THE HARSH LIFE OF JACOB VAN DER GROEF (1809 - 1886) - instead of a picture ...

# This is a so-called 'Certificaat der Nationale Militie' = 'Certificate for the National Militia' of my great-great-grandfather JACOB VAN DER GROEF , from the year 1832 , so quite some time back now .

On October 22 of that year this certificate had been written out , declaring that Jacob was dismissed from National Service .

 

This certificate also gives us some idea of how Jacob must have looked like , as a result of the addition of his personal description ; and hence we know now that Jacob's length must have been about 1,67 meters , that he had a round face , a low forehead , grey eyes , a pointed nose , a big mouth , a round chin and brown hair and eyebrows ; we are also informed that Jacob didn't have any 'noticeable marks' , as it was defined , and that his signature was missing , because of his disability to write (' kan niet schrijven ...') .

 

Though we can not fully exclude the possibiliy of the opposite , we are fairly convinced that never ever any picture of Jacob or of his wives had been taken .

 

 

### JACOB VAN DER GROEF , third son of JACOB VAN DER GROEF and of LEENTJE VAN PELT , saw the light of day on january 12 , 1809 in the little place of Dirksland on the island of Goeree-Overflakkee in the country of the Netherlands .

Later he moved with his parents and brothers and sisters to an other small place on the island , Nieuwe-Tonge , where he would live for the rest of his , relatively long , life .

 

Jacob's brother Teunis married twice and had all together nine children , Jacob would "exceed this family-record" by marrying THREE times and by becoming the father of a total of ELEVEN children .

 

Jacob was labourer by profession and - like almost all the inhabitants of the island in those days - protestant by religion .

 

Two weeks before his 24th birthday Jacob married PIETERNELLA DONKERSLOOT , like Jacob also an islander of very humble descent , and thus , not very surprisingly , labourer by profession as well .

 

This fírst marriage of Jacob - two more marriages were bound to follow later in his life - could be viewed as his most important one , since most of Jacob's children were born of this first marriage ánd a lot of present-day descendants of Jacob spring from this marriage , including the person who is contemplating this marriage at this very moment ........

 

 

Pieternella Donkersloot passed away on the last day of the year 1852 in Sommelsdijk , on the island of Goeree-Overflakkee - she had just reached the age of 39 .

 

Two years later , on april 15 , 1854 , Jacob married again : the name of his second bride was ADRIAANTJE DROOGER .

A year later their first child , a daughter , was born - it would turn out to be their ónly child , since Adriaantje would already die ten days after the birth of this child , at the very young age of 24 ......... and once again Jacob was a widower ......

 

 

By the end of 1857 Jacob's third marriage would take place : CORNELIA TULP , widow of Jacob Spee , was the name of the woman Jacob took to - his third - wife in that year .

We know that Cornelia , also labourer by profession , must have been a very poor woman as well , since in an appendix belonging to the marriage-certificate , was reported that both for Cornelia and Jacob a so-called 'certificate of insolvency' had to be surrendered , as a result of the "straitened circumstances" in which they both were living ......

Jacob and Cornelia became the parents of two children .

 

Jacob van der Groef finally passed away by the end of the year 1886 in Nieuwe-Tonge (Goeree-Overflakkee) , at the age of 77 - so despite the very harsh life he undoubtedly must have known , Jacob still managed to reach that relatively high age ( 'relatively high' , considering the period of time he was living in and the very severe conditions of living of those days ) .

 

More than a year later Jacob's widow Cornelia Tulp would emigrate to the United States at the age of almost 70 years ..........!!

 

Done