A Book of Generations

When I first began researching the Sweere line back in 1998 I had a small file fom my brother, Mark, to follow leads on. He had this information from another Sweere in the Netherlands whom he made contact with. There were no sources included with this file.

I spent about a year dabbling with US-Sweere data before I joined a Dutch genealogy list and a generous spirit there pointed me in the direction of Genlias, a website for searching the Netherlands Civil Archives. In the years since, as more records have been transcribed and added to the Genlias databases, I’ve found a goldmine of information there.

But one thing always puzzled me.

Mark had listed a son, Jacobus, born 2 April 1871, for my gr-gr-grandfather, Gerardus Sweere and his first wife, Hendricka Arts. I had often wondered what became of this mysterious Jacobus, the step-brother of my great-grandfather, Hendrickus. I found no evidence of him over the years; no marriage record, no death record. Had he emigrated like his younger brothers? If so, where did he disappear to?

The mystery of Jacobus was solved this week when I discovered a marriage record for a daughter of Gerardus and Hendricka (Arts) Sweere whom I had not known of previously. Of course, I was delighted to find a record of Jacoba…

Further research revealed a birth record for Jacoba Sweere, born 2 April 1871 in Oploo-Sint Anthonis. There is no mention on the record of “tweeling” (twin) for Jacoba. It appears then, that ‘Jacobus’ was an error, and without solid evidence that he actually existed, his name has been deleted from my database.

One more note of importance concerning the birth of Jacoba: her mother, Hendricka Arts, died on 20 April, 1871, eighteen days after her birth. She left behind a newborn daughter, a one year-old son, Gerardus, and a five year-old daughter, Maria.

Less than a year later, her husband found a second wife to care for his young children, whom he married on 5 Jan 1872. She was my gr-gr-grandmother, Johanna Hopmans, who gave him two more sons and a daughter, and she outlived him by more than 25 years.

Interesting stuff, yes?

ex animo ~J

I found the death record for Johanna Hopmans, mother of the US Sweere-patriarchs, Theodorus and Hendrickus.

I began to explore the Van den Heuvel line and made a large amount of additions there. This Van den Heuvel line is of particular interest to me because both Theodorus and Hendrickus married sisters from that same Van den Heuvel family, and their own sister, Johanna Huberta Sweere, married Martinus Van den Heuvel, a brother of those two sisters.

The Van de Heuvel line is somewhat aggravating to explore in the Civil Archives because there are literally thousands of records for this prolific ‘of the Heuvel’ name. This means I have to narrow my search parameters considerably in order to capture the records I’m interested in.

The mother of the Van den Heuvel siblings who married into the Sweere line was Johanna Van de Logt. I made a large amount of additions in the Van de Logt line today as well.

ex animo ~J

Believe it or not, I’ve learned the basics of 3 programming languages since Oct. 2004 when I first bought the sweere.org domain name (CSS, php, and xhtml).

On top of that, I use eight software programs to maintain the site:

1. The Next Generation of Genealogy (TNG) – a database driven program to maintain the online genealogy information.
2. minimal Gallery- a database program for the gallery that is separate from the TNG histories and documents.
3. Lazarus Guestbook- php driven program for the guestbook
5. WordPress – php and xhtml database driven blogging program for the main interface (the front page).
4. Adobe GoLive 6.0- desktop program used to customize all of the above and build additional required webpages
5. Adobe PhotoShop 7.0 to manage images and create image graphics
6. WS_FTP Home to upload all of the above to the server where the website is hosted.
7. Mozilla FireFox – a browser (in addition to Internet Explorer) that features “tabbed” browsing for ease of editing, adding and researching.
8. Mozilla Thunderbird – a FireFox compatible email program for communication with cousins and visitors.

Here’s a breakdown of my costs so far:

TNG – $24.95 + 10.00 for new version upgrade = $34.95
WS_FTP – $34.95
Host Server (vbdigital) and domain name registration = $48.00 per year ( x 2 yrs Oct2004 thru Oct2006) = $96.00
Internet Service Provider- $24.95 per month x 12 = $300 per year

minimal Gallery, Lazarus Guestbook, WordPress, FireFox, Thunderbird are open source (free).

Adobe GoLive and Adobe PhotoShop cost $299 each, but I was given outdated versions from a friend when he upgraded to new versions.

While it’s true I would likely have internet service anyway, I count the cost here because it’s essential to the website maintenence.

I have a few additional needs outside of feeding myself and paying bills that I would like to pursue in order to obtain access to more complete information and sources.

Ideally, I would like to have:

A paid subscription to Ancestry.com in order to access census documents., birth, marriage and death certificates, and obituaries. ($14.95 a month or $179.40 a year).

A membership to the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society ($18.00 annual) and the Wisconsin Historical Society ($40.00 annual) would give me access to state records.

I have a digital camera for headstone images, but I need a new scanner for paper documents.

I’m not looking to make a living wage doing this.I love this project because it gives me an outlet for my creativity and problem solving skills, and a way to quench my thirst for research. I’ve always loved putting puzzles together. I just have to figure out a way not to starve while I do it.

In the pre-Christian epics of Northern Europe, such as Beowulf or the Scandinavian Eddas, a man’s immortality was gained by the tales that were told in his name long after he died. If those stories were great enough to survive over time, immortality was his.

Perhaps this is my family’s small shot at immortality.

ex animo ~Jodi