Dutch Ancestors: 2023

In June 2023, my daughter Lara & I (Gary) were in Brooklyn & briefly viewed a few Dutch ancestral locations, including the Jan Martense Schenck house & Nicholas Schenck house in the Brooklyn Museum. Jan was my 8th great granduncle, & Nicholas was Jan’s grandson.

The Flatbush Reformed Dutch Church Cemetery contains graves of several of our kin. Including my 7th great grandfather Pieter Lefferts (1680-1774). He & his wife Eyje (Ida) Suydam (1676-1777) were parents of Antje Lefferts (1728-1804) who married Garret Kouwenhoven (1726-1777); my 6th greats.

A Lefferts family home was originally located within a mile or so north of the Flatbush Church, was destroyed in 1776 when the British invaded Long Island, was rebuilt, & much later moved into current Prospect Park in Brooklyn. We did not have time to tour the current Lefferts Home. The original house belonged to Lt. Pieter Lefferts (1753-1791), a grandson of my 7th great grandparents Pieter Lefferts & Ida Suydam. Lt. Pieter Lefferts was reportedly in the Flatbush Company of Militia under Col. Van Brunt. See http://dunhamwilcox.net/ny/li_rev_troops.htm for details. Several of my ancestral surnames appear. Col. Richard Van Brunt’s Kings County command reportedly included Lt. Col. Nicholas Covenhoven. Both commissioned March 11, 1776. Captains included Johannes Vanderbilt, Lambert Suydam (1743-1833; DAR # A111437), Cornelius Vanderveer, & Bernard Suydam. The Flatbush section included Capt. Cornelius Vanderveer & 1st Lt. Pieter Lefferts, my 1st cousin, 7 times removed. DAR also lists Hendrick Suydam (1751-1819), who was in a troop of horse under Capt. Lambert Suydam.

Map of Flatbush

Flatbush Church

The largest battle of the Revolutionary War was the August 1776 Battle of Long Island. On August 22, thousands of British & Hessian troops were landed on Long Island. Cornwallis’ advanced guard pushed inland 6 miles & established an initial camp at Flatbush. It was around this time, apparently, that the original Lefferts House was burned.

The Battle of Brooklyn Heights included the current area of Greenwood Cemetery, where there is a high point with vistas as far as New Jersey & upper Manhattan. Friends showed us Cedar Dell, where there are some relocated Dutch graves, some with my ancestral surnames. At that time, I did not know that this cemetery holds the grave of Gertrude Phebe Lefferts Vanderbilt (1824-1902), my 3rd cousin, 5 times removed, of Flatbush. Gertrude was an historian, published author, & social activist. One of her helpful tasks was to inventory the graveyard at Flatbush Dutch Church. And to write a Social History of Flatbush. And to push for education of African-Americans. Gertrude was a granddaughter of Lt. Pieter Lefferts.

Gertrude Lefferts married Judge John Vanderbilt (1819-1877). His 2nd great grandmother was Pieternella Wyckoff Vanderbilt (1692-1750), no doubt kin to my Wyckoff ancestors. There was no time on the June 2023 trip to visit the Wyckoff House on Long Island. My 9th great granduncle Pieter Wolfertse Van Kouwenhoven (1614-1689) employed an indentured servant who was ancestral to the Vanderbilts: Jan Arentszen (1627-1704).

Garret Wolfertsen Van Couwenhoven (b. 1610) & Aeltje Cornelis Cool, my 9th great grandparents, appear to have been the Most Recent Common Ancestors for myself (Kit A693287 at GEDmatch) & Kit CL6751961. Several kits show true triangulation with these 2 kits on the P-Arm of Chromosome 7. Of those who lists detailed trees on GEDCOM files, Couwenhoven/Conover appears to be the common ancestry. Many of my atDNA cousins who share with me Dutch & French Huguenot ancestries appear to have more than one Most Recent Common Ancestor, so that it is difficult to discern which common ancestor sent down the shared chromosomal segment.

In June 2023, I had an opportunity to visit the Brooklyn Museum, to have a distant look at gravestones inside the Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church Cemetery, & to examine relocated Dutch graves at Cedar Dell in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. Which cemetery was also part of the site of the 1776 Battle of Brooklyn Heights. Flatbush was briefly a headquarters for the invading British, who had assembled the century’s largest armada & landing force to subdue the American colonies. The Dutch graves at Cedar Dell in Greenwood Cemetery contain some of my ancestral surnames, but these date from a century or more following my current interest in my kin of 1600s Long Island.

