Volume 14 , Issue 45

NW Okie's Corner

[Great grandparents, Sarah Frances Conover & Henry Clay Paris, with children: Ernest, Volney, Decatur "Dee," Arthur and Myrtle.]

We have put some of our paternal lineage on here more so than we have shared our maternal lineage. Our maternal ancestry surnames included the following: PARIS, HURT and CONOVER (Van Kouwenhoven, Couwenhoven) connections. We have traced our Van Kouwenhoven back to the 15th Century, Netherlands.

Willem VanKouwenhoven (1468 - 1543), is my 12th great grandfather. Willem had a son, Jan Willemsz Van Kouwenhoven (1495 - 1550). Jan Willemsz son was Gerritt Jansz Van COUWENHOVEN (1529 - 1604). At some point the spelling changed and they dropped the "Van" and spelled Kouwenhoven with a "C" instead of a "K."

To finish following our lineage down to this NW Okie we find that Gerrit Jansz Van Couwenhoven had a son, Wolfert Gysbertsen Van Couwenhoven (1579 - 1660). The next link of our lineage was Gerret Wolfertse Kouwenhoven (1610 - 1645), son of Wolfert Gysbertsen. The surname has again taken on another spelling of Kowenhoven with Willem Gerretse Kowenhoven (1636 - 1728), Son of Gerret Wolfertse. That lineage brings us to Jan Willemse COUWENHOVEN (1681 - 1756), son of Willem Gerretse.

Continuing down our family tree we find Dominicus John Covenhoven (1724 - 1778), son of Jan Willemse, with yet another spelling of the surname. Somewhere between this time the surname got switched to "Conover" with Peter CONOVER (1769 - 1835), our 4th great grandfather, who married 9 January 1787, Hannah Coombs (1770-1846), in Marlboro, Monmouth, New Jersey.

Peter Conover was the son of Dominicus John (1724-1778). Peter and Hannah's son, Jonathan Coombs CONOVER (1797 - 1859), I show born in Versailles, Woodford, Kentucky; married 16 September 1818, to Martha Davison Bergen, in Woodford, Kentucky. Jonathan and Martha had a son, Peter CONOVER (1821 - 1900), my 2nd great grandfather, born in Kentucky and migrated to Longston, Elk, Kansas with his wife, Melinda Pierce (1845-1896), where he died in 1900, and Melinda died in 1896.

That brings us to my great grandmother, Sarah Frances "Fannie" CONOVER (1848 - 1924). Fannie and Henry Clay Paris married in Petersburg, Illinois, 12 September 1869 and had the following children: Joseph B. (1870-1872), Volney Peter (1872-1960), Mary E. (1876-1878), Decatur Ray (1877-1947), Ernest Claude PARIS (1879 - 1959), Arthur Henry (1882-1960), Myrtle Mae (1885-1965).

That brings us to my grandfather, Ernest Claude PARIS (1879 - 1959), who married Mary Barbara Hurt, 4 December 1909, in Clear Creek, Stafford, Kansas. Ernest and Mary Barbara Paris had the following children: Leslie Martin (1910-19820, Alvin Riley (1912-2002), Vernon Russell (1914-1972), Vada Eileen (1916 - 1992), Zella Marie (1919-1983), Kenneth Harding (1921-1954), Sam Eugene (1924-), Geneva Lucille (1928-2002), and Ernest "EJ" Jr. (1930-1989). To finish off this lineage, Vada Eileen Paris married Gene M. McGill (1914-1986), 24 March 1940, in Anthony, Kansas. This NW Okie is the third daughter of Vada and Gene McGill.

You can read more about our Van Kouwenhoven Family History in this week's OkieLegacy Ezine.

We leave you with this quote online attributed to Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919), Labor Day speech at Syracuse, NY, Sept 7, 1903 - "The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others."

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