his mother for a ride around the block. After that she would be content again. She died dramatically about 1916 in Passaic, NJ. As one source relates:

Grandpa's mother committed suicide early one summer morning. My father told me that she was sitting in a rocking chair on the back porch. His mother sent him on an errand and he passed her going out and wished her a good morning. She replied "Good morning, George," and he went his way. My father was about 10 or 12 years old then. Upon his return, he saw a rather large gathering of people in the yard and learned that his grandmother had committed suicide by jumping down the cistern that was a short way from the house.

Belia married three times during her long life. I give information about these families directly below.

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Sources of this information:
Narrative of Jeanne Wells (Mrs. Donald R. Wells), ca. 1979
Extract from a letter from Florence Heynen to Seba Gunstra Oct. 19, 1981

5) Cornelus Wouter Hellegers was born about 1832 in Ouddorp. On 27 April 1860 he married Johanna Kievit in Ouddorp. Daughter of Peter Kievit and Kaatje Roonwas, Johanna was born around 1842. There are no family stories about Cornelus Wouter and his family, but the names Cornelus, Cornelius, Neal, and Neil recur in Hellegers families.

6) Johannes Hellegers was born about 1835 in Ouddorp. His death date is not recorded. On 25 February 1859 he married Gertrude Young (also given as Geertruida de Jong). She was born about the same year as he. Her father was Hubert Young and her mother was Cornelia Berg. About 1860 in Ouddorp they had a daughter named Jozina.

II. The Families of Belia Hellegers

1) Belia's first husband was a man named Thomas. One family source says his surname was van Houston. This information may be mistaken. There are no entries for a Thomas van Houston (or any similar name) in Dutch genealogical sites. There are records for a Thomas Hustinx, born about 1813 and it's just barely possible that he was the one. Family sources agree that Belia and Thomas married without their parents' consent. Because his family was Roman Catholic and hers was Dutch Calvinist, the parents had the marriage annulled. It's unclear whether the annulment was forced by one side or the other, or both. The issue of religious affiliation is murky. My grandmother said that Belia's grandfather was a Roman Catholic. Another family member believes that the Hellegers family were historically Protestant — Huguenot refugees from Catholic France. All Belia's descendants appear to have been staunch members of the Reformed Dutch Church.

In any event, at the time of the annulment Belia was pregnant and a son was thus born out of wedlock. Belia named him Thomas after his father and gave him her own surname. His story is told directly below.

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Sources of this information:
Genlias and the narrative of Jeanne Wells

2) Belia's second husband was Hendrik Christiaan Bruggeman (also known Henry Christian). He was born around 1829 in Dirksland, South Holland. His father was Christoffel Bruggeman and his mother Lena Riedijk. Belia and Hendrik were married 21 April 1853 in Herkingen, South Holland. They had two daughters, Helena Christina Bruggeman, born around 1854, and Hendrika Bruggeman, born around 1855.

3) Belia's third husband was Johannis van den Berg (also known as Johannes van den Berg, Johannes Berg, and John Vandenberg). He was born around 1837 in Ouddorp. The couple were married 16 April 1857 in Ouddorp. They had four children: a stillborn child about 1850, a son named Jan about 1858, another son named Johannis about 1862, and a daughter, Gezina, about 1864. Family sources say that Johannis was a Jeweler in Amsterdam.

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Source of this information:
Extracts from a follow-up letter from Nellie to Etta

III. The Family of Thomas Anthony Hellegers and Dena De Groot

Thomas Anthony was born 17 December 1846 in Ouddorp South Holland, and died 27 October 1922 in Passaic, New Jersey. His middle name is also given as Antonij, Antonie, and Anthonie. I'm using Anthony because it's the one that appears in family documents.

Although he had been adopted by his uncle, as noted above, Thomas was raised in Holland by Belia's mother, Tezina.

Emigration to the United States — Like many others who lacked money, the grandmother, Tezina, decided to emigrate to the United States. She left the Netherlands in 1858 or 1860, taking with her her son Cornelus Wouter and his wife as well as young Thomas Anthony. My grandmother said they came over in a sailing vessel, though steamers were then common. The passage was a long and stormy one. The grandmother suffered greatly and became so ill that she died within two months of their arrival. One account says the remaining members of the family settled in Hoboken, NJ.

