Frederica ten Bruggencate (1801-1864)

Frederica (dutch link) was born on 7 Jan 1801 in Almelo, 2nd child and eldest daughter of Jannes ten Bruggencate and Jenneke Selhorst. She was my second great-grandaunt. Her first-born sibling had died young, but she and her two younger siblings all married and had children of their own.

Frederica married Hendricus Petrus Wilhelmus Bartelink (he must have had a nickname, we’ll call him HPW) in 1826, she was 25, he was 24. While they were not technically related, they probably knew each other well; they were both from old Almelo families, and in the course of the previous 100 yrs, there were many connections between the two families. He was a merchant, and also served as the town tax-collector. They have six children, who all survive to be married, and probably have offspring.

Frederica sees four of her children married before her death in 1864 in Ambt Almelo, and HPW is present at the marriages of all their children. I haven’t pursued their grandchildren, so I don’t know whether any of them knew her.

In the book “De Hoofdstraat te Almelo” published by Stichting Stadsherstel Almelo in 1984, we can find the house that Frederica’s son Dirk Leonard lived in in 1873. The address is Hoofdstraat (west-side) 62 (in 1980 Grootestraat 79). As Dirk is also a merchant, it is possible that his parents lived in this house as well, and later moved to Ambt Almelo, “the country.” The present day view is not half as charming as the little drawings in the book; Almelo has totally ruined its down-town (although restoration efforts are again underway). And I am always looking for postcards.