My Adema Cousins - Part 1

by Glenn N. Holliman

                                         The scene from the Lake Erie cottage of the Adema family in Canada not far from Niagara Falls

This past July, my wife, Barbara, and I once again visited the Lake Erie cottage of Bob and Gay Adema. Bob and I share common maternal great grandparents, George Washington and Frances Wilson Osborne (1851-1940). Frankie was with her father, Isaac Wilson (1822-1864) when he was cruelly bushwhacked and killed on his farm in Ashe County, North Carolina, yet another victim of the Civil War.

Left to right, Barb, Gayle, Rob and Bob. Rob Adema, son of Bob and Gayle, makes his home in Buffalo, New York, where Adema families have lived since the late 1800s, immigrating from Holland.

My wife, Barb, whose maiden name is Long, is also a native of the Buffalo area, having been born and raised in Lockport, New York.

Bob' mother, Gladys Osborne Adema (1913 - 2003) and my mother, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick (1923-2015) were first cousins.

Gladys was the daughter of Bascom(b) and Doris Kruger Osborne (1891-1923).  In earlier blogs, I have told the story of the untimely death of Doris at age 32, the mother of three young children - Bacomb, Doris and Gladys Osborne.

While together, Bob and Rob pulled out some family artifacts and photographs.  Here are some we examined.

Right in 1937 are Bob's parents, Howard M. (1909-1984) and Gladys Osborne Adema at Niagara Falls. Howard had met Gladys in Damascus, Virginia while working with the Civilian Conservation Corp during the middle 1930s as part of President Franklin  Roosevelt's New Deal.  After that service, Howard returned to Buffalo, NY with his new bride and entered the family heating and furnace business.

Left, the first child of Howard and Gladys, Margaret 'Peg"Adema Noeltner, held in 1937 by her grandmother Amelia Margaret "Millie" Berkhausen Adema, b 1874. 

After the birth of Bob,  Alan Adema,was born in  in Buffalo, Howard and Gladys third child.  Below right in 1951, Alan on his sister's Peg's shoulders, next to their grandfather, Bascomb Osborne at Niagara Falls.

Below left, Howard and Gladys Osborne Adema as newly weds in the middle 1930s.

Next Posting, more on the Adema cousins!

For additional information on Stansbery, Wilson, Greer, Osborne, Adema, Hollimans, Boones, Wilcoxsons and many associated families, please visit www.bholliman.com, a virtual archive of manuscripts and records of these families.