Tag: Cornelis Jan Bakker

52W Mark IV – Week 17: Card K4 Cornelis Jan Bakker

Cornelis Jan Bakker (1855 – 1914)

Cornelis Jan Bakker was born on April 26, 1855 in Den Helder, Noord Holland, the only son of Jan Cornelis Bakker and Johanna Adriana Puinbroek. Cornelis was only four when his father died. While Johanna remarried to a man named Pieter Dekker when Cornelis was six, the death of his father must have undoubtedly must have left a mark on his life. He remained an only child, as Johanna and Pieter never had any children that I could find.

Cornelis’s birth registration (Civil Register for Den Helder)

Cornelis spent his life in Den Helder, a port city in the north-west corner of the Netherlands and home of the Netherlands’ primary naval base for centuries. In 1875, Cornelis registered for mandatory military service in Den Helder but never served. The register shows that he was exempted from service because he was an only child.

Military Register showing Cornelis’s enrollment for mandatory military service and his exemption from service due to being an only child.

It should come as no surprise that Cornelis had a number of ancestors who were civilian sailors in Den Helder. Cornelis’ father and a maternal uncle were sailors, as were several other direct ancestors, along with his step-father and his father-in-law. In fact, Cornelis’s wife also had many sailors in her lineage.

Cornelis broke with that tradition. Around 1875, Cornelis began his work as a cobbler or a shoemaker, a trade he maintained for nearly four decades, up until his death in 1914. Three of Cornelis’s five sons became shoemakers, although one later gave up the trade to work in a bank.

On September 29, 1881, when he was 26 years old, Cornelis married Christina Ran in Den Helder. Christina was born in Den Helder on February 13, 1858 and, like Cornelis, spent her entire life in that city. Together, Cornelis and Christina had eleven children. While Cornelis and Christina remained rooted in Den Helder their entire lives, several of their children later moved further afield, including my great grandmother Elizabeth Bakker who ended up in Langedijk, about 30 kilometers to the south. Other children ended up in the provinces of Utrecht and Zuid Holland.

Cornelis died on April 6, 1914 at the age of 58 in Den Helder. He was buried in Den Helder, at the Begraafplaats Huisduinen (“Huisduinenen Cemetery”). The cemetery is now also known as Algemene Begraafplaats Den Helder (“General Cemetery of Den Helder”). Huisduinen is a village on the outskirts of Den Helder and was the original settlement centuries ago. When the harbour was built in Den Helder, its growth outpaced the original neighbouring village.

Map showing the location of Cornelis and Christina’s grave at Begraafplaats Huisduinen in Den Helder.

Graves in the Netherlands are usually leased, not purchased, and are routinely cleared after a few decades, so imagine my surprise when I discovered that Cornelis, along with his wife, is still interred in his original resting place! According to the Dutch version of Wikipedia, there are gravestones at Begraafplaats Huisduinen dating back to 1671 and that there are many centuries-old headstones. In fact, in 2023, many of the old graves and headstones were restored and renovated.

“Here rest our dear parents C. J. BAKKER (1855-1914) and CH. RAN (1858-1924)”

If I had known about this when I visited Den Helder many years ago, I would have loved to have visited the site!

Heldersche Courant, April 7, 1914, page 3

52W Mark II – Week 40: Longevity

With this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge theme of “Longevity”, I suspect the inclination would be to write about those who have lived the longest, or perhaps were married the longest. I’ve tried to think about this from another perspective involving length of time spent.

To that end, I’ve tried to determine who might have experienced longevity in their occupation. I have many ancestors who spent their entire lives in a single occupation, particularly farming or agricultural work, or as labourers. However, what I have been pondering is someone who remained in the same occupation at the same place the longest, preferably with the same employer.

Of those who worked outside of farmwork and labouring, two ancestors stood out to me, both on my father’s side of the family: Cornelis Jan Bakker (my Gx2 grandfather) and Reijer Ran (my Gx4 grandfather).

Cornelis (1855-1914) was a cobbler and shoemaker in Den Helder, Noord Holland, Netherlands. Despite this description, I doubt that Cornelis did anything similar to that of a cordwainer. A cobbler largely repaired old shoes, while a cordwainer makes new shoes from new material, usually based on patterns they design themselves. I have few details of Cornelis’s work, other than he carried out his trade in Den Helder. His occupation is simply listed as a fact in various records. Cornelis was a cobbler from at least 39 years, from about 1875 to 1914, when he passed away.

Record of Cornelis’s conscription into the military showing his occupation as a shoemaker. While conscripted, he was released from service.
Cornelis’s death registration, showing his occupation as shoemaker.

Reijer (1792-1860) was a sailor. It appears that his largely worked as a harbour and channel pilot. He was born and raised on Texel, the largest of the Wadden Sea islands on the north coast of the Netherlands, although he was living in Den Helder when he died. However, I am unable to determine whether he was based out of Texel or Den Helder, the mainland city closest to Texel. Like Cornelis, the information I have about Reijer’s occupation is largely a statement of fact in various birth, marriage, and death records. Reijer was a sailor for at least 41 years, from 1813 to 1854. It is possible that Reijer worked later than 1854, that is simply the last year I have mention of him still working as a sailor.