MDMD(5): Johanna and her Daughters

[Michel Ryckx]

Johanna, Jet, Greet and Els.  A mother and her daughters.  Being a
native Dutch speaker myself (Flemish variation), a bit more on those
names:

1. How to pronounce them?
- Jet: the 'j' as in yeti. Jet is not a plane
- Greet:  the 'g' has no voice; with a Dutch rolling 'r'; the 'ee' is
more or less pronounced as the 'a' in 'ate'. (try it out)
- Johanna: the same 'j' as in Jet; the 'h' is fully pronounced; the
vowels are all short

2. The names are shortened forms:
- Jet: from Henriëtta, female form of Dutch Hendrik (Henry).  The name
'Henriëtta' and its shortened form were at the time only recently in
use.
- Greet: from Margaretha
- Els, of course, for Elizabeth.

They were and are quite common names.

- 'Vroom' is the Dutch word for 'pious'. (the 'oo' pronounced as the 'o'
in 'rainbow').

3. I suppose I am wrong on this --that it is a mere conincidence-- but
I'm not a scholar at all, so: all names are from European royals.  Some
examples:
- 'Henry' being a common name of kings in Portugal, France and Britain;
- Margaretha of Austria, of the Habsburger dynasty (Austria and Spain)
- Elisabeth, a bit more Virgin Queen than our Els here; in 1761 the
Russia Czarina was a Elisabeth;
- And even Johanna, of Aquitaine (northern France) who was one of the
most powerful women of the Dark Ages (jaartallen); there's also the mad
Johanna.

Four Women, Four Queens?  Anyway, they seem to act as they please.  And
not very pious at all.

4. As farfetched as the previous explanation:
- There are at least two Margarets in the Pynchon family: the first one
was a daughter of William Pynchon; she died very young, at the age of
30 in 1653.  The second Margaret I know of, was the wife of John Pynchon
II (1647-1714) who outlived her husband with two years;
- Since 'Jet' is a shortened and female form for 'Henry': William
Pynchon's second wife, Frances Sanford, had a son,  Henry Smith, from
her first marriage.  This Henry married Anne Pynchon, one of William's
other daughters (he had three daughters during his first marriage);
- There's at least one Elisabeth in the family: she was the daughter of
John Pynchon III and died at the age of  74 on September 26, 1776; and
- And of course, Johanna and John are the same names.  I know of at
least 6 John Pynchon's.  Five of them died in respectively 1702 or 1703,
1721, 1742, 1754 and 1826, the sixth one is Thomas's kid brother.

As I said in the first MDMD(5) post: now and then off the track.

Michel.