Tag: Noord Holland

52W Mark IV – Week 24: Card K11 Johanna Adriana Puinbroek

Johanna Adriana Puinbroek (1822-1881)

I am terribly, terribly far behind with this year’s 52 Ancestors Challenge. Ironically, I thought I would be much more focused on the writing, since I had thought that I had done a thorough job on the research for the individuals I had been planning to write about. How wrong I was!

Not only did I discover that I had a lot of gaps in my research, I kept getting sucked into rabbit holes of other research. Particularly so for Johanna Adriana Puinbroek, my Great x3 Grandmother. For years her parents, Johannes Puinbroek (1786-1865) and Maria Theresia Letens (1802-1848), have been a mystery to me. So instead of writing about Johanna I spent most of the last several weeks researching her parents. After overcoming a litany of hurdles I won’t detail here, I finally cracked through some brick walls.

But first, Johanna. I find her interesting in her own right for several reasons. One is where she was born. The vast majority of my Dutch ancestors are from the province of Noord Holland, with one branch originating in Zuid Holland and migrating to Noord Holland in the early 1800s.  But not Johanna.

Johanna Adriana’s birth registration. “Ledens” was one of the many spelling variations for her mother’s surname; there are also many iterations of the spelling of “Puinbroek” in the records.

Johanna was born on August 2, 1822 in Heinkenszand, a village on Walcheren, a former island that is now a peninsula in the province of Zeeland. It is almost as far down the Dutch coast as you can get from Den Helder, Noord Holland, where she and her parents moved before Johanna turned two. In a country where it seems that travel to the next town is still a major undertaking for the locals, literally moving from one end of the country to another in the early 19th century seems quite amazing.

It is largely speculation based on little evidence, but I suspect the move might have been more a result of her parent’s personal circumstances than anything to do with what was happening in Zeeland at the time. Johannes and Maria were not married when Johanna was born; in fact, they never married during the almost 25 years that they were together. That might not be unusual in itself.

However, when Maria conceived Johanna Adriana, Johannes was married to another woman, Johanna Judoca van Haever (1786-1823). While Johannes and Johanna Judoca were the same age, Johannes was 16 years older than Maria. Johanna Judoca died in April 1822, shortly after giving birth to her and Johannes’s sixth child, Josephus Bernardus. Josephus died three months later, in July.

The following month Johanna Adriana was born to Johannes and Maria. In fact, the birth registration for Johanna Adriana shows that Johannes and Maria were living in different towns about 40 kilometers apart. Maria was living in Heinkenszand, where Johanna Adriana was born. Johannes was living in Vrasene, Oost-Vlaanderen, where he was born. Vrasene is just outside of Antwerp, which was still part of the Netherlands. Belgium did not become a country until 1830. Vrasene is about 10 kilometers from Sint Jansteen, where Johanna Judoca lived her entire life. So it appears Johannes was not living near either of his partners at the time.

Sometime before 1824, Johannes, Maria, and Johanna Adriana moved to Den Helder. It appears that only two of Johannes and Johanna Judoca’s children survived childhood. They would have been 12 and 9 when their mother died and their father moved north, but they did not accompany him. They both stayed in Zeeland. I don’t know who raised them after their father left for Den Helder.

In fact, I doubt they ever saw their father again. When Johannes and Johanna Judoca’s eldest son, Dominique, married in Sint Jansteen in 1838, he attested that he did not know if his father was alive and that he did not know his father’s last residence. It would follow that Dominique likely had no idea about Johanna Adriana or his other half siblings.

The passage from Dominique Puijenbroek’s marriage registration in which he attests to the fact he had no knowledge of his father’s whereabouts. In fact, Dominique said that he believed his father was deceased.

In Den Helder, Johannes and Maria had four more children. The first, Frederika, was born on February 23, 1824, but she did not survive the day. Their last child, Willem, was born in 1834. As of 1840, the family was still living together in Den Helder, although Johannes and Maria remained unmarried. It’s a mystery to me why Johannes and Maria never married. Since Johanna Judoca had passed away, I cannot find any impediment to them marrying – to each other or anyone else.

