Category: Netherlands

52W Mark IV – Week 22: Card K9 Neeltje Smit

Neeltje Smit (1816-1906)

Neeltje Smit, my Gx3 Grandmother born on June 10, 1816, is one of my longest-lived ancestors. Her life spanned nearly ninety years, from the end of the Napoleonic era into the 20th century. Her life began in Heerhugowaard, Noord Holland, where she was born. She was the third of nine children born to Jan Smit and Leentje van Dam.

Portion of Neeltje’s birth registration.

I have little information about Neeltje’s childhood or early adulthood. She was still living in Heerhugowaard at age 26, when she married her first husband, Cornelis Woltering, on May 8, 1842. Cornelis, born in Akersloot in 1815, was then a carpenter’s apprentice, just starting his trade. After they were married, Neeltje and Cornelis settled in Zuid-Scharwoude, Noord Holland. Neeltje would spend almost the rest of her life living there.

Cornelis and Neeltje’s marriage registration.

The couple had six children. Their first child, Leentje, was born in 1843 and would marry and move to Den Helder, and then later to Nijmegen. Their second child, Jan, born in 1846, died in infancy. Another son, also named Jan, was born in 1848 and lived to age 71, working as a tailor. He never married. Willem (1850–1851) and Teetje (1855–1860) also died young. Their daughter Antje – my Gx2 Grandmother – was born in 1853 and would later marry Nicolaas Komen in 1878.

Cornelis Woltering passed away in Zuid-Scharwoude in December 1862, leaving Neeltje a widow at just 46 years old. Her youngest child, Antje, was only nine years old. In the population register for the year Neeltje was widowed, she was quaintly described as a “landsraamster”; literally, a “country widow”.

Bevolkingsregister (Population Register) for Zuid-Scharwoude 1860-1870 showing Neeltje as a “landsraamster”

Two years after Cornelis died, on January 29, 1865, Neeltje remarried. Her second husband was Cornelis Oudhuis, a labourer born around 1817 in Zuid-Scharwoude. He himself was a widower. Cornelis had lived in Warmenhuizen prior to his marriage to Neeltje. The two spent over three decades together before Cornelis died in 1897 at age 80.

Neeltje and Cornelis Oudhuis’s marriage registration.

After her second husband’s death, Neeltje continued to live in Zuid-Scharwoude for several more years, remaining in the village where she had spent much of her life. In April 1903, in her late 80s, Neeltje moved a short distance to Noord-Scharwoude, another of the component parts of Langedijk. There she lived with her daughter Antje and son-in-law Klaas Komen.

Neeltje Smit died in Noord-Scharwoude on January 22, 1906, at the age of 89. She had outlived two husbands and several of her children, living the entirety of her long life within a few kilometers of where she had been born.

Schager Courant, February 15, 1906, page 3
“Neeltje Smit, widow of Cornelis Oudhuis, previously widow of Cornelis Woltering, age 89.”

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

Cornelis Woltering (1815-1862)

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’s marriage registration.

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.

Cornelis’s death registration.

52W Mark IV – Week 20: Card K7 Maartje Mettes

Maartje Mettes (1812-1896)

Merry Christmas and happy birthday!

Like one of our children, my Gx3 Grandmother, Maartje Mettes, was a Christmas baby. I can’t say how significant that was to Maartje or her family. My understanding is that in the Netherlands, historically, greater emphasis was placed on the religious aspect of Christmas. Maartje’s family was Roman Catholic, so it was more likely they had a nativity scene on display than a Christmas tree. As well, there is also the related celebration of Sinterklaas on December 6, which involves greater emphasis on the gift giving and festive nature of celebration. However, I don’t think Sinterklaas was as significant during Maartje’s childhood as it was later in the 19th century, or celebrated in the same way.

Maartje lived most of her life in small towns in Noord Holland, where she raised two families and experienced multiple relocations.

I do not have much information about Maartje’s childhood or early years, but by 1841 she was working as a domestic servant in Hensbroek. That same year, on April 29, she married Klaas Buur, a domestic servant from nearby Heerhugowaard. Klaas was born around 1814 in Oude Niedorp. At the time of their marriage, Klaas was working as a labourer in Hensbroek, an occupation he carried out until his death on May 8, 1847.

Part of Maartje and Klaas’s marriage registration

Maartje and Klaas’s short six-year marriage was marked by both joy and sorrow. Their first son, Pieter, was born in April 1842 in Heerhugowaard but died just two months later. A second son, also named Pieter, followed in 1843 and survived. A third son, Jan was born in 1844. A daughter, Pietertje, came in 1846 but died before her first birthday. With Klaas’s early death at age 33, Maartje was left a widow at age 29 with two young sons.

After four years on her own, Maartje married again. On May 2, 1851, she wed Cornelis Komen in Heerhugowaard. Cornelis, born in 1812 in Zuid-Scharwoude, had worked as both a farmer and a labourer, moving from Oterleek to Heerhugowaard and later Zuid-Scharwoude. Together, Maartje and Cornelis made a home that would remain steady for decades.

Some interesting trivia: when Maartje married Cornelis, she also had a brother-in-law named Cornelis Komen through her older sister, Neeltje Mettes. The two Cornelises were first cousins once removed.  It appears Neeltje’s husband went by “Crelis”, a diminutive of Cornelis that was less common than the more frequently seen “Kees”.

