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Dutch Farmer in the Missouri Valley: The Life and Letters of Ulbe Eringa, 1866-1950 (Statue of Liberty Ellis Island)

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Dutch Farmer in the Missouri Valley: The Life and Letters of Ulbe Eringa, 1866-1950
By Brian W. Beltman (284 pages) (published in 1996 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Publication was funded by a grant from the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.)

This book is so good. The reader is invited into the mind of Ulbe Eringa, an immigrant from the province of Friesland, Holland. Eringa is clearly pleased to have immigrated to the United States and he used his letters home to encourage family members to follow him. The accompanying background narrative by Brian W. Beltman also draws in the reader, providing information about the land Eringa was leaving behind and his possible motives for leaving. Each chapter begins with background and factual information about the letters that follow. If necessary, maps and charts are presented along with photographs of Ulbe Eringa and his family. This is history on a personal level. Genealogy is history on a personal level and if you have ancestors from Friesland, Holland, you will enjoy this book.

Eringa's warm Christian personality is revealed through his letters and brief autobiography. I am happy to have the original letters on which much of the book is based; they were given me by the man in Holland who found them in his attic. Eringa's faith was passed on to his children and grand-children, one of whom I am.