When Johanna Van Gilse van der Pals was born on 25 October 1881, in Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands, her father, Cornelis Van Gilse van der Pals, was 31 and her mother, Johanna Kleiweg, was 29. She married Willem Matthias Kolff on 10 August 1905, in Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands. They were the parents of at least 1 son. She died on 30 November 1978, in Diepenveen, Overijssel, Netherlands, at the age of 97.