According to my grandmother Cornelus Wouter and his wife had their own way to make, and with too many mouths of their own to feed, they put Thomas out to help local farmers. He was then only 12. A family member says at first he picked up odd jobs on the farms but he eventually managed to learn carpentry, became a master stair builder, and, in time, built up a construction business with his sons Henry and John. My grandmother later wrote: "You remember the stories he would tell of the different places he worked. When he got working for a man by the name of Herrett his life was much better. When he was 17 he began to learn the carpenter's trade. As [her son] Tom said one time, Grandpa 'wasn't just a carpenter, he was a craftsman.'" Another account differs from this one.

Thomas Anthony's son John would go on to found a paint store in Clifton, NJ. This store, under the name Donner and Hellegers, is still in business.

Life in the United States — He married Dena De Groot in 1871 when he was 19 and she was 18 years old. At about the same time he sent money to the Netherlands to help pay the passage of his mother, step-father, step-brothers and step-sisters (more on this topic here). One family member says that a day out from Europe the ship carrying them to America collided with another. The damage was extensive, but the other ship was able to take all 700 passengers on board and they eventually made it safely to port.

By all accounts Belia was a difficult person. Some years after her arrival, after the death of her third husband, she decided to live with Thomas and Dena because, as she said, she couldn't stand her other relatives. She descended upon Thomas despite her having put him to live with her mother rather than raising him herself. Family members said she was tyrannical and unstable and, as noted above, when in her 90s, she killed herself by jumping into a cistern.

The Dutch database, Zeeuwen Gezocht gives information about Dena and her family, filling in rather sketchy information in family papers. It reports her given name as Dingetje, so she presumably changed it on coming to America. She was born in Kattendijke, Zeeland, on 15 March 1853 and died 23 October 1936 in Passaic. Her mother, Jacoba van Loo, was 31 when she married her father, Henricus de Groot. She came from Kruiningen in the province of Zeeland. Jacoba's mother was Dingetje Loo. There is no record of her father and since her surname is the same as her mother's, she and the father may not have been married. Jacoba herself is recorded as having given birth to a son (some nine years earlier) with no father recorded and the son carrying her surname. The child, Jan, died 19 months later. Born about 1820, Jacoba died in 1857 when Dena was only four. Her granddaughter was originally named Jacoba but, disliking it, changed it to Sophia.

Before he married Jacoba van Loo, Dena's father, Henricus, had previously married Janna de Mul (or de Mol). The wedding took place 14 January 1830. Janna was born about 1809 and died in 1850 at age 42. They had 12 children, Jan, born 1830 and died within the year; Johanna, born 1832, who married Jacobus Verhagen in 1854; Pieternella, born 1833, who lived only five years; Jan, born 1835, who married Maria KIoopman in 1860; Jannetje, born 1838, who married Leendert Visser in 1860; Pieternella, born 1839, who married Jan van de Velde in 1862; Adriaan, born 1841, who married Pieternella Parhan in 1866; Sarah, born 1842, who married Peter Geene in 1865; Joost, born 1844 and who lived only two days; another Joost, born 1847 and who died in 1874; Hubrecht, born 1850 who died two weeks later; and Willem 1854, who lived only 17 days.

Henricus, called Henry by members of our family, was a publican/innkeeper and also a worker on the dikes. His parents were Jan de Groot and Pieternella Gijzel who lived in Biezelinge near Einhoven, Netherlands. After his children had grown and married he was able to retire and live in relative prosperity.

Family records agree with much that's in the Dutch database. They say that after the death of Dena's mother, Dena's two step-sisters helped to raise her. Their names are given as Sarah and Jane. (Jane is the English version of Jannetje, so the Dutch record does not contradict this statement.) Family members said Dena had two brothers who grew up to work in Rotterdam Harbor bringing in ocean liners. The online database reports three stepbrothers who lived to be adults, Jan, Joost, and Adriaan. My aunt Edith said that Dena was an orphan when she emigrated to the United States at age 14 so Henricus may have died at about age 60 sometime in the late 1860s.

Once here, Dena found employment as a maid with a wealthy family in Passaic, NJ. She met Thomas while he had a temporary job as a coachman for the same family. Edith remembered her as serene, a "wonderful person." On learning that 16-year-old Edith had begun to smoke cigarettes Dena told her "You go down in my estimation that much!"

