52W Mark IV – Week 21: Card K8 Cornelis Woltering

Cornelis Woltering was born on July 17, 1815, in the village of Akersloot, Noord Holland. He was born less than two months after the official establishment of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and one month after the Battle of Waterloo.

Cornelis was the eldest of three children born to Jan Woltering and Antje Boekel. What I find surprising is that Jan was born in what is now Vreden, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, about three kilometers from the Dutch border. Sometime before he married Antje in 1814, Jan literally moved across the Netherlands to Noord-Holland. I have no idea what motivated the move, particularly given the significant distance.

Unlike the majority of my Dutch ancestors who were labourers or farmers, Cornelis was a tradesperson, working as a carpenter. It was the same occupation as his father and it was Cornelis’s profession his entire life.

Cornelis was serving his apprenticeship when he married Neeltje Smit on May 8, 1842 in Zuid-Scharwoude. For the entirety of their marriage, the couple lived in Zuid-Scharwoude, where Cornelis carried out his work.

Cornelis and Neeltje had six children. The first born, Leentje, married and later ended up living in the province of Gelderland, most likely in Nijmegen. Another daughter, Anjte, my Great x2 Grandmother, married and spent the rest of her life in Noord-Scharwoude. A son, Jan, who never married, was a tailor. The three other children never survived childhood.

Cornelis died relatively young, at age 47, on December 8, 1862 in Zuid-Scharwoude. Leentje was nineteen; Antje was nine. Neeltje lived another 44 years after her husband’s death.