The Trail of Susan Amanda Greene

My 3 Great Grandma, Susan Amanda Greene, was born 167 years ago on 28 April 1845 in St. Albans, Vermont. But until fairly recently I knew nothing about her. Well, I still know relatively little, but now I know a couple dates, and have been able to trace her family line back pretty far. Part of the problem is that her first and middle name seem to be interchangeable. I have seen Susan Amanda and also Amanda Susan equally the same. So I decided to go with Susan Amanda.

The search for info on Susan all started when I got a copy of her daughter Martha's marriage license. Martha C Morey married Lawrence S Wisner on 1 June 1899, and on the license it says that her mother's name was Amanda Green. Ok, cool, I thought. Now I have the name of Martha's mother (which I didn't have at the time). So I started to try and find anything on Amanda. Nothing. I posted on message boards and everything, but still had no good sources of info. I didn't have much success with finding Martha's father either, William Morey, according to the same marriage license. And actually I still am stuck on him, so if anyone has any info on him or his line I'd really be interested in it. You can find out more on him on my World Connect page on Rootsweb.com.

On a seemingly unrelated front, I was scanning a bunch of pictures out of an album that belonged to my Great Grandma Wisner (Beatrice Marie Hawver). There were some pictures of her husbands parents, Lawrence S Wisner and Martha C Morey. There were also a number of other pictures. This one to the right was labeled as "Grandma Anners July 5 1924." I had no idea who they were and how they were related to the family.

Some time had passed, maybe a year or 2 of continuing genealogy research, not just on this line but also on the many other lines in the family. I then found some info on other lines in Google Books, or more specifically, the books in Google books. It's actually a pretty cool resource, being able to search for names and words and have the passages in the books come right up. So I started looking up other names in Google Books and came across this:

Amanda S., born April 28, 1845. married (first) Nelson Morey, (second) William Anners

Awesome! Not only had I connected the dots, but the info the the book took the Greene family pretty far back. She was the daughter of Henry Collamer Greene and Hannah Larrabee from Vermont. So it was a great connection. The Greene family goes way back to the founding of Rhode Island as a colony in the 1630s. Also another branch of the family that attaches to the Greene line seems to go way back and connects to Henry I of England and Charlemagne. It looks like it's pretty solid, but I haven't had the chance to go through all the info yet. If you want to see the chart that is available, go to The Order of the Crown of Charlemegne.

Another tid bit of info that confirmed the picture's connection to Susan was that I recently found another copy that another relative had, and on the back it said "Grandma Anners & Ed H Morey, her only son."

For more on Susan Amanda Greene's immediate family, check out my info on World Connect on Rootsweb.com.

Four Generation Friday - The Van Hofwegens

Grace (van Hofwegen) Adema (1904-1992)
Jean (Adema) Koops (1925-2005)
Dianna (Koops) Vedders (b. 1943)
Terri (Vedders) Bomgardner (b. 1963)

Black Sheep Sunday - Mr. Pullen

I don't know of too many black sheep in my family, but this guy would probably qualify. The story that has been passed down is about a man named Mr. Pullen. I guess technically he is not a blood relative, but he still had a big impact on the family.

Mr. Pullen was the 3rd husband of Julia Frances Keith. Julia had been married to Monroe Hawver in 1874, had a son in 1877 by the name of Benjamin, and had become a widow in about 1879. She married Mr. Ezra F Pullen around 1885. He had a ranch in King City, near Hollister, California. The story goes that Mr. Pullen was a bad husband and would frequently beat her son Benjamin. When Ben was 12, Mr. Pullen kicked him so hard in the groin that Ben was injured. When he got better, Ben ran away from home and went to San Francisco. He wrote to his mom to let her know that he was ok, but Mr. Pullen intercepted the letters before they got to her. But one letter finally got through to her when Ben was about 16 or 17, and she left Mr. Pullen to go live with Ben.

This story was passed down by one of the daughters of Benjamin. So far the evidence that I have found seems to support the movements of Julia and her son Benjamin. And I did find in the San Francisco Call a mention of their divorce.


Although this little mention in the newspaper doesn't prove the story passed down, I think that this little line seems to speak to Mr. Pullen character: "In his answer to his wife's complaint for divorce, Ezra F Pullen denies that he drew a knife on his wife and threatened to cut her heart out."

And today happens to be the anniversary of Mr. Pullen's death. He died on 22 April 1895. Although I didn't know him, or even about him until the last couple of years when I started researching him, I couldn't help but find some satisfaction when I found his grave. He is buried next to his parents in Hollister, California.

The Hawver's 112th Anniversary

I had been searching for a long time, and when I found this marriage record in the San Francisco Call, I got pretty excited. It was not known the exact date of Benjamin Monroe Hawver and Magdalena Maria Gall's marriage, but this little bit of text gave our family the info we needed. It was partially hard to find because of the misspellings, but as you can read they were married 112 years ago today on 15 April 1900 in San Francisco.

Tombstone Tuesday - Elder William Brewster

The most famous of my relatives died today, 368 years ago on 10 April 1644 in Plymouth Massachusetts. He was Elder William Brewster, and he was one of the Pilgrims that sailed to America on the Mayflower.

