Michigan's Lower Peninsula - continued
(Sightseeing and genealogical research)
September 14, 2017 - September 25, 2017
After leaving Northport we drove south to Manistee where we spent the night, then continued on to the town of Pentwater where my great uncle, once upon a time, owned the Jenny Wren Tea Shop. It's a pretty little town on a beautiful lake. Perfect place for a tea shop.
We were surprised to find the State Park campground was full for the weekend but we found a private campground nearby. From there we drove to Grand Rapids for some serious genealogy research. Many of my ancestors lived around Grand Rapids in Kent County. I was particularly interested in land and probate records. As with many large cities, it's difficult to find campgrounds nearby so you typically end up quite a ways from the city. We found a very nice county park to use as our headquarters. I drove back and forth to the city from there.
 |
| Fall color starting at Wabasis Lake Park. |
 |
| Private property around Wabasis Lake as seen from the campground. |
 |
| Parts of the campground were directly on the lake. |
My GPS got me into the city and right to the courthouse with no problem. I have to say that small town county seats are so much easier to deal with. They are almost always in one building so it's easy to navigate from one office to another. Bigger cities often have 2 or more buildings separated by large distances. This was the situation in Grand Rapids. The other issue is that in addition to their normal work, lots of genealogists come looking for records. I'm sure it's frustrating so they begin to build barriers. You might have to make an appointment or you're only allowed in on certain days or only a small number of researchers are allowed at any one time. I immediately ran into the "you must make an appointment" requirement at the probate court. I thought the woman I first talked with was a bit dismissive but another clerk came to the rescue saying they could take the names of the people I was looking for and let me know if they had anything on them. If so I could then make an appointment to come in and see the files. I could have hugged her except for the huge counter between us. She took my information and I went off to the deed office in another building.
There is never any barrier getting in to look for land records because title companies use the records all the time to verify that titles are free of encumbrances. The Kent County grantee/grantor (buyer/seller) books were all available in digital format but some of the images were barely readable. I slogged through them all and found numerous land records for my ancestors as both buyers and sellers. I made a list then looked up the actual deeds themselves. Generally they are pretty cut and dried but you never know what you'll find. Kent County's had all been microfilmed so it was easy to find all the deeds for my ancestors.
When looking for the spouse of an ancestor it's often helpful to draw concentric 5 mile rings around where the person lived and look first within the smallest ring, then work outward. Roads were not what they are today and people didn't travel all over like we do now. They typically met their future spouse because they were neighbors or they went to the same church. When I finally got all the land mapped out I had perfect proof for the concentric ring theory. All of my ancestors owned land within 3 miles of one another. Practically a bulls eye!
The probate office found only one file I was looking for and it proved to be the shortest probate file I'd ever run across. I think it was 4 pages but it verified the land information I'd found and the names of all of my 3rd great grandfather's children. I left Grand Rapids very satisfied with what I had found there.
From Grand Rapids we went to Holland, Michigan. Laura is of Dutch ancestry and we'd heard quite a lot about the town and it's dutch origins. Found a very nice campground, then went out to explore the area.
Our first stop was the DeKlomp Wooden Shoe and Delft Factory. The shoemaker was off the day we were there but we did see how Delft pottery was made and decorated. What amazed us the most is that every piece of local Delftware they sell is hand painted by just two people. They are one of the few places outside the Netherlands making Delft pottery.
Our next stop was Nelis' Dutch Village. It was so full of things that are so typically Dutch that it was like suddenly stepping into a dutch village in the Netherlands.
 |
| Brick buildings, canals and flowers! |
 |
| Mending the fishing nets. |
 |
| Transporting cheese! |
 |
One horse power! The horse walked on the treadle system which turned the big wheel behind Laura.
The big wheel turns a belt which powers a machine (not shown) which separates grain from the chaff. |
 |
The Dutch barn was full of animals including these young goats.
