Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 10 May 2015.<\/p>\n
A extra special welcome to my readers from across the pond \u2013 Australia, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Slovakia, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and closer to home \u2013 Canada and of course, the good ole U.S.A.\u00a0 Happy Mother\u2019s Day to All!<\/p>\n
My day will be spent being spoiled by my family, recuperating from my recent conference in New York City, processing what I learned, and planning how I can incorporate it in my work \u2013 both in counseling and genealogically. The conference, Learning & the Brain, Educating World-Class Minds: Using Cognitive Science to Create 21st Century Schools, was phenomenal \u00a0So many passionate educators, psychologists, and physicians from around the world united to discuss research findings on how to prepare students for being global citizens. \u00a0I kept thinking about my family tree. \u00a0I call my husband and me Mutts – as in belonging to no special breed. \u00a0Our people have migrated across several continents for lots of reasons and I bet your family tree is very similar to ours.<\/p>\n
Every time I visit the Big Apple I am reminded of a family paradox.\u00a0 My husband\u2019s family was early Dutch settlers who operated a farm on the East River in what is now the Wall Street district.\u00a0 A large bank currently sits on the farm property and that particular bank owns the mortgage on our home.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that\u2019s right.\u00a0It’s downright absurd. \u00a0My husband agrees that his family has never done well with real estate ventures and selling that farm on what is currently such expensive property validates our opinion.<\/p>\n
While walking around Manhattan this past week my thoughts turned to Ghislain1<\/sup>\u00a0and Adrienne Cuvellier de la Vigne, Walloons who emigrated from Leiden to New Netherlands with their children in 1624.2<\/sup><\/p>\n Born about 1586 in Valenciennes, France, Adrienne\u2019s maiden name most likely refers to her father\u2019s occupation, which in English would be a cooper.\u00a0 Coopers made barrels and utensils, primarily out of wood.\u00a0 Ghislain\u2019s last name could also give us a hint as to his family\u2019s profession, Vigne means vineyard in French.\u00a0 I\u2019d rather like to think of this as a match made in heaven instead of a marriage to consolidate business \u2013 the vineyard owner\u2019s son and the barrel maker\u2019s daughter but I will never know. \u00a0I do know the family stayed intact and together through much adversity to create a new life in a new world.<\/p>\n Although a truce between Holland, France and Spain began in 1609, about the time of Adrienne & Ghislain\u2019s marriage, there was no telling if it would be continued after its 1621 expiration.\u00a0 Complications further arose in the region between the Roman Catholic and Protestants.\u00a0 Valciennes was part of the Netherlands but ruled by Catholic Spain. Adrienne& Ghislain were Protestant.\u00a0 We know from Baptism records of their children that by 1618, the family had relocated to Leiden, Holland, an area that was known to be safe and tolerant.3<\/sup>\u00a0 There the family adapted by changing their names; Adrienne became Ariantje and Ghislain became Willem Vienje. (I’ll continue to use their birth names.)<\/p>\n How the family was selected by the Dutch West India Company to settle in New Netherlands is not known.\u00a0 Hart (1959) mentions that a wealthy merchant and founder of a Lutheran congregation in Amsterdam, Herman Pelgrom, was living in Nuremberg where he married a Susanna Cuvelier in 1578.\u00a0 Pelgrom\u2019s four sons from his first marriage were involved with the New Netherland\u2019s Company in Amsterdam by 1609.4<\/sup>\u00a0Some researchers believe Susanna Cuvelier Pelgrom was related to Adrienne and tipped her off about the opportunity but I can find no connection.\u00a0 Perhaps the Vignes\u2019 heard town gossip and volunteered to go.\u00a0 However they were selected, the family must have been eager to start a new life as land was scare in Holland and the promise of religious freedom must have been enticing.<\/p>\n In the Spring of 1624, two ships, the Eendracht (Unity) and the Nieuw Nederland (New Netherland), sailed into the North (Hudson) River, bringing the first colonists to New Netherlands.\u00a0 \u201cAlthough we do not have a Netherlands record regarding the departure of Ghislain and Adrienne (Cuvellier) Vigne and their children Marie, Christine, and Rachel, they certainly were on one of these vessels, as their son Jan would be the first male child born in the new colony, or at least the first male child who survived and remained there (Sara Rapalje was the first female child born in New Netherland).\u201d5<\/sup><\/p>\n Have you ever sailed on New York\u2019s Harbor?