Maritje (Vansant) Vandegrift - what to use as her LNAB [closed]

+3 votes
177 views
There are duplicate profiles for Maritje that have been sitting for over 1-1/2 years.  Both are PPP by the New Netherlands Settlers project.  Please can someone decide the name for her LNAB and merge them?  Ditto for the duplicate profiles for her father.  Thanks.
WikiTree profile: Mary Vandegrift
closed with the note: Merge completed
in Genealogy Help by Darlene Athey-Hill G2G6 Pilot (539k points)
closed by Darlene Athey-Hill

1 Answer

+3 votes

I took care of the two profiles for her father. His LNAB is Stoffelszen.

We cannot (and therefore do not) assume that all of the children who are thought to be the members of the same New Netherland descendant family had the same last name at birth. We look for records to determine the LNAB, particularly baptism record, marriage records, and baptisms of children. The earliest record that shows the child with a last name (not the patronymic name of the father, which is not the child's last name) determines the LNAB.

The only good record for this woman is her will. There apparently are no baptism records for her, and the marriage record (which I found in the book cited in one of her profiles). calls her Maria Un___. The other cited sources include a 19th-century county history (which I did not look up), a no-longer-available Ancestry tree, and some low-quality Ancestry database entries (without clues to the specific entries). Before we give her profile a definitive LNAB, it would be really nice if the family members who are interested in her would document the information about her in one or both of her profiles. Are there any baptism records for her children, or of her witnessing the baptisms of grandchildren, nieces, or nephews? Why do we think she was a van Sandt, under any spelling?

by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
The book "A Genealogical and Personal History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania", by William Watts Hart Davis, publ. by Genealogical Publishing Co. in 1975 (reprint of the 1905 edition), states "Abraham, baptised July 4, 1686, married October 17, 1716, Maritje Van Sandt."  An unsourced site states they were married (on that date) at the First Presbyterian Church in Abington, PA.

There is also a baptismal record for a daughter Syntje (just located it and added to the record) which could perhaps be for Maritje.

While indeed it would be nice for interested family members to pipe up, no one has done so in over 1-1/2 years.  It would be really nice to get these duplicates merged.  I see no reason to not go with the Van Sandt spelling, as is the spelling on the father's profile.

Interesting about that baptism record for Syntje. The name Syntje looks to me like a diminutive form of Josyntje, and the names of the parents and the witnesses (but not necessarily the name spellings) on the sheet at https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6961/images/42037_2421401696_0511-00063 are a perfect match for the record cited in the profile here for Josyntie Gerrits, baptized 20 October 1690 (11 months after Syntje). Josyntie supposedly was baptized at Flatbush. Pat Wardell (Early Bergen County Families) thought the two baptisms were for the same person.

I think it is more likely that the Syntje baptized in November 1689 died not long after the baptism, and her replacement was baptized the next year, with the longer version of the name and the same two witnesses.

Ellen, that could well be what occurred with Syntje. . .

I think, based on the book noted, that we should get the duplicate profiles merged.

These also need merging and have been sitting (as unmerged matches and I reproposed the merge) for over 1-1/2 years:  Van_Sandt-79 and Vansant-86.
I have merged the profiles.

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