Need baptismal or other validation that this Jan de Wit was born ca. 1685 in Nieuw Amsterdam

Question

Before I add the spouse and parents of this person, I would like to have confirmation that he was of Nieuw Netherland descent and not born in Ol'e A'dam ... This secondary source http://www.e-family.co.za/ffy/g14/p14433.htm gives his place of birth as Amsterdam [Holland] but this source https://www.facebook.com/FirstFiftyYearsProject/posts/1240787872604621 gives another place of birth. It is the second time I've come across this name but though I have posted a link / name to the NNS project, I can't seem to find it now.

Answer 1

No baptismal record yet but here's a Notarial deed (Utrecht archive 16-10-1776) where he and his wife are mentioned , Maria Adriaanse is mentioned as the grandmother and as widow of Jan de Wit 

Notarial deed Utrecht 

 

voor ontvangst van zyn aandeel in de nalatenschappen van zyn  vader Jasper Westpalm, in leven onderkoopman en winkelier aan  Kaap de Goede Hoop en van zyn grootmoeder Maria Adriaanse,  weduwe van Jan de Wit, in leven oud- burgerraad op Kaap de Goede  Hoop en voor rekening en verantwoording van de nalatenschappen  van zyn moeder en halfbroer Eerste Partij: Jan Westpalm living in Ysselstein Tweede Partij: Pieter Johannes de Wit, cousin living  at Cabo de Goede Hoop Tweede Partij: Geertruida Margaretha Westpalm, sister  also living at Cabo de Goede Hoop (maybe these two are married ? *So Jan Westpalm is the grandson of Maria and probably also of Jan,  son of Jasper Westpalm, who probably was the son in law of Jan de Wit and Maria Adriaanse (so married to their daughter ?  Pieter Johannes de Wit is mentioned as his cousin , so a son of another child of Jan de Wit and Maria Adriaense.   The scan (also there) has a lot of info as well, it says indeed  about Maria Adriaanse that she is his maternal grandmother ;)   And this (I think could be him, so Jan de Wit) ships that sailed onder  commandeur  Jan de Witt equipagiemeester in 't jaar 1706

Comments

And here the same deed/inheritance as in Utrecht is mentioned ... 

Resolutions of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope Cape Town Archives Repository, South Africa Reference code: C. 154, pp. 156−181. Dingsdag den 30 april 1776.

Jan Westpalm is de zoon van Jasper Westpalm en Isabella de Wit, gedoopt Kaap de Goede Hoop 7 januari 1753, advocaat, overleed ca. 1831, huwde zijn nicht Catharina Henriëtte van Panhuys, dochter van Johan Hendrik van Panhuys en Geertruyd Catharina Westpalm.

(Isabella is the daugther of Jan de Wit and Maria Adriaanse)

Here's the marriage transcript for Jasper and Isabella: 

1746 Den 22 Maart  m:r Jasper Westpalm van Batavia adsistent in dienst der e: comp: jongman, met Isabella de Wit van Cabo de Goede Hoop jonge doghter.

Johan Hendrik van Panhuys en Geertruyd Catharina Westpalm Zoon van Johan van Panhuys en Theodora Sautijn, geboren Leiden 27 september 1708, onderkoopman der V.O.C., waterfiscaal van Indië en administrateur van het Familiefonds, opgericht door Simon van Panhuys, overleed Leiden 4 januari 1781, huwde Batavia 9 juli 1743 Geertruyd Catharina Westpalm, geboren Batavia 21 juli 1724, overleed Oegstgeest, huize Vijverberg, 27 mei 1808, dochter van Michiel Westpalm en Geertruida Margaretha Goossens.

and a lot more here  H. van Felius Nationaal Archief, Den Haag
1978 

And here is  Watze Andringa, geboren te Beetsterzwaag op 7 augustus 1761, overleden te Stellenbosch op 9 juli 1814, zoon van Sybe van Andringa en Agnessina Alijda Pols. Hij is getrouwd te Kaap de Goede Hoop op 10 mei 1785 voor de kerk met Geertruyd Margaretha Westpalm, dochter van Jasper Westpalm en Isabella de Wit.

 

 

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Jan de Wit supposedly was a pirate and his wife Maria Adriaans supposedly was a granddaughter of Jacob Blankenburg. (This is according to the document I found at URL cited at the end of http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/De_Wit-362 )  Are those records consistent with that story?

Answer 2

Hi Philip, 

Great to see you, how was your Holiday ? The best wishes and a very Happy New Year ! 

Here's the William White who sailed with the Mayflower , now I have come across the white family in Holland (the famous John Robinson was married to Bridget White), so it could very well be he was born here in Amsterdam and than they sailed with the Mayflower Here are the Pilgrim archives (searched for William White) . But this the White family is in records already with more the English version of the name (With)...so could be a totally wrong direction also.  But there (Leiden) in February 1612 there's a Willem With wolcammer jongman uyt Engelant vergeselschapt met Willem Jobsen ende Samuel Folle zyn bekende met En Foller jongedochter mede uyt Engelandt vergeselschapt met Rosemen Jepson ende Sara Pryst haer bekenden. (Marriage certificate of William White (M), bachelor, woolcomber from England, and Ann (Suzanna) Fuller (M), spinster, also from England)

The marriage says he was from Amsterdam though as you know , so will look for more , many de Wit , de Witt etc. people as well and everywhere, so might take a while ..

