Van Zoeren publishes History of Dutch Immigrant Family

Local history author Tom Van Zoeren has released a new book titled Boudewijn & Kate DeKorne: An Oral and Photographic History of a Dutch Immigrant Family. The book tells the story of a wood carver who came to America when he was 14, and settled in Grand Rapids. There he met and married a fellow Dutch immigrant. The couple eventually produced twelve children. Around 1920 they purchased an old farmhouse in Burdickville, near Glen Lake in Leelanau County.

The book is mainly based on oral history interviews that Van Zoeren conducted with family members during the past five years, and on family photographs that were collected. Through stories and pictures, the reader is transported to a rather different time. Kate DeKorne, who became generally known around Burdickville as “Grandma DeKorne”, is an interesting character. After raising 11 children, sewing most of their clothes, and growing much of their food, she retained a fun-loving approach til the end of her life. A fanatical and fearless fisherman who grew her own bait in her “worm garden” and always caught the most fish, she enjoyed teaching her grandchildren tricks such as snagging a cousin’s clothes from his bedroom with a fish hook while the owner slept. Then there’s Kate’s son Casey, who teaches a nephew to chew tobacco while caulking the boat, and to smoke a pipe upside-down in the rain.

Van Zoeren is the author of three books in his Images & Recollections from Port Oneida series (relating to an area of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore), and of a piece of local history called Dottie Lanham of Burdickville.

The DeKorne family book is available for $16 at The Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor, Horizon Books in Traverse City, and through VZOralHistory.com.