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Sources from family letters and other papers:
1. Letter from my grandmother to her sister Etta
2. Extracts from a follow-up letter from Nellie to Etta
3. Extracts from a circular letter from Nellie one Easter
4. Narrative of Jeanne Wells (Mrs. Donald R. Wells), ca. 1979
5. Narrative by Etta Hellegers, (Mrs. Jake Borgeman), 1979
6. Seba Gunstra's family history pamphlet

Children of Thomas Anthony Hellegers and Dena De Groot

1) Henry, born 21 June 1872, died 10 January 1944. He married Edith Fraser and they had a son, Henry Fraser Hellegers, born 26 October 1909, died 12 October 1987.

2) John Thomas, born 13 February 1874, died 19 January 1950. John Thomas never married.

3) Sophia (originally Jacoba), born 1876 or 1877, died 11 July 1914. She married Peter M. Steenland May 1902. Peter died in 1961.

They had six children:

1. George Marinus, 2 March 1901 - August 1981; he married and had two children (note: the Social Security Death Index gives data for a Marinus Steenland who was born 21 July 1909 and died 23 August 1990 in New Jersey).
2. Dena (married George Mortland; they had four children)
3. Agnes (married Stanley Ford who died in 1950; she died ca. 1995; they had five children)
4. Ruth, 22 October 1908 - 02 October 1997 (never married)
5. Anne (married Ted Main; she died ca. 1998; they had one child)
6. Nell (or Nellie), 31 August 1913 - 06 October 1994 (she was about one years old when her mother died; she never married; lived with her sister Anne and brother-in-law Ted)

4) Bella, born 19 August 1878, died 25 February 1945. She married Charles Swift. They raised two stepsons: Richard and Tunis.

5) Nellie (or Petronella), born 14 July 1880, died 28 October 1963. She married Guy M. Hettema. I've made a companion web page for his family: Five Generations of the Hettema Family.

Children

1. Thomas Anthony - Birth Date: 5 August 1907, Death Date: February 1984. He and wife Eleanor had three children, two now living.
2. Arthur - Birth Date: 7 February 1909, Death Date: 18 November 2003. He and his wife Adeline had a stepdaughter (living).
3. Edith - Birth Date: 2 February 1911, Death Date: 2 February 1997. She and her husband Ernest Hildebrand had a daughter (living).
4. Geraldine - Birth Date: 14 December 1912 - Death Date: 2 February 1997. She and her husband Edwin Harris had three sons (living).
5. Florence - Birth Date: 1 February 1915 - Death Date: 26 December 1988. She and her husband Fritz Heynen, had two sons and a daughter (all living).
6. Robert - Birth Date: 21 September 1918 - Death Date: 6 February 2004. He and his wife Ursula Virginia had six children of whom five are living.

6) Cornelius Walter (Neil), born 30 November 1882, died 13 April 1942. He married Florence Riker. She was born in 1886 and died in 1939. They had two children, Frederick and Alice. Frederick was born 25 December 1911 and died 6 March 2004 in Pittsburgh, PA. Alice was born 15 September 1915 (or 13 April 1916) and died 7 May 1998 in Punta Gorda, FL.

Here is a link to the death notice for Frederick in the Princeton Alumni Weekly. It says he was chair of the religion department of Washington and Jefferson College and the college's pastor. He was educated at Davidson College, Princeton, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Tübingen U. He married the former Frances Gordon, who died in 1986. They had three children; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. "The great love of his life, apart from work and family, was Grand Manan Island in Canada off the Maine coast, where he and his family vacationed, and where he maintained a library of thousands of books."

7) Jennie, born in 1885 or 1886, died in 1900.

8) Lena, Died on Christmas day when one year old.

9) Henrietta Christine (Etta), born 20 February 1894, died in 1983. She married Jake Borgeman on 19 January 1956. They had no children.

10) George De Groot, born 22 November 1889, died 19 September 1960. He married Adrianna 0. (Jean) Heerschap. They had four children including Thomas Anthony (born 18 May 1925; died 22 Mar 2004, Rutherford, Bergen, NJ). There is a death notice for Thomas Anthony on Legacy.com which says, in part, "Hellegers II, Thomas A. - age 78, of Rutherford, NJ died on Monday, March 22, 2004. Beloved husband of Barbara (nee Breen)."

