Longevity ~ Cornelia de Groot (94) in Oud-Alblas

This is a blog post about Cornelia de Groot who outlived her husband by 56 years, and reached the age of 94.
She was born on 30 November 1792, and baptised on 9 December in Oud-Alblas, Holland, with witness Annigje Neef. Cornelia's parents are Meinsje Neef (1756-1845) and her husband Teunis de Groot (1760-1837). This couple had several other children.

Cornelia de Groot was born on 30 November 1792 in Oud-Alblas

Cornelia de Groot was 26 years old and working as a cleaning woman when she married Frederik Boele on 4 December 1819 around 18:00 in Oud-Alblas. Frederik was born on the 22th and baptised on 24 November 1790 in Streefkerk with witness Hendrika Zweere. Frederik father is Jacobus Boel (1739-1792), a son of my ancestor Teunis Boel (1703-1793). Frederik's mother, Ariaantje Zweere (1759-1821), was present at the wedding ceremony, as was Cornelia's father.

Frederik and Cornelia are the parents of

1. Meijncie Boele was born on 5-2-1820 in Papendrecht, Holland. At the age of 48, Meijncie was finally married on 31-7-1868 in Ridderkerk, Holland. The groom was Cornelis Stok (1820-1881), son of Willem Stok and Grietje van den Hoek. Meijncie died in Dordrecht, Holland, on 30-9-1913 around 21:00 at the age of 93.
2. Jacoba Boele was born on 9-9-1821 in Oud-Alblas. She married Adriaan Korteland on 5-6-1847 in Oud-Alblas. Jacoba died there on 12-12-1897, aged 76.
3. Arieaantje Boele was born on 20-1-1824 in Oud-Alblas. She married Teunis de Lange on 5-1-1854 in Oud-Alblas.Arieaantje died on 27-12-1905 in Papendrecht, aged 81.
4. Teuntje Boele was born on 7-6-1826 in Oud-Alblas. She married Willem Kreukniet on 12-10-1850 in Sliedrecht. Teuntje died there on 31-10-1911, aged 85. Her widower, Willem Kreukniet, reached the age of 90. Willem was born on 2-9-1824 in Peursum as son of Arie Kreukniet and Maaike de Keijzer. Willem died on 4-4-1915 in Sliedrecht.
5. Cornelis Boele was born on 2-12-1828 in Oud-Alblas. He first married Lijntje Frederika Kooij in 1855. He remarried Antje Teeuw in 1868. Cornelis died 18-02-1910 in Sliedrecht at the age of 81.

Cornelia de Groot was 94 years old when she died

Susanna van Houten (3) died of measles in 1814

Susanna van Houten was born on 3 March 1811 and baptised on 4 April in Rotterdam. Her parents are Willem van Houten Junior and his first wife Johanna Suzanna Rocques. They were both born in Rotterdam, where they married on January 24, 1802.

Willem van Houten married Jeanne Susanne Rocques on 24 January 1802 in Rotterdam

Willem van Houten Junior was baptised on 4 October 1778 in Rotterdam. His parents are Willem van Houten Senior (1744-1820) and his wife Agnita Urvin/Erven.

Willem's first wife, Jeanne Susanne Rocques, died in Rotterdam on 10 July 1813, aged 35. She was born on 8 August 1778, and baptised in the Walloon church in Rotterdam on the 12th. Her parents are Anne Rabié en Jean Pierre Rocques.

Within a year of the death of Jeanne Susanna, their daughter Susanna died of measles on 20 April 1814 in Rotterdam.

Rotterdamsche Courant (newspaper), 21 april 1814

Willem van Houten Junior remarried in Rotterdam on 28 February 1818. His bride was 20-year-old Marie Sophie Billiau, who was born in Embden, Germany. Her parents, Joseph Billiau and Jeanne Catharine de Cuijper, had settled in Amsterdam. Marie Sophie died, at the age of 40, on 16 July 1839 in Rotterdam.

