Cornelia Boender (Scrubbing brush) was born in February 1894 in the country village of Strijen, located in the southern part of the Dutch southwestern province Zuid-Holland, the first of thirteen children of Kornelis Boender (26 years old, farm hand) and Neeltje de Heus. She was named after her paternal grandmother, Kornelia van den Heuvel (of the Hill). The Boender family was Christian Reformed (Calvinist).

On June 2, 1914 her father Cornelis Boender (47 years old, greengrocer), her mother Neeltje (45), and siblings Geertrui (17), Maarten (16, engine driver), Arie (16, baker), Cornelis (11), Pieter (10), Annie (9), Hendrik (9), Laurens (6) and Jan (4) arrived on the S.S. Nieuw Amsterdam at the port of New York, Ellis Island. Nearest relative in the Netherlands was C(ornelia) Boender, who was -still- living at Strijen. Their destination was the village of Lansing, nowadays a southern suburb of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA, where Cornelia's maternal uncle A. de Heus was living. Besides Cornelia (1894) also her one year younger brother Willem Maarten Boender (1895) was not on board.

On July 29, 1915 Cornelia Boender arrived at the age of 21 years and without relatives on the S.S. Noordam at the port of New York, Ellis Island. She departed from her birthplace Strijen and her destination was the village of Lansing, Cook County, Illinois, where her father C. Boender was living.

On February 20, 1920 Cornelia Boender married in Lansing, Cook County, Illinois the two years older John Rottenberg, born in December 1891 in the town of Dabrowa, then located in Austria, since 1918 in the southern part of Poland.

They had the following children:
* Nellie, April 18, 1921 Chicago;
* Cecilia, March 18, 1922 Chicago;
* Deborah, May 22, 1923, Chicago;
* Gertrude, July 12, 1924, Chicago;
* Isaac Cornelius, June 11, 1926, Harrow-on-the-Hill (near London), England;
* David Baron, December 5, 1927, Harrow-on-the-Hill, England.

In the second half of 1924 they moved from Chicago to England.

On March 26, 1929 they all arrived on the S.S. Berengaria from Southampton, England at the port of New York, Ellis Island, heading for Lansing, Cook County, Illinois, to visit Cornelia's family.

On June 9, 1929 they arrived on the S.S. Statendam from New York at the port of Rotterdam and started to live at the village of Overschie, since 1941 a northwestern district of Rotterdam. On December 29, 1931 the family Rottenberg moved to Scheveningen, near The Hague (Den Haag).

In June 1942 her husband John Rottenberg died at the age of 61 years in the concentration camp of Mauthausen, Austria.

On September 1, 1946 Cornelia Rotenberg (52 years old, widow) arrived on the S.S. Noordam at the port of New York, Ellis Island again.

On January 6, 1950 the 55 years old Cornelia Rotenberg departed on the S.S. Veendam from New York for the harbor city of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.

Cornelia died in December 1956 at the age of 58 years in the Netherlands.