Extracts from Family Letters and Other Sources

Narrative by Nellie Hellegers Hettema, undated

Dear Etta and Jake,

On this page I'll write what I remember of Pa and his background in Holland. As you know our Great Grandmother broke up Grandma's living with Pa's father [meaning that Thomas Anthony Hellegers was an illegitimate child, but see Mrs. Wells' narrative below for more on this]. I never knew the name [of his father]. Grandma left Pa with Great Grandmother (and married soon after [to another man]). [Illegible writing here.] You know her husband was a goldsmith in Rotterdam, a Catholic, lost his firm there and all he had through drink! G.Grandma's last years were hard ones for she, a widow, was poor. So we did not come from the Peasant class. Pa's 2 uncles, brothers of Uncle Corneil [illegible writing] were officers in Dutch Army and Pa was named for them.

Pa came here in 1860 and [lived?] with G.Grandma, Uncle C., wife, and Tom G. Pa often said he learned to read English [Illegible writing] in 1861 and he was interested in various [illegible] Dutch farmers [illegible] hired man helped him.

Grandma came here with her 3rd husband and 5 children. [She was married multiple times. The third husband was a De Groot.] I don't know when they came to the country. I know Ma and Pa lived in Patterson where Henry and John were from. So it must have been around 1876. Sophie was born in Passaic. Fred wanted to know Ma's maiden name. De Groot. Her father had a pension, had worked on the dykes. They weren't poor either. 2 sons. [Illegible] bringing in the Ocean Liners to the harbor of Rotterdam. You knew the above. Pa came to this country because his Grandma wouldn't leave Holland without him. You remember that story I'm sure. [Illegible writing]

One thing you can tell Fred is we were all church people. No [illegible] or politicians among them. Uncle Corneil had Tom, Ed, John, Peter, and 2 daughters, one died young.

Nellie

Extracts from a follow-up letter from Nellie to Etta

I told Fred in my letter I did not go along with Andre's idea we might have the same G.Grandfather for the reason of our being in the Goldsmith business, in Rotterdam, whereas his was a M.D. and Surgeon there. Also his family having signet rings; they may have come from the Jewelry firm (Guy said his father had one. Now Guy wonders what became of it)

I went over what Grandma had told of her father losing all they possessed -- and they had much, because of drink, and of them being poor, and instead of having servants and being "Merroew", G.Grandma became a servant and worked hard bringing up our Grandma and Uncle Corneil. Also told him our Grandma's name was Bella.

Shortly after the failure of the business our G.Grandfather died and Grandma moved to Gudorp where Pa grew up and from that village came to this country when Pa was eleven.

Nellie

Extracts from another letter from Nellie

Easter
Dear Folks,

Pa had a hard childhood, never lived with his mother [while he was a child], yet he, of her big family, was the one who took her in and she lived with us for 10 years. She didn't like her daughter in laws or Uncle Neil. As she didn't get along too well with Aunt Lena, Aunt Henrietta had her mother in law with her -- she lived to be 90 -- as there was no room for our Grandma there.

Ma as you will remember had a happy childhood in Holland, born of a second marriage, her mother died when Ma was about 3. She was brought up by her half sisters, Aunt Sara and Aught Jane. She remembered sitting on her Dad's lap.

If there's anything else you want to know of Pa, I could add this. They came over in a sailing vessel. Such a stormy passage it took 53 days. The old lady couldn't stand it, was sick when they landed, never recovered and within 2 months died. So as Corneil and wife had their own way to make, they put Pa out on a farm. Then he was 12. He was on his own. You remember the stories he would tell of the different places he worked. When he got working for a man by the name of Herrett his life was much better. When he was 17 he began to learn the carpenter's trade. As Tom said one time, Grandpa "wasn't just a carpenter, he was a craftsman."

Much love, Nellie and Guy


Narrative by Seba Grunstra, ca. 1981

Thomas Anthony Hellegers had the same mother as Helena Christina Bruggeman and was the uncle of Seba Grunstra.

In my search for information regarding the Hellegers family, I wrote to the Donner and Hellegers Paint Store in Passaic, N.J. I knew my cousin Neal Hellegers was a partner at one time. If a Hellegers was still with the business, maybe they would give me the information asked for. I received the following very informative and helpful letter with my thanks.


