Oldenkamp, Harm 1825-1905

OLDENKAMP, WEITES

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - volunteer (email)
Date: 1/31/2015 at 18:47:13

Many entries on ancestry concerning Harm Oldenkamp 1818 and wife Geertruida Weites 1824 are believed to have the wrong death dates.
There is documentation that Harm Oldenkamp died the fore part of Mar 1905 as his death notice is noted on the website www.iagenweb.org/Sioux as

Alton Democrat of March 4, 1905
Old man Oldenkmap was buried last Saturday. He was eighty six years old at the time of this death.
Submitter’s notes:
(1900 census of Holland Tsp lists Harm Oldenkamp born Dec 1818 Neth. came in 1885; spouse Gertrude (Weites) born Jan 1825, mother of eight children, married 1850. Upon looking up the married of Harm and Gertrude - found on wiewaswie.nl Married at Smilde Drents Neth. on 14 March 1848 Harm Oldenkamp born Diever , 29 years, mother Geesje Harms Oldenkamp and no father listed; he married Gertude Weites born Haren age 23 years, her father was Jan Wietes and Lamechein Jans Scheuder. Harm would have died about March 1, 1905 exact burial place is unknown as there is no headstone for either he or his wife. His wife possibly died in 1898 according to ancestry.com reports which are incorrect, ancestry.com entries list his death as 1911 Alton also incorrect. Also that his father as Jan Vrijstein which apparently has some credence.)

Harm and wife ‘Gertrude’ were the oldest Oldenkamp couple in the area in the late 1890- 1905.

From the Sioux County Herald of April 10, 1901
Funeral services of Mrs. J. (error Mrs. H.) Oldenkamp, who resided near Alton were held at the Christian Refomed church in this city (Orange City) last Saturday. (died about April 6, 1901)

(It was found that Mrs. J. Oldenkamp died later and at a different location. This almost has to be Mrs. Harm as she was alive in 1900, and not it 1905. No death record exists in the county records, no headstone exists, sparse church records and members in the Chr. Ref. Ch. in Orange City . It is assumed that she and her husband were buried in the Orange City cemetery since they were members there at her death.
The de Volkvriend of April 11, 1901 lists her death as Old wife Oldenkamp. Here again is the indication she was old and there was only one old couple Oldenkamp in the area of Orange City.
No evidence was found of the death of a Mrs. Oldenkamp in 1898 or of Harm Oldenkamp in 1911 and have not found any indication of where those death dates came from.)

This evidence of how wrong information can be duplicated many times on a site like Ancestry.com without parties relying on their own verification.

Research done by Wilma J. Vande Berg