My first ancestor to arrive on the continent of North America was Cornelis Maes Van Buren.  He arrived in 1631 and settled briefly in the Fort Orange area.

The reasons my Dutch ancestors sailed across the vast Atlantic Ocean to an unknown future is lost in the mists of time.  Thankfully, records exist from the 1600s that track the Van Schaick and Van Buren men who arrived in Rensselaerswyck.

First of all there must be a reason to motivate these men to leave a certain lifestyle in The Netherlands and venture to a “promised land” known as Rensselaerswyck.

The Dutch claimed the region after Henry Hudson’s discovery and set up forts in the (Albany, New York) area.  Fort Nassau, built in 1614–predates the Mayflower’s arrival at Plymouth Rock in 1620–and later Fort Orange in 1624–which grew into the state capital city of Albany.

The Dutch West India Company was established in 1620 by the States-General and given enormous governing powers over the region known as New Netherland.  In 1630, the managers of the Dutch West India Company offered certain exclusive privileges to the members of the company.  A charter was issued that stated any member who founded a colony of fifty (50) adults in New Netherland within four years of the charter’s writing would be a patroon (feudal chief) of the territory to be colonized. The colony had to be established outside of the island of Manhattan.

Kiliaen Van Rensselaer was one of the original directors of the West India Company.  One of the first to take advantage of the charter’s broad opportunities to own large tracts of land in New Netherland, he sent men to the region even before the 1630 charter was ratified. In April of 1630, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer’s agents secured land for the settlement and colonizing of Rensselaerswyck.

The main purpose was to establish an agricultural colony on the Dutch-claimed American Province.  Lands for this colony could extend 16 miles in length if confined to one side of the Hudson River or 8 miles in length if both sides of the river were occupied.  Lands could also extend into the countryside and be enlarged if the patroon settled more immigrants on his land.  Each patroon settled with the Indians in place on the land by purchasing the land and not by forceable removal.  The land was bought or bartered with the Indians of the area.

The tract of land that agents purchased for Van Rensselaer extended from the west side of the Hudson River, adjacent to Fort Orange, upriver to Havers Island, which is my ancestral island of Van Schaick Island and extended two day’s journey into the interior.

So, there it was–a vast empire to be known as Rensselaerswyck, just waiting for emigrants from the homeland to arrive and colonize the area. My information is in no way complete or detailed.  I list my sources for this blog as: Manor of Rensselaerswyck – Wikipedia and Cornelis Maes Van Buren from the website: http://xpda.com/family/vanBuren-CorneliusMaes-ind00474.htm

But knowing what I do now about the first of my lineage to arrive in America, I read both histories with an excitement within to realize this 400 year old history has relevance to my personal life.  I exist due to the fact that a director of the Dutch West India Company was one of the first members to act on the 1630 charter to settle lands in the Hudson River valley and arrange for colonists to move to America.

Cornelis Maes Van Buren was born around 1610? 1616 in Buurmalsem, Gelderland, Netherlands.  He was reportedly an only child.  Records state he was one of the first group of emigrants to sail to New Netherland and became a farmer.  He arrived at Rensselaerswyck in 1631 and served a three-year contract to Kiliaen Van Rensselaer.  These pioneers of the patroon lands embarked in the ship Eendragt (or Unity)   When they arrived, the actual settlement of Rensselaerswyck began.

My Dutch ancestor was probably on the first ship to arrive and was undoubtedly one of the original colonists to begin farming the land in Rensselaerswyck.  I try to imagine him as a young man. If he was born in 1616 and sailed to America in 1631, then he was around 15 years old.??  (I also have notes that he was born in 1610, which would make him a young adult of 21). I don’t know if he sailed alone on the ship or if he came to Rensselaerswyck with family.

His requirement of service to Kiliaen Van Rensselaer lasted three years.  He was a farmer and served a contract from 1631-1634.  Then records indicate he returned to The Netherlands and married Catalyntje in 1635.  Cornelis Van Buren’s second contract of service at Rensselaerswyck began in 1637-1640.

The final return to Rensselaerswyck–to occupy a farm on or near Papscanee Island–began with a sea voyage from the Netherlands in 1636.  I have to go back nine generations to Hendrick Van Buren, my Dutch ancestor, who was born at sea in January, 1637.  Cornelis and Catalyntje Van Buren arrived at Rensselaerswyck around April, 1637 to settle as a family in America and tend to the farm.

Research for yourself–the patroon lands that Kiliaen Van Rensselaer purchased in 1631 and following years through his agents became a vast empire surrounding today’s Albany, New York area.  He probably never sailed to America to view his empire, but his son and grandson and descendants settled and governed Rensselaerswyck into the 19th century.

I appreciate his determination to establish a Dutch colony in 1630 and wonder what was the incentive to encourage Cornelis Van Buren to become one of the first settlers to leave his home and sail across the Atlantic Ocean to live in an unknown wilderness.  It must have agreed with Cornelis, because after his three years were over, he returned home to marry and bring his wife and newborn son back to Rensselaerswyck and a farm on Papscanee Island.

My other Dutch ancestor, Goosen Gerritts Van Schaick arrived at Rensselaerswyck a few years later.  He emigrated from Utrecht to the Dutch colony in 1637.  He was a brewer by trade and became quite prominent in the area.  Records indicate Goosen Gerritts Van Schaick was granted his own patroon lands in 1665 by the Indians. The lands were located at the mouth of the Mohawk River (present day Van Schaick Island, Cohoes Island and Waterford).

In an earlier blog post, I recalled my July, 2002 visit to the Van Schaick mansion and talking to a direct descendant of the ancestor who built the house and once owned the island.  He didn’t acknowledge my Van Schaick lineage as direct to the family that built the mansion.  I left bitterly disappointed that Saturday morning.  After more research, I feel vindicated, because the original owner of Van Schaick Island was Kiliaen Van Rensselaer in 1630.  by 1665, Goosen Gerritts Van Schaick was prominent and financially successful enough to purchase the lands around the Mohawk River.  Van Schaick called his patroon “Half Moon”, after Henry Hudson’s exploration ship that stopped near the island in 1609.

I do have a photograph of the plaque that states that information–taken on my 2002 vacation to New York.  I wish I knew then what I know now.  How thrilling it would have been to stand on the very land that my Dutch ancestor, Van Schaick, owned.  My great-grandmother, Elsie Van Schaick, was the last to carry his illustrious surname until she married my great-grandfather, Frank Ellsworth.

Generations of Americans trace the beginning of their ancestors to ships arriving from Europe in the 1800s and early 1900s and disembarking their immigrant passengers on Ellis Island in New York. Surnames were anglicized and family histories are sometimes difficult to trace back to the country of origin.

Wars, famine, poverty and a list of multiple reasons account for the journey to leave a homeland to emigrate to the unknown land of America. I’m grateful that the first wave of my ancestors made their “beachhead” at Rensselaerswyck in the early 1600s.  The Dutch kept detailed records and as patroon, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer demanded a loyalty oath from the colonists who settled his lands.  I have a document that shows Goosen Gerrittsen Van Schaick signed a required oath in 1651.

I’m glad I traveled to the area and stood on the east bank of the Hudson River looking West toward Albany’s skyline.  In the 1630s, it was a wilderness inhabited by local Indian tribes.  A man with foresight purchased the land and determined to settle it with brave colonists from The Netherlands.  I got the chance to stand on ground that was once a part of Rensselaerswyck.  I returned to the “Ellis Island” of Cornelis Van Buren and Goosen Gerrittsen Van Schaick.

How do you begin to describe the emotion of being where your lineage in America began?  So many people wonder about who they are–where they came from–and it’s turned the real Ellis Island into a museum.  American descendants can stand in a vast hall and imagine their ancestors’ first glimpse of a new promise–to live a better life that what they left behind.

And isn’t that what all Americans hope for and strive for in this country of open opportunity?  A chance–a chance to live a better life that what was left behind.  For my Dutch side of the family, it began due to the opportunity of Rensselaerswyck.

Thank you.  Cornelis and Goosen.

Sources: Manor of Rensselaerwyck-Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.                          http://xpds.com/family/vanBuren-CorneliusMaes-ind00474.htm http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/sc10442.htm

I didn’t travel to Albany, New York to look for the other side of my Dutch lineage — the Van Buren side of the family tree.  I knew that my great-great-great grandfather, William Van Schaick, married Eunice Van Buren.  Her name comes up researching the Van Schaick lineage.  The interesting fact is that I have TWO Van Buren “grandmothers” in my family tree.  Two Van Burens married two Van Schaicks in different generations.

More out of curiosity than a specific need to know, I traced the Van Buren lineage  back to Holland in the early 1600s and discovered some interesting facts about these ancestors.  It also answers a family rumor that we are related to Martin Van Buren of Kinderhook, New York.  He was the eighth President of the United States (1837-1841).  YES–I am a descendant of common Dutch ancestors from both sides of the Van Buren “grandmothers”.

How am I connected?  Garrett’s grandfather, Jacob Van Schaick (1740-1795), who is mentioned as Elsie’s great-grandfather on her family tree comments, married Maritje Van Buren (1743-1814) around 1765. Their son, William Van Schaick married Eunice Van Buren (1793-1854).

