A Deck of Ancestors

52W Mark IV – Week 13: Card V13 Trijntje Jans(en)

With Week 13, we have reached the last card of the first suit of this year’s deck of ancestors! I am really enjoying the different approach I have taken with the 52 Ancestors Challenge this year. I thought it might be less work, but as I worked through each card, I realized that my research hadn’t been as thorough or complete as I thought it had been. So I’ve spent much more time researching than writing as part of this year’s challenge. In essence, it has turned into Yvette Hoitink‘s Level-Up Challenge!

My Gx3 Grandmother, Trijntje Jans, is featured in this final card. For decades, I’ve had her entered in my database as “Trijntje Jansen”, with “Jans” as an alternate surname. However, quite recently, I’ve reversed things, and now have “Jans” as Trijntje’s surname with “Jansen” as an alternative.

As anyone who has done genealogy for enough time knows, a fixed consistent spelling of names is a relatively recent thing, so the fluidity of Trijntje’s surname is not surprising.

I first used “Jansen” because it was how I first encountered Trijntje. In the marriage registration for Ariaantje Bleeker, my Gx2 Grandmother and Trijntje’s daughter, Trijntje’s surname was recorded as “Jansen”. It was also entered as “Jansen” in the marriage registration of Ariaantje’s younger sister, Aagje Bleeker.

However, in records specifically about Trijntje herself, her surname was recorded as “Jans”. Most significantly, the name entered in the registration of her birth was “Jans”. Trijntje’s marriage and death registrations also named her as “Jans”. To me, that’s a compelling reason to use “Jans” as her “actual” surname and “Jansen” as the alternate.

So what do all these records tell us?

Trijntje was born on January 4, 1830 in Oude Niedorp, Noord Holland. She was the first of 13 children born to Cornelis Janz Jans(en) and Ariaantje Noordstrand. Fewer than half the children survived infancy or childhood.

Oddly enough, the youngest of the 13 children was also named Trijntje. The elder Trijntje was 19 years old when her younger namesake was born and was likely still living at home. There are many reasons why parents would give two or more of their children the same name, but I cannot think of any that would have applied in this case.

Trijntje married Jacob Bleeker on May 12, 1855 in Oude Niedorp. Together they had four children. Sometime between the birth of their second and third children (1859 to 1865), Trijntje and Jacob moved to Harenkarspel, Noord Holland. Harenkarspel is about 10 kilometers west of Oude Niedorp. That strikes me as a huge move, given that even today that seems to be a long distance for some of my relatives who live in Noord Holland. I don’t know why they moved. It’s possible there was significant event in their lives, which might go to the five and a half year age gap between their second child, Cornelis, and third child, Adriana (my Gx2 Grandmother).

Jacob died in 1890, when Trijntje was 60 years old. However, she did not remain in Harenkarspel after he died. According to her death registration, Trijntje died in Medemblik, Noord Holland, on November 8, 1915. I do not know when or why she moved to Medemblik, which is on the coast of the Zuiderzee (“South Sea”), a saltwater bay. With the completion of the Afsluitdijk in 1932, the Zuiderzee became a freshwater lake, the IJsselmeer.

This was also a significant move, because Medemblik is almost 30 kilometers east of Harenkarspel and 10 kilometers east of Oude Niedorp. I don’t know of any contemporaneous family who lived in Medemblik at the time that might explain why Trijntje moved there. I will have to check the bevolkingsregisters (population registers) and Trijntje’s FAN club (“Friends, Associates, and Neighbours”) to see if I can solve this mystery.

52W Mark IV – Week 12: Card V12 Jacob Bleeker

While preparing this long-overdue post, I became distracted by the fact that my grandfather, Arie van der Fluit, has Bleekers on both his paternal and maternal line. Jacob Bleeker, Arie’s great grandfather, is on his maternal line. Arie’s Bleeker connection on his paternal line is much further back – his closest Bleeker ancestor is his Gx3 grandmother, Marijtje Pieterz Bleeker.

The other night I connected the two Bleeker lines. Jacob’s great grandfather, Klaas Pietersz Bleeker (1736-1782), and Marijtje Pietersz Bleeker (1742-?), were siblings. The result is that my grandfather was his own fifth cousin once removed. Hello “pedigree collapse“!

Baptism record for Marijtje Bleeker (top) and Klaas Bleeker (Jan’s great grandfather). The best part of this quest is that I now know the names of Marijtje and Klaas’s parents: Pieter Willemsz Bleeker and Anna Jacobsz.

Turning to this week’s card, Jacob was born on January 21, 1828 in Oude Niedorp, Noord Holland. He was the second of six children and second son, of Cornelis Pietersz Bleeker and Jacoba de Jong. Jacob’s parents, and all his siblings, appear to have lived their entire lives in Oude Niedorp. The one exception was Jan.

Jacob married Trijntje Jansen on May 12, 1855, in Oude Niedorp. Like Jacob, at the time of the marriage Trijntje had spent her entire life in Oude Niedorp. Their first two children, Jacoba and Cornelis, were also born in Oude Niedorp. Sometime between Cornelis’s birth in 1859 and his sister Adriana’s birth in 1865, Jacob and family relocated to Harenkarspel, the gemeente (municipality) directly west of Oude Niedorp.

