Gerrit Brouwer (1736-b.1739)

Gerrit Brouwer was baptized Dutch Reformed on 20 May 1736 in Almelo, as son of Jan Brouwer (dutch link) and Garretien Brouwer. He is my fourth great-granduncle. He probably did not live very long, as a namesake was baptized in 1739.

Jan Brouwer was also known as Jan Geertsen Brouwer, Jan Geerts Brouwershuijs, Gast Jan, and Johannes Gasthuis. The name possibly derives from an inn, a guesthouse, and/or a brewery. He was from Albergen at his marriage; possibly the son of the Roman Catholic Gerardus Gast(huis) and Gertrudis Santhuis. He was probably a sponsor at a RC baptism in 1710, before he married.

He married in 1711 (DRC) with Jenneke Hendriks (van ‘t Bosjen). In the tax list of 1713/4 Jan is listed as a boarder in the household of Hendrik in ‘t Bosjen (dutch link),⁽¹⁾ making it very likely that Jenneken is the daughter of this Hendrik.

I keep my Almelo family reconstructions separate from my family genealogy, but sometimes that really backfires; I had not entered the tax list entries into the family database, and so missed Jenneke’s connection to Hendrik. Starting with Gerrit, I realized this omission. I will now have to do more research to confirm Hendrik’s children, the possible siblings of Jenneke. I have them in the Almelo database as possible children, but need to be more sure before I add them to the family.

(1) Register of the Fireplace tax and Salt tax, Landgericht Almelo, 1713/4, pg. 49. Historisch Centrum Overijssel, Postbus 1510, Zwolle, info@hcov.nl. Toegang 214, HA #2667. Index and/or images available at http://www.historischcentrumoverijssel.nl. (Thanks to Eric Berkhof for sending me the scans.)