Joan's Ancestral World

14 Feb 2025

Christina Kotting married her first cousin Adrianus Nieuwenkamp

Adriana Kits

In a previous blog post, I wrote about Jan Kits Nieuwenkamp (1811-1870) after I stumbled upon a newspaper article. He had been travelling with a steamship when it hit a rock, and he drowned. Recently, I came across a picture of his sister Christina Nieuwenkamp (1809-1887, below right). Christina married Jan Ludolph Kotting (1809-1844) who was clergyman, successively in Kwadijk and Alkmaar in Holland. Jan and Christina are both children of Jan Mattheus Nieuwenkamp (1764-1824) and his third wife Adriana Kits (1774-1881, to the right).

Jan Mattheus Nieuwenkamp and his wife Adriana also had a son Abraham, who was baptised on 4 March 1800 in Amsterdam. Abraham Nieuwenkamp (23) was a bookseller when he married Petronella Kotting (31) in Amsterdam on 23 May 1823. Petronella is a daughter of shopkeeper Jan Ludolph Kotting (†1830) sr. and his wife Jannetje Brinkel (†1797). Within a year after her wedding, Petronella died on 18 May 1824, 8 days after giving birth to a dead daughter.
Her widower, Abraham Nieuwenkamp, married his first wife’s younger sister Geertruid Kotting (28) on 24 February 1826 in Amsterdam. Geertruid was baptised on 21 June 1797 in the Zuiderkerk, another church in Amsterdam. They had issue, including a son Adrianus Nieuwenkamp, born on 30 November 1835 in Amsterdam. Geertruid Kotting, aged 50, died in Amsterdam on 15 August 1847. Her widower Abraham Nieuwenkamp died in Amsterdam on 1 January 1866.

Christina Nieuwenkamp
in widow's clothing

Christina Nieuwenkamp (to the right) was born on 5 May 1809 in Hasselt. Her husband, clergyman Jan Ludolph Kotting, was baptised in Amsterdam on 12 February 1809 with witnesses Anna Maria Kotting and his grandfather Jan Ludolph Kotting sr. The parents are pharmacist Gerardus Kotting (1785-1852) and his wife Maria Elisabeth Gude (†1849).
Jan Ludolph died of scarlet fever at the age of 35 on 29 May 1844 in his parent’s home in Alkmaar. After a widowhood of 43 years, Christina Nieuwenkamp died on 23 July 1887 at the age of 78. They had 7 children, including a son Gerardus Kotting, who was working as a pharmacist, and a daughter Christina Kotting.

Christina Kotting was born on 17 December 1841 in Alkmaar. She married her first cousin Adrianus Nieuwenkamp in Amsterdam on 7 May 1868. Adrianus is the son of Abraham Nieuwenkamp and his second wife Geertruid Kotting (as described above). At the age of 82, Adrianus Nieuwenkamp died on 20 July 1918 in Haarlem, Holland, and was buried there on the 23th. His widow, Christina Kotting, died in Haarlem on 10 February 1921.

9 Feb 2025

Common Latin Terms for Family Members

When doing genealogical research, you may stumble upon some words of Latin. For centuries, the church provided for marriages, baptisms and burials, and Latin has been the standard for the Roman Catholic liturgy since the 6th century.

If a Latin term ends in “us”, then it refers to a male; if it ends in an “a”, it generally refers to a female. For example, “avus” refers to grandfather, “avia” to grandmother, and “avi” is used to indicate plural grandparents. “Proavus” means great grandfather and “proava” means great grandmother. So, “meus avus est pater mātris meae” can be translated as “my grandfather is my mother's father”.
The Latin language has different words for aunts, uncles and cousins, depending on whether they are on the father’s side or the mother’s side. An aunt, father’s sister, is “amita”, while an aunt on mother's side is “mātertera”. A cousin - a mother's sister's child - is “cōnsōbrīna” when female, and “cōnsōbrīnus” when male. The word for a cousin on father's side - when he's a child of father's brother - is “patruēlis”. Thus, in the table below I have focussed on general words for family members.

English	Latin
birth	nati, natus, genitus, natales, ortus, oriundus
christening	baptismi, baptizatus, renatus, plutus, lautus, purgatus, ablutus, lustratio
given name	nomen
surname	cognomen
pasgeboren	neonatus
child	infans, filius/filia, puer, proles
parents	parentes, genitores
mother	mater
father	pater
godparent	patrini, levantes, susceptores, compater, commater, matrina
husband	maritus, sponsus, conjux, vir
marriage	matrimonium, copulatio, copulati, conjuncti, intronizati, nupti, sponsati, ligati, mariti
marriage banns	banni, proclamationes, denuntiationes
jongegehuwden	neosponsi
wife	uxor, marita, conjux, sponsa, mulier, femina, consors
son	filius
(father) of the son	(pater) filii
(baptizavi) filium	(I baptized the) son
death	mortuus, defunctus, obitus, denatus, decessus, peritus, mors, mortis, obiit, decessit
burial	sepulti, sepultus, humatus, humatio
(I buried the) father	(sepelivi) patrem
widow	vidua
(son) of the widow	(filius) viduae
father	pater
(son) of the father	(filius) patris
he was baptized, has been baptized	baptizatus est, baptizata est
great-great-grandmother	abavia
great-great-grandfather, ancestor	abavus
relationship by marriage	affinitas

Sources: FamilySearch.org/wiki, BHIC.nl, BSKempen.be, NazatenDeVries.nl, en.wikiversity.org, Willebroek.info.

