Jenneke Hagedoorn (1741-b. 1806)

Jenneke Hagedoorn was baptized 2 Jan 1741, in Almelo, 277 yrs ago. She is my 1st cousin 6x removed. She was the 6th child of 14 of Arend Hagedoorn (dutch link), the second with his second wife Griete (Jansen) Meulenkamp (see also the Almelo database)

They lived in a relatively small, tight-knit community. Jenneke married Bernardus Mollink (dutch link). They had nine children, of whom two definitely died young, and only three lived to survive their parents.

Of her 13 siblings, four siblings and three half siblings survived to adulthood. Her mother makes a will in 1781, mentioning only her own children; the children from the first marriage would already have gotten their share from their parents inheritance. And it was a considerable inheritance: the will mentions several pieces of land, and several houses, and gives amount of 2000 guilders. Son Jurrien must have been mentally disabled: in 1774 at age 31, he is still a minor; and in her will Griete charges his brothers with paying room and board for him, and administering his share; which will revert to the other children (including Jenneke, as daughters are treated equally with sons in the Netherlands) at his death.

There is no surviving will for either Bernardus or Jenneke, so I don’t know what they left their children, but I assume it was substantial; Bernardus was a well-respected merchant, who was involved in many things.

I don’t know whether Jenneke ever knew any of her grandchildren, only four were born before her husband died in 1807. Was she happy, in spite of losing six children? We will never know.