He was born in 1874 as Anne Leep in Sint Annaparochie, the largest village and seat of municipality Het Bildt,located in the northwestern part of the Dutch northern province Friesland, the first of eight children of shopkeeper Klaas Leep (25 y) and Klaaske Prins, who had seven sons and one daughter, named for his grandfather Anne Klazes Leep.

On the 19th of May 1893, the brothers Andrew (18 years old) and Edward (16) left home, house nr. 170 in Sint Annaparochie, bound for Rotterdam, where they were to embark on May 20. The train ride from Leeuwarden to Rotterdam was quite an experience in itself, as they never before rode in a train. Upon arrival in Rotterdam they were taken to a large hall, belonging to the Holland American Line where they spent the night, embarking on Saturday morning May 20, 1893.
Former neighbors, who emigrated in 1890 to the USA, had arranged with two grocers to advance the funds for the two brothers to come to America.
Laborers Anne and Bertus Leep arrived on May 31, 1893 on the SS Maasdam at the port of New york, Ellis Island. Their destination was Chicago, to which they travelled by train.
Their parents, carpenter Klaas (47 y) and Klaaske (46) Leep, and their children (Bertus' siblings) Haring (16), Janke (13), Hendrik (11), Douwe (9) and Doeke (7) arrived on 15 August 1896 at New York. Their destination was Kensington. Very probably was meant the train station and neighborhood Kensington in the southern part of Chicago.

Soon after arrival the brothers were hired to weed onions at one dollar a day. Roseland at that time was quite a gardening center, raising vegetables for the Chicago Market, so that employment in that field was readily found. In Holland Sint Annaparochie was situated in a rural area, so this sort of work was familiar to them. In the fall of the year however, garden activity slackened and before long they found out of employment. In the year 1893 the World's Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago, creating considerable employment during its operations.

On December 11, 1893 workman Anne Leep, officially still residing in Sint Annaparochie, was ordered to serve for five years in the Dutch army (Nationale Militie), but because he didn't appear at the selection they put him on a list of absents. It's not unlikely that escaping from this Dutch army duty was for Anne a reason too to emigrate to the USA.

Andrew was fortunate to get a place with a gardener, the pay was small but it was a check to steadily rising board bill of the two brothers, which had risen to the alarming sum of eighty dollars.

On April 12, 1899 Anne Leap married in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois at the age of 24 years the one year younger Sarah De Vries, who immigrated in 1891 to the USA, from the Dutch northern province Friesland too.

In June 1900 gardener Andrew Leep (25 years old) lived with his wife Sarah (24) and boarder Lambert van der Wal (19, garden laborer) in Calumet Township, Chicago city Ward 31. Gardener Oscar Leepe (28) and his wife Sarah DuVries lived in 1902 in Chicago too, when their son Oscar was born.

Andrew and Sarah had the following eight children:
1. Nicholas Leep b: 11 June 1900 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois (USA)
2. Oscar (Harry) Leep b: 25 February 1902 in Chicago;
3. Julian (Jerry) Leep b: 8 January 1904 in Chicago;
4. Theresa (Tracy) Leep b: 25 August 1905 in Chicago;
5. Edward (Edwin) Leep b: 22 January 1908 in Chicago;
6. Clara Leep b: 5 February 1910 in Chicago;
7. Jennie Leep b: 16 Februry 1911, Cook County, Illinois;
8. Mary Leep b: 1914 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada.

In the beginning of 1910 the 35 years old Oscar (!) Leep, his wife Sarah (34) and their all in Illinois born children Nicholas (9), Harry (8), Julian (6), Therisa (4), Edwin (2) and Clara (2 months) still lived in Chicago, but then in ward 32.

In July 1910 his father Nicholas, a gardener, died at the age of 61 years at 10124 Halsted Street, 33th Ward, Chicago.

