Children of Isaak van Gorkom and Johanna Gerarda van Zantwijk (generation VIII-i91) Isaak was son of David van Gorkom and Maria Eleonora Schweijgert (VII-d58) and grandson of Isaak van Gorkom and Dorothea de Heeger (VI-i29).
IX-d14. Davia
An annotation on the marriage record of Isaak and Johanna Gerarda tells: "Contracting parties have declared as well that from them was born a child of female gender, entered in the register of this city on 2 May 1814, where this child has been given the name Davia, which they recognize to be theirs." This does not necessarily mean that Isaak is the father as it took two years before they married. The birth certificate of Davia however tells that "Willemina van Gorkom, wife of Isaak van Zantwijk, 57 years old, declares that her daughter Johanna van Zantwijk, 24 years old, has given birth at her home on the 25th of the past month at half past two in the night, to a child of female gender, that receives the name Davia". One of the witnesses of this report to the birth register was Isaak van Gorkom, 23 years old, tailor and living in the Tughthuissteeg. This makes clear that Isaak is the father as he was indeed a 23 years old tailor living in the Tugthuissteeg at the time. Apparently Johanna's mother waited a week before reporting the birth to the register. Ages cause some confusion though. The ages of Johanna and Isaak confirm that the year is 1814. The age of mother Willemina (generation VII) however must be wrong as she was born in 1755.
According to a Fortanier genealogy on internet, Davia married Jean-Nicolas Fortanier in Rotterdam on 11 December 1833. She was nineteen. Jean was born on 4 January 1796, making him 18 years older then Davia, who was his second wife. It is also interesting to note that Jean-Nicolas Fortanier found work in Veenhuizen, just like cousins of Davia did (see previous sections on this page). Jean-Nicolas and Davia had two children: Davia-Gerarda Fortanier, born on 28 September 1834 and deceased in Albany, New York, on 16 February 1927, and Isaak-Herman Fortanier, born on 28 May 1836 and deceased in Albany, New York, on 19 November 1916. Jean-Nicolas died in Vries on 20 August 1861.
Then things become confusing. Already in 1844 Davia had a son Frederik August van Gorkom, born in Rotterdam on 12 December. It seems the marriage of Davia and Jean-Nicolas had ended somehow. On 6 August 1850 this boy was recognized by Fredrich August Moranski, who was the natural father, we may assume. On 19 January 1854 Davia lost a ten weeks old girl, named Wilhelmina Hendrika van Gorkom, who died in Vlissingen. She was born there on 5 November 1853. Vlissingen is a long way from Utrecht and Rotterdam. Maybe Davia had gone there, because her uncle Theodorus (generation VIII) lived in the area.
Somewhere during the period 1855-1859 Davia returned to Utrecht, together with her son Frederik August and another son Johannes Evert van Gorkom, born in Vlissingen on 31 March 1851. Davia went to live with her parents on the address Tuchthuissteeg B 273. There is no mentioning of the children that she had with Jean-Nicolas Fortanier. On 17 November 1862 she moved to the address A 582 in Utrecht. By then there is no trace of son Frederik August any more. In later years she must have left for America, maybe to live with her elder children Isaak Herman and Davia Gerarda who emigrated to America as well. Isaak Herman had married Geertruij Otte in Rotterdam on 15 May 1861. Their son, called Isaak Herman too, was born in Albany on 5 August 1869. Davia Gerarda married in Albany on 5 May 1863 to Johannes Wolff. In 1870 Davia's brother Abraham and his children emigrated to the United States too, but we don't know whether there was any family contact. When Davia died on 29 March 1880, she happened to be in Utrecht for whatever reason, but her true home address was in Albany, North America, according to her death record.
