She was born Jantje Witvoet (= White foot) in June 1866 in the country village Grootegast, located in the western part of the Dutch northeastern province Groningen, the first of 10 children of the 30 years old day-laborer Gerrit Witvoet and Geertje Aardema.

She had in Grootegast the following nine siblings Witvoet:
* Fokke, 24 February 1869;
* Lambertus, 26 March 1871;
* Neelina, 20 April 1872;
* Bastiaan, 16 June 1874, died 30 August 1881, Grootegast;
* Aaltje, 4 December 1876;
* Jan, 29 October 1879;
* Iwina, 4 October 1881;
* Bastiaantje, 6 March 1885;
* Anna Fokkelina, 2 August 1888.

On Friday May 15, 1891 Jantje Witvoet, daughter of farmers Gerrit Witvoet and Geertje Aardema, married in her birth and residence place Grootegast at the age of 24 years the eight years older smith Wobbe van der Veen, born and living in Marum in the southwestern part of province Groningen, son of Wiebren Wobbes van der Veen and Jenke Sanders van der Meulen, both deceased.

They had in Marum the following three sons Van der Veen:
* Wiebren, born 12 September 1891;
* Gerrit, 1 September 1893;
* Fokke, 31 December 1895.

Their father and Jantje's husband Wobbe van der Veen was in all those years a black smith (grofsmid).

Her parents and all her eight siblings Witvoet emigrated in April 1892 (brother Lambertus), April and August 1893 from Grootegast to the USA.

In 1897 Jantje Witvoet emigrated with her husband Wobbe van der Veen (38 y, Dutch Reformed, smith) and their three children Wiebren, Gerrit and Fokke van der Veen, from Marum, Groningen, to North America.
With that the whole family Witvoet had emigrated to the USA.

In June 1900 Jennie (35 years old, born in June 1865 [has to be: 1866] in Holland , mother of 4 living children), her husband Wobbe Vanderveen (42, March 1858 [has to be: 1859], Holland, black smith), their children Wiebren (9, September 1891, Holland), Gerret (8, September 1892, Holland), Frank (5, December 1895, Holland) and Gurtred (2, August 1898, Illinois) were living in a rented home at Chicago Road in Thornton Township, located just south of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. The first five mentioned persons immigrated all in 1897.

Jennie died before 1910, less than 44 years old, in Cook County, Illinois or in Ottawa County, Michigan.

In 1910 her husband Vander Veen (50, Holland, widower), his son Frank Vander Veen (13, Holland) and his daughter Gertrude Vander Veen (11, Holland) were living in Polkton Township, Ottawa County, in the southwestern part of Michigan, about 25 miles northeast of the Dutch settlements Holland and Zeeland in Ottawa County.

On 24 June 1915 her husband Wobbe Vander Veen (56, born about 1859, Netherlands, son of Willem [has to be: Wiebren] Vander Veen] and Ginke [has to be: Jenke] Vander Meulen) remarried in Coopersville, Ottawa County, Michigan Mrs Alice Sietsema (57 y, about 1858, Netherlands, daughter of Jno [??] Sietsema. Witnesses: Harm and his wife Sietsema.

Widower William Vander Veen died in 1953 at the age of about 96 years, very probably in or near the city of Coopersville in Polkton Township, Ottawa County, in the southwestern part of Michigan.