Maritje was Eunice’s mother-in-law, about fifty years older, and distant cousins through the common Dutch ancestor, Cornelis Maessen Van Buren,  who came to New Netherland in 1631.

All this time I thought Eunice Van Buren was the link to Martin Van Buren, the US President.  It’s not.  The more direct link was with Maritje Van Buren.  Her sibling, Abraham Van Buren, was the father of Martin Van Buren.  This makes Maritje, Martin Van Buren’s aunt.  Still not a direct lineage, but this makes William Van Schaick (her son), first cousin to the eighth President of the United States. Eunice Van Buren is more of a distant cousin to the famous Van Buren in the family.

Now I have documentation that links my Van Buren ancestors with Martin Van Buren.

Because two branches of Van Burens exist in the lineage, I’ll record both sides here.  The thing to remember is that they go back several generations in New York and link up with  Cornelis.  Proof that my Van Buren family tree branches trace back to the same person.  In reality, I have two direct lines back to our first Dutch settler in New Netherland.  You tell me–which branch of the family is the most direct line?

A bit of background on the Van Buren who emigrated from Holland.  Cornelis lived near Buurmalsem, Gelderland, Holland.  He came to New Netherland twice under 3-year contracts to Kiliaen van Rensselaer.  He emigrated in 1631 as a young man on the Holland ship “d’Eendracht” (The Unity) and settled in Rensselaerwyck, near Fort Orange.  When his contract was over in 1634, Cornelis sailed back to Holland.

He returned to Fort Orange, New Netherland a second time, permanently, on the ship “Rensselaerwyck” in 1636 with his wife.  Catalyntje Marense Van Alstyne (1619-1648) gave birth on January 30, 1637 to a son, Hendrick Cornelisse Van Buren, onboard ship at sea before arriving in New Netherland in April, 1637.  A second son, Marten Cornelissen Van Buren, was born in 1638.

Both of these brothers grew up, married, and raised children that eventually married into the Van Schaick line.

On a sad note, Cornelis and his wife, Catalyntje, both died in 1648.  He farmed on Papsknee, an island near Fort Orange, New Netherland.  They were buried on the same day.  Their cause of death and burial location is lost in time. The children were young and raised by guardians in Rensselaerwyck.

My records indicate that Hendrick Van Buren remained around the Albany, New York area.  Most of his descendants are listed in Albany.  Marten Van Buren settled further south on the Hudson River around Kinderhook, New York.  This is where Martin Van Buren (the US President) was born and raised.

FIRST GENERATION:                                                                                                                 Cornelis Maessen Van Buren (1612-1648)                                                                                   both were born in Holland/died in Papsknee, New Netherland                                           married around 1635 in Utrecht area-Holland                                                                         Catalyntje Martense Van Alstyne (1614-1648)

SECOND GENERATION:                                                                                                                     (1) Hendrick Cornelisse Van Buren (1637-1703)                                                                          married around 1663 to Elizabeth Van Slyck (1639-1683)

(2) Marten Cornelissen Van Buren (1638-1703)                                                                              married around 1662 to Maritje Quackenbos (1646-1683)

THIRD GENERATION:                                                                                                                         (1) Cornelis Hendricksen Van Buren (1672?-1678)                                                                    married Hendrickje Van Nes (??)

(2) Pieter Martense Van Buren (1670-1755)                                                                                married abound 1693 to Adriaantje Barentse Meindersen

FOURTH GENERATION:                                                                                                           Willem Cornelisse Van Buren (1706-1752)-died at Papsknee, NY                                   married around 1735 to Teuntje Vandenberg (1712)

(2) Marten Pieterse Van Buren (1701-1741)-died at Kinderhook, NY                                married around 1729 to Dirckje Van Alstyne (1710-1741)

FIFTH GENERATION:                                                                                                                           (1) Hendrick Van Buren (1750-1814)  This “Hendrick” is mentioned on my great-grandmother’s Van Schaick family tree list as her great-grandfather.                               married to Maria Van Den Berg

(2) Maritje Van Buren (1743-1814)                                                                                         married around 1765 to Jacob Van Schaick (1740-1795)                                                 Abraham Van Buren (1737-??)-father to Martin Van Buren

SIXTH GENERATION:                                                                                                                   (1) Eunice Van Buren (1793-1854)                                                                                                  married  (2) William Van Schaick (1785-1870)

This is where two branches of the Van Buren family tree are joined together through marriage.

SEVENTH GENERATION:                                                                                                               Garrett Van Schaick (1823-1902)                                                                                                    married to Hannah Watkins (1825-1885)

EIGHTH GENERATION:                                                                                                                   Elsie Van Schaick (1866-1956)                                                                                                      married to Frank Ellsworth (1866-1928)

NINTH GENERATION:                                                                                                                      Vera Ellsworth (1889-1983)                                                                                                                married to Warren Zollars (1889-1980)

TENTH GENERATION:                                                                                                                  Mildred Zollars (1916-1992)                                                                                                             married to Blanchard Hindman (1901-1983)

ELEVENTH GENERATION:                                                                                                       Diana Hindman (1952-)

I traced my Van Schaick lineage back an additional three generations to the oldest known ancestor born in Holland in the 1500s.  I could investigate further with my Van Buren side of the family, since there’s a possibility the family name is linked to the royal line of King William of Orange.  Isn’t that why we Americans are so diligent in researching our family lineage?  Wouldn’t we be thrilled to discover that our ancestry does indeed go back far enough to be of royal blood?

That’s not my intention of going on the road trip to Albany, New York.  I wanted to settle family rumors and questions that drove a childhood curiosity to the land my forebears settled.  I was there.  Knowing more about the family tree and that my Dutch ancestor, Cornelis Van Buren, arrived at Fort Orange several years before my other Dutch ancestor, Goosen Gerritsen Van Schaick, came to New Netherland in 1636 is a revelation.

I was all about finding documentation regarding the Van Schaick family.  Only I know now that in 1850, most of them left New York and moved to Wisconsin.  Perhaps I should have studied up on the Van Buren side of the family and been ready to gather any documentation about that side of the family.

Sure, the Van Buren side can claim a President of the United States, but my Van Schaick ancestor actually owned the island in the 1600s that bears his name to this day.  And I drove to that island in the middle of the Hudson River on July 5-6, 2002.  I walked on the island that once belonged to my family–350 years earlier.

I traced my family roots and history back to their home locations in Holland and know which Dutch ancestors settled at Fort Orange in New Netherland.  Cornelis Maessen Van Buren arrived in 1631 and Goosen Gerritsen Van Schaick arrived in 1636.

I believe most, if not all, of my family tree branches came to America long before the Revolutionary War.  I’ll be surprised if any other ancestors settled that far back in the early 1600s.  My quest to document the arrival of the Dutch emigrants who settled at Fort Orange is accomplished.  I know who, I know when, I know where they lived in Holland and I know where they settled in what later became New York.

The common factor is the Patroonship that Kiliaen van Rensselaer established with the help of emigrants like Van Buren and Van Schaick.  Next blog I’ll put their arrivals in context.  A bit more of the history of Rensselaerwyck.  I was in the area where my Dutch ancestors settled in 2002.  To me it is a turning point in American History, because it’s the origins of my family–they established themselves here.  I can’t visit Ellis Island and know my grandparents came over as immigrants on a ship around the turn of the century.

Albany and Rensselaer Counties, along the Hudson River in upper New York state is my “Ellis Island”.  I found the pieces of a missing family puzzle.  Even today, I’m glad I traveled there on my road trip.  It’s almost a primordial impression to know I was there–where it began for my ancestors on American soil.

Next,  I’ll research the settlement of Rensselaerwyck.  First home of the Van Burens and Van Schaick families.

Credit sources: http://xpda.com/family/vanBuren-CorneliusMaes-ind00474.htm  www.scribd.com/doc/9615437/Annals-of-Albany-Vol1      www.politicalfamilytree.com/samples%20content/                     www.archive.org/stream/history cornelis00peckgoogle www.leftoverpizza.com/vanburen_underland.htm

amazon.com – book about Cornelis Maessen Van Buren

Google search: Martin Van Buren, Abraham Van Buren, Hendrick Van Buren

There is a bit of background I needed to understand first that enabled me to quickly trace the correct lineage once I applied it to the lists I searched.  To explain the way Dutch family names are given to children should make sense when you read them.

The origin of surname: Van Schaick (Schaijk)

Habitational name for someone from Schaijk in North Brabant, an area south of Utrecht.  van means: from   van Schaick = ”from Schaijk”

Surnames were uncommon in the middle ages. Early Dutch settlers had no surnames.  Naming children was prefixing the child’s given name to the father’s first name, then adding the letters “se”, “sen”, ”sz”, “en” “je”. The meaning is “child of–”

Tracing the direct line of my Van Schaick family tree I found the right ancestor had the middle name of his father with the additional endings.  In order to track the next generation with common names, I looked for the child having his father’s first name as his middle name.  Add “Van Schaick”  — from Schaijk — and I have my family tree!

