Thanks, Shelley.

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The Verdouw’s do not appear to be related to me but I do have a Maria Vergouwe in my family tree that was married to a distant cousin, and who ended up in Wisconsin.

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The reason I mention this is that Vergouwe was also recorded as Vergauwe and Verhous in two US censuses, so that a misspelling to Verdouw is not out of the question.

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Maria Vergouwe, born 23 Aug 1800 in Nieuwvliet, Zeeland, Netherlands, emigrated to the USA in 1847 with her husband Willem van den Berge/Bergh and his two sons Willem and Abraham, as well as his mother Sara de Kraker.

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Maria Vergouwe was Willem van den Berge/Bergh’s second wife and settled in the Town of Holland, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin where she died 19 Feb 1886. She is buried at Wilson cemetery, with her brother Jannis Vergouwe who died 18 Jul 1890.

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My own connection is to Willem van den Berge/Bergh’s younger sister Susanna van den Bergh (who married Albert van Heijnsberg 1836 in Hoofdplaat, Zeeland, Netherlands, and which family remained there).

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I do have an interest in Maria Vergouwe’s husband Willem and two sons, and his mother Sara, however, as I have not been able trace their movements after they arrived in the US in 1847. Somewhere along the line the family split up, either by choice or misfortune, as Maria shows up next in the 1860 US Census in the Town of Holland, living only with her brother Jannes (sic).

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Willem van den Berge/Bergh had a younger brother Louwis (Lewis) van den Bergh (now Vandenberg, married to Sara Catharina Jansen Verplanke) who emigrated to the US in 1847 on the same ship, along with 5 children. This family settled in Grand Haven, Ottawa county, Michigan.

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There appears to have been little or no contact between the families of the two van den Berge/Bergh families after they arrived in the US in 1847, which just deepens the mystery. I am sure Maria Vergouwe would have had all the answers but of course she is no longer around and had no children, that I know of.

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Regards

Willem Ponsen

Brisbane, Australia

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