I was in my late teens or early twenties when I learned that a branch of my Dutch ancestors had the surname “Gomes”. I grew up in a town with a large number of Portuguese families, so naturally I wondered if some errant Portuguese sailor – or even a pirate! – had ended up in the Netherlands and married into the family. It made sense, since Texel, the largest of the Wadden Sea Islands that stretch from the Netherlands to Denmark, has a centuries-long naval history.
Sadly, no. It seems that the origin of the surname Gomes, at least on Texel, is Germanic in origin, originating in the genitive case of the noun “man”. Alternatively, it has its origins in the Latin word for rooms, “camere”, working its way from “Come” to Gomes”. The only thing that seems to be certain is that there is no Iberian connection. Wat jammer.
My Great x 4 Grandmother, Maartje Klaas (Maria) Gomes, was born in June 1791 on Texel. She was the eldest of 10 children born to Klaas Cornelisz Gomes and Annaatje Klaas de Rijk. Klaas spent his whole life working as a sailor and harbour pilot. As Oudeschild was the only harbour and only village on the coastline of Texel, Maartje and her siblings were most likely born there.
While there was a twenty-year age gap between Maartje and her youngest sibling, Maartje had the longest lifespan and outlived most of her brothers and sisters. Only three of Maartje’s siblings outlived her, and none by more than two years.
Maartje’s Tesselaar roots run deep along her paternal line, dating back to the late 15th century. What I found interesting, however, is that the surname Gomes does not run directly along Maartje’s paternal line.
Rather, Maartje’s great grandfather, Jan Cornelisz Gomes (1685-1758), did not take his last name from his father. Rather, he (like all but one of his siblings) took his surname from his mother, Aagje Jans Gomes. Jan’s father was Cornelis Claasz Bakker. Typical of Dutch naming customs, as the second-born male, Jan took his maternal grandfather’s first name as his first name and his father’s first name as his patronymic, which appears to us as a middle name. However, in some records like water leases, Jan was identified as “Jan Cornelisz Backer”. Jan and his wife Jannetje Jans Rans were innkeepers operating “‘t Bonte Paerd” in Oudeschild.
Apparently the entire Gomes family on Texel descends from Jan and Jannetje. The surname Gomes traces back from Aagje to her Great x3 Grandfather, Jan Gomes, who was born sometime around 1500.
Maartje married Reijer Jansz Ran in Oudeschild on November 26, 1813. That was only twelve days after French rule collapsed in the Netherlands. The French military had evacuated Amsterdam on November 14, 1813 and left the city in the control of the National Guard, a militia force. On November 15, 1813, a popular uprising led by a Dutch naval officer, overthrew French authority. At the same time, an uprising in The Hague took control there. Despite that, at the local level, the remnants of the French administration still managed day to day life, as evidenced by the fact Maartje and Reijer’s marriage registration bears a stamp of Imperial France.
Maartje and Reijer had eleven children, five girls and six boys. The lifespan of Maartje’s eldest child, Annaatje, emulated her mother’s. There was a 23-year age gap between Annaatje and her youngest sibling, and she outlived all her brothers and sisters.
Around 1840, a few years after Maartje’s youngest child was born, the family moved from Texel to Den Helder, where Reijer took up work as a channel pilot. It’s my understanding that in the 19th century, many sailors and workers in nautical-based occupations relocated from Texel to Den Helder. After French rule, the Netherlands stationed its navy in Den Helder. In the 1820s, the North Holland Canal connected Den Helder to Amsterdam, which resulted in significant growth in the city and its emergence as an industrial port.
Maartje, who outlived her husband by 18 years, spent the rest of her life in Den Helder.
