I have spent years going back and forth trying to identify the individual Van Vuuren sisters in the few photos we have, and specifically which on is our ancestor, Tryntje/Kate.
You can read background here but in a nutshell, between Uncle Glenn and a labeled version of the above photo in the 100th Anniversary book of First Reformed Church of Roseland, we were able to Identify the sisters. Both sources identify Kate/Trientje as the woman standing, second from the left.
However I have been thrown for a loop by the photo on the left, which I was told is Albert Heun And Kate/Trientje (Van Vuuren) Heun. The woman in the photo just does not look anything like the Kate/Trientje identified in the group shot.
Even if the Albert Heun photo shows Kate/Trientje a much older woman, it still does not look like the same person and I began to wonder if the group shot was mislabeled. But I have had two realizations that have led me to believe it’s in fact the Albert Heun photo that is mislabeled.
- Albert Heun died at the age of 35, at which time Kate was all of 32. I know times were tough but I find it hard to believe the woman in the photo is 32.
- I rediscovered a photo labeled “Grandma Knynsberg” (below, left) and it dawned on me that Grandma Knynsberg is Trientje/Kate. After Albert died, she married alcoholic husband number two, Miendert Knynsberg. And her face does in fact resemble Trientje/Kate in the group photo, doesn’t it??
If I’m right, the new question is:
- Who is the couple in this photo?
- Is it Albert Heun and his mother Pieterke/Nellie?
- Or is it not Albert at all?
- Could it be Albert’s parents, Jan and Pieterke?
- While we know Albert was an alcoholic, the man in the photo looks like he could very well be older than 35. What do you think?
