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“!
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.
A Deck of Ancestors 