If you’ve followed my blog since early July, my visit to Albany, New York on July 5th and 6th of 2002 was to verify if I was related somehow to the Van Schaick Island and the Van Schaick Mansion.  I met with Walt, the family historian, who determined my great-grandmother’s papers weren’t a match to his family tree.  My Van Schaick ancestors were NOT directly related to his side of the family, therefore not connected to the Van Schaick Mansion.

This weekend I’ve been able to document that the first settler of our Dutch lineage to arrive from Holland was Goosen Gerritse(n) Van Schaick.  He was born (1616-1676) in Westerbroeck, Utrecht, Holland.  He sailed to America in 1633.  He settled in Rensselaerwyck and lived in or around Fort Orange.

My great-grandmother, Elsie Ellsworth, was half right on her genealogy comment.  She wrote at the bottom of the first page, “My ancesters(sic) imegrated(sic) from Holland in 1614 and settled at Fort Orange, now Albany.”  They did NOT arrive in 1614.  Those original emigrants were fur traders and established Fort Nassau.  Fort Orange was built about two miles up the Hudson River and settled in 1624.  Kiliaen Van Rensselaer established his patroonship with a vast land patent and purchased title to the land surrounding Fort Orange from the native Indian tribes in 1630.  My ancestor arrived three years later.

There’s a lot of exciting details to share, but that’s a future blog!  I’m satisfied that my research has given me definite documentation of each generation that goes back ten generations in America. Plus I have an additional three generations of ancestors in Holland before Goosen Gerritse(n) Van Schaick was born.

Without further delay, here’s my family tree, tracing back through the maternal line and the Dutch side.

In the beginning:

FIRST GENERATION:                                                                                                                        Teunis van Schaick b. 1535 (estimated) married Gijsbertgen ??

SECOND GENERATION:                                                                                                                 Goosen Teunize van Schaick b. 1560 (estimated) married  N/K

THIRD GENERATION:                                                                                                                Gerrit Goosen van Schaick  1590-1630 married Marrigje Barends b. 1590 (estimated)  They lived in Westbroeck, Utrecht, Holland

FOURTH GENERATION:                                                                                                      *****Goosen Gerritsen van Schaick 1616-1676                                                                               Settled at Fort Orange in Rensselaerwyck – 1633 (Known to travel back to Holland several times before his death in 1676).  Married Geertje Brantse Peelen van Nieukerke 1623-1656

FIFTH GENERATION:                                                                                                               Sybrant Goosense Van Schaick 1653-1686 married Elizabeth van der Poel 1658-1690

SIXTH GENERATION:                                                                                                                Gerrit Sybrantse Van Schaick 1685-1750 married Sara Goeway b.1683?? 1685??

SEVENTH GENERATION:                                                                                                        Johannes Gerritse Van Schaick 1712-?? married Alida Jacobse Bogart 1713-??

EIGHTH GENERATION:                                                                                                                 Jacob Johannesse Van Schaick 1740-1795 married Maritje Van Buren 1743-1814           (This Jacob Van Schaick is mentioned on my great-grandmother’s family list as HER great-grandfather).

NINTH GENERATION:                                                                                                                    William Van Schaick 1785-1870 married Eunice Van Buren 1793? 1795?-1854

TENTH GENERATION:                                                                                                                     Garrett Van Schaick 1820?-1823? – 1903 married Hannah Watkins 1825-1885

ELEVENTH GENERATION:                                                                                                         Elsie Van Schaick 1866-1956 married Frank Ellsworth 1866-1928

TWELFTH GENERATION:                                                                                                               Vera Ellsworth 1889-1983 married Warren Zollars 1889-1980

THIRTEENTH GENERATION:                                                                                                      Mildred Zollars 1916-1992 married Blanchard Hindman 1901-1983

FOURTEENTH GENERATION:                                                                                                       Diana Hindman 1952—-

There it is! I am a 14th generation descendant of Dutch ancestors that have been documented and recorded since the 1500s.  I was married and have four children, they are fifteenth generation and their children (my grandchildren) stand at being the sixteenth generation of Dutch descendants from Holland.

I bit the bullet and signed up for access to the records at www.ancestry.com In doing so, I was surprised and delighted to discover that my living cousins are out there and also interested in genealogy research on tracing complete family trees.  This weekend I  corresponded with several long-lost relatives.  Together, we are filling in the blanks of missing information on our common Dutch ancestors.

There is so much more that I know today.  I wish I had this knowledge when I traveled on my vacation road trip in July of 2002.  I have answers to the questions that followed me on my journey to Albany, New York.  Childhood curiousity about the family tree list of my great-grandmother, Elsie Van Schaick Ellsworth, led me to seek out the area settled by our forebear, Goosen Gerritsen Van Schaick, in 1633.

The generations that preceded us are not just some names and dates on a piece of paper.  They were born, grew into adulthood, married, had children, raised a family and then died.  From this ancestor and his marriages (he married again after Geertje Van Niewkerke died in 1656), his progeny number in the thousands and are scattered all over America.

The arrival of Goosen Gerritsen Van Schaick to Fort Orange, New Netherland in 1633 is a great turning point in American History because it’s the beginning of my family history too.  He was just a drop in the vast ocean of westward exploration and settlement of the New World in the 1600s. What Goosen and Geertje began in this country continues today.

I believe that’s why I journeyed to the land around Albany, New York in July of 2002.  To actually walk in the area and view the Hudson River that was their highway in those earlier times.  To honor the Dutch who first risked everything to come to New Netherland when it was still wilderness and populated by Native American Indian tribes.

I live such an incredible life in America.  And it began with Goosen Gerritsen Van Schaick.  As far as I know right now, this is the earliest arrival of my family lineage.  Someday I’ll trace all lines–the Scot/Irish, the English, and the German sides of my ancestors. Tracing your entire family tree could be a lifetime pursuit.  And it turns out everybody is related! At least it seems that way if you dig deep enough and keep working your way back to earlier generations.

I have more interesting details to write about.  For now, I’m content to share the direct Dutch line that leads to me.  Coming up?  Next blog–I plan to take the generations and work my way back in time.  And I’m telling the stories of life and death, family tragedies and even a “black sheep” in the Van Schaick family tree.   Life was full of sacrifices and suffering.  We think we got it rough in our times?

Stay tuned———

Credit sources:  www.ancestry.com

www.fmavanschaick.nl    www.dcodriscoll.pbworks.com/w/page/9956869/schaick_(II)

Google Search: Goosen Gerritsen Van Schaick, William Van Schaick, Dutch history NY

The next permanent fort was built approximately two miles north of the fort that was prone to flooding.  Fort Orange was built in 1624.  A 1628 publication described the fort surrounded by a wooden stockade enclosure and no families dwelling at Fort Orange.  Perhaps a few dozen persons lived there.  Mainly traders who purchased furs from the surrounding Native American tribes.  Later settlement outside the Fort Orange area came as Dutch emigrants purchased land from the Native Americans.

1629 – Dutch Charter of Privileges and Exemptions.  This established the Patroon system of land ownership in New Netherland. Patroon is a Dutch word meaning owner or head of a company.   The Dutch West India Company granted title and land to some of its invested members.  The Patroon would be a landowner of vast tracts of land in New Netherland and controlled manorial rights and privileges, not unlike a lord of the feudal system in Europe.  The Patroon could create civil and criminal courts, require one tenth payment of all farm crops and livestock from his tenants as well as receiving rent from those who settled on the land patent.

Patroonships were deeded tracts of land that required settlement of fifty families within four years.  The most successful land patent was issued to Kiliaen van Rennselaer, a diamond merchant and one of the principal investors in the Dutch West India Company.   His tract of land (Patroonship) surrounded Fort Orange and extended along 24 miles of Hudson River shoreline and 24 miles inland on both sides of the river, an extensive area that is current Albany and Rennselaer Counties in New York state.  Of all the land patents deeded in the early Dutch colonial period only van Rennselaer’s patroonship was marginally successful.  It lasted into the nineteenth century and passed down through generations of the Van Rennselaer family.

Known as Rennselaerwijck (wyck), the agent for Kiliaen van Rennselaer obtained title to most of the land surrounding Fort Orange.  However, the settlement that grew up around Fort Orange soon sparked conflict with the director-general of New Netherland. Peter Stuyvesant was the Company man also in charge of the successful fur trade operations at the settlement of Fort Orange. Stuyvesant objected to the continued growth and building of the community within shadow of the fort.

In 1652 the conflict came to a head.  The agent/director for Rennselaerwyck, Brant Van Slichtenhorst, ignored the authority of the director/general of the overall colony of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant.  Operating an autocratic, semi-private independent land tract enveloping Fort Orange was in defiance of his demands to submit to Dutch law.  Building a community on company property surrounding Fort Orange would have the settlement subject to laws not emanating from New Amsterdam, but from Rennselaerwyck’s agent.

After receiving authority from his superiors of the Dutch West India Company in Holland, Peter Stuyvesant sailed up river with a contingent of soldiers to declare the village would henchforth be within the jurisdiction of the director and council of New Netherland.  The village was now under the domain of the West India Company.

