The life of Simon van Stam

Simon van Stam is IJda van Stam's brother. IJda is one of my foremothers. I noticed the facts of his life and I wanted to share them with you. Simon was born as a second child, the first son, in the family of Dirk van Stam and Grietje de Haas, on January 21st 1792. This happened in Breukelen, or Zegveld, in the middle of the Netherlands. He was named after grandfather on mother's side, Sijmen. 

After him six bothers and sisters are born, among them IJda. In 1814 Simon marries Geertruida van Baarle in Rotterdam. Rotterdam, that city I never saw in my family tree. My family merely lives between Amsterdam and Utrecht, in small towns. I never ran into Rotterdam before. He probably moved there because of work, maybe in the harbours.

His wife was born and raised in Rotterdam and was about the same age he was. In 1816 they have a stillborn babygirl and two years later history repeats itself when they have another stillborn girl. What grief they must have experienced. In 1821 a son is born, he is alive and gets a name, Dirk, after father's father. Four months later, little Dirk dies. In 1822 they welcome another son, Johannes Dirk. 

At the end of 1825 a stillborn boy is born, and that same day Geertruida dies, the birth of this boy has probably been too tough. Maybe she already had problems with the deliveries of the previous children. There were not so much appliances we have now of course. Caesarian sections didn't exist. When your pelvis, f.e. was too small, that could lead to huge problems. Nowadays people sometimes say about pregnant women: there has never been a baby that didn't come out, but that is not true of course. In the early days that díd happen and not seldom the mother and the baby didn't survive. In this case Simon stayed behind with little Johannes Dirk, who was three years old then.