So far, the earliest record we have of Albert Hine/Heun’s lineage is an 1880 US Census listing him (at age 18) living in Roseland with his parents, John and Nellie, two older brothers, Peter and Fredrick, and a younger sister, Katie. The form says the entire family was born in Holland. Therefore, they must have immigrated sometime between 1864 (when Katie was born) and 1880.
One challenge to finding records of them in The Netherlands, is knowing what the Dutch versions of their names were. If anyone knows of a Website that lists Dutch names and their English translations, please let me know!
That said, on the Genlias Website, I found a Jan Heun born the same year as our John Hine, in Groningen. His parents’ names were Pieter and Trijntje, which is promising, since our 1880 census shows John’s first-born son was Peter, and daughter Katie (Americanized form of Trijntje.) The naming of first-born sons and daughters after the paternal grandparents was a common custom.
I’m further convinced these might be our Heuns by the fact that the very same Jan Heun married a Pieterke (apparently the Dutch form of Nellie) in 1853 (about three years before Peter Hine was born.)
Birth
Store Location: Groningen Archives
City: Uithuizermeeden
Act Number: 5
Declaration Date: 1/8/1831
Child: Jan HEUN
Sex: M
Birthdate: 1/6/1831
Birthplace: Uithuizermeeden
Father: Pieter Jans HEUN
Mother: Trijntje Jans Uilhoorn
Father occupation: laborer
Marriage
Store Location: Groningen Archives
Municipality: ‘t Zandt
Date: 12/3/1853
Groom: Jan Heun
Birthplace: Uithuizermeeden
Bride: Pieterke Wieringa
Birthplace: Zeerijp
Father of groom: Pieter Jans Heun
Mother of groom: Trijntje Jans Uilhoorn
Father of bride: Pieter Alberts Wieringa
Mother of bride: Martje Pieters Dijkema
Groom occupation: farmhand
Groom’s mother occupation: working woman
Bride’s father occupation: day laborer
Groom age: 22 years
Bride age: 22 years
