Bloomingburg Dutch Reformed Church. Credits: Daniel Case, Wikimedia Commons
The record set consists of an index and images. Beware that the images are not of the original church records, but of later transcriptions, some done by hand and others by typewriter or computer. Transcription errors such as misread letters or omitted entries can be expected, but this is still a valuable source that will help many Americans with early New Netherland roots.
About Yvette HoitinkYvette Hoitink, MLitt, CG®, QG™ is a professional genealogist, writer, and lecturer in the Netherlands. She has a Master of Letters in Family and Local History from the University of Dundee, and holds the Certification of Genealogist and Qualified Genealogist credentials. Yvette served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Professional Genealogists and won excellence awards for her articles in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly and the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly. Yvette has been doing genealogy for over 30 years. She helps people from across the world find their ancestors from the Netherlands and its former colonies, including New Netherland. Read about Yvette's professional genealogy services.
Yvette Hoitink, MLitt, CG®, QG™ is a professional genealogist, writer, and lecturer from the Netherlands who helps people find their ancestors from the Netherlands and its former colonies, including New Netherland. She has a Master of Letters in Family and Local History from the University of Dundee, and holds the Certified Genealogist and Qualified Genealogist credentials.
Do you need a genealogist in the Netherlands to help you with your research?
Please read what Yvette can do for you.
This Dutch Genealogy webinar gives you a great introduction to researching your Dutch ancestors. Requires a Legacy FamilyTreeWebinar subscription to watch. [Affiliate link]
I am trying to do more genealogical research for one named Abiah (Abia) Westbrook, born in 1796 – probably in Suffix County, Wantage, New Jersey; died 1846; married to Asenath Pellet in 1814 in NJ; their children’s names. Can you help? I think his father was Richard W. married to Mary William or Wilson.
With these names and dates, it sounds like the family had been in America for several generations rather than born in the Netherlands. Many of these New Jersey Dutch descend from people who went to New Netherland in the mid 1600s, so you may have several generations to go before you can trace your ancestors back to the Netherlands. I would recommend contacting a researcher specialized in New Jersey research rather than one specialist in research in the Netherlands.
My last name is Gritman. I am a descendant of the Gritmans who emigrated from Holland in 1643 aboard the Spotted Cow – what a name for a ship. They landed at Oyster Bay, New York. According to my Grandfather, they came to the new land because Holland was, at the time, not fully united and was ruled by Philip II of Spain who had “a bad habit of burning Baptists at the stake”. The family has a tradition of fighting in every war since the French Indian war and producing a pastor, missionary or church planter in every generation.
The full genealogy of the Dutch founding of NYC was written by my Grandfather Charles Gritman in the first half of the 20th century. Grandpa get the volume with our history in it because, at the time, there were no copying machines at the time – I gave the volume to Dr. June Berry who updated his work. It can be found in the Library of Congress.
Trying to find out birth date of a Jacomyite Klock, born to Mohawk Chief Hendrick Theyanoguin. The birth year for Theyanoguin is 1691, but the birth year noted in FamilyTree and other programs is 1700 making the chief only 9 when she was born. My feeling is that someone new she was born in the 1700’s but didn’t know exactly but wanted to put something down.
Hi Jon,
Family trees can be of mixed quality. I recommend you go back to the original sources to see what they have to say. Since these are American sources, I cannot advise you on what that could be. Hopefully, some of these trees have source citations that tell you where they found the information.
I am descended from Theyanoguin through his son Daniel. His birth date was 1692 and death date was 1755. I would recommend going on Familysearch.org and doing a search on Hendrick Theyanoguin. It will list the information you need regarding Jacomyitie.
Hello,
I’m researching an ancestor named Abraham Lansing. I have found what I think is a record of his baptism in the U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-1989. Ancestry.com says the date listed is a birth date, but it doesn’t match the birth date I have. Could the date listed be the baptism date? There is nothing on the actual page that says birth date and it does say “Baptisms” on the top of the page.
It seems likely that a record marked “baptisms” has the baptismal date, not the birth date. Indexes can be wrong so when in doubt, go back to the image.
The record for the Peet-Barton marriage can be found at bk.32, p.33, but it seems to be only an index. If there is more to this record, I would very much like to see it.
Thanks.
I am trying to find roots of John Wheeler and Ann Hays who are parents to several i.e. Hannah Tynier Wheeler, Sarah Wheeler, James Edward Wheeler, John Wheeler and a few more. Dutch reformed church of New York shows the baptism of the children. But I cannot find any info on parents origins. I hired a person from ancestry to help but nothing more came out of it. It did show John Wheeler built Poe cottage
Any advice is greatly appreciated!!
