I will share a story today that can be tied to four different countries. It has a bit of international flair. You will read about folks with roots in Germany, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. This tale comes out of our German Family Tree because back in 1880 a Frenchman married a German Lutheran woman, and that couple had many children, of whom 7 were baptized at Cross Lutheran Congregation near Longtown. One of those children is today’s birthday girl.

Mina L’Hote was born on November 23, 1890, so today would be her 135th birthday. Mina was the daughter of Arthur and Catherine (Schroeder) L’Hote. Photos of Mina’s parents are shown below.

Mina’s baptism record from the books of Cross Lutheran Congregation is pictured here. Mina’s name would mostly be spelled as Minnie during her life, and even her gravestone uses that spelling, so that is what I will use in this post.

Minnie was born during the years when Perry County kept birth records. We can view Minnie’s birth record here in 2 images.

Minnie is found in the 1900 census at the age of 9. Her father was a farmer in the Bois Brule Township. This was a rather large L’Hote household that included 8 children. You can see that Minnie’s father was of French descent, and her mother had German roots.

Next, we find Minnie in the 1910 census when she was 19 years old.

Minnie would get married in the next decade, so we will now look at the man who would become her husband. His name was Joseph Maria Nuyt, who was born on May 23, 1888. It is not every day that you see a male who is given a middle name of Maria. On some forms, it is written as Mary or Marie. Joseph was the son of John and Stephanie (Deveneljns) Nuyt. I am almost certain that Joseph’s baptism took place at the Nativity Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, a Catholic church that once existed in Belgique. Joseph is found in the 1900 census at the age of 12. His father was a farmer in the Bois Brule Township. You can see that Joseph’s father had roots in Belgium, and his mother was of Dutch descent.

In the 1910 census, Joseph was not listed in his parents’ household. At the age of 21, he was living in the John Modde household and working as a farm laborer. John Modde was the proprietor of a general store.

Here is a photo of the Modde Steyns & Company Store which was located in Belgique. It looks like the Catholic church was located next to this store.

Here is a photo of the Catholic church that existed in Belgique at one time.

In the plat books produced in 1915 for Perry County, we find pieces of land owned by L’Hote and Nuyt families. You can also find the town of Belgique very near their farms, and you can easily locate parcels of land with the names, Modde and Steyns. All of these farms were located very near the Mississippi River.

On April 29, 1914, Joseph Nuyt married Minnie L’Hote at the Catholic church in Belgique. We can take a look at this couple’s Missouri marriage license here.

An article about this pair’s wedding was published in the Perry County Republican.

Joseph had his World War I draft registration completed in 1917. He is given a Belgique address, but it also says he was working for himself as a farmer on Crain’s Island in the Chester, Illinois precinct. If you look again at the land map shown above, you will see that Crain’s Island is very near Belgique, and it was actually located in Illinois.

This Nuyt couple had 3 children. Their first child, born in 1915, died in 1918. There was a boy/girl pair of twins born in 1919, but only the girl survived. In the 1920 census, we find the Nuyt’s with they young daughter. Also included in their household were a few boarders, one which was a school teacher, a hired hand, and a 14 year-old boy named Blanchard Stenson, who was called an adopted son. That son is only found living with the Nuyt couple in this census entry. This entry is found in the census pages for the Chester Precinct in Illinois.

On a present-day map below, you can see the boundary between Missouri and Illinois as a dashed line, and it shows that Crain’s Island, located on the west side of the Mississippi River, is still actually part of the state of Illinois.

When the 1930 census was taken, we find the Nuyt’s back living in Missouri. Joseph was farming, along with a hired man and a nephew. I am guessing that, since Minnie’s mother had died in 1920, and we find her father listed in this entry, that Joseph was farming the land once farmed by Arthur L’Hote.

Next, we find the Nuyt’s in the 1940 census. It included just the Nuyt trio of husband, wife, and daughter. Their daughter, Clara, was working at the shoe factory in Perryville.

Joseph had his World War II draft card completed in 1942.

The last census we can view is the one take in 1950. It included the same trio as the previous census, complete with the same occupations. Their daughter, Clara, never married.

Minnie Nuyt died in 1953 at the age of 62. Her death certificate below says that she died of ovarian cancer.

Joseph Nuyt died in 1979 at the age of 90, too recently to view his death certificate. Joseph and Minnie Nuyt are buried together in the Nativity Blessed Virgin Mary Cemetery in Belgique.

The L’Hote surname does not appear often in our German Family Tree. It consists of the several children from the L’Hote/Schroeder marriage and one other marriage of another daughter in that family who married a Lutheran named George Christisen. in the case of Minnie, who was baptized as a Lutheran, it appears that she would later become a member of the Catholic parish in Belgique.