Seth and I arrived in Bunde. We wanted to start researching our ancestry at churches and fortunately when we got there we heard a church bell and followed it to this church:
We found out from the church office that Thije Waldecker (born March 4, 1871) was baptized at this church on March 16, 1871 by Pastor Tholens! We didn’t get to go inside, but it was pretty cool to be there! The church secretary also found out the full names of his parents:
Frieling Anton Waldecker and Katharina Geerdina Waldecker (nee Ruiter). We already knew the maiden name of Thije’s mother, but the fact that her first name was Katharina was new to us. The piece of paper that Audrey is holding is the information given to us by the church office.
Other tid bits we found out:
- We didn’t find any gravestones with the name “Waldecker” in Bunde.
- We did find out that there are a lot of Waldeckers north of Bunde, in Ditzum (near Emden).
- We found a website that shows where Waldeckers are buried in East Friesland. The earliest birth date mentioned on these gravestones is 1898, which is after Thije and family moved to South Dakota. However, some of the names on these gravestones (such as Meinert, Hinrich and Friedrich) are similar to names in the Frieling Waldecker family (such as Thije’s brother Mainard, Thije’s sons Henry and Fred).
- Thije seems to be a Dutch name, as the Germans in Bunde did not seem to recognize the name. However, they did recognize the name Trientje. We saw the latter name on many gravestones, too.
- We found two Waalkens gravestones in Bunde and one in Nieuw Beerta, where Trientje was from.
- There is a Waldecker living in Bunde, but when we called him he hung up on us 🙁
- We asked the church office to look up Frieling as well, but they haven’t finished archiving the records dating back to when Frieling was born. However, at the church office we were giving an email we can use to request information! 😎
We’ll post more pictures and videos later!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Sounds like a fun adventure!
Very interesting!
Is it a Lutheran church?
Awesome! I can’t wait to hear more!
I wonder if Thije’s siblings were baptized there also. Is it the same building or has it been renovated or rebuilt?
Thanks for sharing
How exciting! Too bad that guy hung up on you.
It is an evangelical reformed church, which according to Audrey, probably means that it is a Lutheran church. There was a sign on the church telling something of its history. If I remember correctly what Audrey told me (since I can’t read German very well), at least some parts are original. We asked about looking up Thije’s siblings, and they gave us an e-mail to use to request more information.
Perhaps if you went to the Waldecker address, he might be more willing to talk.