Brooklyn Museum has on display the house once owned by Jan Martense Schenck, my 8th great granduncle. And the house of his grandson Nicholas Schenck (1732-1810). Some years ago, the Jan Martense Schenck House was visited by Hans Zijlstra, who has a yDNA match with several male Schenck-surnamed descendants of Jan, & of his brother Roelof (my ancestor). The Schenck yDNA link with Hans & others is evidence of a link to Friesland & North Holland. Hans’ ancestral village is near a castle of Schenck Van Toutenburg; Hans wrote an article about this connection. I have met with Hans in Amsterdam.

The “Clan of Schenck” in the Friese Waddenzee yDNA Project has a couple of these yDNA kits: Hans’ kit & the kit of Ray, my Schenck cousin also descending from Roelof. A recent yDNA match with Ray is a descendant of Selick Skank (1817-1846) of Upstate NY. This match is at the 111 STR (Short Tandem Repeat) markers level at Family Tree DNA. To date, I have no information on any advanced DNA testing done on Schenck or related kin. E.g. the Big Y700 test of SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) & STR markers.

A separate line of Schenck from the south of the Netherlands is not yDNA kin to my group, but the two lines of Schenck intermarried, creating no doubt a complex autosomal DNA picture. At Cedar Dell in the Greenwood Cemetery is the grave of Maria Schenck, wife of Van Remsen. The inscription is hard to decipher. However, I believe that it is likely that she was a granddaughter of Johannes Schenck (1691-1729) & Maria Lott. This Johannes is alleged in some old histories to have been a cousin of our Roelof & Jan Martense Schenck brothers; the yDNA evidence says otherwise. This Maria Schenck (1743-1772) was reportedly the wife of Rem Aris Van Remsen (1743-1780) who reportedly had Rapalje ancestry, so he was my kin anyway.

There are several URLs pertaining to Jan Martense Schenck (b. 1631) & how his house came to be in the Brooklyn Museum, & furnished in styles typical of the period. A connection between my Schenck and the pirate William Kidd is reported, as is a mysterious Captain Schenck. Jan had several descendants whose Schenck-surname yDNA kits are inter-matching.

Jan Martense Schenck (b. 1631), Gary’s 8th great granduncle, married Jannetje Stephense Van Voorhees (Gary’s 8th great grandaunt). Their son Stephen Janse Schenck (1686-1767; m. Antje Claes Wyckoff) was the father of Nicholas Schenck (1732-1810; m. Willemtje Wyckoff, 1757) whose house is also on display in the Brooklyn Museum, 4th floor. See Wiki Tree “Schenck-1272” for a brief account of Nicholas.

At the time of the 1776 invasion of Long Island by the British & their Hessian allies, Nicholas Schenck & family may have been in the vicinity. The predecessor of the current Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church would have been in existence. And the graveyards contained several of my ancestors and kin. The cemetery also contains some non-Dutch graves, including Revolutionary War Patriots.

Battle Hill, now inside Greenwood Cemetery, lies northwest of Flatbush (= Midwout). The views from the top are spectacular. Little wonder that the British sought to control this vantage point, prior to their takeover of New York City. See David McCulloch’s work “1776”, which I heard on CD just prior to the Brooklyn trip (wedding of my grand-niece).

The Flatbush Cemetery holds the remains of several of my kin. Of particular interest are the grandparents of my 7th great grandmother Sarah Van Middleward (b. 1685; m. Jan Brokaw): Teunis Van Middleswaert & Femmentje “Phoebe” Seals; Teunis Gysbert Bogaert & Sarah Rapalje. Four of my 9th great-grandparents. Phoebe & Sarah were in-laws. I have reason to believe that I have an autosomal DNA trace from Phebe, whereby a chromosomal triangulation links multiple people who either were in my line of descent, or were ancestral to people with Vanover ancestry, via Phebe’s daughter Willempie. Willempie had to have been a daughter of Phebe in order for the observed atDNA matches to make sense.

Above-ground marble vaults at the Flatbush Cemetery reportedly include my Van Couwenhovens. The inscriptions have reportedly faded, so getting inside the locked cemetery would probably not have clarified this anyway.