\u00a0 Each time, I marvel at the breathtaking view of the Manhattan skyline and reflect on the past hopes and dreams of immigrants as they approached Ellis Island and the promise of what Lady Liberty stands for.\u00a0 That is not what greeted the Vignes\u2019.\u00a0 Instead, they were met by a French ship blockading the Dutch for the purpose of claiming the land for the French king.\u00a0 \u201cThe Dutch vessel, \u2018rendered imposing by two cannons\u2019 forced the French to leave rather than fight.\u00a0 The way clear, Captain May brought some of the immigrants 144 miles up the Hudson River and docked at Fort Nassau\u201d (what is now Albany, New York).6<\/sup><\/p>\n The following year, the Vignes\u2019 began farming in Manhattan. The family grew with the addition of son, Jan.\u00a0 Happiness was brief; by 1632 Ghislain had died leaving Adrienne with 2 minor children as the eldest daughters, Marie and Christine (from whom my husband is descended), had married. Marie married Jan Roos and shortly after his death, Abraham Ver Planck.\u00a0 Christine married Dirck Volgersen.<\/p>\n Eleventh Great Grandma Adrienne did not remain a widow for long.\u00a0 Jan Jansen \u201cOld Jan\u201d Damen, emigrated to New Netherlands about 1634.\u00a0 Old Jan was a warden of the Dutch Reformed Church and owned a large piece of land just west of the Vigne farm.\u00a0 Combined together, the land tract ranged from Pine Street north to Maiden Lane and from the East River to the Hudson River.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking prime Manhattan real estate today!\u00a0 Before the marriage, a prenuptial agreement was signed.\u00a0 In part, it reads “Dirck Volgersen Noorman and Ariaentje Cevelyn, his wife’s mother, came before us in order to enter into an agreement with her children whom she has borne by her lawful husband Willem Vienje, settling on Maria Vienje and Christina Vienje, both married persons, on each the sum of two hundred guilders … and on Resel Vienje and Jan Vienje, both minor children, also as their portion of their father’s estate, on each the sum of three hundred guilders; with this provision that she and her future lawful husband, Jan Jansen Damen, shall be bound to bring up the above named two children until they attain their majority, and be bound to clothe and rear the aforesaid children, to keep them at school and to give them a good trade, as parents ought to do. This agreement was dated the last of April 1632.\u201d7<\/sup><\/p>\n The prenuptial did not insure tranquility in the family.\u00a0\u00a0On June 21, 1638, Damen sued to have Abraham Ver Planck and Dirck Volckertszen “quit his house and leave him the master thereof.”8 \u00a0<\/sup>Dirck countered with a charge of assault and had witnesses testify that Jan tried to “throw his step-daughter Christine, Dirck’s wife, out of doors.”9\u00a0<\/sup>Records show that Adrienne remained married to Old Jan but continued a positive relationship with her adult children. This must have placed her in a difficult position.<\/p>\n Old Jan\u2019s character is further shown\u00a0in 1641 when, as a member of the 12 Man Council he was one of only three on the committee who wanted to exterminate local Native American tribes.10<\/sup>\u00a0Although out voted, Damen persisted. \u00a0In February 1643 he “entertained the governor (Kieft) with conversation and wine and reminded him that the Indians had not compiled with his demands to make reparations for recent attacks. ‘God having now delivered the enemy evidently into our hands, we beseech you to permit us to attack them,’ they wrote in Dutch on a document that survives today.”11<\/sup>\u00a0The Governor agreed thus\u00a0Kieft\u2019s War, a three year conflict between the Algonquin tribes and the Dutch resulted. It was the begining of the end for Damen. \u00a0His neighbors horrified by the bloodshed nicknamed him “the church warden with blood on his hands” and expelled him from the local governing board.”12<\/sup> \u00a0I wonder how Adrienne felt. \u00a0Was she ostracized by the townsfolk along with her husband?<\/p>\n Leaving politics, Old Jan began to amass considerable wealth in a new way – as one of the owners of La Garce, a privateering venture run between 1643-1646.13<\/sup>\u00a0 (If you don\u2019t know French, you really must do a google translate of La Garce.\u00a0 This is what makes genealogy so wickedly interesting!)\u00a0 You also read correctly that Old Jan financed a privateering venture, aka piracy.\u00a0 When you think of La Garce, think Pirates of the Caribbean.\u00a0 Records show that in April 1645 the vessel returned to New Netherlands with goods of tobacco, wine, sugar, and ebony seized from two Spanish ships in the West Indies.\u00a0 In 1646, it returned from the area off the Bay of Campeche, Mexico with a load of sugar and tobacco.14<\/sup><\/p>\n In 1649 Old Jan returned to Holland due to a court case in which he was defending Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Director General of New Netherlands, leaving Adrienne behind on the farm.