There were also pigs, rabbits, chickens, sheep and a llama. |
 |
| Laura with the curious goat. The other one couldn't be bothered to get out of the hay trough. |
 |
| Typical farmhouse in the province of Friesland. |
 |
Clever use of space. Beds on either side of the stairway. They also open onto the two main rooms of the home.
Under the stairs is storage with a dirt floor - kind of like a root cellar. |
 |
| The other main room of the house. |
 |
| A baker sells his good from his bicycle powered cart. |
 |
| A lock tender sends down a wooden shoe to receive payments from the boatmen using the lock. |
 |
Wooden water wheel used to power whatever needed powering.
Where would civilization be without the wheel? |
 |
| Dog cart. |
 |
| Representation of the childhood story about Hans Brinker who saved his town by sticking his finger in the leaking dike. |
 |
| Wedding wagon next to the church. It was first decorated with ribbons and flowers then it carried the happy couple around their town to their wedding ceremony while all the town cheered. |
 |
| Vincent Van Gogh. |
 |
| Mail delivery cart. |
 |
| Bicycle power is very common in the Netherlands. |
 |
| Cheese Shop with traditional Dutch cheese for sale. |
There were demonstrations going on all around the village from how wooden shoes are made to how delft pottery is made to traditional dancing as well as others. All the workers are dressed in costumes and I can't understand how we did not get a picture of even one of them.
We spent a delightful 3 hours in the Dutch village and it brought back lots of memories of our two trips to the Netherlands.
The following day we went to Windmill Island Gardens, another big attraction in Holland, MI. The big attractions here were the gardens, the small row of dutch shops, a traditional dutch bridge and a true Dutch windmill.
 |
| The Dutch love their flowers |
 |
| Milk weed. A critical food in the live cycle of Monarch butterflies. |
 |
| A row of dutch shops. |
 |
| Lots of blooms still around even in mid-September. |
 |
| A very typical Dutch bridge. This one's just for people but they are also used for cars and trucks. |
 |
| A canal of course! |
 |
| A sluice gate. |
The windmill came from the town of Vinkel in the province of Noord Brabant. It was purchased for a dollar, taken apart, numbered and shipped via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes to Muskegon, MI where it was unloaded and taken to it current location and rebuilt. All that cost over a million dollars!!! It was formerly used to power a sawmill but it's been re-purposed as a flour mill which grinds various types of flour even today. The "miller" is an American woman who wanted to be a certified Dutch miller. She went to the Netherlands for her training and managed to pass the initial test required for entry - stopping the windmill from turning.
The actual windmill is heavily constructed and expertly engineered. I was very impressed with it's design. A tour up inside is a must and does not disappoint.
 |
| Note the curvature in the wooden "lattice work" of each blade. The slight curvature is what allows the wind to start the blade turning. |
 |
| An example of the heavy timbers used in it's construction. |
 |
| These seemingly little weights control the grinding process. |
 |
| Not a great picture but again - an example of the heavy timbers used in construction. |
 |
The cogs at the end of this wheel fit into the gear shown below. The wheel is driven by the blades turning
which then power the grinding stone at the bottom end of the picture below. They used
beeswax as the lubricant on the cogs because it didn't get coated with flour or sawdust as would grease. |
 |
The grain was brought up to the grinding level via pulleys through this long shaft. The farmers would drive
their wagons right into the lower part of the windmill and the grain was transported up in bags. |
 |
You can easily see the slight curvature of the blades from this picture. The blades also can be covered with a
fabric to increase their speed. The fabric is rolled up on one side of each blade when not in use. |
 |
The counterweight for the windmill blades. It can be unlatched from the deck and moved 360 degrees
around in order to catch the wind from whatever directions it was coming from. |
 |
These parts were "left over" after the windmill was re-constructed.
Apparently it didn't worry them to have so many parts left. Maybe they were just spare parts to begin with? |
 |
| One of the grinding stones used in a grinding mill. |
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Holland. It was just as if we had traveled to "Holland" once again.
