2011-1 LetherJournal

Le(e)therJournaal
Newsletter of the family Le(e)ther.
editor: Frank D.P.M. Lether
143, Dorpsstreet, 3751 EP Bunschoten-The Netherlands,
T + 00 31 (0)33 245 05 10
E Frank@presstige.nl
In this issue
So there it is again, an issue of Lether Journal. The first one of 2011. But as said before, we now only publish an
issue when we have news. And so there is news. After the bankruptcy of Steel Construction Lether-Broere, the
public sale of its business inventory on the net appeared. We traced down Gary Kirk because some of us received
spam mails from him and this led to the story of one of his sisters, Jean Lether-Stot.
Then there is an article about Debbie Jorde and her children. Furthermore, we found some weird things, we have
an article about our family name by Annette who also wrote an In Memoriam about her brother, and we have some
minor facts. What remains, but that is inherent of hobbies like these, are the unsolved cases.
For example, there is a sergeant-major Lethers. The man is at one point accused of espionage. He was tempted
by a Belgian in a café to deliver military secrets. He correctly reported this to his CO who in his turn passed it on to
the military police. So we approached the Royal Military Police but they haven't got an archive of official reports at
hand. Then we approached the Department of Military History of the Ministry of Defence. No results either but they
referred me to the National Archives. Contacting them is very difficult. They looked for the name of military police
sergeant-major Lethers, but he was not serving with the military police. They just don't
seem to understand me. They did sent me a pdf file listing of the contents of what they
have in their military police archives. Perhaps I need to visit The Hague again. We still
have more questions, which you can read in previous issues of Lether Journal and
which can be downloaded from one of our sites.
Happy reading.
FREDRIK ANDRIES KAREL
(Frits) Lether
Auction Machinery and
Steel ConstructionLether Broere BV in
Gouda
An end to an era, we can call the
bankruptcy of Broere-Lether
Steel Construction Machinery in
Gouda, The Netherlands. I've
already written about that bankruptcy in the third issue of 2010.
It was my late uncle and the older brother of my late father who
started Lether Steel Construction
after the war in Gouda. He sold
the company in 1966/67 and moved to France a year later. In
1982/83 he came back to the
Netherlands and lived in Apeldoorn (north of Arnhem). Luckily
he hasn’t seen the downfall of
his life's work, because he died
in 2009.
(office building Lether Steelconstructions in Gouda in better
times)
The trustee is Mr. J.C. Dorrepaal
(Wille Donker Lawyers in Alphen
aan den Rijn). On the internet
we saw auctioned (metal) machines including: lathes, milling machines, guillotine shears, press
brakes, punch presses, band
saws, 3-roll mill, radial
drillingmachines, drill presses,
cut fire equipment, manipulators,
differ-rent. welding equipment,
suction, tools, steel stock, work
benches, office equipment, etc.
b. The Hague, 1 November 1912
at half past nine (the declaration
is made by Maria Elisabeth Koppenol (48), midwife, in the presence of witnesses Albertus
Mook (59) and John Matla (41).
Baptized on 4 November 1912 in
the Holy Martha Church at the
Nieuwe Hoefkade, The Hague.
In the newspapers Het Vaderland and NRC we see that he
passes for his secondary school
on 5 July 1939. He married in
The Hague on 4 August 1937
x1) Mathilda Susanna (Suze)
van Werkhoven (b. The Hague
on 6 September, 1916). After
their divorce his first wife remarried Henk Rigters, an actor
at the Haagsche Komedie (The
Hague Comedy). Frits remarried
X2) to Catherine (Tine) Frijlink in
1941 in Breukelen, who was
born on 13 August 1917 in Rotterdam. She died in Apeldoorn
on 17 June 2005. Frits died at
home in Apeldoorn on 19 January 2009.
Fritz Sr. worked until 1945 in the
drawing office of the company
where his father worked, de Pletterijen in The Hague. Together
with his younger brother Jan, he
founded Staalbouw Lether in
Voorburg, which was moved
afterwards to Gouda. He later
sold his company or a part of his
shares in it, moved to France
and years later returned to The
Netherlands where they lived in
Apeldoorn (north of Arnhem).
His godfather was Petrus Anthonius and godmother Maria de
Bolster, probably a sister of his
mother's.
me all my life. How is our last
name pronounced?
