Finding my living US relatives

[Peterberg]

Hi,

My name is Peter van den Berg and I'm browsing through the internet to find relatives who moved to Detroit in the early years of last century.

I tried the whitepages, ancestry gave me some clues upto the 1950's but I'm still unsure if there are people living today.

Could someone help me how to go about or maybe you know some one with the same familyname.

Just for your information:

During my search I found out that a sister of my great grandfather went to Wayne county Detroit Michigan, married and got 3 children.

The sister of my great grandfather:
Jeannette Evelina van den Berg [[born 1885 - Rotterdam)
married 1915 naturalized in 1917
Peter Huis [[born 1891- the Netherlands) [[toolmaker at ford motor company)
the got 3 children [[one of them died as an infant)

Peter [[jo) Huis [[Detroit, Wayne, Michigan) 1924

Jeannette Huis [[Detroit, Wayne, Michigan) 1918


So actually I'm looking for people with the "Huis" or "House" familyname.

many thanks.

Peter

[Lowell]

Welcome to the DetroitYES forums Peter.

1929 Detroit City Directory lists him as follows:

Peter J Huis - wife Janet - toolmaker - 9717 Yellowstone

Street View shows the house as one of the few remaining and in nice condition in what is referred to here as an "urban prarie" area.

[Brock7]

Familysearch turns up the 1930 census and a 1942 draft registration card, but nothing later than that.

The address on the draft card is the same as in the 1929 directory, the phone number was TY-71122. Employer is given as Cadillac Motor Car, 2860 Clark. Peter Huis Jr.'s address is given as 16551 Lauder.

[gazhekwe]

Found a couple of ancestry links on Google:

1. Re: Huis[[ van den Berg) Family - Wayne - Family History ...
   
   
   boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.usa...michigan...1/mb.ashx
   Nov 2, 2010 – World War II [[1938-1946) Peter Huis [[believe this is son) of Wayne, Michigan enlisted 8 Apr 1944 in Illinois at Fort Sheridan Grade: private ...
   
   
   
2. the Huis Family - General - Family History & Genealogy Message ...
   
   
   boards.ancestry.com/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=7505&p...
   Nov 7, 2010 – I'm a relative of Peter Huis'mother Jeanette Huis - van den Berg. ... Home in 1930: YELLOWSTONE AVENUE,Detroit, Wayne, Michigan WW2 ...
   

[Peterberg]

Thanks for the information!
I just hoped for more information on the whereabouts of Peter Huis jr. [[if he's still alive) or his children.

[gazhekwe]

I went through part of the 1940 census looking for the address 16551 Lauder. A lot of nearby addresses were in this tract but I didn't find that address. There is a good deal of skipping around though, so I might have missed it.

ED84-1584 Image 1, Roll 1889, Frame 383

http://stevemorse.org/census/unified.html

If you can find him in there, it should list other family members, if any.

[Peterberg]

Thanks!
I hope that I'll be able to find someone considering 90% of my family didn't survive WWII it will mean a lot.

[Peterberg]

Just curious, would Cadillac have any information on Peter jr.?

[Brock7]

In the 1940 census Peter Jr. is listed in his father's household as 16 years old, single and in the second year of high school[[grade 10). Mother and daughter are both named as Janet. The daughter is listed as 22 years old, single, having completed the fourth year of high school[[grade 12) and employed as a book keeper in a tractors plant. The information was taken on April 5, 1940.

page one

page two

[Brock7]

It's Peter Sr. who was working at Cadillac Motor Car in 1942.

[gazhekwe]

Who was living on Lauder that I was looking for?

Peter Huis Jr.'s address is given as 16551 Lauder.

[Brock7]

That was the address of the son, Peter Jr., on April 24, 1942, given as the name and address of the person who would always know the registrant's address on his father's draft registration card. He would have been 18 or 19 by then and out of school as the info from the military on one of the pages you linked to says he only had three years of high school.

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3....-41?cc=1861144

[Peterberg]

In the 1940 census Peter Jr. is listed in his father's household as 16 years old, single and in the second year of high school[[grade 10). Mother and daughter are both named as Janet. The daughter is listed as 22 years old, single, in the fourth year of high school[[grade 12) and employed as a book keeper in a tractors plant. The information was taken on April 5, 1940.

page one

page two

Thank you,

On what role, frame and photo did you find this?

[Peterberg]

So if i'm correct in the 1940 census:

Based on the photos that you found:
They we're all living on Lauder 16551 which was the address of Peter Jr?
I'm a bit dazed and confused if this is true...

From this information by which means could I find out if Peter Jr or his childeren are still alive? Does the municipality in Detroit have this information?

[gazhekwe]

They likely are not still at that address and may well have moved away. On Google I found a Peter Huis in Holland, MI for instance, and then of course the mother lived in Clearwater, FL at the end of her life, so maybe Peter went down there as he got older too. It is slogging work to track family movement. The census can help but only so far. Google did not yield any Peter Huis in the Detroit metro area, but that does not mean he is not in Detroit.

Women are really difficult since they change their name when they marry. I have not looked for the daughter, Janet or Jeanette.

