Alexandrina van West, a daughter of Levie Abraham van West and Judic Barend Visser, was the second wife of the diamond worker Boas Boas, who married the daughter of Benjamin Elias Mechanicus and Louisa Tunninge on 5 February 1891 in Weesp: Rachel Mechanicus, who was born on 27 January 1861 in Amsterdam. Boas Boas was a son of Willem Boas and Grietje Wolf and he was born in Amsterdam on 16 August 1867. After the marriage was concluded, Boas and Rachel lived at about eight different addresses in Amsterdam.
However, Rachel Mechanicus died on 1 April 1904 in Antwerp, after she left for Antwerp with her husband and her three remaining children in October 1902. Earlier, five children of Boas and Rachel were born in Amsterdam: Louisa on 16 November 1891, but she died young on 3 July 1894. Then Marcus came on 16 March 1893, then Benjamin was born on 4 May 1894, after which Joseph came on 15 August 1895, but he also died young on 6 November 1897. Grietje was the last born on 20 May 1898.
Boas Boas returned to Amsterdam after the death of his wife Rachel Mechanicus on 11 July 1904, where he married the 42-year-old Alexandrina van West on 17 August 1904, aged 37. A day later, on 18 August the couple left for Borgerhout, where they moved into a house at Generaal de Wetstraat 19. Two years later, in September 1906, they returned to Amsterdam where they found accommodation at Valkenburgerstraat 178, with Nachman Schouten and Margaretha van West, who was a daughter of Alexandrina’s brother Benjamin van West and Rachel Vrachtdoender, a niece of Alexandrina.
Before Alexandrina married in 1904, she worked as a maid and housekeeper for various families who lived i.e. on Marken, the Nieuwe Herengracht, the Nieuwe Keizersgracht, Rapenburg, Rembrandtsplein and Zwanenburgwal. After the death of her father in 1866, Alexandrina lived with her mother and sibs from May 1870 to November 1877 at 147 Uilenburgerstraat, near the Sleepersgang. She then lived until July 1879 as the niece of her uncle Salomon Abraham van West and aunt Mietje Dresden in the Valkenburgerstraat, after which she soon started working as a maid and housekeeper in various households.
In April 1910 Boas Boas and his wife Alexandrina van West and two of his children, Marcus and Benjamin Boas, left for Belgium again, and lived there at Krijtstraat 8 in Berchem, but after having lived and worked there for a few years, they left again to Valkenburgerstraat 178 in Amsterdam in September 1914, to move in September 1916 to Nieuwmarkt 9, living in there with Jozef van der Horst and where Boas' daughter Grietje also joined them. On the other hand, Marcus and Benjamin, as a brilliant adjuster and brilliant sharpener, had already left for Borgerhout a year before, and lived there at Boschheidestraat 12.
After a few more relocations in Amsterdam, such as to Commelinstraat and Nieuwe Spiegelstraat, Boas and Alexandrina left again for Belgium, where they came to live this time in Deurne. Boas Boas died there on 5 May 1931 and Alexandrina then returned widowed to Amsterdam on 3 April 1933.
She then ended up again in the Nieuwe Spiegelstraat, living in again with Jozef van der Horst, who in the meantime had also moved. In June 1934 Alexandrina moved into accommodation with De Jong at Reitzstraat 21, where her stepson Marcus Boas also lived with his family, and in October 1934 she followed Marcus to Ben Viljoenstraat 22, who had moved there with his family since May 1934.
On 11 March 1936, Alexandrina Boas-van West moved for the last time to Nieuwe Kerkstraat 135, were at no’s 131-139 the Dutch Israelitic Old Men and Women’s House (Nederlands Oude Mannen-en Vrouwenhuis) was located. There on 1 October 1941 she passed away and she was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen.
Sources include the Dossier of Foreigners no.107845 image 263-282; the Amsterdam City Archive, archive card of Alexandrina van West, family registration cards of Boas Boas and Nachman Schouten; various Amsterdam residence cards; website Joods Amsterdam/Nieuwe Kerkstraat 131-139 (Dutch language only),the death certificate of Alexandrina Boas-van West, made out in Amsterdam, year 1941, no.132, dated 1 October 1941 and the website stenarchief.nl/grave Alexandrina Boas-van West in Diemen.