Annegien Hendriks Rosema

​Happy Birthday to my great-great-great Grandmother, Annegien Hendriks Rosema. She's 200 years old today!

She was born in Oosterhesselen, Coevorden, Drenthe, Netherlands on 13 Aug 1819 to Harm Hendriks Rosema (age 31 at the time) and Hilligjen Egberts (age 28). Her parents had been married almost four years, and Annegien would likely have been baptized in the church at Oosterhesselen.

Annegien married at age 31 to Albert Velting, age 40, 3 April 1850, likely under a bit of pressure as they had a son, Berend, three months later that July. They had five children over 13 years, but only son Berend and daughter Hillegje Velting survived into adulthood.

After almost 20 years of marriage, her husband Albert died in 1869, leaving Annegien a widow at age 49. Son Berend married Mary Joling over a decade later, in 1881.

Two years later, in April 1883, Annegien (now age 64), 26-year-old daughter Hillegje, and son Berend with his wife Mary and infant daughter Annigje, all boarded the steamship Schiedam in Amsterdam and sailed for America in steerage.

They settled in Missaukee county. Within a couple years, daughter Hillegje (Helen) Velting married Roelof Lutke and started a family of their own. Son Berend Velting and wife Mary Joling had three more kids, Jennie, Albert, and Johanna Velting. (Jennie Velting grew up to marry Egbert Eising and give birth to my grandmother, Margaret Eising Koster.)

Annegien sadly outlived her son Berend, who died in 1891 at age 40. Widowed daughter-in-law Mary Joling Velting remarried to Harm Schoo.

In the 1900 census, Annegien reports that she is age 81, does not speak English, can read and write, and lives with her daughter and son-in-law.

Annegien Hendriks Rosema Velting lived to age 85, dying of influenza in Prosper, Missaukee, Michigan on 05 Mar 1905. She is buried in Vogel Center.