Cornelie Henrietta Marie ten Bruggencate (1897-1966)

Today is the birthday of Cornelie Henrietta Marie ten Bruggencate (my first cousin twice removed), born 15 Dec 1897 in Leeuwarden, 120 years ago. She was the youngest daughter, and one but last child of Karel ten Bruggencate (dutch link) and his second wife Cornelia H.M. Vorderman (His first wife was her sister, Henriette Cornelie). It was a large family: three sons and a daughter from the first marriage; four daughters and two sons from the second marriage.

Her father was an English teacher, first in Hoorn,  Leeuwarden and other places. In 1894 he published a Dutch-English/English-Dutch dictionary, that is still today referred to as the ten Bruggencate dictionary. Later he became an inspector for secondary education in the Netherlands; he also translated some Shakespeare plays for use in the high school, and some scholarly articles about the English language. Her mother’s father was a art teacher.

They were definitely upper middle class, well-educated, and probably quite liberal in their attitudes. All the children were college educated: four became teachers: the eldest sons taught English and Physics, and two daughters taught Art; one son was a newspaper editor in Batavia, Indonesia; one daughter became a Mennonite minister, one a public health nurse; one son became a pediatrician; and one a business man. I don’t have an occupation for Cornelie, but she did not marry until she was 26, so surely she also was well educated.

She married in 1923; her husband died in 1937, leaving her with four children, aged 6-13.  The children all leave the house before 1956. She died in 1966, five of her siblings having died before her. Her father had died in 1922, her mother in 1944; much loss, but hopefully a lot of joy as well