Can we settle on LNAB and merges for New Netherland settlers Ostrander, Pietersen, Pieters, etc.?

Question

I'm posting here to open discussion on some New Netherland settler LNABs.

The male immigrant settler in New Netherland from whom the Ostrander familes of America are descended was Pieter, son of Pieter Carstensen (Carstensen-1) and Geesje Jans (Jans-23). The LNABs for his parents are settled and the profiles are merged. I believe we can move forward on LNABs for Pieter, his sister Tryntje, and possibly other family members.

Pieter is represented by profiles Ostrander-28 and Oostrander-4. Although he is widely referred to as "Ostrander" in genealogical circles, it's clear that his birth name (in Holland) was Pieter Pietersen. Therefore, that looks like the best choice for LNAB. It's not clear if he used the name Ostrander toward the end of his life; that name should be identified on his profile either as "current last name" or "other last name." (Ideally, the names on the profile will prevent people from accidentally creating new profiles for this man.)

Pieter's children were all entered with LNAB of Ostrander. That's probably not correct, but I don't see any urgent need to try to change it.

Pieter's sister Tryntje is represented by Pieters-35 and Ostrander-174 and Pieterzen-1. Her birth name (in Holland) was Tryntje Pieters, so I think Pieters-35 would be an appropriate destination profile for the merge. There's some indication that she was referred to by the name "Ostrander" after 1700 (Dutch women in that era apparently didn't take their husbands' names), so that should be recorded as either a "current" or "other" last name.

An additional related profile that needs fixing is Ostrander-221, currently named as "Pieter Pieterzen Ostrander." This profile results from a disproven theory about the parentage of the Ostrander family. This person was not associated with the Ostrander family. The Ostrander name should be removed from this profile and the profile should not have the NNS designation.

Comments

The now disproven theory about Pieter Pieterzen (Ostrander-221) also involved his wife, Tryntje Van de Lande. There is no evidence for that person ever living in New Netherland; she should not be linked to the Ostranders and she should not be indicated to have died in America.

---

If we had a Pieter Pietersen profile, or if one appears in the future, then we could PPP that. But only the managers of a profile can change a LNAB, so in this first round, we have to go with what we have, or what managers are willing and ready and able to do, in a timely manner.

So this LNAB decision process in this stage is a bit of triage. In this case, the main goal would be to PPP http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ostrander-28 for NNS in order to prevent the clearly wrong Oosterman profile from becoming a merged destination profile.

If there were more than just these two existing profile matches, then it would make sense to create a Pietersen profile. The LNAB choice is never permanent. But it does take a combined effort from multiple people to resolve it each time.

And our other major goal is to prevent a lot of redirects which occur with multiple LNAB changes.

So my vote, given the current conditions and needs, is to simply make Ostrander-28 PPP for NNS, at this time. But if a Pietersen profile were to soon appear, then I would vote for that instead. So we can give this decision another week or so, or month.

There is really not a big hurry on these later 1640s descendants, unless they have a lot of duplicate children waiting to be merged. That is the other main consideration for making a timely choice. We have to balance all these needs above with what will satisfy most folks and will do the least damage to the overall tree.

---

Oostrander-4 is not "clearly wrong" -- it's a spelling that appeared on a few of the old records, but that didn't get propagated forward in later years. And I am now the manager of that profile (having adopted it as an orphan), so I believe I could change its LNAB (and its first name, for that matter) if there were a consensus for a particular LNAB other than Ostrander. (Am I wrong on that?)

And please don't overlook the plight of his sister, Tryntje. She was represented by three profiles at the time I posted my question -- and there are at least 4 profiles for her husband, Hendrik Albertse Ploeg. I believe that only one of their children currently has multiple profiles. However, in families like that one, children get split between different parent profiles, making it very difficult to find the familiy relationships. It would be nice to unite the parents. As I stated earlier, the Pieters-35 profile looks like the best one for her. If that one is chosen for her, it would make sense for her brother to be a Pietersen.

---

My bad on Oostrander then, it looked to me like a Dutchified outlier for the family, but I did not study it.

Yes, if you are manager, you can change the LNAB to the patronymic, and then it will be perfect for NNS.. Ostrander and Oostrander can both be aka, and then they will work just fine in the search.

The sister Trynjte Pieters I had just requested for PPP because it looked perfect to me as the best choice, as you suggested. And so if it is now PPP, it can be converted to NNS template.

Try to identify your best choice candidate among matches on each person for NNS, and justify with publc reasons. If you feel you are right, then be bold about your choice up front, so that we can follow behind as needed, or we can otherwise counter the choice with a different argument.

Split families is the reason that I only work from matches on the oldest ancestors up. Trying to resolve it well for later descendants who have split parents becomes a nightmare, and leads to disconnects and loose floaters, and bad LNAB choices. Unfortunately, most people seem to do it that way, in a hurry, or whatever..

---

Thanks for the encouragement. I've changed that Oostrander profile -- it's now Pietersen-70.

I'm glad to see that Tryntje Pieters is moving forward toward having just one profile. She's not my direct ancestor (her brother is), but I'd like to see her family get reunited.

Answer 1

During the 50 yrs or so that the British ruled the area which is ow Kingston, NY, the use of patronymics was prevalent...Pieter, son of Pieter; John, son of John, etc.  The British required a last name so they could tax "properly" as they could not tell who belonged to which family.  So, we get names like Johnson, Peterson, etc.  Those names were taken when the family of Pieter decided to create their  own name, Ostrander was selected because Oust, (spelling?) is East, strand = shore and 'er' means son of,  Therefore, all the Ostrands, Ostranders and OOstranders are related in the US and Canada.

Dee Fernandez Kermode-583 (an Ostrander)

Comments

This discussion occurred over 4 years ago. Since that time,  naming conventions for New Netherland people, such as members of this family, have been substantially clarified. The LNAB for each individual person is determined from records of that person, contemporary to the person's life. See the New Netherland Settlers Project page for more information.