IX-m16. Maria Eleonora Dorothea
She will have been named after her grandmother Maria Eleonora Schweijgert (generation VII-d58) and probably after her aunt Dorothea (generation VIII-d87). She married Hendrik de Leur, son of Laurens de Leur and Cornelia van Draanen, on 27 March 1844. He was 23 and born in Utrecht on 2 November 1820. She was 27 and born in Utrecht on 2 July 1816. No children are known to us. Hendrik died on 31 January 1879. Maria died in Utrecht on 3 January 1896 at the age of 79. In about 1877 Hendrik and Maria lived at the address Kromme Nieuwegracht 38. Her father Izak, widower by then, lived with them. After Hendrik died Maria Eleonora Dorothea and her father moved on 2 February 1884 to the address Oosterweerdsingel 33 bis, together with her sister Davia, a record says, although Davia already had died in 1880. So probably the family had moved already about 1880 to this new address.
IX-i18. Izak
This Izak is probably called after his father. He was born on 1 October 1818 and father himself of another Izak (generation X-i53). He lived in Utrecht for 56 years till his death in 1875. According to his birth record "Izak van Gorkom, tailor, twenty six years old, living in the Tugthuyssteegje, being assisted by two witnesses, declared that Johanna Gerarda van Zandwijk, his lawful wife, born in Utrecht, twenty seven years old, has delivered at his home, this morning at half past eight a boy, who he gave the name of Izak". It is interesting to note that the father's Christian name is written in the same way as the son's. In the marriage record of the father, made only two years before, the father's name was written as Isaak.
On 26 February 1845 Izak married a mysterious woman called Louisa Roä, born in Utrecht on 24 May 1819. The register tells that she was the daughter of Ida Roa. There is no mentioning of a father. Louisa was born in Utrecht. As there is a lot of information about Louisa Roä, a special page is dedicated to her. Please click here to go to the Roa page.
When Izak and Louisa marry his profession turns out to be tailor, just like his father's. The parents of Izak and the mother of Louisa were present at the wedding, declaring that they gave permission for this marriage. This looks a bit odd, as Izak is 26 years old and Louisa 25. After the marriage they lived in the Pelmolenstraat for some time as it shows from the birth and death records of several of their children. The records of the children also state that Izak's profession was barber then. The Pelmolenstraat is the same as the nowadays Pelmolenplantsoen and its continuation, the Bijlhouwerstraat. The Pelmolenstraat was an interesting place to live in about 1851 and 1855, when Aletta and Abraham were born. The street runs parallel to the city wall which was just pulled down and replaced by a park in English landscape style. This park was designed by the very popular J.D. Zocher Jr. and his son L.P. Zocher. They designed the Vondelpark in Amsterdam as well, and approximately all other well-known parks from that period in the Netherlands. As houses were build just at one side of the Pelmolenstraat, the family must have been looking out on this park.
 Old poster, widely used in Dutch and Belgian schools, showing tailors at work. The drawing was made by Hendrik Jan van Lummel (1815-1877) and published in 1862 by Kemink & Zoon in Utrecht. The name Kemink lived on for a long time in Broese Kemink, the biggest quality bookshop of Utrecht, opposite town hall, nowadays known as Selexyz Broese.
Izak died on 20 January 1875 at the rather young age of 56. Maybe he had contracted cholera, which was epidemic in 1874. According to the death record his address was Tuchthuissteeg B.273, the same House of Correction Alley where his parents
(generation VIII-i91) lived. This address was in the south of the city not far from the city wall. The house number is a new phenomena. The B. is an early sort of postcode, indicating that the family lived in wijk B, the B-quarter of Utrecht, which was in the south. At present there is still a quarter in Utrecht that is called Wijk C, exactly the area in the north of the city where many generations of the family happened to live. On internet a family tree can be found saying that Abraham Ockhuijzen, born on 7 November 1830 and deceased on 19 November 1893, was a neighbour in 1850 as he was living at Tuchthuissteeg 274 wijk B. At the time the neighbour was a workman, later on a tailor. As a matter of fact the afore-mentioned Pelmolenstraat where Izak got several of his children, was in the B-quarter as well, having the number B.389. The address Tuchthuissteeg B.273 is nowadays known as Doelenstraat no. 21, a little street off the Twijnstraat.