I also found a Janet Huis in Madison WI in 1947, and a Peter Huis in Milwaukee. Not that they are your relatives, but just to show how difficult it can be. One thought, since both mother and daughter were named Jeanette, and both father and son were named Peter, it could be those were important family names. If so, it might be worthwhile to contact a current Peter or Jeanette to see if they might be descendants. So far, we have no idea whether Peter Jr had children, and what he might have named them if he did.

[Brock7]

The information for the Peter Huis family in the 1940 census is split over two pages of ED 84-810 [[20 images):
Image 6 [[Roll 1864 Frame 439) and Image7 [[Roll 1864 Frame 440)

In the 1940 census all of the family - Peter Sr., Janet Sr., Peter Jr. and Janet Jr. were living at 9717 Yellowstone.
In late April of 1942 Peter Sr. was still living at 9717 Yellowstone, but Peter Jr. was living at 16551 Lauder.

The main point of checking the 1940 census is just to see if Peter Jr. may have been married and had any children that were named by that time.

I can't think of any information the municipality would have that would help. I did search the Wayne County land records that are accessible on-line which only date back to 1960 and there were no deeds involving anyone with the last name of Huis.

I don't see anyone named Huis with an appropriate birth date for any of them on the listings I can find from the Social Security death index.

[Peterberg]

Is there no possibility to contact someone at the city of Detroit? I don't know how this works in the US, in the netherlands is definitely possible to mail any clerk because all the email addresses of the state, city and town clerks are online.

[gazhekwe]

It could be possible to get the property information for the address on Lauder, but it would not give anything but the owner name. Could help if the owner at the time was Peter and his wife because then you would have her name. It would be in the Wayne County property records.

http://www.waynecountylandrecords.com/

[Mikeg]

The information for the Peter Huis family in the 1940 census is split over two pages of ED 84-810 [[20 images):
Image 6 [[Roll 1864 Frame 439) and Image7 [[Roll 1864 Frame 440)

In the 1940 census all of the family - Peter Sr., Janet Sr., Peter Jr. and Janet Jr. were living at 9717 Yellowstone.
In late April of 1942 Peter Sr. was still living at 9717 Yellowstone, but Peter Jr. was living at 16551 Lauder.

The main point of checking the 1940 census is just to see if Peter Jr. may have been married and had any children that were named by that time.

I can't think of any information the municipality would have that would help. I did search the Wayne County land records that are accessible on-line which only date back to 1960 and there were no deeds involving anyone with the last name of Huis.

I don't see anyone named Huis with an appropriate birth date for any of them on the listings I can find from the Social Security death index.

Check out this entry on ZabaSearch.com for Peter J. HOUSE, age 88, living in Florida. Here's another Florida address for the same person. He's the same age as Peter Jr. would be and he has the correct middle initial and the anglicized HUIS surname. Click here and scroll down to find both addresses with his age next to his name.

What do you think - could this be him living the retired life in Florida?

[gazhekwe]

His mother moved to Clearwater, FL, why not him? Makes good sense

I found a likely younger Peter House in Jacksonville on Linkedin. Resume starts in 1980 and he is currently an engineer at Centric Corp.

[Brock7]

I don't know why he would change his name from the one he used in the military. Pete House is a fairly common name, but I guess it couldn't hurt to give him a call.

I searched on the city property tax site and there were no current owners named Huis.
The current owner of record for 9717 Yellowstone is Margaret A Lowe.
The owners of 16551 Lauder are Kpoyor, Anthony and Angela Bailey.
There are many owners with the surname of House. One is named Jeanette at 13769 Sparling, but that seems like a long-shot.

Birth, death and marriage records are kept by the State of Michigan. Birth records are only available to the persons involved - parents and children. There are fees for obtaining records. I have never used them, so I can't say how thorough or reliable the searches are. The main problem with going this route is that none of the later marriages or deaths of the family members may have taken place in the State of Michigan.

There is a young Peter Huis with an English page on Facebook. I have no idea where he's located or any reason other than the name to believe he might be related.

[gazhekwe]

I think he's in Philadelphia, like their teams anyway.

[Peterberg]

Check out this entry on ZabaSearch.com for Peter J. HOUSE, age 88, living in Florida. Here's another Florida address for the same person. He's the same age as Peter Jr. would be and he has the correct middle initial and the anglicized HUIS surname. Click here and scroll down to find both addresses with his age next to his name.

What do you think - could this be him living the retired life in Florida?

It certainly can be Peter Jr. I give it a try today and will contact him. If I remember the international number for the US is 001 as a prefix to the rest of the telephone number on Zaba?

[Mikeg]

It certainly can be Peter Jr. I give it a try today and will contact him. If I remember the international number for the US is 001 as a prefix to the rest of the telephone number on Zaba?

To call the USA from the Netherlands, dial 00 + 1 + City Area Code + Number.

It is not clear which of the two Florida addresses and phone numbers for Mr. House is the most recent.

For this address, dial 00 1 904 724 8316

For the other address, dial 00 1 904 725 1097

[Peterberg]

I just tried them both; The first is disconnected and the 2nd had an answering machine for which I left a message to call me back.