Louise Susanne Nau (1806-1845), Christiaan Godfried (1807-1869), Johannes Nicolaas (1803-1869), Pieter Jacobus (1809-1859) and Angenita Anna (1812-1884) van Houten reached adulthood and married. They were surviving children from Willem's first marriage to Jeanne Susanna Rocques.
Willem Alexander (1818-1872), Christiaan Frederik (1823-1886), Sophie Louise Agathe (1825-1885), Hendrik Cornelis (1830-1885) and Anna Susanna Maria (1834-1868) van Houten were children from Willem's second marriage to Marie Sophie who reached adulthood and married. Their children Catharina Hermina (1821-1894) and Lodewijk Theodoor van Houten (1832-1871) remained unmarried. Herman van Houten (1827-1871) also married, and later emigrated with his family to Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Algemeen Handelsblad (newspaper), 19-10-1871

Sources: Delpher.nl, StadsArchiefRotterdam.nl, WieWasWie.nl.

Old Utensil - Chamber Pot

The word utensil can refer to a tool that serves a specific purpose, or has a specific use.

A chamber pot was simply a bowl or bucket designed for one to do their “business” in, when one couldn't - or didn't want - to leave their house to take care of it. It was common in many cultures before the advent of indoor plumbing and flushing toilets. A chamber pot was also known as Jordan, po, potty, a chamber utensil or bedroom ware. In the England's West Midlands it was called a “guzunder” because it “goes under” the bed.

The purpose of a chamber pot was a portable toilet, meant especially for nocturnal use in the bedroom. It allowed people to relieve themselves privately. In the morning, contents were often tossed onto the street, creating major health hazards. Sometimes they were emptied into cesspits. Cesspits were large holes dug into the ground. Often they were designed to be porous, so that liquid waste soaked away into the soil, leaving solid waste to be removed, or covered over, when the pit was full.
The “privy” - an “outhouse” - was an outdoor wooden structure built over a cesspit of some kind, but not everyone had one. Inside the structure, a wood plank served as the seat. A round hole cut in this plank allowed the waste to fall down into the cesspit.

A chamber pot was often kept under a bed. Or it could be hidden in a kind of chair (“a close stool”). It could also be stored in a cabinet with doors to conceal it. Wealthy owners owned highly decorated, plush models.
En route, chamber pots were stored under the seats of the carriages.

A related item was the bourdaloue, a narrow, handheld oblong ceramic pot used in 17th- and 18th-century France to allow women to urinate conveniently. This item, similar in shape to a deep gravy boat, could be held between the legs, and urinated into while standing or crouching, with little risk of soiling the clothing. It was reputedly named after the French priest Louis Bourdaloue, who was renowned for his lengthy sermons.

Sources: toilet-timeline.co.uk, PortsmouthMuseum.co.uk, LivesAndLegaciesBlog.org, HistoryCollection.com, Collection.ScienceMuseumGroup.org.uk, an utensil is defined at en.Wikipedia.org, as is a chamber pot: en.Wikipedia.org.

Using AI to improve old images of villages

The term “AI” is buzzing around everywhere these days. It can do so much, but it often seems incredibly complicated. Luckily, you can also use AI for relatively simple tasks.

An old book series by Lieve van Ollefen (1749-1816), titled “De Nederlandsche stad- en dorpbeschrijver” (The Dutch Village and City Describer), contains drawings of Dutch villages from the 1790s. Some images from this book can be found online, but they are often of bad quality, often very dark, with little contrast, or of low resolution.

Therefore, I had Ollefen's drawing of the village of Strijen polished by ChatGPT. The original oval, black-and-white image of Strijen had a resolution of 1326 x 1022 pixels and a dpi of 96. The prompt I used was:

“Can you improve upon this image, make it better, more contrast and give it some color? Remove the circle and make it rectangular. Remove the heraldic shield at the bottom. Thanks.”

Original image of Strijen	ChatGPT's image of Strijen

I am very pleased with the result. The only comment I have on the result is that ChatGPT did not extend the dike behind the fence on the right. 

Alas, the result isn't always this good. I tried to improve Ollefen's image of a nearby village, Numansdorp (Buitensluis), with Gemini's Nano Banana. Alas, the resolution of the original image was quite low, and Gemini changed the water behind the houses into land, while creating water in front of the image, where the text used to be.
I also tried to improve Ollefen's image of the village of Ammerstol with a lot of trees in it. Using ChatGPT, I included the question “Can you make the church in the background to the right stand-out a bit more?” The result was a church with a longer nave and a much higher and more pointed tower. It was no longer the church of Ammerstol.

If you have an original picture with sufficient resolution, and ask the right questions, AI can improve your old images of villages.

Sources: ChatGPT.com, Gemini.Google.com/app, nl.Wikipedia.org.