At the time of his death Izak turns out to be a wall decorator, just like his brother Abraham. Wall decorator is kamerbehanger in Dutch. It is interesting to note that the verb behangen literally means being busy hanging something to something. A "kamer" is a room (chamber). The word reveals that people didn't paste paper to their walls, as we do nowadays when we go behangen. In those days walls were decorated with fabric that would be nailed to tengels (laths). It shows that the step from tailor, the profession of father Isaak, to wall decorator was not such a big one.
The early death of Izak had serious consequences for his family of course. His wife Louisa Roä was only 55 then, having one son still living at home. This son was Evert Dirk, being just twelve years old when his father died. When his sister Aletta moved to Amsterdam to marry Philip Phoel, Evert Dirk and their mother came with her. More about this on the Roa page and on the pages about Aletta (generation X-a51) and Evert Dirk (generation X-e62). The complete list of children of Izak and Louisa can be found on the page about generation X.
IX-a20. Abraham
With Abraham the name of an archfather returns. Old Testament names, like David and Isaak, were very popular in the van Gorkom family, which was certainly not that common in the Netherlands. A name like Abraham fitted in this tradition very well. The name had been used in the family several times before. Abraham Thomasse van Gorcum (1627) was the first ancestor named this way. He had two grandsons called Abraham—one the son of Hendrik Abrahamse van Gorkom and Gerritje Mierhout (generation V-a74) and the other one a son of
Thomas Abrahamse and Sophia van Seventer (generation V-a88). Abraham Thomasse's grandson
David, married to Willemijn Tiebing, also had a grandchild called Abraham (deceased as a young child in 1771). Most likely, however, the Abraham who we have here—son of Isaak van Gorkom and Johanna Gerarda van Sandwijk—was named after the brother of his mother, called Abraham van Santwijk. The mother of both Johanna Gerarda van Santwijk and Abraham van Santwijk was Willemina van Gorkom. This Willemina had a sister Theodora who was
married to Abraham Heymans, so it might be that Abraham van Santwijk in his turn was named after this brother-in-law of his mother.
Abraham married his cousin Willemina van Sandwijk in Utrecht on 12 June 1850. She was a daughter of Margaretha de Groot and Willem Frederik van Sandwijk (generation VIII), her father being a brother of Abraham's mother Johanna Gerarda and his uncle Abraham van Santwijk. "Sandwijk", "Zantwijk" and "Santwijk" are different ways of spelling the same name, which were all allowed, until Napoleon decided by imperial decree of 18 August 1811 that all names should be spelled in only one way.
Abraham was born in Utrecht on 9 April 1820 and Willemina was born in Utrecht too, on 22 June 1820. Actually, this is the third remix of Van Zantwijk and Van Gorkom genes in a row, as Abraham's grandmother Willemina van Gorkom (generation VII-w55) was the one who started, followed by his mother Johanna. According to the marriage record Abraham was a wall decorator and his wife Willemina was an "ironer", so someone ironing clothes. They had seven children, amongst whom an Evert Dirk, who must have been named after Abraham's brother-in-law (generation IX-w23). Unfortunately this child Evert Dirk died at very young age, just like two of his brothers and a sister did. It meant that in the end Abraham and Wilhelmina had three children: Johanna Gerarda, Wilhelmina Frederica and Hendrik Leonard.
Abraham did not have to serve in the Nationale Militie (National Militia), as his brother Izak had already done so for five years. This is stated in a certificate, which was issued to him by the Militia. The certificate also gives a description of his appearance. His length was 1 el, 6 pl, 3 dm, 5 st. This measurement followed the metric system of 1820 in which the el was 1 metre, the palm (pl) 10 centimetre, the duim (dm) 1 centimetre and the streep (st) a millimetre. So, Abraham's length was 163.5 cm, some 5'4" (1 metre = 3.2808 ft). His face was described too, being oval, his forehead rounded, blue eyes, big mouth, blond hair and blond eyebrows.