Five years later, in 1845 when Johanna Adriana was 23 years old, Maria married a sailor named Jacob Pel. Maria was 42; Jacob was 29 – only six years older than Johanna Adriana. Like Maria, Jacob was also born in Zeeland, although by the time he was required to register for compulsory military service he was living in Noord Holland. The couple never had children and the marriage was short, as Maria died in December 1848, the day after her 46th birthday. It does not appear that Jacob ever married again.

A year after Maria married Jacob, her former partner Johannes married Cornelia Bakker, on April 2, 1846. Johannes, who was then 60, was 18 years older than Cornelia, who was 42. There were children in this marriage. Despite Cornelia’s much younger age, Johannes outlived her. She died on February 20, 1859. Johannes died on January 1, 1865.

On June 3, 1847, two years after her mother married Jacob and one year after her father married Cornelia, Johanna Adriana married Jan Cornelis Bakker, a 28-year-old sailor who was living in Den Helder. Johanna was 24 at the time. They had one child together, my Gx2 Grandfather Cornelis Jan Bakker, who was born in 1855. Unfortunately, Jan died young, at age 40, when Cornelis was only four years old.

The top and bottom of Johanna Adriana and Jan’s marriage registration. The bottom half notes that Johannes Puinbroek could not read or write. It also bears the signature of Maria Letens.

Within two years of Jan’s death, on June 16, 1861, Johanna Adriana married Pieter Dekker (1813-1885), in Den Helder. Pieter was also a sailor and spent many decades at that profession, although when Johanna died on June 24, 1881 he was a shopkeeper in Den Helder. Johanna and Pieter never had any children.

Alkmaarsche Courant, June 9, 1861. “Civil Register. Married June 7. Pieter Dekker, widower of Siesje Boon, from Alkmaar, and Johanna Puimbroek, widow of Jan Cornelis Bakker, from Den Helder.”

The account of Johanna and her parents is one of the more complicated stories in my family history. The countless hours of research I poured into finding it out reflects that complexity.

Vliegend Blaadje: Nieuws- en Advertentieblad voor Den Helder,
June 28, 1881. “Today after a short illness my beloved wife Johanna Adriana Puinbroek passed away after receiving the Holy Sacrament of the Last Rites, at the age of 58 years and 10 months. Den Helder, June 24, 1881. P. Dekker. Also in the name of my son. This is for general information.” The son Pieter Dekker referred to was from his first marriage.

52W Mark III – Week 32: Free Space

I had originally drafted this as a post separate from the 52 Ancestors Challenge, but then I noted “Free Space” as an upcoming post. So nice to be ahead of the prompt for a change!

The Database of Surnames in The Netherlands contains about 300,000 surnames found in the Netherlands in 2007, with similar data for 1947. It is maintained by the CBG Centrum voor familiegeschiedenis (“CBG Centre for Family History”) in the Netherlands, formerly called the Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie (“Central Bureau for Genealogy”).

A swimming pool with my surname on it, located on Fluitpolderplein in Leidschendam, Zuid Holland. Our surname either comes from the polder on which this pool is located, or the polder is named after my ancestor. There’s also an adjacent library, where I tried to do a bit of family history research.

You’d be hard pressed to find many Vanderfluits/van der Fluits in North America. Yes, there are a few of us, mostly in New Brunswick and Alberta, and some in British Columbia (like me!). There are also a few in the United States.

Fluitpolderplein in Leidschendam, Zuid Holland.

There aren’t many van der Fluits in the Netherlands, either, but 218 (in 2007) seems like a huge number when I think of how few are on this side of the Atlantic.

Visiting my cousin in the Netherlands, whose house is on “‘t Fluitnpad” – which is actually the name he gave his driveway. In English, it says “The Fluit Path”.

It’s no surprise to me to find the concentration in Noord Holland (the bit below Texel, the largest of the islands on the map). It’s where my father was born and pretty much where all the van der Fluits who I know in the Netherlands live. What’s surprising are the pockets of van der Fluits in Gelderland and Noord Brabant (the south-east). I have no idea who they are or how they got there. Even more surprising is the dearth of van der Fluits in Zuid Holland (around The Hague and Leiden), especially since that is the primary source of the surname. There are *zero* in many of the municipalities where my ancestors came from.

52 Weeks Mark III – Week 6: Earning a Living

While most of my Dutch ancestors were farmers and labourers, it should come as no surprise that a few worked in windmills. On my father’s maternal side of the family, three of my Gx4 grandfathers were watermolenaaren (singular, watermolenaar – “water mill worker”). These were the windmills used for pumping water.

