One of the first things I did when I started this line was order the death certificate for Ike.1 It provided the documentation I needed for his familial ties, but it also led to some questions. More on that later.
I did the standard tracing of him through his 1910, 1920, and 1930 census records.2,3,4 I also located him on the Oregon Death Index. 5
He was born 22 October 1908 to Jan (John) Burggraaf and Maria (Mary) Kortlever in Lynden, Whatcom County Washington. Ancestry has the Washington Births, 1907-1919,6 database available and this provides more documentation of his actual birth date and his mother’s name of Maria Kortlever.
Ike married Dorothy Josephine Johnson on 3 August 1927 in Bellingham, Whatcom County, Washington.7 Her mother, Lucy Jane Wilson Johnson was one of the witnesses.
He was buried in Monumenta Cemetery in Lynden, Whatcom County, Washington, where he shares a tombstone with his brother Bert.
Having the facts is always nice, but it isn’t the only thing this is about. Getting to know something about an ancestor makes all of this more meaningful. Collecting information is helpful, but hearing family stories and myths makes that ancestor come alive. While I have begun writing the family story, it is much too large to share in this forum. This forum will have parts of the story and things that lead me in certain directions for research. It will also detail portions of the search to find the story. The next couple of posts will provide the facts for Ike’s parents and grandparents. Families are often so intertwined that to understand the story, you have to know who the family is. It’s that old adage “You need a scorecard to keep the players straight.”
1. Oregon State Health Division Center for Health Statistics, death certificate #340 (28 Apr 1939), Arie Burgraff; Oregon State Health Division, Portland, Oregon.
2. 1910 U.S. census, Whatcom County, Washington, population schedule, Lynden, enumeration district (ED) 351, p. 9A, dwelling 181, family 181, Arie Burgraff; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Jun 2009); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T624, roll 1674.
3. 1920 U.S. census, Whatcom, Washington, population schedule, Lynden, enumeration district (ED) 258, sheet 341, p. 21A, dwelling 28, family 28, Arie Burgraff; digital images, Ancestry (www.Ancestry.com : accessed 22 Jun 2009); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T625, roll 1944.
4. 1930 U.S. census, Jackson County, Oregon, population schedule, Jacksonville, enumeration district (ED) 31, sheet 4A, p. 7, dwelling 89, family 91, Arie Burgraff; digital images, Ancestry (www. Ancestry.com : accessed 1 Jul 2009); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T626, roll 1944.
5. State of Oregon, “Oregon Death Index, 1903-1998,” database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 Jul 2009), Arie Burgraff, Certificate 340; Oregon Death Index, 1903-98.
6. Washington State Department of Health, “Washington Births, 1907-1919,” database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Jan 2010), Burgraff, 22 Oct 1908.
7. Whatcom County, Washington, Marriage Licenses, 3 Aug 1927, Arie Burgraff-Dorothy Johnson, 1927; Whatcom County Marriage Records, Bellingham.