Dear Mary,
If so much research has already been done, this is not the type of problem that can be resolved in a comment. It would require in-depth analysis of the information to create a research plan. Please contact me for a proposal: https://www.dutchgenealogy.nl/contact-professional-genealogist/
Dear Yvette,
Just a quick question. I have read the book “Onondaga County a gleaming of a century” out of Cornell University. I states that Socrates Townsend was born in Manlius, NY in 1810 and was of Dutch Holland descent. My question is have you even heard of the name Townsend being of Dutch origin? It sounds very English to me.
No, that is not a Dutch name. It doesn’t mean that he couldn’t have Dutch ancestors though. He could have Dutch maternal ancestors, or his Dutch name may have been Anglicized. I don’t know any Dutch name that sounds like Townsend though.
I’m searching for Milliman and Westfall. Both lines are found in Townsend and Wakeman, Huron, Ohio. Westfall is said to be from the Netherlands. I’d check there for your Townsend it was the name of the man who formed the area.
I am researching the family of William Gritman, and wife Margaret Pieters? or Margaret Hendrickson..
Some of the names of their children are Thomas born in Queens, New York1703, Elsie born in Queens, New York 1705, Elizabeth born in Queens, New York 1710, Femmetie? I don”t know the name in English born in New York 1708.
I would like to find the marriage of William and Margaret, also her maiden name.
@Robert – Wantage, Sussex County is on the New York border. A lot of the Dutch that settled there came down from Kingston (Esopus), NY. There are a lot of Dutch church record books from that area online in the public domain. Some of the names to look for Kingston, Wawarsing (Deer Park), Minisink, Second River, etc. You can find these individually on Ancestry but, if you don’t have that, as I said, many are available online (e.g, archive.org).
One other thing to bear in mind is that they moved around a LOT more than we might think. I’ve found families that started in Kingston and ended up in Staten Island. I hope this helps.
I am researching for a prospective member who wants to join the DAR and we have reached a brick wall in 1802-1803.
Searching for the baptismal record for Abraham Carlock who was born in English Neighborhood in NJ (per cehsuses) in November 1803. He married Eliza Ann Hawkie on 11 Sept 1833 in Hackensack, NJ. Abraham died in Hoboken in January 1881. His death certificate does not list parents, just that his mother was from Holland. We are looking for his parents to link to the Patriot.
He is grouped with Simon/Symon Carlock and Marya/Maria Nagel with 3 siblings who were all baptized in the 1790s. There isn’t any information for Abraham though as to baptism. I am not sure if this is correct though.
I am not familiar wtih this family. In that time and place, if somebody claims Dutch heritage, it is most likely that they were of New Netherland descent and in the Americas for several generations. So it could be that his mother was not actually born in Holland but rather that she identified as Dutch. Information on death records can be incorrect, especially if the informant did not know the deceased or the parents long.
I came across your web-site while trying to research information on my husband’s paternal family tree. His fifth great grandmother was Cornelia (Van Brockle) (1763-1850) Taylor, and she was born in Middletown, New Jersey, passed away in Orange, NJ. I found her name in the U.S. Dutch Selected States Reformed Church Vital Records (1660-1926) she was married to David Taylor (1763-1840) on 4 Aug 1794, on the Ancestry.com site. The names were hand-written and listed on page 286. If you scroll to the beginning of the book it reads “Index to the Freehold-Middletown Reformed Dutch Church Records” Part I.
Her father was Stephen Van Brocle (1747-1797) and her mother was Rachel Gifford (1750-?).
Here is my question: Why were names listed in this book? Is it because she was of Dutch heritage and they belonged to a Dutch church, was it similar to a Protestant religion? I presume the change in spelling of the last name was normal at that time (who was taking the information, etc.).
CAution – At least one Churc the @nd Reformed Church in Paterson, Passaic, NJ is indexed wrong. It show up in the index as the Second Reformed Church in Wyckoff, Bergen, NJ (which was the previous church in the records. I have tried several times to get Ancestry to correct this error to no avail. Ree Hopper, Bergen co., NJ
I am looking at a marriage entry for Bartholomy Pikkert and Eechje Claasz on page 90 of Volume 1 Book1 of these records and there is an odd designation after the names. After Bartholomy Pikkert there is “Y:M:”, and after Eechje Claasz there is “Y: C:”
W
Which is a C over a W.
Can anyone tell me what these designations mean? Thanks!
Can you post a link?
I believe you can use this through Ancestry site:
https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/6961/42037_1521003239_0770-00095/40226?backurl=https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/79673/person/6248822882/facts/citation/720000008177/edit/record
Perhaps your question was answered months ago. In case it wasn’t, Y.M. is an abbreviation for unmarried male and Y.D. is for an unmarried female. Could the Y.C.W. actually be Y.D.? O.E. is Old England and Sch is Schenectady.
