Foundations – Month 1 of 12 Ancestors in 12 Months

Dutch Beginnings

January 1731 had a frigid start. A few days earlier on December 21, 1730 “vessels were forced back by ice” on the Delaware River. As New Jersey ushered in the beginning of a cold new year, Hendrick and Maragrietje Van Dyke (Van Dyk) welcomed a new son on January 2, 1731, my 5th great grandfather, Dominicus Van Dyke (Domenecus Van Dyk). He was born in Readington, New Jersery. According to the Doop-boek, the baptismal register of the US Dutch Reformed Church, he was baptized on January 31, 1731.

Dominicus’ father, Hendrick Van Dyke and his grandfather, Hendrick Van Dyke, were both born in New Utrecht which later became known as became known as Yellow Hook then Brueckelen which became Brooklyn. (After the yellow fever epidemic, the village decided to change the community’s name of Yellow Hook to avoid the deathly association, “Arthurious.”) According to “New Utrecht History,” the town of New Utrecht was originally purchased from the Canarsie and Nyack Indians for “6 shirts, 2 pairs of shoes, 6 pairs of stockings, 6 adzes, 6 knives, 2 scissors and 6 combs.”

The Van Dyke family were early Dutch immigrants to America. Three generations arrived in 1652 aboard the ship De Bonte Kou or the Spotted Cow from Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. Thomas Janse Van Dyke (1580-1665) made the journey with his wife and children including his son Jan Thomasse Van Dyke (1605-1673) and his grandson Thomasse Janse Van Dyke (1632-?).

I recently had my DNA analyzed through Ancestry.com (I had my DNA analyzed earlier through Healthy Nevada but it did not include cousin matches). Ancestry.com shows that many of my ancestors settled in Kentucky. The VanDyke line shows this migration. Dominicus’ son, Dominicus (1761-1826) and his wife Hannah, moved from New Jersey to Maysville, Kentucky. Their son, my 3rd great grandfather, Regmin Ralph Vandyke was born in Maysville, Kentucky in 1793.

Sources

Aitken, William Benford. Distinguished Families in America Descended from Wilhelmus Beekman and Jan Thomasse Van Dyke. Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1977.

Arthurious. “Yellow Hook, Brooklyn.” Medium, Medium, 14 Dec. 2015, https://medium.com/@arthurious/yellow-hook-brooklyn-69a6819f9193.

FamilySearch Wiki. “United States Migration Patterns 1784 to 1839 (National Institute).” FamilySearch Wiki, FamilySearch Wiki, 8 Jan. 2016, https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/United_States_Migration_Patterns_1784_to_1839_(National_Institute).

New Utrecht History, Friends of Historic New Utrecht, http://www.historicnewutrecht.org/History.html.

Stevens, Stephanie B. “Readington Township History.” County of Hunterdon, Township of Readington – History – by Stephanie Stevens – Township Historian, https://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/mun/readtwp/readtwp.htm.