The Limburg Province of the Netherlands
Leonard Schneiders' Ancestry
Noldina Thomassen's Ancestry
Descendants of Leonard Schneiders and Noldina Thomassen

Leonard Schneiders was born in Griethausen, Rhine Province, Prussia in 1835, to Jacob Schneider and Joanna Theunissen. He was the sixth of seven children. His father died when he was 12, and his mother when he was 23. His younger brother died as an infant, and an older sister died at 17 years of age. We don't know what happened to one sister and one brother. Another sister, Hendrina, married and had two children - and then emigrated to the U.S. and lived in the same town as Leonard and his family. Another brother, Peter Paul Schneiders, immigrated with his wife and son to the De Pere, Wisconsin area a year after Leonard and his family left Limburg. Peter's descendants moved to the Elkton, Maryland area, and a large number of their descendants still live in the area.

Johanna Arnoldina Thomassen (Noldina) was born in Broekhuizenvorst, Limburg Province, Netherlands in 1829, to Joannes Leonardus Thomassen and Joanna Antonetta Gossens. Her mother was unlucky with husbands - Thomassen was her third of four husbands. Noldina had one sister (who died at 17), and three half-sisters (one who married and emigrated with her family to De Pere, another who married and stayed in Broekhuizenvorst). Her ancestors had lived in Broekhuizenvorst for generations.

Leonard and Noldina married in Broekhuizen (the sister village of Broekhuizenvorst) in 1860, and had five children in the village - Jakob (1861), Peternelle (1863), Antoinette (1865), Peter (1866) and Elizabeth (1868).

In 1869, Leonard, Noldina and their children boarded the S.S. Helvetia, bound for New York City. They arrived on June 23, 1869, and moved immediately to De Pere. Infant Elizabeth died after they emigrated. In 1870, Leonard and Noldina had another daughter, and named her Elizabeth.

Jakob married Johanna Timmermans in 1889. They lived in De Pere for a decade, and then settled in Tony, Wisconsin. They had a large family of eleven children. Jakob died there in 1929.

Peternelle married Martin Aerts in 1881, and stayed in De Pere as they raised a family on nine children. She also died in 1929.

In 1890, Antoinette married Theodore Timmermans, who was the brother of Jakob's wife Johanna. They stayed in De Pere for a few years, moved to Nebraska from about 1895 until about 1896, and then settled in Carson, Wisconsin. They had nine children. She died in Rudolph, Wisconsin, in 1934. He died in 1954 while visiting relatives in Gary, Indiana.

Peter stayed single, and was still living in Milwaukee in 1934.

Elizabeth married Peter Henderix in 1896. They stayed in De Pere until about 1901, and then moved to Tony. in 1913 or so they moved back to Green Bay. In all, they had ten children. Sometime in the 1920s they moved to California. Elizabeth died in San Francisco in 1944.

Noldina died in De Pere in 1914, of a heart ailment. Leonard died two years later. Both are buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in De Pere.

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