The village and surrounding area, including Fort Orange, was renamed Beverwyck in 1652.  Beverwyck grew into a lively trading town with a hundred or so houses scattered along a few dirt streets.  Rennselaerwyck developed on the east side of the Hudson River with Fort Orange and Beverwyck growing on the western shore.

For the next twelve years, three communities co-existed in the upper Hudson River region: Fort Orange, Rensselaerwyck and Beverwyck.  Beverwyck grew with the arrival of European tradesmen who settled the area and raised large families.  Most of the population was ethnically Dutch, but the influx of immigrants bewtween 1652 and 1664 were German, Swedes, French and Africans (brought over as the first slaves by the Dutch to New Netherland).  Fort Orange had fallen into disrepair.  It was built on the waterfront and like its predecessor from 1614, therefore prone to flooding.

Political and ruling country changes in 1664 turned ownership of the Dutch colony of New Netherland over to the English.  The war in Euope between England and Holland was settled and the increasing colonisation of New England to the north and Virgina and the Carolinas in the south forced the Dutch to relinquish its control of an area from Connecticut to New Jersey.  James, Duke of York, renamed the area New York.  New Amsterdam became Manhattan.  Beverwyck was renamed Albany.

In 1676,  the English government constructed a new English fort on higher ground, well away from the Hudson River. The strategic placement and fortunes of Albany, New York were due to it’s proximity to the junction of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers.  Not only would Albany continue to thrive and grow into a major trading post with access to Manhattan in the south, it had access into the heartland of the frontier and the Great Lakes region.  The fortunes of the city would be linked to the rest of the continent.

This is the history and background of settlement in the area that began in 1614 and with the building of Fort Orange in 1624.  Rennselaerwyck developed patroonship lands on the eastern side of the Hudson River. Fort Orange’s community was renamed Beverwyck in 1652.  It was a bustling town in 1664 when the English gained control and renamed the town, Albany.

Somewhere in that history of settling the area are the names of my Van Schaick ancestors.  A few are more prominent, taking on political status in the mid-seventeenth century.  In my research, I read a paragraph about a Van Schaick who had other branches of the family in the Kinderhook area.  That peeked my interest.  I have Van Buren ancestors to investigate while I trace my Dutch lineage.  Martin Van Buren was born and raised in Kinderhook, New York.  Now I DO have his family tree documented back to his ancestor who emigrated from the Netherlands.  Still trying to connect my great-great-grandmother, Eunice Van Buren Van Schaick, to Martin Van Buren’s branch of the family.

The reason I took the time to research the early settlement of the Albany area is because this is where my Dutch ancestors lived in the 1800s.  And yes–I would like to prove my ancestors arrived as early as the English who settled in New England around the same time.  I would like to know the definitive Van Schaick and Van Buren who emigrated from the Netherlands in the 1600s.  Am I also related to the prominent Van Schaicks of early Albany fame and fortune?

Of course, I would like to connect to the lineage of Anthony Van Schaick, who built the Van Schaick Mansion on the island near Cohoes, New York.  Maybe I’m not a direct descendant, but if they were cousins, eventually I’ll arrive at the common grandparents our lineage shares.

Another reason I’m digging into the history of the Dutch settlement of Albany is to “debunk” a long-standing idea that my great-grandmother wrote our ancestors emigrated from Holland in 1614.  The more I research the early settlement along the Hudson River, I now believe she wrote it as a general remark.  Such as telling someone, “My ancestors arrived from England and settled Massachusetts in 1620.”  It just means the English arrived in 1620 and began to populate Massachusetts, not specifically that I can trace my lineage to that first settlement.

I still want to dig a bit deeper into the Van Rennselaer patroonship lands of Rennselaerwyck.  Two reasons: one-the inheritance remained with the heirs for many generations.  The Crailo House Museum that I visited on my road trip on July 6, 2002 is in Rennselaer County and connected to the family. And two-I discovered my great-great-grandfather’s older brother, William Van Schaick, Jr died in 1852.  His will listed Garrett Van Schaick as living in Troy that year.

I have a direct connection to Rennselaer County, New York.  This is where they were born and lived and died in the 1800s.  When did they arrive?  1600s?  1700s?

What is it about searching for your distant relatives who are long dead and just names and dates on faded documents somewhere?  America can claim explorers trekked over its newly discovered lands going back to the 1500s.  500 years isn’t a very long time compared to the history of Europe or Africa or Asia, where history and kings date back thousands of years.  It’s one long leap.  To know their names and the dates when our earliest ancestors arrived from the “Old Country”.  Once we now who they were and where they came from, we can leap back in time and history to trace our origins.

To know who you are.  To realize what ethnic, cultural and native heritage you lay claim to from a long ago past.  It’s a treasure hunt.  Digging not for gold or buried pirates’ treasure, but digging for the jewels of those who came before.  Their DNA is within us.  We are all a sum measure of who came before us in time.

I may never glimpse a faded portrait of my ancestors.  I would like to open a window into the dates and times they once lived and loved and worked and married and raised children.  When I bring their memory alive once more, I’ll believe a warm wind will flow over the sod of their graves and honor them. I exist today due to their hardships and struggle to settle a new land.

When I look at myself in the mirror, I am sum of all those who came before me.  In a few day, I’ll have the Dutch background of the Albany, New York area complete.  Then I have the exciting task of documenting my family tree.  I’ll share what I learn.

Rennselaerwyck — the first settlement that became home to my family.

Credit sources: www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany    www.nnp.org/vtour/regions/albany

(Google search) Fort Orange, Rennselaerwyck, Albany

In 1602, the Dutch East India Company was chartered in the Netherlands. It’s purpose was to trade for spices in Asia as well as carry out colonial activities in the region.  It was a monopoly and the first multinational corporation in the world. It was the first company to issue stock.  It was a “mega-corporation” with quasi-governmental powers, such as: the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, coin money and establish colonies. The Dutch East India Company received huge profits from its spices monopoly through most of the 17th century.

One of the Company’s ships was the Halve Maen (Half Moon). Commissioned by the Dutch Republic and captained by Englishman Henry Hudson in 1609, he was to search for an eastern passage to Asia. After several months of exploring the eastern coast of the New World (aka: America) from Labrador to the Chesapeake Bay area, the ship entered the bay of current New York.  Henry Hudson sailed up the newly discovered river far north until the river became too shallow and narrow to proceed further upriver.  He turned around near present day Albany, New York and returned to the bay and Atlantic Ocean.

The river became know as the North River, distinct from the South River where New Amsterdam would later be established in the region of New Netherland.  The region was later surveyed and charted and in order to perfect Dutch territorial claim settlement was required.  The earliest settlements were Dutch “factorijen”; trading posts with a military presence of soldiers and a small support community.

The early 1600s were a period of prosperity for Europe. The monopoly of The Dutch East India Company in the Asian spice trade and the success of world colonisation with ships that outnumbered the rest of European powers was known as the Dutch Golden Age.  It was difficult to recruit people willing to leave the Netherlands with an economic boom and cultural vibrancy experienced in Europe at that time.

The first Dutch settlement along the North River was a fort built in 1614 on Castle Island.  It was so named due to an earlier French fortification built on the island and dated to around 1540. It was abandoned due to persistent spring flooding.  The Dutch trading post would also be abandoned and rebuilt on higher ground for the same reason.

The trading post was named Fort Nassau and considered the first Dutch settlement in America.  It was named in honor for the stadtholder of the United Netherlands–the House of Orange/Nassau. This settlement was a small fortification trading post and warehouse occupied by Dutch traders and soldiers.  It’s purpose was to establish a lucrative fur trade with the local Indian tribes.

A distinct charter was granted to The Dutch West India Company in 1621.  This established the company with a monopoly of trade in the West Indies and New Netherland. However, company mismanagement and underfunding hindered emigration to New Netherland.  The ever present danger caused between Dutch settlers and indigenous tribes because of misunderstandings and armed conflict also hindered early settlement in the upper river valley.

The Dutch West India Company governed the area of New Netherland as it saw fit.  A fort was built at the tip of Manhattan Island and New Amsterdam grew into the most settled community of Dutch emigrants.  Every settler and trader came to New Netherland on behalf of the Company. Its settlements along the North and South Rivers (Hudson River) were established for trade and commerce.  In all manner of speaking–a company town.

I’ve determined how the Dutch came to discover the area we know today as New York, the Hudson River and present day Albany.  I’ve researched the particular purpose of establishing trading posts and New Netherland around 1614. Fort Nassau was the earliest Dutch settlement, even though the trading post was flooded out and abandoned.

What I’m unable yet to determine is the statement my great-grandmother (Elsie Van Schaick Ellsworth) wrote as true.  She claimed our ancestors emigrated to Fort Orange in 1614.  Interesting, but difficult to prove. One–1614 wasn’t Fort Orange, it was called Fort Nassau.  Two–Fort Orange was built and settled in 1624 on the west bank of the upper Hudson River and Albany was established from that original trading post.

My quest is to discover the first Dutch ancestor who settled in America.  So many questions.  Did he/they arrive as early as 1614 (unlikely)?  Were my ancestors early settlers of Fort Orange in 1624?  So much information has been documented and I just need to find the right path that leads to definitive proof.

