Katherina Popma came from Friesland in 1869 at the age of 18, and settled in Pella, Iowa. Her husband Cornelis Van Veen died, and then she married Gerrit Van Ringelingsteyn. Her son John Van Veen married Monika Riese. We don't know where she was from, or when she was born or who her parents were. My grandfather Cornelis Van Veen was three when his father died; his mother died a year later. We don't know where they are buried, where they lived their last days. Through some strange twist of events when he entered a Navy recruitment office at the age of fifteen, he walked out with a new name "Neal John Vain" We don't know anything about the families of Katherina Popma or Cornelis Van Veen before they departed from the Netherlands. He did mention his Uncle Herman Van Veen, his sister Catherine, and a brother Joe Van Veen who had a grand-daughter Lori Jo who came to visit us.