There is a list of abbreviations on page 84 of the original document Holland Society Yearbook 1886-1887 available at http://www.ancestraltrackers.org/ny/resources/holland-society-yearbook-1886-1887.pdf . Note that the pdf page number is 120.
.
Thanks, Cheryl. I looked at the abreviations, but nothing to indicate what the ‘W with a C over it’ refers to. This particular ancestor was referred to in Sir William Johnson’s papers as a ‘mulatta’, and I am wondering if this unusual designation has something to do with that. There is another woman with the same designation on the page, but all the rest of the women are ‘Y:D’ as you would expect.
I am looking into LYVERE/LIVIRE/LAVIER/LEVERE?LIVER from West Chester (Westchester Cty) NY, and have found in the Dutch Reformed Church: Michael Lyvere married Margarit Summindyke on 12/31/1817. I find no mention of any other LYVERE (etc), although several are buried at St. Peter’s in the Bronx. Any other places I might look for more information? There are many spelling variations to the name but Ancestry shows few entries in the Dutch Reformed Church records, other than the above.
Good day, My gg grandfather John Henry FARRELL married Cornelia Sophia SWART c1860s – I don’t know where. I do know they had children born in South Africa starting 1868. I have wondered if they got married in the USA and emigrated to South Africa. Passenger lists to SA are scarce, and what there is, they are not to be found. Could you please guide me in my search? Much appreciated, thank you in advance.
My husband was always told that he was Dutch, tho his DNA shows little (my guess too many past generations watered the Dutch DNA down). The last name is VanWey, with numerous spellings. I have been able to find them in New Jersey & Ohio in the 1700s. There is an Arthur VanWey buried in Peters Creek Baptist cemetery, Allegheny Co., PA. Joseph VanWey (father Burris, mother Jane Shewman) moved to Grasshopper Kansas (d Muscotah, KS), via Funks Grove, IL sometime around 1880. Is there anyone working on the genealogy of VanWey that would be willing to share information?
If your husband only has one Dutch line, with autosomal DNA, the Dutch DNA would approximately dilute by half for each generation. The Dutch form of VanWey probably is Van Weij, where the “van” is a separate part of the name. When searching in Dutch genealogy websites, try searching for “weij” instead of “VanWey.”
Thank you so much Yvette! This information may help open up new information for us. I look forward to digging deeper now.
In the U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-1989 for Herkimer NY:
I am trying to figure out what it means: in the side bar on page 312 of 506 or libra page 308, it states Hendrick Jan 16, bo the 4th which I assume means was baptized the 16, but born the 4th, then the names: Jacob’s Abel Gerrit Rykman,
Alida Smith Annette d of
then on Liber page 311 or 315 of 506, it states n the column: Hendrik bo the 25th next to the names: Andries Abel. Hendrick Abel
Annatje Marshal. Cathalyna Grosbeek.
Can you help clarify my confusion? Thank you.
Hi Christine,
I can help you with this one —
The far left “column” with the red line going down the page is the list of children baptized. The “middle” column is that of the parents’ names, and the far-right lists sponsors or witnesses of the baptism.
The transcriber started a new baptismal date below a child’s name, not above it (confusing!).
Thus, how to read your examples:
Hendrik, baptized Jan. 16, born the 4th (of Jan). *Note that all children listed below him were also baptized on that same day, Jan. 16, until the transcriber wrote another date, which was for Elisabeth, ba(ptized) Jan. 20, bo(rn) Dec. 14. (The “ba” and “bo” are not always listed, adding to more confusion!)
Parents: Jacobus Abeel and Egbertje V(an) Buuren
Sponsors: Gerrit Rkyman and Elizabeth ” (or do, which stands for “ditto,” meaning she shared the same surname as the person listed above her, Gerrit — that usually (but not always!) indicated family relationship and not spouse)
Same for Andries:
Andries, baptized M(a)rch 17, bo(rn) the 12th (of March)
Parents: Andries Abel and Annatje Marshal
Sponsors: Daniel and Elisabeth Marshell (probably relatives or parents of Annatje, as her surname Marshall was not a Dutch one)
Hope this helps! 🙂
Ashley
I am trying to locate my ggggrandfather. James
Davis. He married. Jane bell from Northern Ireland in a Dutch reform churc in Bergen New Jersey
Apr 8 1839. I know nothing about him and where he came from
My specialty is in research in the Netherlands, not in the US after the Dutch colonies ended. I recommend you try the New Jersey Genealogical Society.