The answer is probably not found exploring Fort Nassau.  Time to research what I can about Fort Orange. That’s enough data for another day.  Next blog will be about the 1624 settlement of Fort Orange in New Netherland.  Looking for Dutch family names.

Credit sources: (google search) Dutch East India Company, Dutch West India Company, 1609 Half Moon, Henry Hudson, Fort Nassau 1614, Early Dutch settlement, New Netherland

For the next two weeks or so, I’m going to stay with the history of the Dutch settlement of New Netherland along the Hudson River valley.  I’ve dusted off the articles from my 2002 research files, but Google makes it so easy to type in the subject and get pages of current and, in my opinion, remarkable tidbits of Dutch history about the area and early Dutch settlers.

One thread pulled leads to another–and another—

So I’m going to start way back, at the beginning.  Once upon a time, in lands far, far away, courageous explorers were provisioned with crew and supplies and set out on journeys to  unknown lands.  Purpose?  Nothing so noble as the reasons America was settled in the 1600s.  Merchants of England and France and Spain and Portugal sailed the vast oceans to trade for spices and riches in the Far East. The explorers were to find the fabled Northwest Passage to shorten the trip to the Far East.

Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator, sailed west under the sponsorship of Spain’s King and Queen.  He is credited with the discovery of the New World in 1492.  In subsequent voyages, he returned to the islands of the “West Indies”; his name for the islands in the current day Caribbean Sea.  In actuality, Columbus never saw the lands of North America or set foot on the shores of the eastern coast.

Christopher Columbus’s voyages and reports discussed in Spain led to a golden age of explorers and navigators sailing directly west, knowing there was uncharted territory to discover in the name of King and Country.

John Cabot (Italian sailor born as Giovanni Caboto)  was commisioned by England to find the Northwest Passage.  In 1497-98, He sailed from Bristol, England across the North Atlantic Ocean and found new lands in modern day Canada.  He continued sailing south along the coast from Labrador to present day Maryland before returning to England.  He claimed all the continent for England.

The Spanish explorers discovered different parts of what we now call America.  Even the name “America” is in honor of Americo Vaspucci, whose tales of exploration in 1497 along South America’s coastline came to the attention of a German mapmaker.  Martin Waldseemiller is first known to name the mysterious new continents after the discoverer.  He changed the name to the feminine Latin form to reflect the names of the other world’s continents (Africa, Asia, Europa).

Consistent voyages of exploration followed in the 1500s by the Spanish conquistadors.

1513 – Juan Ponce de Leon – First to discover Frorida.

1521 – Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon – First explorer of present day South Carolina. Subsequent discoverer of lands from Cape Fear to Chesapeake Bay and the James River in 1524.

1537 – Cabeza de Vaca – First to explore Texas and territory in Southwest America.

1539 - Hernando De Soto explored Florida and Southeastern America from Georgia to Arkansas and saw the lower part of the Mississippi River.

1540 – 1542 – Francisco Vasquez de Coronado – First explorer to travel through Southwest America –  Arizona and New Mexico to eastern Kansas.

1542 – Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo (Portuguese) - First explorer to navigate along the west coast of present day Californina as far north as the Russian River.

French explorers settled in North America and established outposts in Canada.  They discovered lands and rivers for different reasons and their voyages were overland in the interior of the continent.

Jacques Cartier – explored Canada.

1673 - Jacques Marguette and Louis Joliet explored the Great Lakes region and discovered the upper Mississippi River.

1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano (Italian born navigator) sailed in the name of France when he explored the East coast of America from Cape Fear, North Carolina as far north as Maine.  He discovered the land we know today as Manhattan and entered present day New York Bay–eighty-five years before Hudson sailed the “Half Moon” into the same waters.

And finally, the English did their fair share of sending out ships and navigators to search for the elusive Northwest Passage.  In the 1500s Queen Elizabeth I ruled when Sir Walter Raleigh brought the first English settlers to establish a colony in Virginia. 1584 was the beginning of Roanoke Island.

In all my quick Google online research articles, I noticed the domination of the Dutch merchant sailing vessels of the 1500s and 1600s were curiously unmentioned. The explorer credited with the discovery of New York and the river that bears his name 400 years later was English.  He gained a reputation as navigator in his country, but lacked the funds for his latest voyage.  In 1609, Henry Hudson sailed under the authority of Holland. His discovery wasn’t the eagerly sought after Northwest Passage, but his reports of trading possibilities with the native inhabitants of the land were received favorably in Holland.

The Dutch were quite accomplished traders who sailed the world, establishing colonies that would bring profits and wealth to the Dutch East India Company.  Their fleet of ships rivaled the other countries of England and Spain.  Yet their settlement in the New World lasted only a generation or two.

From 1609, after Henry Hudson claimed the territory for Holland, until 1664 when England forced the Dutch from New Amsterdam, is a short span of time that gets very little attention outside of the original territories first settled by the Dutch.

This is my quest.  I want to learn more about this brief but influencial historical period in the early 1600s that brought my Van Schaick ancestors from their homeland in Holland to settle in the area around Albany, New York.

Of the four big “power players” who conquered the New World and explored America, why is Dutch sea domination and exploration so far below the importance of England, Spain, Portugal and France?  Time to dust off my European History schoolbooks and gain an understanding of the Netherlands during the time period in the 1600s that brought my Dutch ancestors to Fort Orange.

Next subject–Dutch establishment of trading posts on the Hudson River——-

Credit source.  http://www.elizabethan_era.org.uk

With an attitude of hope and anticipation Saturday morning, I retraced my drive back to the Van Schaick Mansion.  Sure enough,  just as the caretaker’s wife promised, two tour buses lined the side of the street next to the house.  About thirty people milled around the front yard.  Usually the Van Schaick Mansion isn’t open for weekend tours of the rooms but today is a special occasion.  Direct descendants of Anthony and John Van Schaick, who once lived in this house, are here. And each person can document this is their family homestead circa 1735.

I can only hope I arrived on Van Schaick Island on July 6, 2002 on the right date to be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with these people and call them family. I previously called the DAR woman in Cohoes who suggested we meet this morning at the house.  The tour began and the group filtered into the interior of the house.  I wasn’t part of that group so I stood back and allowed them to experience their Dutch family history and Revolutionary period history of the Mansion.

I was able to tour the rooms. It was a plain house with sparse furniture.  But I was humbled to step on floorboards that George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Benedict Arnold, General Horation Gates and many other famous Americans had walked across in Revolutionary times.

I found the DAR woman, dressed in colonial period costume, in the back of the house in the kitchen area.  We spoke at length about the Van Schaick family.  Then she introduced me to the organizer of today’s family tour.  Walt M. was a kind and generous older gentleman entrusted as the Van Schaick historian.  He was able to fully document the Dutch line back to who, when and where the first Van Schaick ancestor emigrated from Holland in the 1600s. He showed me the extensive family tree displayed and framed on the wall in the kitchen area.

I studied it closely for any mention of familiar names.  Walt and I discussed the names I claimed as great-great-great-and beyond grandparents. Garrett Van Schaick, William Van Schaick, Jacob Van Schaick and other connections I found online searching genealogy websites.  He mentioned Goosen Gerritsen Van Schaick as patriarch of his lineage.  Because I have a Cornelius Van Schaick listed as brother to my great-great-grandfather, Garrett, I wondered if the Dutch emigrant, Cornelis Aertsen Van Schaick, was a family connection?

I gave Walt M. a copy of my great-grandmother’s Van Schaick list.  He studied the papers with the seasoned eye of a genealogy researcher.  We continued to search the wall chart of Van Schaick descendants.  He pursed his lips, shook his head slowly and sighed.  He handed the papers back to me and delivered a crushing blow in a kindly voice.

“No, I don’t think your Van Schaick line is the same as this branch.  Your great-great-great-grandfather, William Van Schaick married a Van Buren.  There are no Van Burens in my family tree.  As you can see on the chart, I don’t see common names that prove we are related. So sorry.”

He couldn’t help but see the utter disappointment showing plain on my face.  I did not belong.  I folded great-grandmother’s family tree list in my hands.

Walt walked with me from the house out to my rental car.  We talked about other steps I could take to determine which branch of my Van Schaick line emigrated to this area from Holland in the 1600s.   We parted with a hug and exchanged email adresses.  When I returned to Ohio, I’d  communicate with him and Walt would assist me with further research into Van Schaick genealogy.

He graciously took my picture standing next to the historical stone monument.  He left me at the edge of the property to return to his family guests touring the Mansion. My high hopes were dashed.  Not only couldn’t I claim to be a descendant of this Van Schaick line, I couldn’t feel the same pride that the turning point of the Revolutionary War happened right here in 1777–and claim a personal bond with that American History event.

There was a small rise in the back yard was ringed by a grove of thick woods.  The DAR woman told me about an upcoming encampment taking place on the grounds of the Van Schaick Mansion.  Revolutionary War reenactors would be recreating the times of 1777 over the weekend in the middle of July.  She invited me to come back and be a specatator.