[S700] VC 604, NGK Marriage Registers 1695-1712 (Cape Town) transcribed by Corney Keller: 20 Mart Jan de Wit van Amsterdam jongman met Maria Adriaanz van Cabo jongd: "Kerkboek 1695-1712," p. 102, 20 Mar 1707, marriage entry for Jan de Wit and Maria Adriaanz, 

Comments

Hi Bea, still on holiday (till the 21st of Jan) but every now and then working on a crummy little hybrid laptop / tablet (have to buy data time and air time). Am enjoying my country of birth tremendously

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Waauw I can imagine how great that must be, wish you a few wonderful remaining weeks !

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Thanks Bea, went (and am going to) visit / meet up with fellow WikiTreers  We (my brother and I) found a huge hoard of archival matter (film, photographs) and other stuff relating to both our own families and the early history of the Cape. Am really excited on working through this when I get back to Europe ...:-)

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And before I forget - the best wishes for you too for the next year ..

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Thank you Philip, now that sounds really exciting and wonderful, give our fellow Wikitreers a big hug from all of us here and have fun !

Answer 3

I've not searched for this man in New Netherland sources yet, but I have  a couple of comments...

I would not give any credit to that statement calling this man "a likely descendant of William White who sailed on the "Mayflower" to the Plymouth Colony in North America." There's a long tradition of Americans trying to claim descent from Mayflower passengers, based on the flimsiest of evidence. The name "White" doesn't connect this man to that particular person. There were plenty of English-origin people named "White" and "Witt" in America before 1707, and most of them weren't related to the Mayflower passenger.

As for "de Wit," there were a number of people by that name in New Netherland in the 1600s, so it's entirely possible that he was born in New Netherland. Examples of men with profiles in Wikitree include http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/De_Wit-46 , http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/De_Wit-211 , http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/De_Witt-213 , http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/De_Witt-164 , and http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/De_Witt-163 . Wikitree's genealogies of these people are mostly fragmentary.

Comments

According the marriage transcript he is from Amsterdam , so I don't know , but mostly these marriage records/transcripts were pretty accurate about the places of birth or where people were originally coming from.

So indeed and I agree I don't think he is a descendant of the White  family, they were using the more English version of the name even when they were in Leiden .

But there are a lot of people saying he is from Stanton White Norfolk ?

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I have not searched thoroughly (I keep getting interrupted), but I have not yet found a New Netherland birth record that could be this person.

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Not in baptism records for New Amsterdam, Kingston, Albany, or Brooklyn in New Netherland. Not found in New Netherland in searches on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.

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And in Holland the Utrecht deed was the first that popped up , and as you  know many many de Wit(t) or White (and many other versions) people all around the world ...but the marriage transcript and all these connections with people from Holland ..it looks like he could indeed be from Amsterdam as was mentioned at the marriage...

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"

30 December 1685

Baptism of Cape-born castiça

Maria [Adriaans(z):]

voorkind of the mestiça Anna `Liberta` aka Anna Pieters: van Juff. Coon [Alexandrina (Sandrina) Maxwell] ...

witnessed by her aunt, the Cape-born mestiça Margarita [Margaretha Jans: Visser] & matron in the Company Slave Lodge ...

She marries (20 March 1707) Jan de Wit / John White (from New York [formerly Nieuw Amsterdam]), son of Willem de Wit / William White - a likely descendant of William White (c.1580-21 February 1621) who sailed on the "Mayflower" to the Plymouth Colony in North America ...

He was a pirate (1705) on the "Speaking Trumpet" under American pirate ‘king’ John Bowen shipwrecked at Black Rock off Mauritius who deserted to the Dutch settlement ..." ....

The source of this information is Mansell Upham ... a source I trust .... I searched high and low for a John White and Jan de Wit profile in New Amsterdam that fits the profile before making this one ... as far as his wife goes ... the evidence is solid .... there is enough to proceed creating her (which I will prefer to do myself seeing the complexities surrounding her LNAB - she might have been a child born out of prostitution).

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Here are the descendants of William White  who married February 11, 1612 at Leiden Ann (Suzanna) Fuller. So if this is all correct he must be somewhere here

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Thanks Bea!

Answer 4

John White aka Jan de Wit

Research info

https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000118815872868&

Comments

Thanks James. Geni is not regarded as a trustworthy source though, and the link you provided gives access to the general login page, not the document itself.

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Thanks Philip, please see link pdf file

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nL2snV_nM2u2oXMsg1GYYszKuuMgWsV0/view?usp=sharing