Website Features CRC Heritage

A slice of a video posted on the newly developed Graafschap Heritage Center Website shows early photos of Graafschap Christian Reformed Church and its leaders, tools used in a church building, and finishes the scene with the image of an historic church organ.

Superimposed over the video of artifacts and images on the site are these words: "Learn how the church has always been at the center of the Dutch immigrant community."

In another scene on this one of many videos, pictures and photos of soldiers, diplomas and certificates of military service are featured. These words run on the screen: "See how children of (Dutch) immigrants have served the country in many different ways."

The new website is an educational extension of the Heritage Center, which has served as an historical resource for both Graafschap CRC and the Christian Reformed denomination for several years.

Often, new CRC pastors from this country and abroad are asked to visit the Heritage Center at Graafschap CRC to gain a better sense of the history of the pioneers who came to West Michigan from the Netherlands, and those who have lived in the area since.

Records of Graafschap Christian Reformed Church, as well as history of the early days of the CRC, are archived here.

Among other things, The Heritage Center helps tell the story of the grueling 49-day journey by ship that brought the initial Dutch immigrants from The Netherlands to settle in rural West Michigan.

Also near the Heritage Center is a log cabin-replica of the type of home in which early Dutch settlers to the area lived.

With the addition of the website, and especially the videos available there, the Heritage Center can help to:

• promote the Heritage Center (to area people as well as Tulip-Time and other out-of- town visitors)
• serve as an education resource for area teachers
• be a research resource for genealogists, or anyone looking for information on Dutch settlers from the Graafschap/Bentheim area of the Netherlands, or early Holland, Michigan.

"The Heritage Center has an archive that is open to researchers and is digitizing the genealogy records that go from the early settlers to current members of the church, says Denise R. Mokma, a church member who served on the committee that created the website, which went live late last year.

"People are currently welcome to come in person during a pre-set appointment, but having the archives available online will make them much more available."

The Heritage Center itself has been open for many years. Graafschap CRC is one of the first organized churches in the CRC, having formed as a member of the new denomination in 1880.

Regular hours are 7p.m. - 9 p.m. on the last Tuesday of the month and 11a.m. - noon on the last Sunday of the month. Appointments for tours at other times can be arranged by phone: (church office) 616-396-5008 or (Heritage Center tour guide) 616-392-6287.