I stood next to my car and gave the grounds and Van Schaick Mansion a long, sweeping gaze.   This was an impressive estate back in the 1700s. At least I got to be here in person and settle curious questions about this place.  At best, I learned about the historical importance of the estate in the Revolutionary War era. I was thrilled to discover another turning point in American History to add to my memoir experiences.  All in all this trip wasn’t in vain.  Sometimes when you ask the question–the answer is no.  And now I know.

There was a full Saturday ahead of me.  Next on my list was driving across the Albany bridge to the eastern shore of the Hudson River.  My  great-great-grandfather, Garrett Van Schaick, and several of his brothers and sisters were born in nearby Rennselaer County, New York.  Surely I would find historical evidence of their existence.  I no longer pushed to uncover names and dates from the 1600s and Dutch settlers who arrived in New Netherland.

The search shifted toward information and documents related to the existance of my Van Schaick ancestors who were born and once lived in this area.  The names on the New York state map came alive–Greenbush, Troy, Watervliet, Hillhouse Island.    If they were born in this area, did they marry and have families in this area?  Are they buried in or around Rennselaer County?  Can I find records to prove my great-great-grandfather’s family lived here?

I located Greenbush Library in the local phone book and spoke to the librarian.  They don’t keep specific records of families from the 1800s, but they kept local books at the library that might have some information.  I drove to the library and spent about an hour hunched over a pile of books.  It was a quick–speed reading–search to have the name, Van Schaick, catch my eye.  Turns out that the Dutch name, Van Schaick, is either very prominent in the area–or very common as a Dutch name (like Johnson or Greene). I came across it in the local history books several times, but no proof they wrote about my ancestors.

My next journey was to the Rennselaer County Historical Society, located in Troy, New York.  Lucky me–first Saturday of every month, admission to the research library is free.  I was escorted to the stacks of shelves and old documents by a most helpful historian/researcher.  We tried to uncover Van Schaick burial places located in the county cemetaries.  Very frustrated–couldn’t nail anything down.  Nothing definite proved I came all this way from Ohio on a successful search for my Dutch family roots.  Nothing.

The research librarian told me the most extensive documents that went back hundreds of years were kept in the New York State Library and Museum.  It was just across the river in Albany.  Then he proceeded to tell me that a massive fire erupted in the buildings in 1911 and thousands upon thousands of books, original manuscripts, important legal documents and priceless Indian artifacts were destroyed in the fire.

That knowledge of the loss of so much written history from a central location like the State of New York Library and Museum sent chills throughout my body.  Almost everything stored was destroyed by the fire and water in a futile attempt to bring the fire under control.  If anything about my Dutch ancestors were archived in that building regarding the 1600s until the early 20th Century–it was gone.  Never to be recovered.

I looked at the papers my great-grandmother wrote about her ancestors.  Am I on a fool’s errand here?  Is this the only clue I had Dutch lineage dating back to the 1614 settlement and later settlement of Fort Orange?  Now I doubted what she meant with her comment.  I wasn’t as convinced as I was before I drove all this way to Albany that we were among the first traders and settlers in the New World in 1614.  Records clearly stated Fort Orange was built years later.  Pehaps she meant our family line was Dutch and the Dutch settled the Upper Hudson River area beginning in 1614 and Fort Orange was the first permanent settlement established in 1624.

The librarian suggested I review last wills and testaments filed on microfiche.  Those documents went back into the early 1800s.  I sat in front of the microfiche machine and looked at an index of Van Schaick names.  After comparing several first names and dates, I eliminated most, except for one promising possibility.  The librarian wrote down the name and numbered location and  found the microfiche roll.  Together we searched for the document.

Surrogate Court. The Last Will and Testament of  William Van Schaick, Jr.,                          of the City of Troy, died 21st day of May, 1852.

Cornelius Van Schaick was executor of the will. No surviving widow or child or children, but a father and mother and the following brothers and sisters

Jacob Van Schaick of Brunswick, Jeremiah Van Schaick of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Garret Van Schaick of Troy, Mary Alicia Van Schaick of the same place, Elizabeth Van Schaick of the same place, Henrietta Van Schaick of the sme place, Jane Van Schaick of the sasme place & Stephen Henry Van Schaick of the same place.

State of New York, Rennselaer County.

BINGO!!

The brother of my great-great-grandfather, William Van Schaick, died in 1852 (one hundred years before I was born) and listed in his last will and testament are his parents, both alive, and his brothers and sisters.

Can you imagine my thrill to see those names on a legal document?  In 1852, Garrett Van Schaick was living in Troy, New York.  I know in 1852 he was married to Hannah Watkins Van Schaick (1825-1885) and was father to two children: William Van Schaick, b. June 14,  1847 (almost 5 years old) and Alonzo Van Schaick, b. July 24, 1849 (almost 3 years old). And his wife was expecting another baby. Euphema Van Schaick, b. August 28, 1852.

William Van Schaick, Jr. was the older sibling born right before Garrett.

I had positive documentation that the names of my great-grandmother’s aunts and uncles matched the hand-written list I carried and protected for so many years.  It was like finding a lost treasure!  I believe most Americans have a curiousity to know who they are in terms of heritage and ancestry.  Discovering one’s family roots is another way of honoring the sacrifices and hardships they endured so we can live our lives today.  In their time did they ever wonder if some far off descendants would search for them and want to trace their life on this earth?

If you don’t know-you don’t care.  My genealogy searching for long-gone family has given me an awareness of a curious and inquisitive nature and I want to learn more.  It’s like searching for a hidden treasure.  Tracking down that illusive family name and perhaps putting a faded photograph or portrait to the name is an inspiring occasion of discovery.  One generation found leads to the prior generation and so on until you can prove when and where your ancestors first settled in America–and what country and community they left to emigrate here.

Americans all came from some other land, some other time and place.  I don’t know much about my direct ancestral lineage on the Dutch side of the family, but I have something.  The research librarian copied the 1852 will of William Van Schaick, Jr.  I have it in my Albany, NY folder, safely preserved with my great-grandmother’s family lists.

It was getting later in the day, but I had more time to explore my Dutch heritage.  I heard about an excellent museum located  along the Hudson River in Rennselaer.  I drove through a residential neighborhood and stopped to tour the Crailo State Historical Site.

The brick house was also known as Fort Crailo and built in the early eighteenth century.  It had a history of being occupied by descendants of the Van Rennselaer Patroon-original vast landholding called the Manor or Patroonshp of Rensselaerwyck.  Also spelled Crayloo or Cralo, it means “crows’wood” in Dutch.

I parked my car and found the entrance to the museum.  I love museums! I could wander for hours and study the fascinating displays and read about the history of the artifacts and people.  This museum of Dutch history was no exception.  I planned to end my week long vacation in the Crailo House touring the museum this afternoon.

The guide was pleasant and an intelligent source of information about the area history.  I wandered along the first

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A personable couple and their two boys, who looked about ten and twelve,  wanted to go on a tour of the museum.  The guide explained it wasn’t so much a planned tour, but rather a stroll from room to room, pointing out items of particular interest and discussing the background of life during early Dutch settlement of the Albany area.

We had interesting conversations walking into the various rooms.  The boys were well-mannered and quiet. The parents seemed animated and excited to learn about the Dutch history of New Netherland.  I detected a slight accent in their spoken English.  When  I  asked where they lived–imagine my delight when they announced they were a family on vacation from the Netherlands!

Oh my gosh!!  What are the odds I would walk into a remote museum on a Saturday afternoon and meet actual people who live in the “Motherland”?!  I’m taking the tour of Dutch history with an actual Dutch family!  This is so cool–didn’t even cost me extra for the experience.

The woman was a great source of explaining the differences between the European Dutch and the Dutch who settled the area hundreds of years ago.  The first thing she told me was how every name seems to be “Van ——”, capitalized. (Just open an Albany telephone book, pages and pages of Vans—–.)  In the Netherlands, van is never capitalized and the word means “from”.

I suppose that made sense during the settlement of New Netherland.  For example, Van Schaick, lets Dutch settlers know you are “from Schaick” and Van Buren means you are “from Buren”.

I mentioned I came to the Albany area to search for my Dutch ancestors.  I told them the Dutch family name is Van Schaick.  She asked me to spell it. S-C-H-A-I-C-K.  I pronounced it Van Schoyk (oy-as in boy) as that’s how my grandmother pronounced it.  It’s how I heard the name pronouced growing up, so I’ve spoken it all my life as Van Schoyk.

The woman smiled and corrected my Dutch.  It should be pronounced, Van Schyk (ike – as in bike).  Van Schyk.  I loved how she changed the error of decades into the correct way of saying the Dutch name.  What a jewel to have actual Dutch countrymen right here in this house to share the tour.

One of the things that stood out about the history lesson is that evidence of the original Fort Orange is now gone.  As much as the archeologists could excavate and preserve, they tried.  However, in the name of progress, Albany built a bridge crossing the Hudson River northwest of the Crailo State Historical Site and the western concrete piling is buried on the site of Fort Orange today.  Sad.

After the tour and a gracious goodbye to my companions in the museum, I picked up every flyer and free pamphlet available with information about the museum.  It was an interesting exhibit and I’m glad I took the time on my final day of vacation on this road trip to explore as much as I could about my Dutch heritage.

