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.
Six of my ancestors emmigrated to the Puritan colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1633. Within 5 years, all of them would be exiled for heresy.
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.
Margrietje Gillis ten Waert is my 10th great-grandmother, born 17 DEC 1617 in Reusel-de Mierden, North Brabant, Netherlands. She emigrated to New Amsterdam in 1635 with her husband Davit Provoost who served initially as a commissary of provisions for the West India Company. She died 29 JUL 1701 in Long Island City, Queens, NY. Gillis is…