Barnica (Barns) Lattin (1772 - 1798)

Born 28 Jul 1772 in Dutchess, New York Colony

Ancestors

Wife of William Latting — married 29 Apr 1798 in Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, New York, United States of America

Died 4 Dec 1798 at age 26 in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess, New York, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Pauline Layton [send private message]

Biography

Barnica was born in 1772. She was the daughter of William Barnes and Catharine Storm. She passed away about 1798.

Barnica Barns was born 28 Jul 1772 and was baptized on 27 Sep 1772 in Poughkeepsie (The Flats), Dutchess, New York, USA. Her parents were written down as Williem Barns and Catrina Storm ^[1]

Barnica's name also appears with other spellings; Barnea or Barnicke seem to be common versions. She was evidently named after her maternal grandmother who came from a French-Canadian family. Her name originally must have been something like Veronique. She married into a Dutch family, and the Dutch interpreted her name as Barenicke, which became Barnica.

On 29 Apr 1798 Barnica married William Lattin in Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, New York, USA. Her name was written down as Bayneea Barns. ^{[2] [3]}

A Poughkeepsie, New York newspaper reported that "In this town ... Mrs. Barnecha Laten, wife of William Laten (died on 4 Dec 1798) after a short illness." ^[4] Evidently there were no children of this marriage. ^[5]

Research Note: Who Barnica is not

Barnica is one of the more controversial people modern genealogists may come across. The hints of Ancestry.com favor identifying Barnica Barnes as the wife of Willem Van Laten (1775-1820), married on 29 Apr 1798 in Pleasant Valley and using William Lattin's same documentation as proof. Now, this Willem was born and baptized in Amsterdam in the Netherlands; ^[6] that much is apparently true. Then he magically appeared in Pleasant Valley, New York in 1798 where he'd be among Lattins and Lattings who'd come from an English part of Long Island and not a Van Laten in the crowd. Dutchess County had plenty of Dutchmen who were not ashamed to keep the Van in their names, so why the name change? Becoming a Lattin in Pleasant Valley would mean he was surrounded by resentful real Lattins who knew he wasn't one, and they spoke good English, too. It's absurd.

Willem and Barnica supposedly had 6 or so children and moved to Pennsylvania. There's a bunch of children and an older woman (apparently Barnica but she isn't named) who show up living in young (George) Washington Layton's household in Clifford, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania in the 1820 Federal Census. A man of Willem's age isn't mentioned, so some people interpret it that he's dead. The ages of the supposed children are not an exact match for the children's ages listed in the census. The older woman reappears in Washington Layton's 1830 Census in Broome County, New York but she disappears after that, so it's taken that "Barnica" died "after 1830."

Barnica Barns Lattin actually died within a year of her marriage without a wife's usual opportunity to get her name written down as someone's mother. The old gravestones in the Pleasant Valley Cemetery are of a poor grade of rock, and she could easily be there without being legible. Her husband found another wife who did provide children and got her name in a history book. ^[7] Judith Wood Lattin is not a good candidate to be Washington Layton's mother either; her two (possibly three) children don't match Washington's supposed siblings and they lived in Washington Hollow, Pleasant Valley.

It's true the person known as William Lattin died before 1820, but he died near Troy, near Albany, New York (in 1818). ^[8] That needs some explaining, if the surviving family members picked up and left for Pennsylvania to be there by 1820, without a grown man as head of the household. -- Pauline Layton, 9 Mar 2024.

Footnotes

1. ↑ U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-1989, accessed at Ancestry.com.
2. ↑ "New York Marriages, 1686-1980," database, FamilySearch
3. ↑ Note that the husband's name was written down as William (not Willem), and Lattin (not Laten, Laaten, Van Laten, or Van Laaten).
4. ↑ The American Farmer & Dutchess County Advertiser. Poughkeepsie, New York, 20 Dec 1798.
5. ↑ Some Ancestry.com member trees give Barnica death dates like 1820 or 1830, but that's because they're assuming she lived long enough to give birth to some children who actually belonged to someone else.
6. ↑ Willem was baptized on 13 Aug 1775, child of Lambertus Van Laten and Maria (Sirps) Ouckama.
7. ↑ Hoff, Henry B. Genealogies of Long Island Families: From the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore, 1987). Vol. I, Page 523
8. ↑ Hoff, op cit. p. 523

Sources

• U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-1989, accessed at Ancestry.com.
• "New York Marriages, 1686-1980," database, FamilySearch (https://familsearch.org.ark:/61903/1:1:F642-R6G : 12 December 2014), citing reference ; FHL microfilm 1,033,614
• Netherlands, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1910, FHL Film Number 113151
• Hoff, Henry B. Genealogies of Long Island Families: From the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore, 1987). Vol. I
• The American Farmer & Dutchess County Advertiser. Poughkeepsie, New York, 20 Dec 1798. See https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/70889070/person/322091901364/media/19c00e8b-78d1-4508-998f-a26a21b8a4e5

Acknowledgment

All thanks to Ancestry member dorothyvigano for locating Barnica's death notice.