Extract from a Narrative by Barbara B. Hellegers, 1980

Feb. 16, 1980
Dear Mr. Grunstra,

I am taking the liberty of answering the very interesting letter that you sent to my husband. We are very pleased to learn some of the family history we had not known.

My husband is Thomas Anthony Hellegers II, son of George De Groot Hellegers and a grandson of your Uncle Thomas Anthony Hellegers. We have four children. My husband has three sisters:

As you can see from the addresses, Jerry and Jeanne live quite near you. Jeanne has been investigating her family background and would like to talk to you about it.

My husband, Tom, is President of Donner and Hellegers Inc., a retail paint business started in 1905 by his Uncle Neil Hellegers. His father took over the business after his brother's death. The Donners are no longer involved in the business.

I could give you information about the children Henry, Neil, Sophia, Nellie, John, Bella, and Etta. If you would like it let me know. There are quite a few of them. I hope this brief synopsis will be of use to you.

Sincerely,
Barbara B. Hellegers

Note: Here are records for the only named individuals from the Social Security Death Index: THOMAS A HELLEGERS, 18 May 1925 - 22 Mar 2004, last residence: Rutherford, NJ; ALBERT S PRYOR, 17 Aug 1923 - 26 Aug 2008; WALTER O DINGFIELD, 18 Feb 1914 - 11 Apr 1988, last residence: Wapwallopen, PA; DONALD R WELLS, 16 Dec 1927 - 08 Sep 2004, last residence: Mountain Top, PA.


Narrative of Jeanne Wells (Mrs. Donald R. Wells), ca. 1979

Mrs. Wells Story About Her Grandfather Thomas Anthony Hellegers as Told to Seba Gunstra.

Grandfathers' mother (Maiden name unknown) Hellegers, fell in love with a young man by the name of Thomas Van Houston. He was of the Catholic faith. However they were secretly married. After three months of marriage, his parents learned of his union and that it was between a Catholic and Protestant. They had the marriage annulled. In the meantime my grandfather Thomas had been conceived. His mother was forced to have the baby in shame, as it was the custom in those days. When he was born, his mother gave him the name Thomas after his real father and also she gave him her surname of Hellegers. Directly after his birth, his Uncle Anthony adopted him and in doing so gave him his middle name of Anthony, thus name his in entirety was Thomas Anthony Hellegers.

The Helleger's were jewelers in the Netherlands many years ago. In the 1930's my Uncle Neil went to Holland and was astonished to find a "Hellegers Brewery." My nephew Thomas Anthony Hellegers III was in Holland during 1960's and did find a Hellegers in the phone directory, but did not contact any them.

Grandpa's mother committed suicide early one summer morning. My father told me that she was sitting in a rocking chair on the back porch. His mother sent him on an errand and he passed her going out and wished her a good morning. She replied "Good morning, George," and he went his way. My father was about 10 or 12 years old then. Upon his return, he saw a rather large gathering of people in the yard and learned that his grandmother had committed suicide by jumping down the cistern that was a short way from the house.

Grandpa Hellegers died Oct. 22, 1922 of cancer. It was a very painful death. Daddy told me that grandma would go out to the barn because she could not bare to hear grandpa cry out with pain. Grandma died very peacefully Oct. 23, 1936. My Aunt Bella went into her room and offered to help her get dressed. She told Aunt Bella she felt like sleeping a little longer that day. When Aunt Bella went back a while later, Grandma had quietly passed away.

My father told me that the Hellegers originally came from France to Holland as French Huguenots. At that time the Hellegers name was spelled Hilleger. During the course of time the i was changed to e and an s was added at the end.

I was told by my father that about the same time my Grandfather came to the United States, another uncle and his family went to Johannesburg, South Africa. We don't have any proof of this. However in the 1920's, my Uncle John was in a hardware store in Passaic, N.J. and a lady stepped up to him and said, "I don't know you sir, but if I was home in Johannesburg, South Africa, I'd say Hello, John Hellegers." Needless to say, both Uncle John and the lady were astonished to learn that he really was a John Hellegers so we must have other relatives there also.

