Boelke de Vries

Boelke de Vries married Lena Klover May 12, 1900 in Filsum, Ostfriesland, Germany, and they had nine children:

Hilda’s notes said that Boelke was a sailor on a ship.

Boelke and his family lived in their own house with large land holdings in Lammertsfehn. He was a boatman/sailor and also grew rye, oats, barley and potatoes and sold them to the cooperative. They had cows, pigs, chickens and four horses and were able to provide for themselves very well. The windmills were purely garden decorations. They were often built in the winter to keep busy. an East Frisian tradition, so to speak. Not to be confused with the real windmills in which grain was processed.

Nancy Jensen wrote in one of her letters to Hilda Zink, that Ostfriesland didn’t become a part of Germany until 1870.

bolke-and-lena-in-1938

De Vries is one of the most common Dutch surnames. It indicates a geographical origin: “Vriesland” is an old spelling of the Dutch province of Friesland (Frisia). Hence, “de Vries” means “the Frisian”. The name has been modified to “DeVries”, “deVries”, or “Devries” in other countries.

In one of Nancy Jensen’s letters to Hilda, dated 1992, Nancy mentions the Platte Deutsch language spoken by our ancestors in Ostfriesland. Platte Deutsch translates to Low German, a West Germanic language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. Low German is most closely related to Frisian and English, with which it forms the North Sea Germanic group of the West Germanic languages. “Low” refers to the flat plains and coastal area of the northern European lowlands, contrasted with the mountainous areas of central and southern Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, where High German (Highland German) is spoken.

From left to righ, Boelke and Lena with children Bernhard, Antje and Willi::

Bernhard de Vries, June 13, 1926 (age 25)

Boelke de Vries, Sept 9, 1874 (age 64)

Hermann, March 30, 1923 (age 15), son of Lena de Vries Bethke

Grete Martens, July 1, 1932 (age 6), daughter of Ewert and Anni

Ewert Martens, Oct 26, 1904 (age 34), husband of Anni

Anni Martens (Anna Anka Mena de Vries), May 9, 1905 (age 33), with their two children

Leni Martens, Feb 24, 1934 (age 4)

Ewert Martens, April 12, 1936 (age 2)

Lena de Vries geb. Klover, October 9, 1874 (age 64)

Antje de Vries, July 28, 1919

Willi de Vries, April 29, 1911 (age 27)