The family of Bastiaan van Drunen with descendants in Illinois

On 26 May 1856 the ship "Epaminodas" departed from Rotterdam, transporting 216 emigrants. They arrived in New York on 9 juni 1856. Many of those immigrants settled in Illinois. 
Among them were several members of the Van Dunen family of Sleeuwijk, Brabant, The Netherlands:

1. Bastiaan van Drunen (1792-1873) and his wife Vijverke Snoek (1795-1877);
2. Their daughter Anneke van Drunen and her husband Dirk Schaap and their 6 children;
3. Their son Johannes van Drunen, his wife Willemke van Krugten and their son Rokus;
4. Their son Pieter van Drunen, his wife Hester van de Graaff and their son Bastiaan;
5. Their daughter Dientje van Drunen and her husband Wouter Swets and their daughter Aartje;
6. Their daughter Adriana van Drunen who later married fellow passenger Wouter de Graaff;
7. Rokus van Drunen and his wife Adriana Snoek, siblings of Bastiaan and Vijverke.

In The Netherlands Bastiaan and Vijverke had left behind several sons, including their eldest son Lucas van Drunen (1813-1895). The Streekgeschiedenis Alblasserwaard Blog describes the family and descendants of Bastiaan's daughter Anna van Drunen and her husband Dirk Schaap, who additionally had a 7th child Adriana (Jane) in Illionois.

Dirk Schaap  and Anneke van Drunen and their children

Cornelis Barentsz Slecht, widower of Tryntie Bos (†1674)

A Barent Cornelisz Slecht is mentioned in Woerden, The Netherlands, during the period 1649-1652. Cornelis Barents Slechts, likely his son, is mentioned on 22 Sept. 1645 as being a brick and roof-tile maker in Woerden, a city famous for its brick and roof-tile makers. By the end of 1651 Cornelis Barentsz Slecht was mentioned as a brandy distiller. Just 3 months later he is mentioned in Woerden as a trader of pigs. 
On 17 March 1653 Cornelis Barentsz Slecht is mentioned as being married. As registrations of later dates reveal, his wife was Tryntie Bos (†1674), a daughter of one of my female-line ancestors, Thijs Jansz Bosch of Bodegraven, Holland. They had at least 2 sons: Matthys & Hendrick, and a daughter Jakomyntie Slecht.

A view at Bodegraven around 1749

Cornelis Barent Slecht is mentioned in Kingston, Ulster County, New York, on 21 July 1674. There, on 27 Jan. 1684, Matthys Slegt & Maria Crepel baptised a daughter named Tryntie. This baptism was widnessed by Antoni Crepel & Tryntie Bos.
The first publication of the Banns of Cornelis' remarriage were on 26 Sept. 1684 by parson Johannes Weecksteen, of Kingston: CORNELIS BARENTZ SLEGT, widower of Tryntie Bos, of Woerden in Holland, and ELSIE JANS, widow of Hendric Jochemz, of Breestee, both resid. in Kingstouw[n]. 

HENDRICK CORNELISSEN SLECHT, wheel-wright, young man of Woerden in Hollant, and ELSJEN BARENS, young girl of Amsterdam, both residing in Wiltwyck, now Kingston. First publication of their marriage Banns was on 25 July; the third on 8 Aug. 1666 in Kingston. Hendrick Slecht & Elsje Slecht widnessed the baptism of Roelof, son of Jan Elthingh & Jakomyntie Slecht, on 27 Oct. 1678 in Kingston.

Sources: Baptismal and marriage registers of the old Dutch church of Kingston, Ulster County, New York, Hogenda Transcriptions of Marriage & Birth records. 

Barent & Lucas Coeymans, 17th century miller & sawyer

Barent Pieteres Koijemans/Coeymans first arrived in 1639 from Utrecht, The Netherlands, with his brother Lucas. First, Barent became an apprentice at a mill owned by the Van Rensselaer family. Later,  "Barent The Miller" purchased a tract of land that was given his name: Coeymans is a town in Albany County, New York, USA.
Barent married a daughter of Andries de Vos. His children were Andreas, Samuel, Pieter, Adriaentje, Jannetie and Geertie. Barent's daughter Adriaentje was born on October 19, 1672. His son Pieter married Elizabeth Greveraad on October 5, 1713. Barent died in 1710.

While Barent became known as "Barent The Miller", his brother Lucas Pieterse Coeymans became known as "De Houtsager", i.e. "The Sawyer". In 1675 Lucas bought a saw mill called "The Proesten Mill" on the east bank of the Hudson. Lucas married, too, and had a daughter Jannetje, baptised on October 19, 1684. 

