Hi Bruce, thanks for your message. With such ancestors, I can imagine that you are looking for more information. For these issues, it is best to post your question on this part of our site:

https://www.bhic.nl/onderzoeken/forum/nieuw-onderwerp-starten

Give it a try there, you'll probably get more responses. Good luck!

All my ancestors were Dutch, all were declared Roman Catholics and I have a few confirmed genealogy family names traced back to 16th century in the Noord Brabant area. Too many towns and surnames to mention here. My father Lambert (van Venrooij) was born in Kessel in 1913 and immigrated with his family to Kaukauna, Wisconsin in 1920. In the 1970s my father vacationed in the Netherlands and researched his ancestors in Heesch. My mother’s family names are Welhuis from Losser, Overijsel and van de Wijngaard from Oss, Noord Brabant. The Welhuis family immigrated to northeastern Wisconsin in 1866 and the van de Wijngaard family immigrated in 1906. BHIC has been very valuable in my research, especially for vintage images of my ancestral hometowns. The Little Chute Historical Society (the Windmill) has been very helpful. After producing a personal family history album for my brother and myself, I am planning to expand this album with information about the history of specific Dutch towns and Dutch immigration stories to Wisconsin. I hope to hear from others about immigration.

Dear, thank you for your interesting addition! Do you happen to have Dutch ancestors yourself?

Dutch settlers from Netherlands came to Wisconsin in the 1840s and 50s and established several communities along Lake Michigan in Sheboygan County, often named for locations in their homeland, such as Oostburg and Amsterdam. By 1860, there were nearly 5,000 Dutch in the state, mostly in Sheboygan and Fond du Lac Counties. Like many other European immigrants at this time, most were farmers in ethnically homogenous towns. Unlike most ethnic groups, however, the Dutch were religiously divided: Protestants from the interior northern provinces settled in Sheboygan County, and Catholics from the southern provinces settled in the Fox Valley. Cedar Grove hosts an annual "Holland Days" festival featuring Klompen dancers performing in the traditional wooden shoes.

Ah, bedankt voor je reactie, Hans. Goed om te lezen, want zelf had ik ook het idee dat het ging om die grote boerengezinnen die hier niet zelfstandig konden boeren (en het daarom emigreerden).

Maar mogelijk kennen hier meer mensen het verhaal zoals ook je opa het vertelde? Dat er wel handen in de fabrieken nodig waren? Wie weet er meer? We horen het graag!

Dat er hier in Oost Brabant reclame werd gemaakt is misschien door de grote gezinnen die hier in grote mate voorkwamen. Zeker zo na de oorlog. Maar ik weet niet of dat in het begin van de 20e eeuw ook een rol speelt.
Verder waren het na de oorlog geen mensen van lager niveau die emigranten.
Heb het idee dat het voornamelijk boerenzoons/dochters waren die hier geen kans zagen om boer te worden. Na de oorlog zijn 3 ooms en 3 tantes van mij geëmigreerd, toen ze tot de ontdekking kwamen dat er in de fabriek meer te verdienen was dan bij een boer,gingen vele alsnog werken in de fabriek.
Mijn opa kon daar heel kwaad over worden vertelde mijn vader. Opa zei ze hadden hier ook in de fabriek kunnen gaan werken