What's In A Name?

1794 Petition of Jacob Burkholder

Do you have ancestors whose surnames were mangled in a variety of ways? Most of us do. Spelling wasn't exact prior to 1900 and clerks often recorded names as they heard them.

Often our ancestors could not read or write so they had no way of knowing if their name was misspelled.

In his 1794 petition for land, my ancestor Jacob Burkholder stated he arrived in Upper Canada (present day Ontario) in July 1794, and  applied for land 7 Aug. 1794.

He was recorded as Borghonder in records. That was a new one for me. I had seen the name recorded in other records as Burki, Borcholder, Borcholter, Borckholder, Borgholder, Borkholder, Burckhalter, Burckholdr, Burgholder, Burgholdter, Burkhalter and Burkholder.

Some of my other challenging names to search are: 

My Vollick family not only changed their name from Van Valkenburg to Vollick, it was also found in records as Valk, Follick, Volluch, Folluck, Valick, and more. 

How about my Rabbit family in Kent England? I've found their name as Rabbett, Rabbet, Rabbit, Rabbitt, Rabet, and Rebitt

Sometimes it seems more like Alphabet Soup than any resemblance to the actual name. But that's part of the fun of Genealogy.  What are some of your misspelled ancestor names?

I is For Immigrant

Olive Tree Genealogy is continuing a new Alphabet Genealogy series of blog posts. I'm not following the usual way of going A-Z surnames. Instead I will create a one word "tag". Then I will share an ancestor (mine, my husband's, an inlaw's or one of my children's) who fits the tag

Today's letter is I for Immigrant. Who was your first immigrant to arrive in N. America or your country of residence? My first to arrive in Canada, where I live, was Jacques Hertel.

Jacques was one of Samuel de Champlain (The Father of Canda)'s interpretors, brought to New France (Quebec) in 1613

Jacques' daughter Ots-Toch, a half French half Mohawk woman, married the Dutchman Cornelis Van Slyke in New Netherland.

My most recent immigrant ancestors were my maternal grandparents who came from England to Canada in 1913. That is 300 years of dozens of my ancestors coming to North America from their home countries!

Here's a few of my ancestors who arrived in that 300 year time span. I'm sure most of us have similar multiple immigrant arrivals.

1. Cornelis Van Slyke from Holland to New Netherland (New York) in 1634
2. Albert Andriessen de Noorman (Bradt family) from Norway to New Netherland (New York) in 1637
3. Leendert de Grauw from Holland  to New Netherland (New York) in 1637
4. Cornelis Van Schaik  to New Netherland (New York) in1640
5. Jan Snediker from Germany to New Netherland (New York) in 1641
6. Lambert Van Valkenburg from Holland  to New Netherland (New York) in 1643
7. Adriaen Crijnen Post from Brazil  to New Netherland (New York) in 1650
8. Christian Van Horn from ?  to New Netherland (New York) in 1653
9. Jan Van Alystyne from Holland to New Netherland (New York) in 1655
10. Willem Pieterse Van Slyke from Holland to New Netherland (New York) in 1655
11. Herman Coerts from Holland  to New Netherland (New York) in 1659
12. Simon de Ruine  to New Netherland (New York) in 1659
13. David Usille from Calais to New Netherland in 1660
14. Soert Olferts (Shuart family) from Holland to New Netherland (New York) in 1663
15. Georg Wilhelm Kehl from Germany to New York 1709
16. Johann Frederich Marical from Germany to New York 1710
17. Harmanus Hommel from Germany to New York 1710 
18. Nicholas Bieri from Germany to Holland then New York 1727
19. Hartmann Hunsaker from Switzerland to Pennsylvania in 1731
20. Ulrich Gingerich from Alsace to Pennsylvania in 1747
21. Jacob Burkholder from Switzerland to Pennsylvania in 1765 
22. Sophia de Roche from France to Pennsylvania in 1765
23. Thomas King from England to Canada 1831 
24. Betty Bell (nee Higginson) from England to Canada 1831
25. Joseph McGinnis & Fanny Downey from Ireland to Canada in 1846

 So there you have just a few of my many immigrant ancestors to North America in that 300 years between 1613 and 1913. Who were your immigrant ancestors? Who was your earliest?

Hi is For Huguenot

Olive Tree Genealogy is continuing a new Alphabet Genealogy series of blog posts. I'm not following the usual way of going A-Z surnames. Instead I will create a one word "tag". Then I will share an ancestor (mine, my husband's, an inlaw's or one of my children's) who fits the tag

Today's letter is H for Huguenot. What is a Huguenot ancestor?

Philippe Casier from Calais to New Netherland 1660

The Huguenots had long been persecuted in their homelands. Many families, in terror, fled for other lands after the fall of La Rochelle and Montauban. The West Indies, inviting because of its climate and fruitfulness, was becoming the refuge of many Huguenots for whom the cold region of Canada had no attractions. Removals to these islands had been going on under the direction of a company formed at Paris in 1626, under M. D'Enantbus, who the year before had visited the island of St. Christopher in a brigantine from Dieppe. There he planted the first colony in 1627. 