\u00a0 He died before returning to her, in 1651.<\/p>\n I wonder how the neighbors treated Adrienne after\u00a0Old Jan was gone – \u00a0did they shun or embrace her? There are no records to tell us. \u00a0I speculate that Great Grandma lived quietly until her death in 1655.<\/p>\n And what happened to the farm? \u00a0Damen\u2019s\u00a0\u201cheirs sold his property to two men: Oloff Stevensen Van Cortlandt, a brewer and one-time soldier in the Dutch West India militia, and Dirck Dey, a farmer and cattle brander. Their names were ultimately assigned to the streets at the trade center site. Damen’s was lost to history.”15<\/sup><\/p>\n Unfortunately, so was the whereabouts of Adrienne\u2019s burial.\u00a0 Christina Vigne’s husband,\u00a0Dirck, and her sister, Maria Ver Planck, were sued by Dutch Reformed Church Elder Claes Van Elstandt on March 8, 1658, for nonpayment of Adrienne\u2019s grave.\u00a0 The pair claimed to have given money to Rachel Vigne\u2019s husband, Cornelius Van Tienhoven, who had absconded with it 16 months prior. The court ordered all heirs to pay for the grave.16 \u00a0<\/sup>The debt was paid but there is no mention in the records of where the grave was located.<\/p>\n On this Mother\u2019s Day, I wanted to remember Adrienne. \u00a0Although she died 360 years ago there are mother’s today still seeking safety from brutal spouses, war, and religious conflict. My Mother’s Day wish is that they can persevere and be as strong as\u00a0Adrienne.<\/p>\n 1<\/sup>Ancestry.com.\u00a0New York, Genealogical Records, 1675-1920<\/em>\u00a0[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.<\/p>\n 2<\/sup>Dorothy Koenig and Pim Nieuwenhuis, \u201cThe Pedigree of Cornelia Roos, an Ancestor of Franklin D. Roosevelt,\u201d New Netherland Connections [NNC] 2(1997):85-93, 3(1998):1:1-5, correction 3:2:34-35 corrected Ghislain\u2019s originally recorded name as Guillaume.<\/p>\n 3<\/sup>Parry, William. New Netherland Connections Quarterly, Vol 3 No. 1, Jan-Feb-Mar 1998.<\/p>\n 4<\/sup>\u00a0Hart, Simon.\u00a0The Prehistory of the New Netherland Company: Amsterdam Notarial Records of the First Dutch Voyages to the Hudson. Amsterdam: City of Amsterdam Press, 1959. 22.<\/p>\n 5\u00a0<\/sup>Macy, Harry Jr. The NYG&B Newsletter, Winter 1999, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society at\u00a0http:\/\/www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org<\/a>\u00a0(search for the pdf \u2013 you don\u2019t have to be a member to view this)<\/p>\n 6<\/sup>\u00a0McNeese, Tim.\u00a0New Amsterdam. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2007.56.<\/p>\n 7<\/sup>\u00a0New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch, Volume 1, ed. and trans. by Arnold J. F. Van Laer. Baltimore, 1974<\/p>\n 8<\/sup>\u00a0McVicar, Hugh D.\u00a0McVicar Post Ancestry: The Ancestry of George Wesley McVicar (1884-1936) and Naomi Theresa Post (1881-1951) : 16 Generations of Family from Toronto to Scotland, New England, New York & Overseas. Madison, Wisconsin: E. J. Burch, 2003. 38.<\/p>\n 9<\/sup>\u00a0Ibid<\/p>\n 10<\/sup>\u00a0“Blackmail as a Heritage: Or New York’s Legacy from an Earlier Time.” In\u00a0The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine<\/em>, 771. New York: Century, 1887.<\/p>\n 11Lupton, Eric. \u00a0“Ground Zero: \u00a0Before the Fall.” In The New York Times, June 27, 2004.<\/p>\n 12Ibid.<\/sup><\/p>\n 13Jameson, J. Franklin.\u00a0Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period:<\/em>. New York: A.M. Kelley, 1970. 9.<\/p>\n 14<\/sup>New York State Secretary’s Office.\u00a0Dutch Manuscripts, 1630-1634<\/em>. Vol. II. New York: Weed Parsons, 1865. 36.<\/p>\n 15<\/sup>Lupton, Eric. \u00a0“Ground Zero: \u00a0Before the Fall.” In The New York Times, June 27, 2004.<\/p>\n 16<\/sup>\u00a0Rollins, Sarah Finch Maiden.\u00a0The Maiden Family of Virginia and Allied Families, 1623-1991: Aker, Alburtis, Butt, Carter, Fadely, Fulkerson, Grubb, Hagy, King, Landis, Lee, Scudder, Stewart, Underwood, Williamson, and Others. Wolfe City, Tex.: Henington Pub. ;, 1991. 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 10 May 2015. A extra special welcome to my readers from across the pond \u2013 Australia, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Slovakia, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and closer to home \u2013 Canada and of course, the good ole U.S.A.\u00a0 Happy Mother\u2019s Day to All! My day will be spent being spoiled … Continue reading “Motherhood and the Brain”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[68,72,67,49,65,69,70,66,63,64,71],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-stories","tag-adrienne-cevelyn","tag-cornelius-van-tienhoven","tag-dirck-volckertszen","tag-dutch-reformed-church","tag-holland","tag-kiefts-war","tag-la-garce","tag-netherlands","tag-new-york-city","tag-valenciennes","tag-west-indies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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