Maartje and Cornelis had two sons, my Gx2 Grandfather Nicolaas (“Klaas”) in 1852 and Adrianus (“Arie”) in 1853. Both Klaas and Arie lived long lives, into their mid-70s. By 1854, the family was living at House 149 in the hamlet of Pannekeet, adjacent to Langedijk. They later moved to Zuid-Scharwoude in Langedijk, and eventually back to Heerhugowaard in the final years of their lives. Of course, in addition to Klaas and Arie, Maartje’s sons from her first marriage lived with the family until their adulthood. It is likely that Klaas’s son, Jan, from his first marriage, was living with the family for some period of time. As well, in the 1890s, Maartje’s teenage granddaughter, Maartje Buur, was living with Maartje and Klaas.

The Bevolkingsregister (“Population Register”) of Zuid-Scharwoude for 1850-1860 showing Cornelis and Maartje, along with their blended family.

Cornelis died in 1893 at age 81. Maartje outlived him by three years, passing away in Heerhugowaard on June 15, 1896, at the age of 78. Maartje’s death registration is not entirely accurate, likely because the declarants were neighbours rather than family members. Among other things, her age at death was listed as 80, and the identities of her parents were unknown.

Death registration for Maartje.
The Schager Courant, July 5, 1896, page 3. “Maartje Mettes, widow of Cornelis Komen, previously widow of Klaas Buwe (sic), aged 80 years.”

52W Mark IV – Week 19: Card K6 Cornelis Komen

Cornelis Komen (1812 – 1893)

Egad, this year’s 52 Ancestors Challenge  is already on Week 22, and here I am still trying to finish Week 19. I’ve never fallen this far behind in four years of participating in the challenge, but I’m not giving up. As they say, better late than never!

Cornelis Komen was born on September 2, 1812 in Zuid-Scharwoude, Noord Holland, Netherlands. He was the eldest child of Nicolaas Cornelisz “Klaas” Komen, a watermill worker, and Vrouwtje Hilbert Hilberts, who had been a domestic servant up until her marriage. Cornelis was the eldest of six children. While one of Cornelis’s siblings died in childhood, he and his other siblings lived long lives. He and a brother lived into their 80s, another brother lived until age 77.

Cornelis spent most of his life working as a farmer and day labourer in Noord Holland. While he moved several times throughout his life, he never lived much further than a few kilometers from where he was born. In the early 1830s, he worked as a farmer in Oterleek, which is a bit south of Heerhugowaard. By 1840, he was living and working in Heerhugowaard, which is a stone’s throw from Zuid-Scharwoude.

In February 1839, Cornelis married for the first time, to Marijtje Olijkan. Marijtje was born on May 9, 1815 in Opmeer. Cornelis and Marijtje’s marriage registration noted that both were farmers at the time. The marriage also occurred in Opmeer, almost nine kilometers from Heerhugowaard. Considering how Cornelis did not move very far afield* during his life, I don’t know how he came to be married to someone who lived so relatively far from the tiny domain that he inhabited.

Nevertheless, after the wedding Cornelis and Marijtje lived in Heerhugowaard. The couple had two children, both born in Heerhugowaard: Jan, born in 1839, and Trijntje, born in 1840. Sadly, Marijtje passed away on August 23, 1841, less than three weeks after giving birth. She was only 25. Trijntje died ten days after her mother, on September 3, 1840. Jan, on the other hand, lived to be 82.

Cornelis continued to live and work as a labourer in Heerhugowaard after he was widowed. Then, on May 2, 1851, over a decade after Marijtje’s death, Cornelis remarried. His second wife was Maartje Mettes, my Gx3 Grandmother, who was born in Hensbroek on December 25, 1817. Maartje was the daughter of Pieter Ariensz Mettes and Grietje Cornelis Poland. This was also Maartje’s second marriage. She had been previously married for ten years to Klaas Buur, with whom she had four sons. The eldest and the youngest of their children both passed away before Klaas died, in 1847.

By marrying Maartje Mettes, Cornelis Komen became the brother-in-law of…Cornelis Komen! Maartje’s older sister, Neeltje, was also married to a man named Cornelis Komen. The two Cornelises were first cousins once removed. There also may not have been much confusion between the names, because it appears that the other Cornelis more likely went by the variant “Crelis”.

For the first few years after their marriage, Cornelis and Maartje continued to live in Heerhugowaard, where they had two sons: Nicolaas “Klaas” (my Gx2 Grandfather born 1852) and Adrianus “Arie” (born 1853). Sometime shortly after Arie’s birth, the family moved to Zuid-Scharwoude, where Cornelis worked as a day labourer. In 1854 they were living in Pannekeet, on the outskirts of Zuid-Scharwoude, along with Maartje’s sons from her previous marriage and his sons with Maartje.

Cornelis and Maartje, along with Arie, were still living in Zuid-Scharwoude as late as the 1870s, where Cornelis continued to work as a labourer.  Cornelis and Maartje relocated to Heerhugowaard by the 1880s. By then, all their children were adults, but Maartje’s granddaughter, through the children she had with Klaas Buur, was living with Cornelis and Maartje.

The family was still in Heerhugowaard at the time Cornelis died, on November 13, 1893. He was survived by Maartje, who lived until 1896.

Cornelis’s death registration, which notes his marriages to Maartje Olijkan and Maartje Mettes.

*All puns are intended. Intend your puns!