Who Was Your First Immigrant Ancestor?

I'm not American so I don't celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow. We Canadians had our Thanksgiving back in October because we celebrate for a different reason than Americans do. I don't have any Pilgrim ancestors. None of my ancestors arrived on the Mayflower or other ships arriving that early on the shores of America. 

What I do have are ancestors who left Holland for the New World of New Netherland that is now New York. I celebrate their bravery and strength for making such a journey! 

Watching last night's docu-dramas on  the Plymouth Rock and Jamestown settlements (excellent shows, well worth watching) made me wish someone would do a similar show about the Dutch who settled New York. 

My earliest ancestor to America that I am aware of was Cornelis Antonissen Van Slijk from Brueckelen, Netherlands, who left the Netherlands in May 1634 from the Texel on board De Endracht and sailed to the New World. He was a thirty year old carpenter and mason, and his skills were desirable in a new colony.

There were many other settlers arriving around this time period who I can proudly claim as my ancestors.  Those who I have researched are

Willem Pieterse Van Slyke (nephew of Cornelis Antonissen and also my ancestor) arrived New Netherland 1660

 

Lambert Van Valkenburg - records  indicate he was in New Amsterdam as early as Jan. 1644. Since it is unlikely the ships sailed in the winter, he was probably in New Amsterdam in the summer or fall of 1643.

HarmenJanse Ryckman came to the New World sometime in the 1660s with at least one child - his daughter Margarita (Grietje) Harmense Ryckman.

Hendrick Bartholomeus[Vrooman] and five children ages 15, 13, 11, 7 and 5 years old are on the passenger list of D'Eendracht (The Concord) arriving in New Amsterdam NY on 17 April 1664.

Jan Martense (VanAlystyne) and his wife Dirkje were from Meppel, Netherlands and they came to the New World with at least 2 children. The first time we see them in New York in 18 July 1655 when a son Marten was baptised at New Amsterdam.

Jan Cornelise Damen emigrated from Bunnik, Netherlands ca 1650 and married Sophia/Fytie Martense. To date no record of him as a passenger on a ship has been found. However Pim found an Amsterdam Netherlands notarial document in 1651 where a Jan Cornelisz. van Vechten signs on to come to the New World in the employ of Jacob Stoffels.  Jan Janszen Damen was in Amsterdam at the same time and vouches that Jan Cornelisz. has his father's permission.  Both sign the document. Vechten and Bunnik are "twin villages" but the church is in Bunnik. This is almost certainly my Jan Damen. 

Other immigrant ancetors who I have not yet researched to find their dates of immigration or other details:

• Cornelis Janse Clopper who married in 1657 in New Amsterdam (present day New York City)
• Soert Olferts
• Jan Snediker arrived ca 1641
• Cornelis Vonck married in 1657 in Long Island
• John Concklin before 1665
• Arent Leendertsen de Grauw married 1659 in New Amsterdam
• Herman Coerten
• Christian Barents Van Horn arrived before 1653
• Lucas Dircksezen Vanderburgh arrived before 1658
• Cornelis Aertsen Van Schaik arrived before 1642
• Lucas Dirckszen Vanderburgh arrived before 1658

and too many more to list them all, including Huguenots and Walloons from France. I appreciate them all for without their bravery, curiousity and strength I would not be here today.

1911 Birthday Postcard Jamestown New York

Recently I rescued 28 vintage orphaned postcards from antique shops. They range in date from 1900 to 1918. 27 are from United States and 1 is from Ontario Canada. 

I have scanned and added 6 of these postcards to Lost Faces and will be adding the rest of these wonderful cards over the next month. I hope descendants will see these postcards and recognize an ancestor.  

 Perhaps you will find an ancestor or two!

W. F. Shaw, Jamestown New York. "Dear Pa" from "your? girl L.E." 1911

Skeletons of Four original settlers of Jamestown Colony identified

The bodies of four original settlers of Jamestown Colony have been identified! They are minister Robert Hunt, Sir Ferdinando Wainman, Captain Gabriel Archer and Captain William West.

"One of the bodies was just 5 feet 5 inches long, and missing its hands, most likely from four centuries of deterioration. It had been jostled during burial, so the head and shoulders were scrunched long before the wooden coffin lid and the weight of the dirt above had collapsed on it. Flesh no longer held the jaw shut; when this skeleton was brushed free late in 2013, it looked unhinged, as if it were howling. The bones, now labeled 3046C, belonged to a man who had come to the New World on the first trio of ships from England to the spot called Fort James, James Cittie or, as we know it, Jamestown. He survived the first wave of deaths that followed the Englishmen’s arrival in May of 1607. Over the next two years, he conspired to take down one leader and kill another. This man had a murderous streak. He died, along with hundreds of settlers—most of the colony—during the seven-month disaster known as the "starving time"." [Source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com]

 Read the whole story at New Jamestown Discovery Reveals the Identities of Four Prominent Settlers

Cannibalism in the Jamestown Settlement

Reconstructed face of
Jamestown 14 year old cannibalized

Scientists revealed recently that there is evidence of cannibalism in the Jamestown Virginia settlement. Jamestown was settled from 1607 to 1625 by English colonists. It was a harsh environment and many of the early settlers perished.

There have been rumours of the settlers devouring human flesh to survive and at least two contemporary written accounts refer to this practice.

Early Jamestown colony leader George Percy wrote of a “world of miseries” that included digging up corpses from their graves to eat when there was nothing else. “Nothing was spared to maintain life,” he wrote.

Percy and Capt. John Smith (of Pocahontas fame) documented an account of a settler who killed and ate his pregnant wife to survive.

“One amongst the rest did kill his wife, powdered her, and had eaten part of her before it was known, for which he was executed, as he well deserved,” Smith wrote.

Even with these eye-witness accounts, scientists had trouble believing they were accurate. Until now. Recently the skeleton of a young girl, believed to be about 14 years old, was found in what was a trash heap. Her bones were dumped among the garbage and bones of animals that had been killed and eaten by the settlers. 

The young girl's bones showed signs of chop marks and dismemberment, and there had been crude attempts to open her skull, no doubt for brain matter.  The chief archeaologist for Jamestown had this to say “We found her in a trash dump, unceremoniously trashed and cannibalized, and now her story can be told. People will be able to empathize with the time and history and think to themselves, as I do: What would I do to stay alive?”

It's a good question. We should not judge the settlers. If you or your children were starving, what might you do? Our culture teaches we should not kill in order to eat, but if a person dies, is it so wrong to eat their flesh in order to live? I

t's a question we might not want to face but the desperate settlers of Jamestown had no choice but to make their own personal decisions. And we will never know who participated and who did not.

I for one would want my family or friends to feel free to partake of my body if I died during a time of hunger and starvation. If my death could help them survive I would say "Go for it!"