My Gx2 Grandmother Christina Ran was born on February 13, 1858, in Den Helder, Noord Holland. She was the third of seven children and third of five daughters born to Cornelis Ran and Elisabeth de Waard.
Like many Dutch parents of the time, Cornelis and Elisabeth followed the traditional naming conventions for their children. With their third daughter, they had a bit more freedom in naming Christina. I don’t know what inspired the name, I haven’t found any previous Christinas earlier in her tree. It also doesn’t seem to be a particularly common name over the last 200 years. With the family being Catholic, maybe it was inspired by Saint Christina the Astonishing, who lived in what is now Limburg Province, Belgium. Or, like my mother will often suggest, “maybe they just liked the name.”
Christina’s daughter, Elizabeth Bakker, my great grandmother, followed the traditional naming custom. Thus my grandmother, Christina Komen, is her grandmother’s namesake.
On September 29, 1881, Christina married Cornelis Jan Bakker in Den Helder. The couple had eleven children together. While they raised their large family in the same town where she was born, married, and died, eight of Christina’s children moved to other cities or towns after leaving home. Some remained close by, still in Noord Holland; others moved further afield, to the provinces of Utrecht and Zuid Holland.
Christina died on November 26, 1924, at the age of 66. She was buried at Begraafplaats Huisduinen in Den Helder.
A Deck of Ancestors 