Captions to Dutch photos - 1

 

006. The Ketubah of Eliau VA1 de Isaac Saltiel, born in London abt. 1738, the first ancestor that we discovered of the North Sea Sealtiels. This Ketubah was made in 1762, this year Eliau married his first wife Sara Mendes in the Esnoga of Amsterdam. The Ketubah is written in the Aramese-Hebrew language with Rashi script, which makes it difficult to read, but his name appears in the middle of the third row. The unusual spelling of the name "Saltiel" testemonies to the fact that the parnassim of the Sephardic Congregation of Amsterdam had not yet recognized the Hebrew origin of our family name.
006a and 014a. We compare the signatures of Eliau Saltiel VA1 and his eldest son Isaac Saltiel WA1. Their handwriting reflects the education that they received. The financial position of Eliau did not enable him to send his sons to school for many years.

However, Isaac was the eldest son and therefore it had been first priority that he would learn to read and write. For several reasons Isaac did not live up to the high expectations of his father. Isaac was about to become the "black sheep" of the family. While Sephardim were proud of the family name and orgine, Isaac corrupted the spelling of his name into "Iszak Satia".

 016. This is a 17th century map of the artificial Island Vlooyenburg and the adjacent Islands Marken and Uylenburg. This was the Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam where the family of Eliau Saltiel VA1 lived during the 18th century. Though we know their address, it is not possible to say exactly where their houses were located at this map. David Saltiel WA3 lived at the "Sonnehofje" at Marken. Two possible locations have been highlighted.
031. After the Saltiels had struggled their way as new emigrants during the late 18th century, they settled in Amsterdam. We jump right into the 19th century with a colorized picture of the Waterlooplein Market at the J. D. Meyerplein in Amsterdam. The square was created after a canal between Vlooyenburg and Marken was filled up with dump. Most of the history of the Sealtiels of Amsterdam seems to take place in the 19th century. At this time the family was close-knit, and striving to improve their circumstances. The Waterlooplein was the centrum around which all their activities and family life took place.
 

034. This is the house at Nieuwe Kerkstraat 48 in Amsterdam, where Elias Sealtiel BB5 lived before he emigrated to London with his family in 1869. This picture was reproduced as a poster and presented to the family at the first international Shealtiel reunion in 1994.

 046-047. David BD1 and his wife Schoontje Waterman were two of the victims of the harsh conditions of the 19th century. Health care was still in a preliminal stage, and poor people like David mostly lived in very unhealthy surroundings. Schoontje died of tuberculosis shortly after childbirth at age 37 and left David behind with four young children. David survived his wife two years, but then he died from tuberculosis too. After his decease the four orphans went to live with their grandparents.

 

52. This is a rare picture of Vlooyenburg, taken in the late nineteenth century from the tower of the Southen Church. All the quarter and the river Amstel can be seen in this bird eyes view, and you even get a view into the rooms at the backside of the houses.

 

 

054. The marriage certificate of Jacob Haïm Sealtiël CH4 mentions that the groom stated that he was unable to sign. This was correct because Jacob was blind. His wife Johanna Wilhelmina van Maanen never had a proper education, but the story goes that she was an intelligent woman who had taught herself to write.

 

057. Johanna Wilhelmina van Maanen was the gentile wife of Jacob Haïm Sealtiël CH4, youngest surviving son of David Sealtiel and Schoontje Waterman. This picture of the elderly Johanna with her daughter Dirkje DQ4 is taken in her living room in the early 1930s. Their interior was typical for a Dutch home in the early 20th century.
060. Jacob Haïm Sealtiël CH4 was visually challenged. He became blind at age 12. At the Institute for the Blind in the Vossiusstraat, he learned basketmaking as a profession. He was a member of the chorus for the blind "Vriendschap door het lot" (Friendship through destiny), which performed throughout Amsterdam. The picture is taken in the Institute in the Vossiustraat during their rehersals. All the people at this picture are blind, including the pianist. Samples of their basket-making production are standing at the shelf behind.
 064. Jacob CH4 and Johanna had and active social life, which included rides to the countryside with their children. They went by train and enjoyed walking through the nature. Jacob had a stick and was guided by his wife and his two daughters. The two girls Jacoba DQ3 and Dirkje DQ4 wore hats and dresses, which were fashionable in the 1920s. The lady from Curacao was a friend of the family.
065. This is a lovely picture of my grandmother Jacoba Wilhelmina Sealtiël DQ3. It is an enlargement from a school picture of 1910, when my grandmother was four years old. She wears a pretty dress and her shoes have spikes. Nobody could comb her hair. Little Coba was a very stubborn child, which her mother could not keep in controle. The doctor told Ma Johanna not to spank her, so little Coba was locked up in the cupboard room when she was norty.
068. Jacob CH4 and Johanna were proud of their two lovely children. This picture is taken in 1906 by the Royal Photographer Cosman Gallery. Baby Jacoba DQ3 was six month old, her brother Johannes Theodorus "Jo" DQ1 was age four. Jacob was fond of holding small children. He would move his hands gently over their face to look, and then burst out "what a darling, what a lovely child!".
069. After 25 years of happy marrige, Jacob CH4 and Johannas silver anniversary was announced in Het Nieuwsblad voor Nederland in 1925, with a portrait of the silver couple. Johanna came from near the provincial town of Deventer, she was of a peasant family, and wore dresses and hairstyle that belonged to that particular culture. Jacob always wore a black suit, a black hat and black spectacles to hide his missing eyes.
070. Johanna Sealtiël-Van Maanen with her firstborn son "Jo" DQ1; in the past also little boys wore skirts, until they did not need their diapers anymore at age three.
096. Alida "Aaltje" Cohen, wife of David Sealtiel DB3, was a dearly loved grandmother. When she died on 14 April 1940, all her Sealtiel and Cohen relatives placed several announcements in the Dutch newspapers to mourn her. She died at the relatively young age of 55, and had always been a hard-working, good and loyal wife to her husband.
097. David Sealtiel DB3 was a man of many enterprises. In 1920 he was the owner of the first kosher electrical butcher shop in Amsterdam at the Lepelstraat 52-54. This announcement was places in the Nieuw Israelitische Weekblad on 10th September 1920. David wished all his customers and benefactors a Happy New Year.