Mensiena Beumee (1887-1889)
Mensiena was born 14 Jan 1887 in Nieuwe Pekela, first child of Wildrik (Uildrik) J. Beumee and Grietje Starke (dutch link). She is my first cousin twice removed, her mother a sister of my great-grandmother.
Economic conditions must have been bad, only one (the eldest, my great-grandmother) of Grietje’s siblings stayed in Nieuwe Pekela, two going to Overijssel, one to Drenthe, and later to North-Holland. Grietje also moved away from Nieuwe Pekela, but the first time I realized that, was when I read the death certificate of Mensiena. It reads, in part:
“Extracted from the ship’s log on 10 Apr 1889, on board of the above mentioned steamship (the ‘Schiedam’), at 18o35’S and 36o22’W, appeared before me, Klaas Mensonides, captain of the ship, Jacob Jonker, first mate, and Theodorus Lehmann, administrator, who declare that the passenger Mensiena Beumee, last living in Nieuwe Pekela, has died on this ship on 10 Mar 1889 at 1.45PM, at the age of two and a half years, unmarried, daughter of Uildrik Jacobus Beumee, furniture maker, and Grietje Starke, both last living in Nieuwe Pekela.”
I found a listing of passengers to Argentina, on which the Beumees appear, and the ship is listed to have arrived in Buenos Aires on 9 Mar 1889. So Mensiena died after the arrival at Buenos Aires. But the coordinates are about 1000 miles away from Buenos Aires, which seems a bit far to travel in one day, if it took about a month to travel from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires.
Uildrik and Grietje’s next child, another Mensiena, was born in Grand Rapids, MI in Apr 1891. It was unclear to me, how this could be, if they were in Argentina only one year before. And it is still a mystery: possibly the ‘Schiedam’ let off passengers, and continued on its way to the US, but I have not been able to find any entry for the ‘Schiedam’ arriving in the US. A G. Beumee (22, b. Netherlands) accompanied by a J. Beumee (a child, 9 mo, b. Netherlands) are on a list arriving in 1890 in New York, but this is for the ‘Amsterdam,’ not the ‘Schiedam.’ And where is Uildrik?
As usual, when one mystery seems solved, another one pops up. So more searching, more fun
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