This marker was placed in the possible place where he could have been buried at Burial Hill in Plymouth. The transcription reads: "Elder William Brewster, Patriarch of the Pilgrims and their ruling elder 1609-1644. Outstanding leader of Pilgrim movement. The founding of Plimoth Plantation and establishment of civil and religious liberty in the New World. B. at Scrooby, England ca. 1566-7; D. at Plymouth, N.E. ca. April 10, 1644; A resident of Plymouth and Duxbury. M. ca. 1589 Mary Wentworth of Scrooby: B. ca. 1568-9; D. at Plymouth ca. April 17, 1627; Both (Mayflower Passangers) rest in unknown graves in Plymouth, possibly in or near Burial Hill. Erected 1967 The Elder William Brewster Society

Birthday Bio - Dieuwke Broersma (1898-1958)

Dieuwke Broersma was born 114 years ago today, on 6 April 1898 in Friesland in the Netherlands. She was one of the 2 children of Jetze Broersma and Luitske van Gunst that stayed in the Netherlands and did not move to America. Her other siblings Lawrence and Thys emigrated to America and eventually ended up in Washington state. Jack and Peter ended up in Canada.


Dieuwke married Jisk Wip (also known as Julius) on 1 May 1922 in Sneek. I do not have a whole lot of information about their life together, but apparently they enjoyed sailing as I have a few of pictures of them doing that. Perhaps they used that summer activity to celebrate their birthdays, as their 3 sons we all born in the summer:
Jules Hildrbrand b. 12 Jul 1923
Jetze b. 19 Jun 1926
Theodorus b. 12 Jun 1932


The boy sitting is not one of Dieuwke's sons, and there is no mention on the back of the picture as to who it is. All 3 sons grew up and were married. Jetze appears to have joined the navy based on a couple of pictures of him. Perhaps he served in some capacity during World War II? Maybe the sailing he did as a child prompted him to try it as a career? I don't really have any other information on their children at this time.


Dieuwke lived to be 1 month shy of 60 years old, and passed away on 6 Mar 1958 in Sneek. You can find a few more pictures of their family that I have scanned on my Flickr page.

Lawrence and Grace Broersma's Anniversary

On Easter Sunday, 4 April 1926 at the Ireton Christian Reformed Church, Laas "Lawrence" Broersma and Grace Gertrude Wichers were married.


Grace wrote down some of their family story in a small notebook and here is what she had to say:

History of the Lawrence & Grace Broersma family

Apr. 4, 1926 Lawrence & Grace were married on Easter Sun. in the Ireton Chr. Ref. Church. Rev. Edw. van Farrowa was the Pastor. It was very cold and a lot of snow on the ground.


We lived in Ireton the first year then we moved out to the country for a while on the yard by a farmer. Then we moved on a farm by Maurice, Iowa and farmed with Grace's brother Garret Wichers for a while. We wanted to start farming on our own but the rent was so high in Sioux County, Iowa. So we rented a farm in Minnesota (1930), about 80 miles north. That farm was full of quack grass. We stayed there only one year. Then we rented a farm east of Ruthton. We stayed there a number of years. Those were hard years, the depression years. But the nice part was we were all in the same boat, so we had a lot in common.

But the winters were so bad, Lawrence couldn't stand it. The Pr. told Grace if you don't want to be a widow, we best move to a warmer climate. So in Oct. 1938 we had sale and went by train to the Yakima Valley in Wash. That was a good move for the whole family. Lawrence worked for fruit ranchers pruning trees in the winter. He got ony 25 cts an hour the first year. That wasn't much. By that time we had 8 children, but we could get all the fruit we could use or can, and also spuds. And we raised a good garden so we made out ok. We joined the Zillah Church and those people were so good to us. They had a fruit & veg. shower right away as soon as we were in our first home and spuds and apples. It was wonderful.

At that time we could go to town and buy quite a box of groceries for $5. We got to town once a week. Lawrence had steady work in the orchards and Grace was busy at home. We lived by Zillah for 3 years. In 1941 we moved to Lynden, WA in Oct. Here we lived in town one year, then moved out in the country, which was much better for the children. Lawrence worked for farmers and the older boys started to work in berries etc. In the fall the men would pick spuds. In the fall of 1943 we bought the old farm on the Central Road & Lunde Rd. That was a good place for the fam. We moved there in Feb. 1944. We lived there for about 14 years. The whole fam. worked together on that place. We all enjoy it there.

Then Pop went in the Duraclean business. Marv bought the farm an we moved to town. That was a hard move for the fam. We had 4 boys and 2 girls still home. By that time we had 12 children. Not easy to live in town after being on the farm so long.


We bought an old house on 1709 C St. in Lynden, Mr. Ben Hendricks borrow us the money for the down payment. Lloyd & Marv did a lot of work on the house to make it liveable. We enjoyed it there. The house was small but we made do. We were in the Duraclean cleaning business. By this time the fam. were mostly out doing their own thing, had their own jobs etc. but lived at home off & on. Some went to Mich. Some would travel back and forth.

Then in 1963 Lawrence was poisoned by some spot remover he used. He had a stroke and Dr. said we should go where we would have more sun shine. So back to Zillah in the fruit trees working out in the sun sure was the right thing. We also did the janitor work in the Zillah Chr. Ref. Church. Grace did housework for a couple different fam. that way we had money coming in in the bad weather too. By this time Ken was the only child home any more. All the others were married. Ken was in the 7th grade. It was Jan 1, 1964 when we moved back to Zillah. We stayed there 3 1/2 years. Ken was in high school, but the people that rented our house bought a house of their own. Then we moved back to Lynden June 2, 1967. Then we got the job as janitor of 3rd Chr. Ref. Ch. in Lynden.

We held that job 9 and 1/2 years. By that time Ken was also married. Then we did the cleaning in the senior center in Lynden. And finally decided we were old enough to retire. Now we sold our house to Copeland yards, but we can live here as long as we are able. In 1968 we sold the house on 1709 C St. and bought this house at 306 Liberty St. This was closer to church, and worked out much better. We move in here in Nov. 1968 and have been here since. We sold this house Aug of 1981, at least that is when the papers were signed. We enjoy it here. God has been very good to us all through the years. He was always near.