Antje “Anna” Woltering, my Gx2 grandmother, was born in Zuid-Scharwoude, Noord Holland on February 25, 1853. She was the youngest of four children born to Cornelis Woltering and Neeltje Smit. [Update: I have since learned that Anna was the fifth of six children. An older brother died before Anna was born, and a younger sister died at age five.]
Anna lived over half her life in Zuid-Scharwoude. There she married Nicolaas “Klaas” Komen on May 19, 1878.
Together Anna and Klaas had ten children, all of whom were born in Zuid-Scharwoude, although two did not survive infancy. Seven of their children married and had families of their own. Their youngest son, Jacob, took up a religious life as a “kloosterbroeder” with the Franciscan Fathers in the province of Limburg – almost as far as one could get from Zuid-Scharwoude and still be in the Netherlands.
On March 20, 1900, after two decades of marriage and a few years after Jacob was born, the family moved to Noord-Scharwoude. It was not a far move, since Zuid- and Noord-Scharwoude are adjacent to each other and were part of the then gemeente of Langedijk (now part of Dijk en Waard). Anna and Klaas lived together in Noord-Scharwoude for over 30 years and Anna remained there after Klaas died on February 28, 1929. The photo of Anna in the playing card was taken in front of her house.
Less than a year before she passed away, Anna went to live with her son Arie and daughter-in-law Elizabeth at Pikstraat (now Werfstraat) 8 in Noord Holland. Elizabeth lived at that house until her death in 1976. My father remembers visiting that house as a child, and I walked down that street with him during a visit in 2017.
Six years after Klaas passed away, Anna died on April 21, 1935 at the age of 82. She was laid to rest on April 25, 1935, likely at St. Jan de Doper (St. John the Baptist) church in Noord-Scharwoude. However, her remains are no longer there, as graves in the Netherlands are usually leased, not purchased. They are routinely cleared after a few decades.
A Deck of Ancestors 