52W Mark IV – Week 23: Card K10 Jan Cornelis Bakker

I recently noted that most of my direct Dutch ancestors were farmers and labourers. Jan Cornelis Bakker is another exception to that generalization. For most of his short life, he worked as a sailor in Den Helder, Noord Holland. In fact, he was the descendant of sailors on both sides of his family.

Jan was born on January 16, 1819, in the village of Oost, located on the island of Texel in the province of Noord Holland, Netherlands. He was the second child of Cornelis Dirksz Bakker and Marijke Jans Kuiter, who had married a few years earlier in Texel, on April 25, 1815. Jan’s older sister, Naantje, had been born in July 1815, just months after their parents’ wedding.

Both sides of Jan’s family have deep roots on Texel. I have traced both his lines back at least three generations. Jan’s mother, Marijke, was born on Texel around 1787. Her father, Jan Kuiter, was a sailor. Marijke passed away relatively young, on January 4, 1824, in Oost, when Jan was only five years old.

Jan’s father was a sailor on Texel. His father remarried in 1826 and moved the family from Texel to Den Helder sometime before 1833. Den Helder is a major Dutch port at the northwestern tip of the country and has been a major naval base since the 1700s. It seems that Cornelis gave up life at sea for life on the shore after moving to Den Helder. His recorded occupation was porter, most likely working on the docks.

When the family moved to the mainland, Jan Cornelis would have been in no more than his early teens. By 1847, Jan had followed in his father’s footsteps and was working there as a sailor. That year, he registered for compulsory military service but was not called to serve. Jan carried on in his profession as a sailor, which was how he spent the rest of his working life.

On June 3, 1847, Jan married Johanna Adriana Puinbroek in Den Helder. Johanna was born in 1822, in Heinkenszand, Zeeland, far to the south. Her parents were Johannes Puinbroek and Maria Theresia Letens. What brought Johanna’s family north to Den Helder is unclear, but her marriage to Jan firmly rooted her there. Together, Jan and Johanna had one child, my Gx2 Grandfather, Cornelis Jan Bakker, born on April 26, 1855, in Den Helder.

Sadly, Jan’s life was cut short. He died on November 13, 1859, at the age of 40, in Den Helder. His widow, Johanna, lived on for more than two decades after his death, passing away in 1881, at age 58. I have no idea as to how he died, but I’ve wondered whether it occurred as a result of his work as a sailor given how young he was at the time. However, I’ve found nothing in any of the sources I’ve consulted, including the online newspaper collections at Delpher and various Dutch archives.