I haven’t found much about what Jacob was doing between 1859 and 1865. I had wondered whether there had been another child born between Cornelis and Adriana, given the six year gap, but found nothing. At most, it appears that in Oude Niedorp and his first years in Harenkarspel, Jacob worked as a labourer. He was still reported as being a labourer in 1867, when his youngest child, Aagje, was born. It appears that he might have worked as a farmer or farm labourer in 1886, but otherwise it seems that he worked as a labourer for most of his life. His death registration listed labourer as his occupation.

Jacob died on May 17, 1890, in Harenkarspel.

52W Mark IV – Week 11: Card V11 Teetje de Groot

I have three direct ancestors with the forename “Teetje”: Teetje Pater (my Great Grandmother); Teetje de Groot (my Gx3 Grandmother); and Teetje Bakker (my Gx5 Grandmother). It might not surprise you that Teetje de Groot is Teetje Pater’s maternal grandmother and that Teetje Bakker is Teetje de Groot’s maternal grandmother, especially if you are aware of Dutch naming customs.

Traditionally, the first son is named after the paternal grandfather, the second son is name after the maternal grandfather, the first daughter is named after the maternal grandmother, and the second daughter after paternal grandmother. I knew of this custom for years before it dawned on me to apply it to my father and his siblings, and sure enough, they followed this pattern, assuming that “Thecla” is a variant of Teetje. I also had it that “Teetje” was a form of Theresia, at least according to some records I have of my great grandmother.

However, I recently learned of the Corpus of First Names in the Netherlands. It does not indicate any relationship between “Teetje” and “Thecla”. It also does not indicate that “Teetje” has any relationship with “Theresia”, nor does Dutch Wikipedia. I had similar results at Voornamenboek (“first name book”). However, there would be nothing stopping someone named Theresia from using the roepnaam (nickname) Teetje, or my grandmother substituting “Thecla” for “Teetje” when she named my aunt.

The first paragraph of Teetje’s birth registration.

Turning to the middle of my chain of Teetje grandmothers, Teetje de Groot was born December 18, 1830 in Oude Niedorp, Noord Holland. She was the third of thirteen children, and the first daughter, born to Jan de Groot and Sijtje Sijbecarspel, my Gx4 grandparents. Teetje was also the first to live past childhood. In fact, only four of Jan and Sijtje’s children lived to adulthood. Of those who died in childhood, one lived to age eight, one lived to be three, and none of the others survived infancy. Of the four who attained adulthood, Teetje lived the longest and was the last of the de Groot children to pass away.

Extract from the marriage registration for Jan Pater and Teetje de Groot, June 11, 1852.

The circle shows the location of Jan and Sijtje’s farm, where their daughter Teetje and son-in-law Jan Pater later came to live. The star shows where my father was born.

Teetje likely spent all of her adult life living at the same home. After they married, Teetje and Jan moved into Teetje’s parent’s house in Zijdewind, which at the time was part of gemeente (municipality) Oude Niedorp. Teetje was still living there after her parents and husband passed away. At least two of her children, Gerrit and Bregje, were still living with her at the house in Zijdewind in 1880. It seems that Gerrit remained at the house after Teetje passed away; he sold it in 1917.

The house was an elongated structure that was divided into a living room with two box beds and a stable for four cows. In the living area there was a small kitchen with a rainwater tank. Rainwater was collected via the gutters and a pipe indoors. The house burned down in 1926.

Teetje died on April 26, 1900 in Oude Niedorp, at the farm in Zijdewind.

Died April 26 (1900) > Teetje de Groot, widow of Jan Pater, age 69.

52W Mark IV – Week 10: Card V10 Jan Pater

Jan Pater was born on May 20, 1826 in Sint Maarten, Noord Holland, the eldest of five children born to Jacob Janz Pater and Antje “Anna” Lievendag. Sometime between the time Jan was three and seven, the family moved a few kilometers south to the adjacent gemeente (municipality) of Harenkarspel. According to his registration of marriage, Jan lived in Harenkarspel and was working there as a labourer until shortly before he got married.

The circle shows where Jan lived with his wife and inlaws. The star is where my father was born.

Jan was 26 when he married Teetje de Groot on June 11, 1852 in Oude Niedorp. After they married, Jan and Teetje moved in with Teetje’s parents, Jan de Groot and Sijtje Sijbecarspel. They lived in Zijdewind, which at the time was part of gemeente Oude Niedorp.

According to an article in Toendertoid: Stichting Waarland van Toen, “Many tragic events took place in this family between 1850 and 1880.” It then went on to describe the house they lived in, without providing any details about what happened.

*Toendertoid*, May 1994, page 12
WHAT HAPPENED?!?

Jan was a labourer almost his entire life, except for a brief period in 1872 when he was a “veldwachter”; literally, “field guard,” a kind of rural police or constabulary. The veldwachters originated as the “garde champêtre” during the Napoleonic era. They were very poorly paid, if at all, and largely relied upon other sources of income. There were few prerequisites to become a veldwachter and at Jan’s time it was much less than a professional police officer. What authority they had was limited to the municipality in which they served.

Jan was 46 when he was a veldwachter and he did not serve very long. It is not clear what qualification Jan had for the role. He was still described as a labourer when his daughter Maartje was born in March 1871. It was only the April 1872 death registration of his son, Jacob, that showed Jan as a veldwachter. Maartje died later that same year, in December, and her death registration recorded that Jan was a labourer at the time. Jan was still a labourer when he died in Zijdewind at age 52.

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