I drove back to my Albany hotel room for a second overnight stay.  In the morning, Sunday, I would awaken to the reality of my current life.  I wouldn’t have the luxury of heading to historical National or State Parks in order to take the time to wander and explore the grounds and important sights.  My journey to turning points of American History ended this evening.

And what an ending of this entire road trip journey it is! I know I have a full day of ten-twelve hours of driving ahead of me tomorrow.  I’ll rush back to the reality of highway traffic from Albany to Buffalo across Upper New York state, south through Erie, Pennsylvania and finally back on familiar turf in northeast Ohio–home again.

The long road home–reflections on an odyssey and turning points in life———-

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My longest drive on the road trip journey was leaving Philadelphia Friday morning and traveling to upper New York State.  The closer I got to Albany, the more thrilled I was to  arrive in the land of my Dutch branch of the family tree.  My journey was along the western side of the Hudson River.  This river is linked back to the discovery of this area of the New World by the navigator/explorer Henry Hudson.

The earliest history goes back to 1609 when the Dutch West India Company commissioned the English-born explorer, Henry Hudson, to discover a Northwest passage to the Far East.  History gives him credit for sailing into the big bay and navigating up the river as far as current day Albany.  His ship was Halve Maen (Half Moon).  And the river bears his name to this day.

Soon after his discovery of the river and the possibility of commerce and wealth, the Dutch West India Company established the first trading fort in 1614 for trading furs with the Indians of the area.  The trading fort was called Fort Nassau (After the ruling Holland family – House of Oranje/Nassau) and built on Castle Island, located below current day Albany, New York.  Newly arrived settlers built a stronger fort about two miles away in 1624 and was known as Fort Orange.

The reason I am interested in the first settlements of the Dutch in the Upper Hudson River area is due to a line my great-grandmother wrote on the recollections of her ancestors.  I have a hand-written copy of her documenting as far back as she can remember the lineage of her Dutch ancestors on her father’s side.

Her oldest child, my grandmother, knew I had a keen interest in the stories of the family’s past since I was a little girl.  She gave me the papers when I was old enough to be excited to receive this information and my grandmother knew I would treasure this precious link to a branch of my family that arrived in America in the 1600s.  I’ve often gazed at the names and dates of people long dead and gone, but wondered about them.  Where did they come from in the Netherlands?  When did they emigrate to the New World?  Where did they settle in the Albany area?

Something about nearing Albany in a shiny, modern machine with four wheels and a gas combustion engine and lots of glass with comfy upholstered seats and pleasant music filling the interior from the radio speakers and cooled by an air-conditioned breeze along a wide, paved highway gave me pause as I headed back to a time when the Dutch settled this area and all was unknown and wilderness and dangerous.  All the same, I have a lot of respect for the hardships and sacrifices my Dutch forefathers endured to establish homes and families here.  Because they took the greatest risk of all, I exist almost 400 years later.

From what I’ve researched over the years of my family tree genealogy–ALL branches of my ancestors arrived in America and settled in several eastern states long before the Revolutionary War of the 1770s.  The Dutch branch on my maternal side seems to go back the farthest in time.  And that’s why I’m on a quest to make solid connections to the recollections of my great-grandmother.

On page one, in the hand-written script of Elsie Van Schaick Ellsworth, after listing her father’s parents and siblings, she added a list of forebears going back generations.  At the bottom of her list she wrote:

“My ansesters(sic) imegrated(sic) from Holland in 1614                                                       settled at Fort Orange. now Albany”

Ok-this is really exciting to me, because if this is true and I can document this information, that means my ancestors arrived in America BEFORE the Mayflower anchored at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts and the Pilgrims landed in 1620!

To a white, middle-class, average girl growing up in the 1950s and 1960s where everything was common English/American, just reading the Dutch names out loud sounded very European and exotic and uncommon.  These are the names of my maternal Dutch ancestors, according to my great-grandmother.

Elsie Van Schaick Ellsworth – 1866-1956 my great grandmother                                          (Her parents)                                                                                                                                Garrett Van Schaick – died aged 82 – my great-great-grandfather                                  Hannah Watkins Van Schaick – 1825-1885 – my great-great-grandmother                        (Her grandparents-Garrett’s parents)                                                                                     William Van Schaick – 1785-1870 – my gr-gr-gr-grandfather                                                    Eunice Van Buren Van Schaick – 1795-1854 – my gr-gr-gr-grandmother

The listing gets rather vague beyond the immediate three generations back, but still interesting information.

Jacob Van Schaick – died 1795  her great-grandfather.                                                          Hendrick Van Buren – died 1814 her great-great-grandfather on grandmother’s side

On my quest into the original settlement of New Netherland, I am searching for any of these names.  Van Buren provokes a strong interest.  Over the years, I’d heard the family “rumor” that we are related to Martin Van Buren, who was President of the United States (1837-1841).  He was from New York and of Dutch ancestry.  The name Van Buren is listed in the family genealogy.

As far back as I’ve been able to research doing my amateur genealogy, I’m leaning toward the ancestors who first settled here, when this section of America was ruled by the Netherlands and known as New Netherland.  Cornelis Maessen Van Buren arrived from Holland in 1631.  Martin Van Buren is a direct descendant.  I’d like to discover verification that I am also.

As far as the Van Schaick line, I’ve researched back to the Jacob Van Schaick my great-grandmother listed on her family tree document.  If it’s the same one, I have more information going back several generations.

Jacob Van Schaick 1723 – 1795?                                                                                                     (His father)  Gerrit Sybrantse Van Schaick b. 1685                                                                   (His grandfather) Sybrant Goosen Van Schaick b. 1653                                                                 (His great-grandfather) Goosen Gerrit, Capt Van Schaick 1633-1676

Goosen Gerrit, Capt Van Schaick was born in Westerbroeck, Utrecht, Holland and emigrated to New Netherland in 1637 and noted as earliest settler at Ft. Orange.  (source: Ancestry.com – Bruce masterfile 12/17/2001 Contact: James Bruce)

You know, I’ve carried these names around since childhood and on July 5, 2002 I’m about to wander over lands that my forefathers may have seen, may have owned and farmed.  To turn a page in a book eighteen years ago and look at a Dutch-style house known as the Van Schaick House, built in 1735, is to imagine that I’m studying the family homestead.  Then to look in an atlas at a map of New York state and find Cohoes located north of Albany–AND see smack in the middle of the Hudson River an ENTIRE island called Van Schaick Island—-

This is a childhood dream come true! Compared to how excited I am to approach Albany on the way to the Quality Inn hotel for a two night stay, my dream of turning fifty on July fourth at Independence Hall is merely a pleasant thought.  I drove through city streets on a Friday evening around 5:00pm and traffic was light.  Yesterday was July 4th, workers probably took a long holiday weekend.

As I did after registering for my room and gettling settled and unpacked in Gettyburg, I was too eager to stay inside after getting to Albany.  I was so close to my lifetime prize!  A few hours of daylight remained and I had to find the island tonight. I changed clothes and brought along a local phone book, since it had detailed maps of Cohoes and Van Schaick Island.  A prominent red square pinpointed exactly where I could locate the Van Schaick Mansion. Camera and voice-activated tape recorder in hand–I was on my quest.

“I am so excited! I am just so excited! Oh my god-I can’t believe I’m really here! Actually being here–is HUGE!  It’s beyond anything I imagined!  If I was on a trampoline right now, I’d be leaping high in the air and shouting-YIPPEE! I am so excited!”

I was practically giddy by the time I crossed the bridge from Cohoes and drove down my first Van Schaick Island street.  I suppose it seems silly to anyone else.  Big deal, so she’s going to look at an old house with her family name, so what.  Please understand that I stared occasionally at that house in a book for about eighteen years, longer than the age of my son.  I always wondered if this was where my ancestors once lived.  If not my great-grandfather, Gerritt Van Schaick, then another branch of the family lineage I could be connected to.  And I was on the Island that was named after my Dutch forefathers.

In my giddiness, I stopped to take pictures of every single item with the Van Schaick name on it.  Van Schaick Street sign, Van Schaick Mansion sign, Van Schaick school sign–and the biggest sign I could find–Van Schaick Marina sign!

I followed the arrows that pointed to the direction of the house.  And–I couldn’t find the darn place!  I drove down a few streets, but it wasn’t there.  I stopped at an intersection. In the street to my left, a ROAD CLOSED sign partially blocked the lane.  Hmmm.  I’ve come all this way.  It’s an island.  I WILL find this house! I studied the phone book map.  This street promised to take me to the house.  I drove around the barricade and rushed down a narrow, crumbling asphalt road.  When the road reached the Hudson River, it curved to the right and went along the river and dead-ended in the marina boatyard.

I wrinkled my brow and pursed my lips in confusion.  Hmmm. No house.  I gazed at the map again.  According to that map, if I reached the marina, I’d gone too far.  I turned the car around and slowly moved back the way I’d come.  When I turned the curve to go up a slight hill, I saw woods to my right where the house should stand.   No sight of any Dutch-style house.  I eased my car up the hill until I saw it.

