My name is Ken Wykoff,

+12 votes
237 views
I am trying to work on a family tree and need to know if anyone has any information on Neeltje Wyckoff, daughter of John Cornelius Wyckoff and Neeltje Schenk, or possibly Geertje Stryker. At this time I can only find she was married to someone they called Mr. Johnson.  Thanks in advance, Ken
WikiTree profile: Neeltje Jans Schenck
in Genealogy Help by Ken Wykoff G2G Crew (860 points)
recategorized by Ellen Smith
We could use dates, locations, link to profile?
Hi Ken. Thanks for asking this on G2G. In addition to Lothar's reply below, it may help people to provide answers if you could please give further detail by adding a comment to your question, including birth or death dates and some locations: cities, states, or even just countries.
I added a link to her mother's profile so people are aware of the family.  It doesn't appear that she has a profile (at least there isn't one attached to her parents).

6 Answers

+6 votes
 
Best answer

These people were descendants of settlers in the Dutch colony of New Netherland. They almost certainly spoke Dutch as their first or only language (although they lived under British colonial rule and they were not necessarily of Dutch ancestry).  Their names were mostly Dutch names like Jan, not English names like John.

Neeltje Schenck did marry Jan Wyckoff, Since Jan was a son of Cornelis, he probably used the patronymic name Cornelisz or Cornelise in addition to the family name Wyckoff. As you apparently have seen, American writers have made a practice of changing these names to English forms for reader convenience, so they would convert the name Jan Cornelisz to a first name of John and a middle name of Cornelius. We do not do that in WikiTree. Instead we use the names that people were known by during their lives, not the names that their descendants use or that bookwriters decided would be more convenient for modern readers.

Neeltje Schenck and Jan Wyckoff had a daughter Neeltje who does not yet have a profile in WikiTree. (All of the children of Jan Wyckoff are believed to be children of the second wife, Neeltje.) The main source (Early Bergen County Families) cited in the profiles for the parents of this child does not include any details other than her name and the fact that she was mentioned in her father's will. But being named in his will means she was alive in 1746.

Ancestry Family Trees are not reliable sources for WikiTree profiles, although many members like to cite them.

What information do you have about this Neeltje Wyckoff you are interested in? (Surely you have more details than the name of Johnson.)

by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
selected by Ken Wykoff
Aha!

I searched around and  I find that Johannes Jansse and Neeltje Wykhof had a daughter Anna baptized in the New York Reformed Dutch Church on 21 September 1746. Witnesses were recorded as Johs (abbreviation for Johannes) Devenport and Engeltje van de Water, the wife of Cornelis Van Cleef.  You can see this record for yourself in the record book at https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/38232-redirection or in transcript form at https://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/church/rdc_bp1746.shtml . Is Anna the child of Neeltje who appears in your ancestry?

Note that Johannes Jansse is equivalent to the English name John Johnson.
Thank you Ellen, this information definitely was extremely helpful. All the variations explain why tracking is so difficult.
+6 votes
Welcome to G2G Ken! You will need to upgrade and start building your family tree. That will make it easier for others to help you and answer your questions. Then it will be easier for you to find the information and answers you are searching for.
Welcome to WikiTree!
by Lothar Wolf G2G6 Pilot (111k points)
+8 votes

What I found was she was supposedly born 1711 in Somerset, NJ. Death date unknown.

by Ken Wykoff G2G Crew (860 points)
+6 votes
John Cornelise Wyckoff findagrave ID 104422630
by Chris Mckinnon G2G6 Pilot (634k points)
Thank you Chris, I see you could only find what I had found. It is a bit of a mystery. I also noticed that you added Pieter but I wasn't sure if that was accurate as they say he died early and the next thing I saw was he married someone.
I did not add Pieter.
Sorry Chris, I didn't notice that the link you sent me on familysearch.org was for Garrett Piterese Wyckoff. It was that one that I noticed Pieter on.
+6 votes
wikitree ID Wyckoff-950
by Chris Mckinnon G2G6 Pilot (634k points)
+7 votes
by Susan Smith G2G6 Pilot (659k points)
Thank  you Susan, appreciate your input but it still is very confusing. On your tree it shows the name as Jan which I know was sometimes used for John. The Neeltje is at this link. Maybe you can make sense of it.

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/168548026/person/402255033170/facts

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