Since I was a little girI I know
that I always have to spell my
name, really always when I mention it in stores, by telephone,
everywhere really. "Lether, yes L
E T H E R, Lether." And if you’re
wondering why I haven't taken
on my husband's surname when
I married (more than thirty years
ago, pffff)? Well that had not
been very successful either, he
must also always spell his name
too: "F R E R I K S. No not Frederiks no D in it, Freriks."
Furthermore I have seen so many versions of my first name Annette, and have to make sure
that that was spelled right too.
"Annette Lether, Annette with
double N and double T and yes
Lether, L E T H E R." But I'm not
complaining, because I am very
proud of the surname which causes many questions to other
people.
Are you of English descent? Is
that German or something? Are
you born here? Mrs Lether, we
are looking for an English native
speaker for corrections ... of
course that's the best!
(Frits Lether & Tine Frijlink 1966)
st
His 1 wife remarried Henk Rigters an actor and director of
Dutch films. On 23 May 1948
they had a son Jerome, who was
mentally retarded. Suze died in
Amsterdam in 1953. Henk
married Femke Boersma, who
later became the wife of Frits
Bolkestein, a former Dutch and
European liberal politician. Henk
died in 2001.
LETHER,
what's in a name?
Now that Frank has bombarded
me pretty much as the semi-official editor of the English edition
of the Lether Journal, a question
came up which has been hunting
But now the pronunciation. I will
not go spreading phonetic characters (my favorite subjects during my language studies: phonology and phonetics), because
that is quite technical. A number
of versions I'll briefly discuss below.
Letter - which is especially nice
if you at primary school and during the Christmas time is: Annette Letter wants a chocolate
letter. Although I like them very
much, I did not like the teasing. I
still hear ‘Letter' every now and
then.
Leather - leather / leather on its
English so, such a thick skin I
really do not have!
Leeter - is good for me, but it's
really not the same as the English ‘later’, what is the favorite for
my secondary school students.
"CU later, Mrs Lether. I've heard
that quite often, and at my last
school I gave the first student in
every class who came up with
this rhyme a reward. I treated
him or her with a mini-bar, which
I had always in my bag for this
special occasion.
Let hur - Let her, "let her be" in
English, why always in English?
Because I am an English teacher perhaps?
Lieter - From Kris in America I
got the impression that his surname is pronounced as Lee
Ther, which is a bit like our liter,
also a nice variety.
Leiten - how do they come to
that?
My question for you: What other
pronounciation do you know or
have you heard? And have you
any idea how often you have
had to spell your name? And are
you correcting people every time
when they pronounce our family
name wrong?
Perhaps you could send a response to Frank, so that he can
mention those in the next issue.
Regards from Annette, with double N and double T, oh yes, I say
myself as a Lee-ter by the way,
you too? (In English "later")
CU later!
Nearly 50 thousand
military records
On the U.S. site Ancestry.com
are governmental deeds to be
seen. Under the heading "All
U.S. Military Records (All Wars)"
as many as 47,297 documents
are found out when we enter our
family name. We have studied a
number of them. Sometimes there is a misspelling or is just a name change such as from Peter
Latham into Peter Lether. Of some of the scans we know definetely not what it is about, but it will
take time to judge all these records on its merits.
Debbie Jorde
Strange
Overcoming personal
problems and obstacles
Two websites that we keep an
eye on are "online burial
grounds" and "graftombe.nl". By
using them we get pictures of
tombstones of deceased relatives.The one of Berend Jan Lether shows something strange.
His civil registration card shows
he was born in 1875. However,
his tombstone says 1873.
Fun
On the Internet we found in the
Archive of the Province of Gelderland a Lutje Lether, born in
Ede on 6 October, 1905. Died
when she was two years old,
parents are Hendrik Lether and
H. Juda Gargorski. It's strange
that this child wasn’t found years
ago when I had this archive
search and give me all the data
on Lethers. For years there had
been a rumour that they had 14
children (I didn´t had them all)
and now it seems they got 15.
Second is doubtful: we found a
new Lether, Hendrica Lether,
born Ede 6 September 1905
daughter of Hendrica Lether who
was legitimate by the marriage
of her mother to Derk van der
Weijden on 31 July 1909.
