My father has a dark skin and my mother's skin is white. So where does the color come from? The answer is Africa. My great-great-grandfather Theodorus Andries was born a slave in 1837. His names appears in the slave registers at Curaçao. The oldest ancestor of the slave line is Arietta, his great grand mother. In the slave register only the mother's name of the slave is mentioned.So we don't know anything about the older male ancestors. Only after the abolishment of the slavery in 1863 their names appear in the official death, birth and marriage registries.

The name Calvenhoven or Kalvenhoven was derived from the slave owner Abraham Daniel Cornelis van Coevenhoven. A slight alteration of the family name, or spelling it backwards to indicate a relationship is very common at Curaçao. When I did my first research at the National Archives at Curaçao in 2000, it was a pleasant coincidence that the chief archivist remembered a previous researcher who found out this link. It also ment I had to dig into the slave registers and a book with plantations and their owners. All well documented as it was property!

A sprinklet of information about the male ancestors we retrieve from the death certificate of Lambertina Calvenhoven. Her mother was mentioned as Martha van Uiter. The van Uiter family still exists on the island. Why did she use this family name? What was the relation with this family?. Martha was not raised on a "van Uiter" plantation.

(1) 1. Robert Franklin Lamping (61). Robert (61) was born on 19 Aug 1962, at Willemstad, Curaçao, The Netherlands Antilles. He married Alan William Maxwell (8740) on 21 Dec 2002 at Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

(2) 2. Richard Rupert Lamping (62). Richard (62) was born on 18 Jan 1935, at Willemstad, Curaçao, The Netherlands Antilles. He married Gerda Harmine Augusta Linde (63) at Amsterdam on 14 Feb 1961.

(3) 5. Maria Juliana Tromp (176). Her common name was Julianita (176). Maria (176) was born on 8 Feb 1902, at Willemstad, Curaçao, The Netherlands Antilles. She married Piet Wilhelm Lamping (173) at Willemstad, Curaçao, The Netherlands Antilles, on 3 Dec 1924. Maria (176) died 20 Jun 1936 at Willemstad, Curaçao, The Netherlands Antilles, at age 34.

(4) 11. Maria Josefita Calvenhoven (5746). Maria (5746) was born on 19 Mar 1870, at Willemstad, Curaçao. She married Hendrik Simon "papachi" Tromp (5745) at Willemstad, Curaçao, on 15 Apr 1896. She died 10 May 1930 at Willemstad, Curaçao, at age 60.

(5) 22. Theodorus Andries Calvenhoven (5748) married Maria Polonia "Shimaraja" Ellis (5749). Theodorus (5748) was born on 29 Jun 1836, at Curaçao. Theodorus (5748) died 1 Oct 1884 at Stadsdistrict Willemstad, Curacao, at age 48.

(6) 45. Lambertina Kalvenhoven (8393). Notes: Lambertina was born a slave at the plantation of Abraham Daniel Cornelis van Coevenhoven. Later on, she became a waschvrouw (washing lady) and lived in Willemstad in the 'stadsdistrict.' She married Unknown partner of Lambertina Kalvenhoven ... (8542). Lambertina (8393) was born in 1819, at Curaçao.

(7) 91. Marta van Uiter (8394) married Unknown partner of Marta ... (8541). Notes: Marta was born a slave. In the death certificate from her daughter Lambertina Calvenhoven, she was named Martha van Uiter. Van Uiter is an existing familiy name at Curaçao. Why was this name mentioned? Was her partner a "van Uiter"? Marta (8394) was born in 1797, at Curaçao.

(8) 183. Arietta ... (8395). Notes: Arietta was born a slave. She was mentioned in a slave register.

Martha Kalvenhoven


Résumés of free letters (Regesten van vrijbrieven):
1855: female slave Martha (Martha Kalvenhoven), 58 years old, daughter of Arrietta; from the estate of A.D.C. van Coevenhoven.

[Source: Curaçaose vrijbrieven. 1722-1863, T. van der Lee]

Lambertina Kalvenhoven


Lambertina is mentioned as slave of Abraham Daniel Cornelis Coevenhoven. No date of birth mentioned. No date of purchase mentioned.

Questions

Of course it would be interesting to know more about Arietta and her descendants. Who are the current van (K)Calvenhovens and how can they be linked to the family tree? I need a lot of help of the current living family at Curaçao.

To do

  • Enter all the information about the descendants as mentioned in genlias.nl on this website.
  • Link to existing living family member and fill in the gaps
  • Add family pictures
  • Add copies of the slave register entries.

    Not connected yet

    The following persons are waiting to be connected to the Calvenhoven/Kalvenhoven family tree:
    • ...