In the notes given to me by my father, George De Groot Hellegers and my Aunt Etta Hellegers (Mrs. Jake Borgeman), I pass on the following information.

My grandfather, Thomas Anthony Hellegers, was Born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on Dec. 17, 1852. He came to America with his Uncle. I believe he was about 12 years old. His uncle had a rather large family and because of that, he could no longer support his nephew whom he had adopted. So Thomas was to be on his own. He did make good by living with and working for different farmers and doing other odd jobs when they were available. However later, he managed to learn to be a carpenter and followed it up as a trade. He was in the building and construction business for a time with his sons Henry and John. Grandfather specialized as a master stair builder.

Grandfather met and married Dena De Groot. She was born in the Province of Zeeland, The Netherlands, March 15, 1853. I don't know what her age was when she came to America. However, she got a job as a maid with a very wealthy family in Passaic, N.J. My grandfather worked as a coachman for the same family. They were married in 1870 or 1871. Aunt Etta said she thought that they were 18 or 19.

Grandfather Hellegers did a considerable amount of very fine wood work at the Ring Wood Manor in Passaic County, N.J. The stairway was a masterpiece of his workmanship.

"Mr. Hellegers lived at 22 Mineral Spring Ave., Passaic, for many years. He saw Passaic grow from the village of Acquackanock to its present size. He has been a faithful member of the First Holland Reformed Church and served as a Consistory member for 33 years. Funeral services will be held from his late residence followed by services at the First Holland Reformed Church. The Rev. A. M. Van Duine officiated."

The above information was taken from the newspaper obituary of Thomas Anthony Hellegers.


Narrative by Etta Hellegers, (Mrs. Jake Borgeman), 1979

Nov. 1979

Dear Cousin Seba,

Your letter came as quite a surprise, and I hope you will forgive me for taking so long to answer it. It is not always convenient for me to write, but today I try. I am writing while sitting in my wheel chair to which I a confined. A friend of mine made me a lap board that acts as desk. I am sorry to hear about your accident, but glad to know that you have a good home with your son. I had a stroke that put me out of business. Fortunately it is in my left side. I could no longer take care of myself or my home, so I sold it, the furniture, car, etc.

I went to live in a nursing home where I could be taken care of.

My husband Jake Borgeman died in the spring of 1970. We had been married in 1955. I met him on a trip to Alaska in 1954. My father came to this country when a boy. He was about 1 years old. He lived with and worked for many farmers. Later he learned the carpenters trade. He was in business for himself specializing in stair building of various types.

I think my Grandmother Bruggeman was married 3 times, once to a Mr. Hellegers, then to a Mr. Van den Berg (or Vandenberg), and then to Mr. Bruggeman. My father and mother married when very young, 18 or 19 years old. They raised a big family of 10 children, 4 boys and 6 girls. They are Henry, John, Cornelius (Neal), and George, Sophia, Bella, Nellie, Jennie died when 14 years old, Lena, and Henrietta (Etta). Father died Oct. 27, 1922 at 70 years, and Mother died Oct. 23, 1936, age 83 years.

Grandma Bruggeman liked living with my parents and mother, but she always had the fear of being put in the poor house. She committed suicide by drowning herself in the cistern.

All the children lived at 22 Mineral Spring Ave., Passaic, NJ. She was about 96 years old when she died.


Extract from a letter from Florence Heynen to Seba Gunstra Oct. 19, 1981

I remember another story about Thomas Hellegers that my mother told me. When his mother was living with him (your grandmother) she became senile. She would say to her son, "Tom, take me home now." He would go to the back house, hitch up the horse and carriage, and take his mother for a ride around the block. After that she would be content again.

Sophia Hellegers and Peter Steenland had a daughter, Agnes, who became Mrs. Stanley Ford. She wrote the following letter.

The story by Mrs. Stanley Ford

My mother, Sophia Hellegers, was named Jacoba when born. She did not like the name Jacoba, so when quite young she changed it to Sophia. It could also have been the name of our Grandmother Bruggeman. The Dutch custom was to name the first born girl after the mother or grandmother. I mention this because she could have been given her mother's name. Then Nelle came next. After my mother died, my father married again to Clara Bladin. We have a half brother, Adam, born in 1919. Father died in 1961.

