zoon van Albert Gerrits & Elizabeth Custers
He is married to Antoinette Maes (Maassen).
They got married on January 20, 1822 at Mill en Sint Hubert (NB).Source 2
January 1933
Wilbert Gijsbers, husband of Nettie Maas, died in Holland while still a young man leaving a very young family not even in their teens. The widow operated a tavern in Holland to keep her family intact. The Burgermeister of Mill, Holland, suggested that the townspeople patronize the widow's tavern as that was her only means of support. The struggling was too difficult and we find her emigrating to America with her children: Cornelius, Elizabeth Gerrits, John (killed in Civil War) and Kate Vanden Heuvel.
she sailed in 1848 on one of Father VandenBroek's three sailing vessels. Rev. VandenBroek was a missionary interested in the colonization of Holland Catholics in the Fox River Valley. It is believed he secured money either from the Foreign Mission Society at Washington or the Government at Washington as well as from wealthy friends of his in Holland for the financing of this emigration from Europe. Migrating from Holland to Little Chute was a trip which required three months. The passage fare was paid by some although many were unable to pay at all.
The emigrating colonists, after landing in America, sailed up the Hudson River to Albany, New York, connecting there with the Erie Barge Canal, a canal which was dug from Albany, N.Y. to Bugfalo and is still in existance today. The barges were horse drawn from a tow path on the canal bank -- a slow tedious journey taking a day between each stopping place. At each stopping place a relief team of horses was hitched to the barge for another day's travel, working in relays in this manner, until the canal trip was completed at Buffalo. Each stopping place was a day's journey. Although Fulton had invented the steamboat prior to this time, it is likely that sailing vessels were used through the Great Lakes to Green Bay and from there they walked and used os carts in going to Little Chute which was 25 miles southwest of Green Bay. The Fox River had no system of locks at that time making it unnavigable because of the rough rapids and uncontrolled waters.
After settling, Mrs. Wilbert Giesbers married again to Mr. Van Niel and settled along the riverbank. Mr. Van Niel had studied for the priesthoof in Amsterdam but did not attain his ambition because of an accident while traveling which impaired his hearing. Because of his education, he was one of the leaders of Little Chute, and it was at his home that Rev. VandenBroek made his headquarters while on his mission travels.
Cornelius married, lived on a farm west of Little Chute and later operated a tavern near the dopot before moving to another farm in Wrightstown. Children were born as follows:
William in Green Bay 1854
Mary -- Mrs. Albert Langenberg in Green Bay in 1857
Hannah -- Mrs. Anton Langenberg in Green Bay in 1860
Arnold in Kaukauna in 1862
Nettie -- Mrs. Henry VandenHeuvel in Kaukauna in 1865
John in Kaukauna in 1867
Jennie -- Mrs. Herman Fink in Menasha in 1870.
Although the eldest boy was known as William, his real name was Wilbert. He spent many years of his boyhood with his grandmother, Mrs. Van Niel in Little Chute. As a young man he spent his winters in logging camps (pinery) earning money financing his father's farm. With his experience in farming, he spent many years as the superintendent of the J. K. DeLandy 160 acre farm which traded and sold horses. The Giesbers farm was sold to a Mr. Redemacher and as of 1933 all the buildings remain intact. William's parents, Cornelius and Nettier, are buried in Green Bay.
Child(ren):
Wilbert Gerrits (Gijsbers) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1822 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Antoinette Maes (Maassen) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||