Sources: OpenLibrary.org, Wikipedia.org and rootsweb.ancestry.com. 

Black Sheep Cornelis Teunise Bos was accused of slander

Cornelis Teunisse Bos, it was said, came to Beverwyck*, USA, in 1631 as hind to Cornelis Maase Van Buren. His wife was Maritie Thomase Mingael who, after his death in 1666, married Jurriaen Janse Groenwout. Around that time they had one daughter, Wyntie, living.

Cornelis Teunisse Bos, also known as Bosch and Van Westbroeck, was accused frequently before the court, of slander and backbiting; for example in 1658 for having defamed the honorable court, and again in 1659 for which he was fined 1200 guilders and banished for 12 year. The next year he was again arriagned for a similar offence against William Teller.

The Old Albany City Hall

Source: OpenLibrary.org.

* Beverwyck, was a fur-trading community north of Fort Orange on the Hudson River in New Netherland that was to become Albany, New York, when the English took control of the colony in 1664.

The Van Dusens of New Amsterdam

In 2011 The New York Times featured an article on the Van Dusen family. It started with one of Manhattan’s first few hundred settlers, an operator of a windmill where the Dutch ground grain. Known in official documents as “Abraham the Miller” or “Abraham Pieterszen” - as in “son of Peter” - he landed on the island of “Manatus” some time before February 1627. Abraham’s forebears were from the the town of Deursen

in Northern Brabant in The Netherlands. 
The 1880 census counted 3,000 heads of household with the name Van Dusen — or Van Deusen, Van Deursen, Van Duzer and other common variants — all, the experts say, traceable back to Abraham the Miller.

Two of Abraham’s progeny — Martin Van Buren (1782–1862) and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) — served as presidents of the United States. A third, Eliza Kortright (Generation 7), married one, James Monroe (1758–1831). You can read much more about the Van Dusen family in this interesting The New York Times article.

Descendants of Evert Jansz Bos in the USA

Bos is a very common surname in The Netherlands. Many non-related families with that surname can be found all over the country. One particular family starts with Evert Jansz Bos who had many descendants in Veenendaal, The Netherlands.


  
One of the many descendants of Evert Jansz Bos was Dirk Drost, born on 13 May 1865 in Veenendaal. He descended from Gerrigje Everts Bos (1758-1814) who had married a Van Kooten. Dirk Drost was married on 4 March 1896 in Rhenen to Carolina Robbertsen. On 5-11-1904 they departed with the "SS Rijndam" from Rotterdam, arriving in New York on "Ellis Island" on 16-11-1904. They had 5 children.

Anneke Jans and the Webber Controversy

For generations descendants of a Wolfert Webber claimed that property on Manhattan Island in New York had illegally been taken from their family by the Trinity Church.

Pieter Van Brugh (1666–1740), Mayor of Albany, New York, in the periods 1699-1700 and 1721-1723, was descended from Norwegian immigrants. His mother's parents were Anneke Jans (1605–1663) and Roelof Janse (1602–1637), who was born on a small island in Norway (that was ceded to Sweden in 1658). Roelof received a grant of 62 acres of land on the Hudson River on Manhattan Island in nowadays New York. After her husband's death in 1637, Anneke was married in 1638 to the Rev. Everardus Bogardus (1607-1647) of the Trinity Dutch Reformed Church on Manhattan Island. 


Anneke Jans and Everardus Bogardus

  
Anneke Jans became famous through a long series of lawsuits initiated by her descendants, who claimed (1) ownership of real estate on Manhattan and (2) royal descent. 
F.A. Virkus writes in "The Compendium of American Genealogy":

"Anneke (Webber) Jans (1605-63), [..] dau. of Wolfert Webber (b 1565), 
said to have been son of William, 9th prince of Orange and later King of Holland".

It was even said that Anneke Jans, "daughter of Wolfert Webber, 4th King of Holland, whose father was William, Prince of Orange", was born in "the King's Mansion in Holland" in 1605.

The first and only person who held the title "King of Holland" was the great Napoleon's brother Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (1778-1846) who ruled The Netherlands in the period 1806-1810. The compendium probably refers to Prince William I "the Silent" of Orange (1533-1584), stadtholder of Holland. In 1565 - the supposed birth date of Wolfert Webber, -William was still married to his rich - but mad - 2nd wife, Anna of Saxony (1544-1577), and he was still married to his 4th wife when he was murdered in 1584. During his life William of Orange did recognize only one illegitimate son, Justinus (1559-1631). It wasn't until 1815 that one of William's descendants in the female line, Willem I Frederik of Orange-Nassau (1772–1843), became the 1st King of The Netherlands.