Sophia's grandson, Jim Mortland, has another version of the name change: "My memory of the family history came from my mother, Dena Steenland. She told the family that Sophia's name was changed from Jacoba the first day that Jacoba went to school in Paterson, N.J. According to my mother, Jacoba's first grade teacher on the first day of class told Jacoba, 'Jacoba is an ugly name for such a pretty girl. I'm going to call you Sophie.' The name stuck." (source: email message of 5 Jan 2011).


Letter from Florence Heynen to her cousin Seba

Florence Heynen's middle name, Sadie, was given in honor of her grandmother Sjoukje. Sjoukje was an elderly widow while Florence was growing up; she lived nearby and was often in the Hettema household. In 1981, Florence wrote the following letter giving a brief anecdote about her grandmother. She wrote it to Seba Grunstra who had prepared a pamphlet giving family histories of the Grunstra, Hellegers, Bruggeman, lines. Seba was born 05 Mar 1888 and died almost a century later on May 1985.

October 19, 1981

Dear Cousin Seba,

I received the copies I requested from you and I thank you very much. I will enclose a check for $10.00 to cover the cost of my book and the postage and hope that my brothers and sisters and my children will also send am something to go towards the big expense that you had. What we can't pay for is all the time and love and thought that went into the production of the booklet We are very grateful to you.

I was glad that you mentioned living near the Hettema family in Passaic. I wonder what kind of a neighbor my grandmother, Sadie Douma Hettema was. She lived with us a good deal of the time when I was growing up and she never seemed happy or cheerful and was pessimistic about everything. When I was a child her four daughters had died and perhaps that was why she was so bitter. Her husband died also when she had two children under 5 years of age. Harry Hettema lived in Rochester when I was young and later moved to Honolulu. His children still live there.

I remember another story about Thomas Hellegers that my mother told me. When his mother was living with him (your grandmother) she became senile. She would say to her son, "Tom, take me home now." He would go to the back house, hitch up the horse and carriage and take his mother for a ride around the block. After that she would be content again.


Seba Grunstra relates this story of an incident in the life of Thomas Anthony Hellegers.

The Bruggeman Family

My mother told me that her stepbrother, Thomas Anthony Hellegers sent money to his mother to help pay the passage of the family from the Netherlands in 1870. The family included his mother, his stepfather Mr. Bruggeman, John Vandenberg (a stepbrother from his mother's second marriage), his stepsisters from his mother's third marriage, Helena Christina, Henrietta and Neila Bruggeman. I received the following article from my nephew Walter Bakelar. It describes their journey here. My mother mentions brothers but I do not remember ever hearing her speak of any other brothers except Thomas and John.

The Ship Wreck Story

Speaking with Mrs. William Grunstra recently, as so often happens with older people we discussed the past.

Mrs. Grunstra told us that as a young girl, she with her father, mother, brothers and sisters, left the Netherlands in 1870, sailing on the S.S. Van Ess. After sailing one day they became enveloped in a thick fog and collided with a French ship. This happened during the night and all the 700 passengers were asleep in bed. The S. S. Van Ess was damaged extensively and soon began to sink. The other steamship quickly came alongside the sinking ship and the passengers in their night clothes had to jump ship from one ship to another.  All the passengers but one made the jump successfully.  This was a young married woman who fell between the two ships.  Her young husband quickly jumped in after her and managed to grasp her.  The seamen with hooks and ropes rescued both of them.  The sea was calm.  The ship with all the passengers proceeded to Liverpool, where they were all put ashore in their night clothes. Another ship took them to New York. On this trip, Mrs. Grunstra's father became insane, but this was of short duration and he returned to normal health.

One rescued passenger died of shock on this trip, because of the sinking of the ship and losing all their belongings.

Mrs. Grunstra's family settled in Paterson, N.J. After a few months, her father lost his life in a sand pit.

Mrs. Grunstra had a family of thirteen children. She and her husband reside at 273 Autumn St., Passaic, N.J.

This couple are faithful members of the First Reformed Church of Clifton, N.J. Mrs. Grunstra was interviewed by Rev. Bouma.

This article was translated from the original Dutch newspaper clipping into English by the kindness of my sister in law, Miss Jozina Anna Reynierse, Nov. 1979.


