Bernarda Hermance ten Bruggencate (1870-1955)

Bernarda Hermance ten Bruggencate (dutch link) died on 25 Feb 1955 in Haaksbergen at the age of 85. She was the fifth child and fourth daughter of Wolterus ten Bruggencate and Johanna Cramer, and she is my third cousin 2x removed. Two more children would be born after her, but only one survived to adulthood.

Her father was a doctor, and the family was thoroughly upper-middle class. The daughters marry a minister, a notary (which in Holland requires a law degree), a banker, a doctor. Bernarda married a civil servant with the Dutch Postal system.

But what I love about Bernarda, is that she was a working woman. She became a  pharmacist assistant, and lived in Zwolle, Deventer and Zutphen, before she married in 1905. Her older sister Maria Arnolda was possibly a teacher before she married.  I have not been able to find occupations for the other sisters, as in the marriage certificates women always seem to be without occupation, as they give up whatever they are doing when they marry.

It is possible to find the results of various exams, which would give an indication of their education in the newspapers, but as people are only indicated with initials and place of residence, it is sometimes difficult to determine who actually passed the exam. But that’s how I found Maria Arnolda, a Miss M.A. ten Bruggencate from Almelo passed a teacher’s exam in Zwolle in 1888. Except that Maria Arnolda lived in Ootmarsum, but I have no M.A. ten Bruggencate in Almelo.

But Bernarda’s occupation is proven, the population registers tell us her occupation, and tell us how she moved from Zwolle to Deventer, back to Zwolle, and then to Zutphen. We know she was working! She married at age 35, and has three children (a son and 2 daughters); the son moved to the Dutch East Indies, and from there to Canada; one daughter also went to the Dutch East Indies, and died in a prison camp in 1945, she was a teacher.

Let’s remember Bernarda on her death day!