There it was! In my haste to find it–I rushed right past it!

It appeared every bit like the picture in my book on American Architecture.  Maybe by most “mansion” standards, it’s not stately or  grand, but to me, seeing the reality before my eyes was beyond the giddy excitement I’d felt earlier.  “I’m here.”  I smiled and shed tears of relief and joy.  And felt a sense of homecoming. Like the Van Schaick Mansion was waiting for my arrival all these years.

I pulled just inside the driveway and off to one side.  At this late hour on a Friday evening, no open house tours were available.  I hesitated about getting out of the car. It looked solitary and private.  I did take my camera and approached the building.  The right end of the house faces the street, which I thought was odd until I rounded the corner and saw the front of the house faced east and overlooked the Hudson River.  The property extended right to the river’s edge.

I took several photographs of the house.  Built in 1735 by Anthony Van Schaick and lived in 1777 by John Van Schaick and his wife Anna.  I did my research when I decided to continue my journey up to Albany, New York.  After all, I saw the house in a book published in 1984 and wanted to be certain the Van Schaick Mansion still existed in 2002.

The State of New York has designated the Van Schaick Mansion a state historical site, due to it’s importance in the Revolutionary War.  The city of Cohoes and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR Chapter) are caretakers and give tours of the house.  I read about the house and it’s illustrious history online, so I was very enthusiastic about the possibility I had a family link to the Van Schaick Mansion.

What I did NOT realize until I arrived to see the house and the property is just HOW important this house became during the Revolutionary War. There is a historical stone monument placed just off the street in the side yard.  The plaque has a long list describing the historical significance of the Van Schaick Mansion.  It looked familiar, just like so many memorials situated at Gettysburg National Military Park I’d seen earlier.

When I approached the marker to read the long list of historical information, I literally gasped!  Ohmigod–I had no clue about this house. Unbelievable!  What I read left me breathless with the irony and coincidence of the theme of my entire journey.  The marker with bronze lettering reads as follows:

1735-1927                                                                                                                                           VAN SCHAICK MANSION                                                                                                               Home of John G. Van Schaick and his wife Anna Patriot Americans                                         Built by Anthony Van Schaick                                                                                                         Son of Goosen Gerritsen Van Schaick  Original Patentee                                        HEADQUARTERS                                                                                                                           August 18 – September 8-1777                                                                                               Northern Department Continental Army                                                                                GENERAL PHILIP SCHUYLER                                                                                             GENERAL HORATIO GATES                                                                                                                Here was planned the Saratoga Campaign                                                                                   And here August 19-1777                                                                                                                   General Gates assumed command                                                                                                     From this place August 15-1777                                                                                               General Benedict Arnold and his force                                                                                        Marched to relieve Fort Stanwix                                                                                                  Beneath this roof were received                                                                                           GOVERNOR GEORGE CLINTON                                                                                                       Gen. Benjamin Lincoln              Gen. Enoch Poor                                                                       Gen. Ebenezer Learned             Gen. John Stark                                                                             Col. Peter Gansevoort                Col. Daniel Morgan                                                                COLONEL TADEUSZ KOSCIUSZKO                                                                                         Engineer of the fortifications on                                                                                                      Peebles Island and at Bemis Heights                                                                                             Here also after the surrender                                                                                                                were entertained                                                                                                                         General John Burgoyne and his staff

Erected by the Cohoes Historical Society and the State of New York – 1927

I stood there for several minutes in amazement.  My theme of this road trip, this July journey, is traveling to turning points in American History. Shanksville, Gettysburg, Philadelphia.  Until this moment, I thought I was done.  Coming to Van Schaick Island to see the Mansion is personal.  It was merely an ages-long curiousity to discover my Dutch heritage and determine if I’m related to these Van Schaick ancestors.  I had no clue there was more.

Spending a long day in Philadelphia yesterday on July fourth brought out all the 1776 environment and sense of historical time and place.  I killed some time that morning inside an air-conditioned portrait gallery to get out of the hot, humid weather.  I gazed at the paintings of our founding fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence.  George Washington, Benjamin Frankin, Benedict Arnold and many others we know from school textbooks were inside the Van Schaick Mansion during the Revolutionary War.

I paused to study a portrait of General Horatio Gates.  The description under his ornate frame told of his leadership in the Battle of Saratoga, New York.  The victory at Saratoga was considered the turning point of the Revolutionary War.  I remembered that phrase because my road trip journey became an American Pilgrimage to turning points in American History.

And I thought I was done.

To read the marker in front of the Van Schaick Mansion and discover that General Horatio Gates was here in command of the Continental Army in 1777 AND planned the Saratoga Campaign in this house—

Unbelievable.  At that moment, when the enormity of the historical significance of this house during the Revolutionary War sank into my heart and soul, I knew–I just knew I hadn’t really planned anything about this road trip on my own.  This property, these grounds and the Van Schaick Mansion allowed an important turning point in American History to begin here. General Horatio Gates and other military minds planned the Saratoga Campaign HERE.

I looked over the grounds with new-found awe and reverence.  I gazed at the house for a long time.  This place is another turning point in American History. WOW!

Then I swear I shivered with excitement.  What if?  Ohmigod–what if I AM related to the Van Schaick’s of this house?  It’s beyond incredible!  To be related to Dutch ancestors who entertained so many great men of revolutionary times?  This mansion just took on a higher level of significance in my opinion.

And how come nobody knows about this mansion? Outside of Cohoes and Albany and a few surrounding New York areas, does anyone even know the Van Schaick Mansion exists? Or cares about the important role it served for America’s military leaders in 1777? I’ve never heard of this place.  If I hadn’t opened a page in my book on houses, I wouldn’t be here right now.

I walked toward the house again.  As I approached, a woman appeared from the back of the house and walked toward me.  She was the caretakers wife. We spoke for quite a while.  I told her how impressed I was to be here from Ohio and why I traveled all this way to see the Mansion.  When I mentioned possibly being related to the Van Schaick family on my maternal great-grandmother’s side, the woman told me about the Van Schaick burial plot.

The Van Schaick cemetary was located beyond the house in a wooded area.  I asked to go investigate the names on the headstones.  She agreed, but I wasn’t allowed to walk inside the fenced cemetary to look closely at the markers.  Here was an opportunity to verify names and dates and know I had a connection to the Van Schaick ancestors on my list.  The best I could do in the fading daylight was lean in close to the fence and take pictures. I still don’t know if I’m related.  None of the details are clear enough to read in any of the photos I took at the gravesites.

She waited for me when I returned to the back yard.  She gave me a wonderful suggestion.  A special Saturday morning tour of the inside of the Van Schaick Mansion would happen tomorrow.  Two busloads of direct descendants of Anthony and John Van Schaick are arriving to go through the rooms and learn more about the family.  I was invited to show up around ten o’clock and meet the organizer of the group.  He was the Van Schaick family historian and I could show him my great-grandmother’s family tree and verify if I was indeed related to this branch of my Dutch ancestors.

I was thrilled.  One-I could go on a tour through the actual rooms of the Van Schaick Mansion and two-I would talk with the man who could tell me if I belonged to this family tree.  The caretaker’s wife smiled when I thanked her.  She told me she’d see me in the morning and hoped my reason for driving all this way from Ohio would be having my questions answered.  I waved from the end of the driveway and got in the car.

I tried to plan my entire trip and leave no detail overlooked.  At every stop on my odyssey this week, I was acutely aware of a guiding hand taking me to places I needed to see on this journey.  I experienced more emotional insight and deeper meaning being at each historical location.  I could not predict the results of how important the pilgrimage has become on this road trip.  Coming to New York, supposedly on a personal whim, has turned out to be more exciting , more historical, and more significant than I could ever imagine.

I drove back to my hotel room in Albany.  So much to sink into my brain about the first visit to the mansion.  I took notes and reread my research articles and ended my evening ready for the next day to discover if I could claim this Van Schaick lineage as my own.

The Van Schaick Mansion, am I coming home————
 

Journey into Mohawk Country is George O’Connor’s adaptation of Harmen Meyndertsz Van den Bogaert’s diary, an historical document detailing the young Dutch explorer’s 1634 journey out west of New Amsterdam to make contact with Indian villages for trade. O’Connor uses Van den Bogaert’s words verbatim, but his graphic novel format allows him extraordinary liberties with the journal’s account. Vague descriptions are literally fleshed out; O’Connor finds innuendo in even the simplest of Van den Bogaert’s entries, illustrating a between-the-lines reading of the Dutchman’s diary. O’Connor even manages to stick a strange epiphanic mystical revelation scene in there. The story itself is pretty simple: Van den Bogaert and his two companions head out into Mohawk country, meet and trade with Indians, eat bear, learn about some alien customs (including a sequence where some Indians show Van den Bogaert how to heal the sick by vomiting on them), and go back to Fort Orange. It’s really the little interpretive scenes around the text-proper, courtesy of O’Connor’s cartoony pictures, that make Journey into Mohawk Country such a pleasure to read. O’Connor’s work here illustrates the first-person narrative’s slippery claims on truth and the limited viability of a “true” historical account. Good stuff.