Summary of Eric Eijgelsheim's web page on Anthony Hellegers (1814-1876)

Anthony (or Anthonie, or Anthonij) Hellegers was born in Goedereede on Thursday, February 17, 1814, and died on Tuesday March 14, 1876, in Rotterdam. His father and grandfather were both named Thomas Hellegers (father: 1786-after 1831; grandfather died: 1808). He had an older brother, Thomas Cornelis (born Thursday, March 5, 1812); two younger brothers, Johan and Cornelis; and a younger sister, Belia (or Bella). In addition, three brothers and a sister of his died between 1817 and 1828. Following in his father's footsteps, he trained as a gold- and silversmith. His father worked in Anthony's birthplace, Goedereede. His grandfather had been a prominent merchant in Deft.

In 1838, while in his mid-twenties, Anthony was convicted of stealing money from his landlord and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. Shortly after his release he created this miniature worked in silver, showing a seesaw mounted on an oblong plate. On the seesaw are a standing figure of a police officer and the seated figure of Anthony Hellegers. The sculpture is held by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam which had it on view when Lynne Goepper visited in 2018.

Seesaw Sculpture

This image shows the silversmith's master signs used by Anthony Hellegers; source: Arnhem library.

Anthony Hellegers master signs

This image shows the master sign of Anthony's father, Thomas Hellegers, Jr.; source: Arnhem library.

Thomas Hellegers master sign

In 1844 Anthony married Neeltje Grinwis, 24 years old from Ouddorp. In 1857 he moved to Rotterdam and, on June 21, 1865, married a second time. His new wife was Gerritje Eijgelsheim (born 1833 in Leiden; died 1900 in Rotterdam). They had a daughter, Johanna Fredrika Hellegers, born in Rotterdam on May 24, 1866.



Additional note on sources

I have relied heavily on three Dutch genealogical databases and, because so heavily used, have cited them sparingly. They are Genlias, Genealogie voor oost Nederland, and Zeeuwen Gezocht.

Apart from these databases and the few family letters that came down to me, I have used three main sources in putting together this webpage:

1. A self-published pamphlet by Seba Grunstra:

The Sinking of the S.S. Van Ess - 1870; The Bruggeman's Rescued. Most of the content comes from pages 23-32 in this source.

An introductory statement has the following explanation about how the booklet came to be written: "In the year of 1979, two of my granddaughters asked me if I would give them all the information I could about the Gunstra family and their Dutch relatives, as they were proud of their Dutch heritage."

Seba also says: "It may interest some to know that I, Seba Gunstra, the compiler of this book, was born in the 7th month and my weight at birth was 27 ounces. My early birth was due to my mother falling and caused me to be crippled all my life."

2. Eric Eijgelsheim's webpage about Anthony Hellegers: Een aangetrouwde Eijgelsheim in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam (summary here).

As noted at top, I've also benefitted from expert and most welcome help from Anke Hettema, a distant relative in Australia whose genealogical work is on view on the genealogieonline web site and her own web page: The Fennema/Hettema Family.

On 5 Jan. 2011, I received some helpful corrections in an email message from Jim Mortland, grandson of Sophia Hellegers Steenland.



Contact me

I'm sure this web page contains mistakes. Please let me know what needs fixing. You can get my email address by following this link: http://scr.im/jeff.

I also welcome any narratives you can contribute to expand the site and make it more interesting.



Notes:

1An article appearing on a genealogy site explains Dutch naming thus:

Most Dutch families followed certain customs of child naming. The two eldest sons were named for the grandfathers, the paternal one first unless the maternal one had some distinctive social position, had more money or was deceased. Sometimes the first son was named for the mother's first husband if she were a widow. The two eldest daughters were named for the grandmothers. Some families alternated with the first son being named after the paternal grandfather, the first daughter after the maternal grandmother, but this is not as common. If a child died, almost always the next child of the same sex was given the same name.
-- http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/names.shtml; see also genealogy.about.com and the wikipedia article, Dutch name.

2 Meijer was, unfortunately, a common surname and there are lots of Johannas and Marias with that name. None of those who are listed in online Dutch records married a man whose name was Hellegers and there are no records of a birth with any of the possible given names and the surname Meijer in the years around 1758-60 (although there are records for a Johanna Marie Meijers who was born ca. 1758, married a man named Jacob Busch, and had a son named Joan Willem Busch).