Here a Pronk, there a Pronk, everywhere a ...

Part 2 of the hunt for the Pronk /Overduin house. (See part 1 below first) 

Turns out that Pronk is the most common surname in this town! 

Well we found the lighthouse and the street, we even found some beautiful old art of the lighthouse....

...and a painting of an old street by the lighthouse which is in about the right spot as Vuurbaakstraat (which is, by the way, right off Jacob Pronk Straat) This art work is in the museum. The thought of theft actually went through my mind, I really wanted this painting.

...and we found the street, but were there any of the original houses there?

...and just yesterday Elyn sent me this wedding photo of Henri Overduin and Jacoba Pronk. 

One of grandma's funniest stories is about this couple. Henry was a fisherman and the boat he was on went down at sea. He was presumed dead. About a year later Henry pops up at the door of his home. Johanna presuming she was seeing a ghost exclaims. "Ya vas dead and ya stay dead" and slams the door on him!!  Poor Henri! He hadn't died, he had made it ashore on some island where he recouped for many months and then  was finally able to make it back home. He'd probably been dreaming about the day that he would come home to his loving wife... those thoughts might have been what kept him alive ( my imagination likes to think!) and he gets the door slammed in his face. 

Well that's how grandma tells the story. Her sister Toos told her daughter Cobi another detail. Cobi told us that Joanna had been collecting widow pension and didn't want to have to pay it back, so she was upset that he was alive. Wow, that's rough.

So Dad and I were looking up and down this street wondering where that house may have been, and we kept looking at this cute old Dutch house. There was an old man doing some work at the house beside and I asked Rob to go talk to him and see what he knows. Dad didn't want to but I knew we couldn't let this opportunity go by so I got out and started to talk to this man who knew no English. I said we were looking for the familie Pronk Haus and he said he was a Pronk! I understood that much. I waved dad over and we had the nicest visit with this old guy. He invited us into his house (clean and neat as a pin) and he got out his genealogy records. There were no familiar Pronks up the line, even though his father AND mother were Pronks...(see blog title, everywhere a Pronk Pronk!)  but.... he said the house next door had a Pronk living there years ago and that it was the only original house on the street! The other houses had been demolished  before the year Johanna died. Since she had lived in her house till she died we assume this is it!!

So here is Mr Pronk and here is the house we believe to be the Overduin Pronk house! Ta Da!

We felt like such successful sleuths! It's obvious the old place has had a face lift since Joanna died but the original structure and style is still there. Notice right behind the front door you can kind of see the stairs going up to the loft.  Cobi and Dick said that it was typical for the master bed to be built into the alcove right under the stairs. I think it was also more likely that the kids all slept in the loft upstairs a la  Little House on the Prairie. 

next blog...we're off to Belgium