In 1635, Martinique was occupied by a hundred old and experienced settlers from St. Christopher, including Phillippe Casier and his wife Maria Taine. But D'Enambue died. In 1640 Jesuit missionaries arrived at Martinique where there were almost a thousand French, "without mass, without priest,". Having been reluctantly admitted by the governor and the people, the Jesuits heightened the public dissensions which broke out in the islands and which grew so violent five years later, especially in Martinique, that many of the Huguenots were glad to get back to Europe. 

Many of them went to the Netherlands, some of them, as the Casier family of Calais, eventually finding safe haven at Harlem, New York. Philippe Casier and David Uziele sailed on the Gilded Otter in 1662. They were listed on the manifest as:

• Philip Cassier, farmer from Calais, wife and 4 children, 23, 16, 12 and 3 yrs
   
• David Usilie, farmer from Calais wife and nursing child

G is for German

Olive Tree Genealogy is continuing a new Alphabet Genealogy series of blog posts. I'm not following the usual way of going A-Z surnames. Instead I will create a one word "tag". Then I will share an ancestor (mine, my husband's, an inlaw's or one of my children's) who fits the tag

Today's letter is G. I have several German ancestors, mainly Palatines who fled religious persecution in 1710 and were sent to New York. In 1710, three large groups of Palatines sailed from London. The first went to Ireland, the second to Carolina and the third to New York with the new Governor, Robert Hunter. There were 3 000 Palatines on 10 ships that sailed for New York and approximately 470 died on the voyage or shortly after their arrival.

PALATINE GERMAN PIONEER ANCESTORS

BELLINGER a Palatine German pioneer family to New York

DECKMANN aka DEGMAN a Palatine German pioneer family to New York

WARNER aka WERNER a Palatine German pioneer family to New York

HOMMEL a Palatine German pioneer family to New York

SCHNEIDER aka SNIDER a Palatine German pioneer family to New York

KEHL a Palatine German pioneer family to New York

MERCKEL aka MERKLEY aka MARICAL a Palatine German pioneer family to New York

MULLER a Palatine German pioneer family to New York

WUEST aka WUST a Palatine German pioneer family to New York

Looking for a Good Read in the Pandemic?

Are you looking for a good book to fill some of your time in the Pandemic? Why not try my genealogy mystery Death Finds a Way

Death Finds a Way: A Janie Riley Mystery by Lorine McGinnis Schulze

Janie Riley is an avid genealogist with a habit of stumbling on to dead bodies. She and her husband head to Salt Lake City Utah to research Janie's elusive 4th great-grandmother. But her search into the past leads her to a dark secret. Can she solve the mysteries of the past and the present before disaster strikes?

Available  on Amazon.com and and Amazon.ca

F is For French Ancestor

Olive Tree Genealogy is continuing a new Alphabet Genealogy series of blog posts. I'm not following the usual way of going A-Z surnames. Instead I will create a one word "tag". Then I will share an ancestor (mine, my husband's, an inlaw's or one of my children's) who fits the tag

Today's letter is F. Do you have a French ancestor in your lineage? I do. In fact I have several.

Sophia De Roche was born in France 21 May 1748. Jacob Burkholder (a Mennonnite born in Switzerland) and Sophia (a French Huguenot)  fled religious persecution in Switzerland  to come to Pennsylvania in 1765 on the ship Myrtilla.

Jacob and Sophia Burkholder were the first settlers in Hamilton Ontario Canada on land called the Burkholder Settlement. A monument to them was erected in 1949. Jacob filed a petition for land where he states arrived July 1794, applied for land 7 August 1794.

A few of my other French ancestors were:

David Demarest
 David de Maire, [Demarest] from Picardy, and Wife and four children 18, 12, 6, 1 yr od were recorded on the ship Bonte Koe arriving in New Netherland (New York) in 1663

Philippe Casier
 Philippe Casier (my 10th great-grandfather) of Calais France, is first mentioned in the Huguenot settlement of Martinique in the French West Indies. In 1635 a party of old and experienced settlers had gone to Martinique from the neighbouring island of St. Christopher, which had been settled by French Huguenots in 1627. In 1645, Philippe Casier and others left the island and returned to Europe. Casier went first to Calais, then to Sluis, Flanders where his daughter Hester was born. Some time after 1652, Philippe and his family moved to Mannheim in the Lower Palatinate of Germany, along with other Huguenots and Walloon Protestants.

David Uziele
David Uzille was from Calais but his family came originally from near La Moussaye (south of St. Malo) in lower Brittany. He was a farmer, born about 1635. He married Marie Magdalina, the eldest daughter of Philippe Casier from Calais, before 1659. David Usilie, as he was recorded, emigrated from Calais on the ship the Gilded Otter in 1660

Simeon LeRoy dit Audy
Simeon LeRoy dit Audy was born in 1640 in Creance, Normandy, France.  About 1681 or 1682 Simeon and his wife took some of their family to Kingston,New York. Nine of their eleven children were recorded in Canada. Several of the sons began using the surname Larroway. My branch were Loyalists arriving in Upper Canada during the American Revolution

Jacques Hertel 
Jacques was the father of Ots-Toch, the Mohawk woman who married Cornelis Van Slyke in New Netherland (present day New York)

and more!

