Genealogy

Gerrit Moll was born 1893 to a moderately affluent family in Nijkerk (a small city in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands). When he was young, he worked as a baker on ocean-going ships of the Holland-America Lines. He enjoyed this work very much and in 1926 was looking forward to another assignment. But when the letter came offering him a new assignment, he never saw it. Instead, his sisters felt he should settle down and so they destroyed the letter.

Gerrit married Johanna Maria van de Bunt and was given one of the family properties, a home and bakery at Venestrat 23. He was always resentful afterwards that the situation was foisted upon him. As a result, the bakery was never as successful as it could have been, and his family struggled while other relatives lived much more comfortably. In spite of this, they raised 13 children: seven sons and six daughters. (Another daughter died after 3 days, though.)

After the war, in 1953, the family moved to Canada on the recommendation of one child who left a few years earlier. (One child emigrated one year later, and one stayed in the Netherlands.) They settled in the village of Odessa, Ontario, Canada. They had a small plot of land which was enough to grow vegetables and raise some pigs and chickens. In honor of their new homeland, they put the latin phrase "Nova Patria" on the front of their house.

Today, there are approximately 90 descendants of Gerrit Moll and Johanna Maria van de Bunt, including great-great-grandchildren. Most live in southern Ontario between Ottawa and London.