Michael VanDerAa - An Update

Last month I wrote a post about using passenger lists to find my 3rd great-grandfather - Michael VanDerAa and his family. Shortly after I wrote this I realized that I had made a mistake in the assumptions I made in that post. Mainly, that the fourth VanDerAa brother listed in the passenger list was Michael. It was not. The brothers listed were Jacob, Garrett, Wilhelm and Leinhard - not Michael. Given that Jacob, Garrett, Wilhelm and Michael were all living next to each other in the 1870 census, I assumed that the Leinhard that was listed was either mistranslated or was a middle name for Michael. Neither is true.

After searching a bit wider in the 1870 census, I found Leonard (Leinhard) VanDerAa living just a short distance from the other VanDerAa brothers. So - how does Michael fit in to the picture? I could find no passenger listing for Michael VanDerAa coming over from the Netherlands - but I found it hard to believe that he was not related to the other VanDerAa's given that he lived next door to them and they shared many similar names for their children and eventual grandchildren.

Eventually I found the time to do a search on FamilySearch.org and found the death certificate for Michael VanDerAa (pictured below).


His death certificate shows that his parents names were Arie VanDerAa and Maggie (unreadable last name). Excellent. Arie and Maggie VanDerAa are found in the 1860, 1870 and 1880 census' in Cook County - nearby Michael - although not next door like some of the other VanDerAa brothers that I wrote about last month.

I also found Arie and Maggie in the passenger lists on Ancestry.com. They came over from the Netherlands on November 13, 1854 on a ship called "Mississippi Of Demerara". It left from Rotterdam, Netherlands and arrived in Baltimore, Maryland. They are listed traveling with their children: Gerrit - age 2 - who died during the passage over, Grel - age 18, Klaaj - age 20 and Thijs - age 9.

The son listed as "Grel" is the one that I believe is Michael VanDerAa - my 3rd great-grandfather. His name listed in Dutch was often spelled Magiel and I believe he is listed in the passenger list as simply Giel (not Grel).

So - how is his family related to the other VanDerAa's that he lived among in the years following his arrival in the US? Right now - I believe that his wife Johanna actually had the maiden name of VanDerAa (and also the married name of VanDerAa). I believe she may be the sister that is listed in the passenger list with Jacob, Garrett, Wilhelm and Leinhard.

Other than the fact that her age seems to match the Johanna listed in that original passenger list I found, I also found the birth certificate for some of her children (one for daughter Johanna is shown below). In all cases her Full Name and her Maiden Name are both listed as Johanna VanDerAa.



Obviously I have a lot more research to do to understand the VanDerAa's living in Cook County and how they are all related - but for now I do believe that I know the name of my 4th great-grandfather - Arie VanDerAa.