On my father’s paternal line, the surname “van der Fluit” may have originated with a windmill (“Fluijtermolen” – “Whistler Mill”) or the polder (“Fluitpolder”) on which it stood in Veur, Zuid-Holland (now part of Leidschendam). Alternatively, the windmill and polder might have been named after my ancestor, Johannes Dircks (“Jan”) (van der Fluit or Goeman) who owned or constructed them.

Me standing in front of the windmill in Waarland, Noord Holland, at more than a metre below sea level, about a kilometer from where my father was born and 200 metres from where he was baptized.

My paternal grandmother’s father was Adrianus Komen (1888-1948). Three of his four great grandfathers were all water mill workers. There is a strong possibility all three worked in the same windmill at the same time. I know that two of them, Nicolaas Cornelisz “Klaas” Komen (1786-1864) and Jan Smit (1786-1852) worked at the windmill located in Heerhugowaard, Noord Holland. However, the records I have consulted do not indicate when they worked in the windmill. At most, it is quite likely that Jan was working at the windmill until at least 1852.

I have no idea where and when the third, Johannes “Jan” Woltering (abt 1788-1834) worked in a windmill. I know that it was sometime before 1814, by which time he was working as a carpenter, as documented in the registration of his marriage. Unfortunately, the source from which I obtained the fact he had been a watermolenaar was simply an index and no longer exists. I have not found this item in other sources and records I’ve consulted. The population registers I have seen do not include his occupation. A notarial record I’ve found is dated 1817, which shows Jan working as a carpenter.

Despite this, I have reason to believe that Jan may have worked in the windmill in Heerhugowaard. Jan was born in 1788 in what is now Vreden, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Vreden is about three kilometers from the Dutch border. What he did between his birth and marriage I don’t know, but by 1814 he was living in Akersloot, Noord Holland, which is about 14 kilometers south of Heerhugowaard. After he married he lived and worked in Langedijk, Noord Holland, which is immediately adjacent to Heerhugowaard.

“De Valk” (The Falcon), a windmill in Leiden, Zuid Holland, about 10 kilometers from where Fluijtermolen once stood.

There is one fact in particular that makes me suspect Jan may have worked in the windmill in Heerhugowaard is that Jan Woltering’s son Cornelis married Jan Smit’s daughter Neeltje. Thus, it is possible that the families knew each other because Jan and Jan worked together in the same windmill. Then again, Heerhugowaard was not a large place in 1814 and it is quite possible they knew each other the way everyone in a small town tends to know each other.

Turning to Jan Dircks, the website for the municipality of Leidschendam-Voorburg used to have this information, which I have translated from Dutch:

The square and adjacent street between Prinsensingel, Noordsingel, de Amstelweg, and de Graaf Willem de Rijkelaan is called Fluitpolderplein. This was decided in 1970. But where does the “fluit” in “Fluit Polder” come from anyway? According to a historian of Veur, Hendrik Brouwer Schut, it may have something to do with the whistle of the grinding mills, or possibly the “fluitenkruid” (“cow parsley” or “Queen Anne’s lace” in English). [The Dutch name of the plant refers to the fact a flute or whistle can be made from the stem.] However, there may be a better explanation. In 1648 a large part of the territory of the polder already belonged to a certain Jan Dirckxz, who also went by the name “Fluijt”.

According to the street sign for Fluitpolderplein, the polder was located alongside the “Fluijtermolen” (Fluit Windmill), which was built around 1641. 

Am I named after the polder or is the polder named after me?

52W Mark III – Week 2: Origins

Week Two for the 2024 edition of the 52 Ancestors Challenge, and I’m already struggling. While my experience with the challenge has been rewarding and continues to be so, as I start my third year participating I am finding it harder to find things I haven’t previously written about one way or another. For this week’s prompt, “Origins”, it would have been quite easy to simply recycle any one of a number of past posts. However, I am trying to do something relatively new each week, because I think that’s most in keeping with the purpose and goal of the challenge.

Finally, today, now that Week Three’s prompt has been issued (on another recurring topic!), I thought I had finally come up with something I hadn’t written about before. Turns out that it’s something I’ve touched upon before. Nevertheless, I’m running with it because it’s never been the primary focus of a post.

