Five Brothers and a War

Leendert & Maria Geertruida van Pelt

Nothing is known about how or when Maria Geertruida Sonneveld and Leendert van Pelt met, and it is unlikely that more than 100 years after the fact, it will ever be known. Leendert did move from his boyhood home in Capelle, Noord Brabant to Rotterdam at some point. He began his adult life as a carpenter. At some point, he must have gotten to know enough of the Bruynzeel wood product company to begin to work for them in 1911. Perhaps he actually installed Bruynzeel’s products, or perhaps he worked on a job where a Bruynzeel employee was working. That has been lost to time. At the same time, Maria was working in a hat shop, likely in Delfshaven, that her father established for her and her sister. It is very possible that the two met through their church, which they had in common. Ultimately, they were married in the Pilgrim Church, two buildings over from the Sonneveld home, so it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Leendert attended church there and thus had the opportunity to meet Maria. What is known for a fact is that the two became engaged on October 13, 1913, three days after he turned 26.

van Pelt

Five Brothers and a War

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