Our Tanis Family Guide

Below is a guide to the major sections of Our Tanis Family web pages and a few suggestions for getting started.

  1. Family Overview Pages and Family Charts: If you know your family history traces back to Dirk and Cornelia Tanis of Ouddorp, Flakkee, Zuid Holland and later of the Island of Texel in Noord Holland in the 1800s, then you may find your family in Our Tanis Family web pages. If you are from a late nineteenth century Vanderkloot line from Chicago or a Tanis line from Michigan, there is a good chance you will find your family in these pages. You should then look through the various Tanis Overview Pages until you find a matching family. Keep in mind that not all generations are listed and the more detailed ones are for my own line, the Adrianus and Martha Vanderkloot line. If you find your ancestor, you may wish to open their Family Chart to learn additional details.
  2. Stories: After familiarizing yourself with your immigrant ancestor, their parents, siblings, and children from the Overview Pages and Family Charts, you may wish to use the Story link to reach the Table of Contents. You might want to first read the Introduction and then choose from a variety of ancestor related chapters. The Table of Contents sometimes provides links to letters, recipes, memorabilia, and recollection of our ancestors.
  3. Photos: Take a scroll through our Photo Collections, including our Mystery Photo Collection.
  4. Address Data: Addresses or the name of the city if addresses could not be found, occupations and associated data sources have been complied into a year-by-year list. This data can be both helpful and interesting in following an ancestor's movement, life's events and career changes.
  5. Locations: The Locations section provides descriptions of the various neighborhoods, towns or areas our ancestors lived. Sometimes there are associated maps.
  6. Supporting Data: Various data about your ancestors may be found in the Census and the Genealogy Source Records sections. Genealogy Source Records may contain birth, marriage, and/or death records or other records about various individuals.