On 1 April 1863 the family moved from Tuchthuissteeg B.273 to the address I.229-2 (at the other side of town) and returned to the first address, three years later, on 28 March 1866. The address B.273 is well-known, as it is the address where Abraham's parents (generation VIII-i91) lived for years, just like Abraham's brother Izak (generation IX-i18). In November 1869 daughter Johanna Gerarda moved to the address M.267-a. On 16 July 1870 she too returned to her former address. According to the Utrecht register, in 1870 the whole family finally moved to the Dutch East Indies, nowadays Indonesia. This is not very strange, as many people went to the East Indies in those days. It is a bit of a mystery, therefore, that at the same time Abraham and his children popped up in the US.
According to recollections of his American descendants, Abraham arrived in the US somewhere in 1870 with three children. His wife Willemina had deceased by the time they arrived. When Abraham left Holland, she was still with him, tells the register. It is quite unlikely that Abraham travelled all around the world, first going to the East Indies and subsequently moving on to the US. But neither it is likely that this matter will soon be resolved. One thing is for sure, though, and that is the fact that American offspring of Abraham is still living in the US.
On the page about the American generation X this story continues.
IX-jj21. Johannes Gerardus
Johannes Gerardus was born on 6 November 1821. He was 10 years old when he died on 21 August 1832.
IX-w23. Wilhelmina
Wilhelmina was born in Utrecht on 10 August 1823. She was 22 when she married Evert Dirk van Bruggen on 6 August 1845. He was two years older, born in Utrecht on 5 April 1821 as son of Hendrik van Bruggen and Swaantje Anneveld. Evert Dirk must have been inspiring company, as Wilhelmina's brother Izak named one of his children Evert Dirk (generation X-e62) as well. The death records of Izak's daughter Ida (generation X-i46) and Izak's son Johannes Gerardus (generation X-j60) show that Evert Dirk's profession was aanspreker or grafbidder. This was a professional kind of Master of Ceremonies at funerals, the forerunner of the undertaker.
Wilhelmina and Evert Dirk had three daughters: Hendrika Zwaantje van Bruggen, born on 1 May 1846, Maria Eleonora Dorothea van Bruggen, born on 12 December 1851, and Wilhelmina Everdina van Bruggen, born on 5 September 1853. Two sons died at young age. The eldest daughter emigrated to North-America in May 1867. Wilhelmina, Evert Dirk and their daughter Maria Eleonora Dorothea moved to Rotterdam in 1875. A certain parallel between the lives of Wilhelmina and her brother Izak can be seen. They both married in 1845. And Wilhelmina left Utrecht in 1875, in the year that Izak died. Evert Dirk van Bruggen died in Rotterdam on 13 April 1891, when his wife was still alive.
IX-d25. Dorothea
Dorothea was born in Utrecht on 18 April 1825. She died after sixteen months on 5 September 1826.
IX-d27. Dorothea
The second Dorothea was luckier. She married Wilhelm Allart Houbolt on 28 October 1857. She was 30 years old then, as she was born on 10 July 1827. Her husband came from Voorschoten, a village near the city of Leiden. He was 26, born on 9 July 1831, and son of Jacobus Andries Houbolt and Johanna Margaretha Rehder. One married child is known, a daughter called Eleonora Dorothea Johanna Houbolt, most likely named after her mother's mother, her mother and her father's mother. On 20 October 1881 she married in Westbroek, a small village north of Utrecht, at the age of 23. She was therefore born in 1857 or 1858. The groom was Jacobus Andries Houbolt, son of Jan Herman Houbolt and Hendrica Maria le Feber. He came from Leiden, his age being 27, meaning that his year of birth was 1853 or 1854. One has to assume that Eleonora and Jacobus were first cousins, as Jacobus was carrying exactly the same name as the grandfather of Eleonora. And just like Eleonora's father, Jacobus Jr was coming from the Leiden area.
IX-aa29. Aletta
On 17 January 1829 a daughter Aletta was born.
IX-jj33. Johanna Gerarda
Johanna Gerarda was born on 4 January 1833, 19 years after her eldest sister. Her mother was already 42 then. The girl lived for eight days and died on 12 January.
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