Volg mij op
Twitter. Ga
daarvoor naar
www.twitter.com/
FrankDPMLether
When you have 3 websites, and
publish a family paper occasionally, and do active online searches for possible relatives to get
in touch with, one can come into
contact descendants of Lether
women who will have a different
surname. Or have children from
a previous marriage. Debbie
Jorde is one of them. She is the
daughter of Cloyd Sr. Hepworth
and Elizabeth Roestenberg.
Elizabeth later married Richard
Tebbs-Lether. Together they get
Shaun Gene and former actrice
Shelli Lether, so half brother and
–sister of Debbie.
Debbie Jorde joins the ranks of
many virtuous women in history
who have demonstrated love for
their children through self-sacrifice, devotion, suffering, and joy.
Debbie gave birth to two children
who have a very rare genetic
disorder called Miller Syndrome,
characterized by craniofacial
malformations and limb abnormallities. As a young mother,
she gave up her dream to attend
college in order to devote countless hours in hospitals and at home to care for her children. Her
husband offered little support
and left her when the children
were infants.
With no profession but with a
string will to succeed on her
own, Debbie taught aerobics
classes, went to school to learn
hair styling, and founded a salon
in her basement. At the same time Debbie was determined that,
despite their disorder, her children would not be deprived of the
good things of life. Nothing stopped her. Not the protests from
her children. Not the constant
stares from strangers. Not the
negative advice from loved ones.
Not even her recent diagnosis of
multiple sclerosis.
Today Debbie owns and operates a successful hair salon. Her
daughter graduated from Westminster College with a psychology degree, and her son is a gifted local artist. Debbie shares
her parenting story in her soonto-be-published book, Eight
Fingers and Eight Toes: Accepting Life’s Challenges. She and
her children are also frequently
asked to lecture to medical professionals.
Debbie’s loved ones say she is
an extraordinary mother, human
being, and friend. She perseveres through life’s challenges and
comes out with a positive and
healthy attitude toward life and
others.
“Few people will ever know what
she and her children have been
through, but you would never
know from her incredible outlook
and philosophy on life,” says a
friend. “She is a true inspiration.
blog.debbiejorde.com
www.debbiejorde.com
Gary Kirk
From late last year until recently
some of us received almost daily
spam mail from our American relative Garry Kirk (54). He used to
be the owner of Interstate Machine Tools in Salt Lake City. Spam
mails are not only annoying for
us as a receiver, but for the alleged sender, Gary, in this case as
well. Until you have been informed by others you often do not
know that your computer or your
Facebook account was hacked. I
brought this to Gary’s attention,
but received no reply, a good
reason for me to contact his sister Jean.
She told me that his computer
was to blame and not himself.
The reason was that Gary hadn't
touched his PC for ages or even
could touch it. Since he got problems with his memory in 2006
and couldn’t take good care for
himself he no lives in a nursing
home Mountain View Health
Services in South Ogden Utah
since February 2011. Beginning
June Jean informed me that Gary had recently fallen, and that
he has to be operated and get a
new hip. This will probably be
followed be a long rehabilitation
period. Jean obviously felt very
sorry for her brother and asks us
to remember him in our prayers.
Both of them are working for mining company Shamrock Mining.
They are now living in a small
town in the far North East of
Utah, called Hanna. This is
mainly farming and cattle country. It’s a very small village, there
are only 500 people living there.
This is the only place in the
world that has this color of stone.
It is a big vein in the hills behind.
Ricky is one of the miners on the
hill, he runs the wire saw that
make blocks out of the stone to
be brought down to the shop to
be sold. He repairs everything
ber 30, 1908 (if I read it correctly), so it's a child. In our family
we have a Hendrik Schuerink (b.
1879 Hengelo, died Steenderen
25 December 1936) who marries
in Steenderen on 22 April 1904
Joanna Berendina Lether (b. 18
June 1881 Steenderen; deceased there on 13 March 1932)
and because the child is buried
as JB we assume she is the
daughter of Hendrik Schuerink
and Joanna Berendina Lether.
It seems that grandfather Bernard Lether was buried with his
Who is?
In the population of the Municipality of Renkum we found a servant J. Lether coming from Arnhem and since 21-8/3-9-1929 living at the Jagerskamp 28 in
Oosterbeek. Between 30-4 and
13-5-1931 she leaves for Westervoort. Who was this J. Lether? In the American phone
book we find a Sarah LetherMiddle-brooks, living in High
Point, North Carolina. Does
anyone know who she is?
Jean Stott-Lether and the
stones
The stones you see here are called Amber Onyx or Honey Comb
Calcite. Jean and her husband
Ricky Stott have everything to do
with them.
around here. Makes sales, etc...
Jean is the Office Manager and
also does some of the marketing
amongst other things. Right now
there are only 4 people working
there. The company has about
10 share holders. One of the
men working there is from Italy,
where he mined marble. He makes what they call consumer
goods, vessel sinks, counter
tops, jewelry. Anything that you
would like to use this stone for.
Jean has some in her garden. A
lot of the stones that they sell go
out to sculptors. who use it often
combined with water. They really
do like the stone, it is one of a
kind, and found only there in the
Unita Mountain in Utah.
Very strange
One of the sites which we are a
subscriber of is graftombe.nl
(thumbstone) and we receive notifications when a tombstone somewhere in the country with the
name Lether has been photographed. Yes really, there are
people who do that. For us as
family researchers in any case
interesting for the data that often
are engraved in such stones. We
recently received a photograph
of a tombstone with the inscription B. Lether and J.B. Schuerink. The last was born on April
2, 1905 and deceased on Octo-
grandchild in the same grave.
However, the Bernard Lether we
know was born 17 September
1831 and died 25 December
1883.
In Genlias we see in the city administration of the city of Steenderen, deaths, accessnumber
207, Inventory number 3008,
Acte number. 78 saying that on
December 27, 1883 a declarath
tion of his death on the 25 is
made. In short the data on the
stone are not correct (see the
picture).
We wrote the city of Bronckhorst
under which Steenderen falls
with questions. However a city is
not responsible for what is put
on a thumbstone, the family is P
but we want to know their comments.
They where so friendly to forward my mail to Jo van DamWijers a grandchild of Joanna
Berendina Lether and Hendrik
Schuerink, who acknowledged
me that indeed it handles about
grandfather and grandchild here.
She has no idea however why
the data are so mixed up.
New site Marita Lether
Marita announced that she has a
new website ready. Anyone who
is interested in arts goes to
www.marita-art.nl
Moved
Jeanet Lether-van Damme moved to Verpleeghuis Norschoten,
afd. Kallenbroek, kamer 2.24,
Klaverweide 1, 3773 AW Barneveld, The Netherlands. She is
the widow of my uncle VIIIkk Johannes (Jan) Lether, the youngest brother of my late father. He
married July 8, 1960 in Melissant, The Netherlands to Jannetje Johanna (Jans) van Damme
(b. Melissant 8 November,
1924).
Familyfiles
On this sub-site I added a number of new records, photos and
documents. Also a new index
was uploaded.
http://www.presstige.nl/Geneal
ogy/Familydossiers.html
blocking the site, in other words
one needs a login and password
to get in. Theoretically, only family members get the login details. So if you want access to
the new site, send me an email
for login information.
What a pity
On the website Familysearch.
com (runned by the Latter Day
Saints church) one can find
different U.S. Census.
Pretty soon we see Engelbertus
Theodorus Johannes (Bert) Lether there who is listed as Bert.
His wife Johanna Elizabeth Terschegget, is called Anna E. where Anna is short for Johanna.
Their first child Engelberta Johanna Elisabeth is called Bertha,
the fourth child Alida Marie Wilhelmina is called Wilhelmina and
another child, Mary Sophia, is
New site
Cornelia called Cora, which indeed is her nickname. Elvera is
mentioned as Elvira and Alma
Louis as Elma.
Last year I produced a new and
special family website at
http://home.hccnet.nl/lether/
Harvey was the last child who is
not mentioned at all because he
is born in that year.
This site is produced out of a genealogical computer program
called Aldfaer. From each genealogical program you can filter
out the relatives that are still living, but then you have an incomplete picture of the family
and probably have problems of
making connections between the
different members. So we decided not to filter out these family
members. What we have done is
We also came along a Clarance
Lether, born in the Netherlands
May 1857. He is married to Maria and they arrive in America in
1888, so long before the descendants of Heinrich Daniel from
Brummen are emigrating to
America. This couple gets eventualy 11 children, but we have
yet no idea who these people
are.
