This is a photo of Matthijs and Trijntje Vanderkloot (the older couple to the right) and four others (a small child, a standing male, a seated female, and a seated male to be named shortly). The photo appears to be taken in a large and well-developed Chicago Park. The parks near the Vanderkloot’s home shown today were not developed until after 1905. The well-developed parks of 1897 were: Jackson Park, Lincoln Park, and Douglas Park. Douglas Park was the closest at 4 miles away.

Two copies of the same photograph are shown. The top one is from Robert Vanderkloot's Collection, and the bottom one is from Betsy Strand’s Collection. Betsy Strand's copy has handwritten names and dates on the photograph.

At the top of Betsy Strand’s photo, the year is shown; it is 1897. Given the heavy clothing, it would seem that it is a cool day in late Spring or late Summer. Given the full foliage on the trees, though, a cool day in September appears more likely than late May or early June. One interesting possibility is it could be Labor Day, September 5, 1897, which became a National Holiday in 1894. If not, any of the four Sundays in September 1897 could be a match.

On the right side, the names: Mrs. Tys Vanderkloot and Mr. Tys Vanderkloot. These are Tryntje and Matthijs Vanderkloot. During the summer of 1897, Matthijs would have been 70 and Trijntje 65. The Dutch nickname for Matthijs can be the similar-sounding Thijs, Theis, Tys, or Tise. Matthijs’ dress is very formal, and he can be seen pulling back his topcoat to show off his pocket watch chain.

The leftmost handwriting below the seated man on the left indicates “Vanderkloot (J R.)”. Betsy Strand's mother told her that this person was John R. Vanderkloot. John was Matthijs and Trijntje's bachelor son and was 23 years old in the summer of 1897. John later died young on April 28, 1910, at age 36. Many years later, when she was ninety, Corinne Vanderkloot Taylor, daughter of Peter and Bertha Vanderkloot, told Betsy the story of John's death. Betsy will fill me in on this later.

The writing across the small child in white indicates “Bertha” (Kramer). And the writing across the young boy with the cap indicates “Andy” (Kramer). The woman with the white dress and dark-colored hat and indicated as “Mother” is Jennie Kramer, who was born in August 1865 and is about 32 years old. And the standing man is labeled as “Mother's Brother, Uncle Jacob”. Bertha Kramer was born on July 16, 1896, and is one year old, and Andrew (Andy) was born in April 1893 and is 4 years old.

Betsy's mother, Marie VDK Denker, told her that these other four people in the photograph were the Kramers. Thus, Bertha is Bertha Kramer, and Andy is Andy Kramer, and Jennie is Jennie Kramer. But if Jacob is Jennie’s brother, he is not a Kramer. The handwriting is either Bertha’s or Andy’s, given the reference to Mother. Bertha and Andrew’s father, William Kramer, is not in the photo.

The Kramers interconnected with the Vanderkloots over the years in Texel and in Chicago. Following is an excerpt from Alette Schodrof’s “Cocksdorp, Home of the Vanderkloots”.

“The sons all worked in the [Cocksdorp] blacksmith shop, but when they grew up, some of them became restless and left home to work in nearby villages. This made Matthias short of help, and he was compelled to hire “knechts” (clerks) as they were called. In response to an ad he placed in the Friesland Courant, Rhinderd and William Kramer came to Cocksdorp and worked for him as “knechts”. When the Vanderkloot family immigrated to America, the Kramers followed and were lifetime friends of the family. Bertha Moran is a daughter of William Kramer.”

Betsy wrote: “Bertha and Andrew Kramer were siblings and were good friends of the VanderKloots. I also have a photo of my father's eighth-grade graduation with Andrew Kramer in it. My father saved Andrew's life when they were young when Andy cut his wrist (an artery), and the blood was shooting "six feet" up in the air. My dad fixed a tourniquet and got Andy to the hospital. Andrew later married a Tanis cousin, Aletta Paris from New Jersey. Late in life, he divorced Aletta and remarried. Aletta then went to live in Alaska. I still have the wedding gift she sent Dick and me: a cake cutter with an ivory scrimshaw handle.”

When an adult, Bertha Kramer married Frank Moran, and they lived in Berwyn and later in Riverside. They had a beach cottage called Pickwick Lodge in Long Beach, Indiana. During summers in the 1920s, Bertha would invite her girlhood friends from the old neighborhood, including: Grace, Marie, and Alette Vanderkloot and their families, to vacation at Pickwick Lodge.

Dave Jordan took the top photograph at Dick Denker's 1988 Vanderkloot Reunion in Crystal Lake, Illinois, from a photograph brought by Robert Vanderkloot of Michigan. The Picture Reference Number is DJB13a. Betsy Strand sent the scan of the bottom photograph. That Picture Reference Number is BSA01a. If you would like to add information about these photos, please contact Dave Jordan, a 2x great-grandson of Matthijs and Trijntje Vanderkloot.