101 Best Genealogy Websites 2020

Wow! My site OliveTreeGenealogy is listed in Family Tree Magazine 101 Best Websites for 2020. So is my son's site Blacksheep Ancestors!! 

Olive Tree Genealogy "This site hosts more than 1,900 pages on topics ranging from Loyalists to orphans, Huguenots to almshouses, Palatine genealogy to Native Americans."

BlackSheep Ancestors "Maybe the solution to your pedigree puzzle lies in this site’s tales of outlaws and pirates or records of prisons, courts, executions and insane asylums. You’ll find these “black sheep” here in links and lists for the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada."

Can You Match or Beat Mine?

Family Trees can be very confusing with intermarriages, step-parents, multiple marriages, etc. 

Davd Annal posed an intriguing question on Twitter asking if anyone could beat his four brothers marrying four sisters. I can. 

Here's mine - in the early 19th century 6 Vollick siblings married 5 Burkholder siblings (you'll figure that out when you look below):

1826 Matthias Vollick m Catherine Burkholder

1827 Isaac Vollick m Sophia Burkholder

1830 Janine Volllick (1) md Jacob Burkholder

1831 Richard Vollick m Elizabeth Burkholder (My ancestors)

1831 Margaret Vollick m David Burkholder

1846 Eliza Vollick (2) m Jacob Burkholder

The Vollick family sometimes used the surname Follick. You can read more about the family at Isaac Van Valkenburg aka Vollick, Loyalist from New York with Butler's Rangers in Niagara

Can you match or beat mine?

 

E is for Explorer - Do You Have One?

Olive Tree Genealogy is continuing a new Alphabet Genealogy series of blog posts. I'm not following the usual way of going A-Z surnames. Instead I will create a one word "tag". Then I will share an ancestor (mine, my husband's, an inlaw's or one of my children's) who fits the tag

Today's letter is E and the tag word is Explorer. I don't have any explorers like Columbus or Henry Stanley but I do have Eileen Vollick, Canada's first licenced female pilot. Perhaps I can call her an Explorer.

My third cousin twice removed, Eileen Vollick (1908-1968)  became the first Canadian woman to obtain a pilot's licence in March 1928. Eileen was related to me in two ways, and was also my 7th cousin twice removed. 

"Canada’s first licenced woman pilot was born in Wiarton, Ontario. By the age of 19, she was a textile analyst at the Hamilton Cotton Company and had also won a local beauty contest. She was a spirited girl who had parachuted into Burlington Bay before taking flying lessons. It was 1927. Charles Lindbergh had just flown the Atlantic and Amelia Earhart was beginning to capture the public’s imagination. The diminutive Beach Boulevard resident had already set her sights much higher than anyone could have imagined!

She enrolled in the Flying School owned by Jack V. Elliot at Ghents Crossing on Burlington Bay. The only reservation that her instructor, Len Trip had, was that she was only 5' 1"s and had to use pillows to see out of the cockpit of the ski-equipped Curtiss JN-4 Bi-plane (affectionately known as a "Jenny")

The Comptroller of Civil Aviation issued Eileen a private pilot’s licence #77 on March 13, 1928, the first woman in Canada to qualify as a pilot.

After passing her flight test, she flew in the U.S. and Canada, often demonstrating aerobatic flying which she enjoyed immensely. Shortly afterwards she became Mrs James Hopkin, moved to New York State and raised a family, where she lived until her death in 1968."

Read more about this pioneer woman.

D is for Dutch Ancestors

Image by ArtTower from Pixabay

Olive Tree Genealogy is continuing a new Alphabet Genealogy series of blog posts. I'm not following the usual way of going A-Z surnames. Instead I will create a one word "tag". Then I will share an ancestor (mine, my husband's, an inlaw's or one of my children's) who fits the tag.

Today's letter is D and the tag word is Dutch. I have so many Dutch ancestors who left Holland for New Netherland (New York) that I've lost count! Here are the names of twelve with their years of immigration.

1. Cornelis Van Slyke from Holland to New Netherland (New York) in 1634
2. Albert Andriessen de Noorman (Bradt family) from Norway to New Netherland (New York) in 1637
3. Leendert de Grauw from Holland  to New Netherland (New York) in 1637
4. Cornelis Van Schaik to New Netherland (New York) in 1640
5. Jan Snediker from Germany to New Netherland (New York) in 1641
6. Lambert Van Valkenburg from Holland  to New Netherland (New York) in 1643
7. Adriaen Crijnen Post from Brazil  to New Netherland (New York) in 1650
8. Christian Van Horn from ?  to New Netherland (New York) in 1653
9. Jan Van Alystyne from Holland to New Netherland (New York) in 1655
10. Willem Pieterse Van Slyke from Holland to New Netherland (New York) in 1655
11. Herman Coerts from Holland  to New Netherland (New York) in 1659
12. Soert Olferts (Shuart family) from Holland to New Netherland (New York) in 1663

So there you have just a few of my many Dutch ancestors to North America. Do you have any Dutch family?