28 Jan 2025

Inbreeding among the ancestors of Gerrit van Zee (1842-1934)

Gerrit van Zee was born on 3 April 1842 in Herwijnen, Gelderland, The Netherlands. His parents are Stephanus (“Steven”) van Zee (1817-1905) and Judik (“Judith”) van Zee (1820-1909), daughter of Engel van Zee (1777-1827). In 1847 Gerrit arrived with his parents in Pella, Ohio, travelling with a ship named "Pieter Florisz".
On 1 March 1865 Gerrit married Dirkje van Zante. She was born on 5 January 1843 in Herwijnen. Her parents are Aart Benthem van Zante (1815-1894) and Maria van Zee (1819-1879), daughter of Anthonie van Zee (1787-1870), an uncle of Gerrit's father Steven.
Gerrit and Dirkje had 7 children. Dirkje died on 4 April 1904. Gerrit died on 19 March 1934 at the age of 91.

Gerrit van Zee was born on 3-4-1842 in Herwijnen s son of Stephanus van Zee and Judik van Zee.

Gerrit's ancestors

Van Zee Family Coat of Arms

Stephanus (“Steven”) van Zee, was born on 12-2-1817 in Herwijnen. He died on 21-1-1905 in Pella, Iowa, USA, aged 87. He married, aged 24, on 30-9-1841 in Herwijnen
Judik (“Judith”) van Zee was born on 30-11-1820 in Herwijnen. Judith died on 23-6-1909 in Pella, aged 88.
Gerrit Aries van Zee was born on the 12th and baptised on 16-6-1793 in Herwijnen. Gerrit died there on 24-1-1877, aged 83. Gerrit married on 15-4-1815 in Herwijnen 18-year-old
Cornelia Maria de Kock was born on the 9th and baptised on 16-10-1796 in Herwijnen. Cornelia died there on 24-2-1848.
Engel van Zee was born on the 17th and baptised on 18-6-1775 in Herwijnen. Engel died there on 9-6-1868, aged 92. Engel married there on 17-2-1799
Engeltje (“Engelke”) Bijl was born on the 17th and baptised on 20-7-1777 in Herwijnen. Engeltje is overleden op 15-07-1827 in Herwijnen, 49 jaar oud.
Arie van Zee was baptised on 4-10-1761 in Herwijnen with witness Ariaantje de Fockert. Arie died in Herwijnen on 10-12-1845. He married there on 31-3-1787
Anna (“Anneke”) de Fockert was baptised on 27-9-1767 in Herwijnen. Anneke died there on op 24-4-1836.
Stephanus de Kock was baptised on 1-7-1759 in Herwijnen. He died there on 26-7-1835. He married there on 10-7-1791
Pietertje Ariens van Balgoijen was baptised on 21-5-1769 in Oud-Alblas, Holland. Pietertje died in Herwijnen on 21-8-1847.
Gerrit (“Geurt”) van Zee was born on Monay 1 March 1728. He is baptised on the 7th in Herwijnen with witness Neeltje Rosa. Geurt died on 19-4-1789. Geurt married in Herwijnen on 8-5-1763
Jenneke Leenderts de Fockert was born 15-10-1740 and baptised the next day in Herwijnen. Jenneke died after September 1810.
Coenraad Bijl was baptised on 29-2-1756 in Herwijnen with witness Maria Bijl. Coenraad died on 11-9-1830 in Herwijnen, aged 74. He married
Judith de Bruijn was baptised on 15-9-1748 in Herwijnen with witness Anneke de Jongh. Judith died on 27-2-1820 in Herwijnen, aged 71.

It's my 12th Blogiversary!

On 17 January 2013 I published my 1st post for this blog, so today is my 12th blogiversary !

My genealogy research file contains ancestors from January 2003 onwards. Those are ancestors of my father's mother, so I must have started my research even earlier. My paternal ancestors, the Bos family in Cillaarshoek were the ancestors I started with.
My ancestors with the most children are Otto van Driel (1756-1832) and my male-line ancestor Cornelis Bos (1813-1888): both had 17 children with 2 wives. In the 17th century Arij Peijnsz. Hogerwaert and his wife Trijntje Willems had 16 children together.
The couple Gerrit Korver and Neeltje Bloet (±1640-1727) were married for over 66 years. When my ancestor Jan Pieterse Vasen died on 11-8-1702 in Ottoland, Holland, he was "around 100 years old and had been blind for 3 or 4 years".

My favourite blog posts of my own ancestors are: