Joost Duryea was ethnically a Walloon and religiously a Huguenot. On a good day, that would severely restrict your rights, limit your access to employment and force your conversion on pain of imprisonment. On a bad day, you just got burned you at the stake.
One of my Forman ancestors loaned money to Henry VIII – bad idea. One arrested the governor of NJ for holding court while Scottish. There was a patriot tarred as a traitor for ages, and a religious refugee who persecuted Quakers on Long Island. Knights, vicars, patriots & scoundrels – 12 generations of Formans.
Theodore Clarence Brintzinghoffer was my great-grandfather. Every branch of his family tree came to America before the Revolution. This is the story of his paternal grandmother’s Dutch family.
Patrick Hassett, my 2nd great-grandfather, was born around 1840 in County Clare, Ireland. The population of Clare peaked in the year after his birth – 286,394 souls. By the time he left, 42% of that population was lost to famine or emigration. Just a year after coming to America, he was among the first to…