Gretje Klover (born February 10, 1869, married Johann (Jann) Weerts de Riese (born March 22, 1837) in 1889.
They had the following children:
- Antje de Riese., January 29, 1890
- Gerhard de Riese, August 2, 1892 – April 9, 1950 in Nordgeorgsfehn
- Albert Ewen de Riese, March 3, 1894 – Mar 5, 1946 in Filsum
- Anna de Riese, July 9, 1897 – Sep 7 1987 in Muskingum, OH
Johann died one week (July 16, 1897) after Nancy’s mother, Anna, was born. Gretje had Johann’s wedding ring made into two rings and gave one to Anna and one to Antje. Anna gave hers to Nancy.
Gretje got married to her second husband Hermann Meijer, in Filsum on August 29, 1902.
They had the following children:
- Anka Meijer, 1902 – 1912 (Filsum)
- Reinhardt Meijer, December 23, 1904 – 1956 (Hackensack, NJ)
- Johann Meijer, 1908 – 1996 (Melle, Hannover, Germany)
- Hermann Meijer, 1912 in Filsum – ??
Hermann died September 7, 1935.
Anna de Riese married Howard Lawrence Wells on Oct 12, 1926. Anna Wells was the mother of Nancy Jensen, who did a great amount of genealogy work, and Mary Jane Wells. Hilda Bethke Zink exchanged letters through the years with Nancy, and both felt strong ties to their ancestors. Their grandmothers (Lena Klover and Gretje Klover) were sisters.
In one of Nancy’s letters, she wrote that her father’s grandfather was John Wells, who was born in Bolton, Lancashire (UK).
Nancy has a cousin Olga, who is Anna Wells’ brother’s daughter.
Nancy’s father’s great-grandparents are buried in the Baltimore Cemetery, at the end of North Avenue.
The Wells wharf is at the end of Warren Street.
Nancy’s great-great-grandparents wedding was on 10/26/1809 in Frederick. Maryland.
Nancy’s father’s family lived in Baltimore in the mid 1800’s.
In a letter Nancy wrote to Hilda Zink in 1995, Nancy mentions that her research in the genealogy library at Salt Lake City turned up a marriage document dated 1813 of Jelke Alberts de Riese and Gesche Garrets. She thought they could be related to Gretje’s husband Johann. She wrote that although the document itself was in German, the ‘official’ part was written in French. Between about 1790 and 1815, the northwest part of Europe was under Napoleon’s rule, whose brother was given charge of Ostfriesland. Napoleon demanded that all vital statistics would be recorded. So, we have Napoleon to thank for the existence of these ancestral records.
Reinhardt Meijer married Elisabeth Och on June 18, 1929 in Baltimore. Elisabeth was born on August 20, 1904 and lived in Störnhof, Wiesenttal, Germany and came to the US on September 21, 1922 on the SMS Seydlitz. Reinhardt entered the US at Hoboken, NJ on November 24, 1924.and lived at 560 Seneca Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.
Reinhardt’s obituary in The Record lists his date of death as October 24, 1957 and siblings Anna Wells, Anje (Antje de Riese), Johann and Herman.