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Joan Vinckeboons (Johannes Vingboon),
"Manatvs gelegen op de Noot [sic] Riuier", 1639. |
Over the past month I have been reading the book about my
family from
this post.
It is a compiled genealogy (with
footnotes and sources!) from a married couple by the names of William Kenneth
Rutherford and Anna Clay (Zimmerman) Rutherford. Our common line is my most frustrating line
currently: the Hayden Family.
I knew that my line descended from John Alden and
Pricilla Mullins through marriage into the Hayden family. I also knew that our common ancestor William
Hayden married a woman who had Dutch ancestry.
Besides that I didn’t know much else about their lines. Very quickly I have learned that I need to do
a lot more research. I mean lots, particularly
in the early founding of this area of the country.
Lydia Kierstede married William Hayden about 1748. Originally from Staten Island, New York her
family has deep roots into the
New Netherlands colony.
I don’t know much about this time in
colonial history, besides the fact that the British took control of the colony
during the Anglo-Dutch Wars. This is now
a subject that I am eagerly learning more about.
Various lines of Lydia’s family appear to have been involved in
many functions of the colony from the start.
Several lived in
Fort Orange,
New Amsterdam, and as well as on what is now Staten Island and Long Island. There were farmers, doctors, an interpreter
and a midwife. While most were simple
colonists quite a few were skilled workers employed by the
Dutch West India Company.
I never thought I would find roots to this part of
Europe. The lines of German ancestry
were not surprising, I have several recent immigrant lines, but it was
interesting to see town names in Norway, the Netherlands, and Denmark. This is
a whole new area of history, geography, politics, and social history I need to
study. Lots of trips to the library and
hours on the computer I guess.
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| Anneke Jans |
Several of the biographical sketches from the book also
made me think that I have had a colorful and amazing family from the earliest
of times. I need to do further research,
of course I want to see these documents myself is possible, but it is fantastic
that I have a bit of a road map to read and use for clues to my past. Plus, telling my kids about the adventures,
trials, success, and failures their ancestors had makes their family real. I just love hearing my kids ask me if they
had relatives who participated in major historical events.
One ancestor that has grabbed my attention, and the attention of
many of her descendants, is
Anneke Jans. I am descended, it appears, through her
daughter Sara from her first marriage to Roelof Jansen. There are many legends, folk tales, and
stories that have been built up around her including the exploits of her great grandson
to take back
land on Manhattan that once belonged to her.
I plan on writing more over the next few months about
these relatives. This is going to be so
much fun!
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Every so often my kids ask me again about the Anneke Jans story. Which of course makes me want to look into my New Netherlands Dutch ancestry again. While out this morning I learned that the New Netherlands Institute is putting A LOT of information online! Stand up shout for joy and do a happy dance.
