Jacob Wassenaar (1881-1936)

Jacob Wassenaar was born 17 Apr 1881 in Het Bildt, Friesland. He married Sjoukje Lingsma there, and they had five children, three daughters and two sons. Sjoukje died in 1915. and in 1921 the family packed up and immigrated to the US. It is not entirely clear, why they emigrated, but The Netherlands were somewhat in an economic slump after WWI (even though they were neutral). Jacob had relatives here, his contact in the US was his brother-in-law;⁽¹⁾ but there may have been more, as there are Wassenaars from the same area emigrating as early as 1848.⁽²⁾

The family lived in Paterson, where Jacob naturalizes in 1929, at which point he was living in Prospect Park.⁽³⁾ His daughter marry, his sons stay unmarried. And his connection to me? His daughter Bertha married my fourth cousin once removed Jacob ten Bruggencate. But he would also have fitted in my Bergen/Passaic Dutch immigrant collection.

His obituary in the Paterson Morning Call on 13 Aug 1936. (It is entirely unclear why Bertha and son Barney are not listed, as both are still alive.)

Wassenaar Rites
A service was read by Harold Van Emburgh at Ramsey yesterday afternoon for Jacob Wassenaar, 54, retired laborer, and former Paterson resident, who died on Monday at Prospect Street, Ramsey, where he had been making his home with his daughters since 1935. Burial was at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in Paterson.
A native of Holland, he survived his wife, the late Charlotte Lingsman. Their house was at 90 North Fourth Street, Paterson. Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. John Korbmacker and Mrs. John Whitefleet, also a son Peter, all of the Ramsey address.

But it took a bit of research to unravel it all. My first find was the obituary of Jacob and Bertha’s daughter Anna, who died in 2006. She sparked my interest by being a ten Bruggen Cate. Paterson City directories helped, but also posed more questions, e.g. in the 1960 directory Bertha was listed as widow  of Jacob, but Jacob died in 1970 in Jersey City, and his wife was Joanne at the time. When Bertha died in 2015 at age 104, her late husband was listed as Peter.

Jacob’s life cannot have been easy, emigrating to a strange country with 5 children between 14 and 6 years old. And Bertha’s life to me is extremely sad, burying both your children (her son Jack died in a car accident in 1958) and your husband (even if they were separated). She must have been quite a woman to live through all that.

(1) SS Noordam Passenger Manifest, 10 Jul 1921; T715, Roll 2993, Volume 6826, frame 62-63, line 6-11 (Washington: NARA). FHL 1754731.
(2) Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken: Staten van landverhuizers (Index to emigrants from the Netherlands: Wassenaar). This indexes do not provide a destination.
(3) Passaic County Court of Common Pleas. Certificate #19650. Passaic County Clerk’s Office