In 1911 the families Leep emigrated to Canada. In December 1914 Andrew's daughter Mary was born in Swift Current, about 45 miles southeast of the former Dutch settlement Cramersburg in the southwestern part of the Canadian south central province Saskatchewan, about 5 miles south of the river with the same name, where the family homesteaded. Andrew's wife Sarah died there in 1916 at the age of 40 years and was buried with five other Dutch women in Cramersburg.

In 1916 widower Andrew (40), his eight children Nicholas (16), Harry (14), Jerry (12), Tracey (11), Edward (9), Clara (7), Jennie (5), Mary (1) and his mother Clara Leep (66) were administrated in Maple Creek, located about 70 miles southwest of Cramersburg, in the extreme southwestern part of Saskatshewan.

Through an ad in "De Wachter" he hired a housekeeper, the Dutch Catherine Otto, widow since August 1916 of Govert Scheffelaar, who died in the State of New York, and mother of Nicholas, who was born in 1910 in the Netherlands. Andrew remarried in March 1918 in Saskatchewan, Canada, very probably in the former Dutch settlement Cramersburg, to the ten years younger Catharina Maria Elisabeth Otto, born on 6 April 1885 in Arnhem, Gelderland, Nederland, daughter of Johann Carel Christiaan Otto and Geertruida Maria Philippens and widow of Govert Scheffler.

On June 1, 1921 Andrew Leep (46), his wife Catherine (35), his children Nicholas Leep(21), Harry Leep (19), Julian Leep (17), Tracey Leep (15), Edward Leep (13), Clara Leep (11), Jennie Leep (9) and Mary Leep (6), and her son Nicol Shaffler (10) were residing at the rural municipality of Miry Creek, district Maple Creek, located in the southwestern part of Saskatchewan, Canada.

Animal diseases, coldness, dust bowls, drought, several successive crop failures and low grain prices caused them to leave Canada and in 1922 the family moved to Shepherd, Yellowstone County, Montana, where Andrew stayed for about six years, still being engaged in farming there. In this period their sons Benjamin and Anthony were born in 1924 and 1927. From Sheperd, Montana Andrew moved with his family to the riverside city of Quincy, seat of Adams County, in the utter western part of Illinois, where they were developing the fertile Mississippi bottoms for garden tracts.

In April 1930 Andrew Leep (54 years old, born in Holland, immigrated in 1883, truck farmer), his wife Katherine (44, Holland, immigrated in 1911), his son Edward (22, Chicago, laborer at a machine shop), his stepson Nicholas Scheffleer (19, Holland, laborer at a machine shop), his daughter Mary (16, Canada, immigrated in 1922) and their sons Benjamin (5, Montana) and Anthony J (2, Montana) lived in Melrose, just southeast of Quincy, Adams County, Illinois.

This seemed a good opportunity to resume the old vocation, gardening, but was also doomed to failure. Here it was a case of too much rain. The Mississippi river threatened to over flow her borders, finally breaking the levee, inundating thousands of acres so suddenly that the people had to be rescued by boats. So that project had to be abandoned too. He then moved to Martin, Allegan County, in the western part of Michigan, where he did some gardening,

In April 1940 Andrew K. Leep (65, carpenter in the rough building industry), his second wife Mary Catherine (55), their sons Benjamin (15, Montana) and Anthony (12, Montana) resided at a rented home in Martin, Allegan County, Michigan. In 1935 they lived at the same place, but in another house.

Finally they moved to Grand Rapids, where Andrew found employment in a greenhouse. That was a job after his own heart. Andrew's second wife Katherine passed away in March 1950 at the age of 64 years at their home at 1313 Kalamazoo Avenue in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His children were married now and he was 75 years old, so he went to Highland, located in the extreme northwestern part of Indiana, adjacent to Chicago in Illinois, to live there with his married son Edward (?) and family. He obtained a position as assistant janitor in a public school, working four hours per day at two dollars per hours, at the age of 80 years, making more money than he ever made in his life.

Widower Andrew Leep died in December 1966 at the age of 92 years in Highland, Lake County, Indiana.

The surname Leep has died out in the Netherlands, but "survived" thus in the USA, by quite some members.