52 Ancestors in 2022 - Week 6: Maps

It's time for another week of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. The prompt this week is 'Maps'. Maps can be very useful for genealogy. I've used Sanford fire maps for finding my city-dwelling ancestors. I've used plat maps to find the farms of my rural ancestors. 

Maps are also great for showing distances. How far were your ancestors to the state border? Is it possible that they traveled the short disance across the border to marry in another state. Was the hospital in which they died across a state border? Do you need to look in that state for vital records? How close were your ancestors to other family?

That leads me to this map, a map of Illinois counties. 

Map of Illinois Counties from the Illinois Blue Book 2021-2022
https://ilsos.gov/publications/illinois_bluebook/
Green = where my Kolk ancestors lived
Blue = where I thought the Whiteside Kolks lived
Red = where the Whiteside Kolks really lived

I mentioned last week that I am branching out to the Whiteside County Kolk family to see if there is a connection to my Madison County Kolk family. I KNEW that they were in Fulton, Illinois, and I KNEW that Fultion is in Whiteside County, Illinois. But for some reason, I didn't realize where Whiteside County is. I probably did a quick search on a map 20 years ago when I first found the death certificates. I probably came up with Fulton County instead of the city of Fulton. It makes a big difference—about 100 miles! Fulton County is about 125 miles north of Madison County. Whiteside County is about 100 miles further north!

This is a little discouraging. It makes me feel that it is less likely that there is a connection between the two Kolk families. It is impossible? Of course not! They traveled 3600 miles across the ocean in a rickety old ship. 100 extra miles by land must have seemed like a piece of cake! 

I also see some similarities when I look at the map. Alton was a small southern Illinois community surrounded by farmland. Fulton was a small northern Illinois community surrounded by farmland. Both cities sit on the banks of the Mississippi River. And both have the same ending sound—'**l-ton'. Is it possible that two brothers got off a ship in New York and separatley bought tickets to go to Illinois? Could they have missed understood each other and ended up in similar-sounding, but different, places. That's probably NOT what happened, and it's very possible that the two lines are NOT related. But I won't know unless I try to find out. 

So my hunt for a connection continues....

52 Ancestors in 2022 - Week 5: Branching Out

It's week 5 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks. The prompt for the week is 'Branching Out'. This is the perfect prompt for me this week, as I've made the decision to 'branch out' from my Kolk line.

image from pngall - submitted by Rojal
https://www.pngall.com/?p=6675
License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC

 For some time Jacob Kolk has been a brick wall for me. I posted about Jacob previously here, and here, and here. I have been unable to learn where Jacob was born, other than 'Holland'.

In one of these posts I mention that there was a Kolk family in Whiteside County, Illinois. About 20 years ago, before everything went online, I was in the Illinois State Archives library searching death certificates. Since I was just getting started, and Kolk is a relatively rare name, I assumed all Kolks were somehow related and copied every Kolk death certificate, including those in Whiteside County. But I never did anything with them. They've just been waiting in my binder.

I also mention in that post that a Jan Jans Colk came over on the same ship as Jacob Jans Colk. But I've been unable confirm that Jacob Jans Colk is my Jacob Kolk. The age on the passenger list correlates with a Sept 1822 birth, but is that enough? And how is Jan Jans Colk related?

I've also seen a birth record for a Jacob Colk born Sept 25, 1822 in Usquert, Netherlands. I don't read Dutch, but even if I did, I don't know if it is enough to state unequivocably that this is MY Jacob Kolk.

Clearly I have work to do if I want to prove my line beyond Jacob Kolk of Madison County, Illinois! This past week I've decided it is time to 'branch out'. I dug out my old Whiteside County death certificates. I spent some time researching what Whiteside County resources are easily available to me, including libraries and newspapers online. I started a new database to work on the Whiteside County Kolk line. Hopefully at some point I'll find some evidence that requires me to learn how to merge it into my main database! I'm ready to go. I'm BRANCHING OUT!