We also see a Fred'k (probably
an abbreviation of Frederick)
and Margaret, both born in Germany.
Or what about Hermann Wilhelm
Friedrich Neumann who dies on
November 13, 1859 in Fehrbellin, Osthavelland, Brandenburg,
Germany, so we read in Germany,Brandenburg and Posen, Duplicates Church Book, 17941874. His parents were Christian
Dietrich Neumann and Wilhelmine Auguste Lether. Even
who she is, we have no idea.
Too bad the American census
counters where not that accurate
and noted mostly the land of
birth and not the city of birth,
which had made our life a bit
easier.
However according to co-researcher Sharon, Americans are not
that fond of giving their government all kinds of personal info.
Ron Lether 50
Last June, Ronald Johannes
(Ron) became 50 years and thus
saw Abraham as we say overhere. On the net I came across
this picture of him.
In Loving Memory
Jan Willem Lether
A marathon has never
been so tough for you!
With your enormous will
power you fought your last
fight.
Goodbye darling, we have
to let you go.
doctors, but who couldn't win in
the end. He was an athlete, he
ran marathons, he cycled with
friends, he loved his beer, he
was very talkative and wanted to
have fun.
The past few years, despite his
illness, he tried to get everything
out of his life, together with the
love of his life Karin. It is hard
missing him, that goes for
anyone who has known him. We
are proud of him, of the man
who he was, of the memories he
left behind.
imzadian_orchid@hotmail.com),
Shannon, Spencer, Steve, Steve
Shepherd
(shepherd.steve@comcast.net is
not working), Ted, Tommy,
Tracey Lynn, Trevor, Trisha L
(vampjade@excite.com is not
working anymore) and William
Lether.
If you know one or more of these
family members and if you do
have their e-mail address,
please let me know.
His sports buddies spoke warm
words about him at his funeral,
and put warm memories on the
internet. You can find the links
below.
My little brother is no more, there
hasn't been a day since that I
haven't been thinking of him.
Annette
Links to newspaper articles:
On 11 July 2011, ten days after
his 51st birthday, my brother Jan
Willem Lether died. He was
buried in Wageningen on
Saturday 16 July with many
people present. The evening
before that we toasted on his life
with many friends and relatives.
Who was Jan-Wim? He was my
little brother, for my sister and
brother he was the big brother.
He was a son, a husband, a soul
mate, an uncle, a son-in-law, a
brother-in-law, a cousin, a
nephew, a friend, a far-away
relative, a colleague. These are
just words, that do not say who
he really was.
During the days after his death,
we made in a closed circle
funeral arrangements. In those
few days I got to know many
things about him and all the
things I felt those days fill me
with pride.
Jan Willem Lether was a man
who enjoyed life, who loved, who
wanted to make most of it, who
took over the direction from his
http://www.pallas67.nl/index.php/
mc.Start/sc.Algemeen/ssc.Newsi
tem?artikelnr=751
http://www.loopkrant.nl/index.ph
p?option=com_content&task=vie
w&id=1211&Itemid=37
http://www.loopkrant.nl/index.ph
p?option=com_content&task=vie
w&id=1213&Itemid=37
------------------------------------
(Excuses for the white space
here, English text is a bit shorter
than Dutch)
Looking for 5
The e-mail addresses of the
following family members in the
USA:
Aaron, Adam, Adam C., Alice A.,
Amanda, Andrea Ladd, Anna
Marie, Audra K., Boris, Brandy,
Bret & Maureen, Brian, Daniel
(born in Orange), Dave, Ellen
Lether-Toone, Erica, Frederik,
Iza, Janice Leether, Jenny, Jon,
Jonathan, Kurtis, Kyle, Kylie,
Maddie, Marilyn, Natalie A.
Lether – Boulton, Richard (lived
a while on Hawaii), Samantha,
Sarah (old
for this issue I got help from:
Annette Lether – Drachten
Gordon Lether – Bunschoten
Jo van Dam-Wijers
Jean Stott-Lether – Hanna, USA
Le(e)ther Journaal # 1 - 2011