My father was born in the Netherlands, so I have deep Dutch roots. My direct ancestors are primarily from the central part of what is now the province of Noord Holland, going back centuries. My paternal line has been there for 200 years but originated in Zuid Holland, in towns and villages between Den Haag (The Hague) and Leiden. Most of my Noord Holland ancestors were born, lived, and died roughly within a 280 square kilometre area.

The area of Noord Holland where many of my paternal ancestors lived. This is immediately north-east of Alkmaar, one of the larger cities in the area.

However, several of my Noord Holland ancestors were from Den Helder, a city on the northern tip of the mainland of Noord Holland. It is an important port city. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was a significant mustering and departure point for Dutch overseas trade and exploration. It is now the home of the Netherland’s main naval base.

Three kilometers north of Den Helder, across the Marsdiep strait, is the island of Texel. Through my father’s maternal grandmother, Elisabeth Bakker (1888-1976), I have significant roots in Texel. I do not know how far back those roots truly go, but I know that one branch of Elisabeth’s maternal line was on Texel by end of the 15th century.

In English, the “x” is pronounced the same as it is in “Texas”. In Dutch, it’s pronounced “Tessel”. Texel is the first and largest of the Wadden Sea islands, which stretch along the entire north coast of the Netherlands. Nine hundred years ago, Texel was part of the mainland. A catastrophic flood in 1170 dramatically changed the geography of north-west Netherlands, including the creation of the island of Texel. There has been settlement on Texel since at least the 12th century. Texel even has its own dialect, Tessels. It was common until the 1950s, after which time it went into significant decline.

The island received city rights in 1415. It has been the site of significant naval engagements over the last 400 years. It was also the site of one of the last battles of World War II in Europe. The island had been relatively unscathed during the war itself. It was only after the war was over that it was devastated. A German battalion made up of Georgian soldiers occupied Texel during the war. Supported by the Dutch Resistance, they rebelled in April 1945. Fighting between the Georgians and Germans lasted well beyond VE Day, ending only with the arrival of Canadian troops on May 20, 1945.

Historically, Texel’s primary economic activity involved agriculture and the sea. It is famous for a breed of sheep, Texels, that originated there. In present times, the island is primarily dependent on tourism. While most of my Dutch ancestors were primarily farmers and labourers, many of my Texel ancestors were sailors.

Both of Elisabeth Bakker’s grandfathers, Jan Cornelis Bakker (1819-1859) and Cornelis Ran (1824-1897), were harbour pilots. I suspect it was that line of work that led them to relocate and settle in Den Helder. Two of Elisabeth’s four great grandfathers, Cornelis Dirksz Bakker (1789-1858) and Reijer Ran (1792-1860), were also sailors. It was Elisabeth’s father, Cornelis Jan Bakker (1855-1914) who broke with that tradition. He was a cobbler and shoemaker.

One of Elisabeth’s great grandfathers who was not a sailor was Jan de Waard (1787-1863). He began his working life as a labourer but for the last twenty years of his life he was a shopkeeper. Jan is interesting because nearly all my paternal line were Roman Catholic, but Jan was baptised in the Reformed Church. However, his wife Cornelia Pieters Kooij was Catholic and their children were baptised as Catholics. It is possible that Jan might have converted.

The other interesting thing about Jan and Cornelia is that they were amongst the last to be married during the period of French rule during the Napoleonic wars. They married at Texel on October 10, 1813. The record of their marriage is written in Dutch, but bears the seal of Imperial France. Less than a month after their marriage, a popular uprising resulted in the ouster of the French. On November 30, 1813, the son of the former stadholder of the country returned from exile and was named William I, Sovereign Prince of the United Netherlands and subsequently King.

The other of Elizabeth’s great grandfathers who was not a sailor, Johannes Puinbroek (1786-1865), was not even from Texel. In fact, he is quite the oddity in my family tree. He was born so far south from Texel that the town where he was born, Vrasene, is in Belgium (which at the time was the Austrian Netherlands). Sometime around 1822 and 1824 Johannes relocated to Den Helder, where he met and married his third wife. I have no idea beyond speculation as to what prompted him to move. I thought I had written about him before, given his unusual story, but searching through my posts I found nothing. Well! There is something I haven’t written about before! Stay tuned…