R E L I C S

>>> CORNELIS VAN DER GROEF (1856 - 1932) , a rather remarkable life ...

# The man in the foreground , dressed in black , portrayed here near the bank of the canal , is very likely to be CORNELIS VAN DER GROEF , born on March 17 , 1856 in the small place of Dirksland on the former island of Goeree-Overflakkee in the Netherlands , and who , despite all the hardship he had to endure during his life-time , would finally pass away in the year 1932 , on June first , at the age of 76 .

This ancient picturesque shot was taken in the Dutch place of Gouda , probably even more than a hundred years ago now .

It is a picture of , as is very well readable , the 'aanlegplaats der stoomboten' , meaning : the landing-stage of the steamships .

Round the year 1900 Cornelis van der Groef was a superintendant of the steamships , which makes it highly likely that the man in the black uniform near the canel is indeed Cornelis van der Groef , who must have been a superintendant for many , many years .

Cornelis started this job when he was almost 30 years old , so in or around the year 1885 , and he must have stayed a superintendant for the steamships possibly until a short time before his death in 1932 .

Cornelis was the fourth child of labourer/farmer/shopkeeper WILLEM VAN DER GROEF and of former maid-servant JACOBA VAN VESSEM .

Cornelis grew up in Dirksland , but left this place ánd the island of Goeree-Overflakkee rather soon in his life , settled in the small city of Gouda where he subsequently worked as a porter , miller's man and delivery man , before becoming a superintendant of the steamships - ánd at the age of 23 Cornelis got married to GERARDA MARGARETHA DE RONDE , who would give him 10 children , bút .......... a happy and pleasant marriage life they certainly didn't have .....

The first 5 children born in the family of Cornelis and Gerarda , all died within their still very young childhood years - it wasn't until the birth of the sixth child that light could start shining in their mutual lifes .
Several of those later born children would even reach high ages , with son WILLEM VAN DER GROEF (who happened to be the fourth (!) born Willem already within the family , but the only one with real life expectations ) as 'the one in the lead' , since he would even manage to finally reach the age of .........103 !!

Two years after the birth of the last child , spouse and mother Gerarda Margaretha de Ronde already passed away , just 39 years old . Already in that same year Cornelis van der Groef remarried .

The name of his second wife was GERRITJE JOHANNA LENS . Gerritje and Cornelis didn't get any children together .

Gerritje passed away in her hometown Gouda in the year 1929 , and Cornelis , after a , in different aspects , rather turbulent life , departed this life three years later ...