Sarah (Schoonmaker) DeFriest (abt. 1836 - 1896)

Born about 1836 in , , New York

Ancestors

Wife of Edward S. DeFriest — married about 1853 in , Yates, NY

Descendants

Died 19 Jul 1896 at about age 60 in Pine Grove, Van Buren, MI

Biography

Sarah Schoonmaker / Shoemaker / Schumacher was the daughter of Johannes John Schumacker / Shoemaker / Schumacher and Jane Cole / Cool / Kool. Sarah was born about 1836 in the State of New York.

Sarah grew up in Potter, Yates county, New York. ^[1] There she lived nearby the DeFriest family. Sarah married Edward De Friest in about 1853 in Yates, New York; her sister Mary Jane Schoonmaker / Shoemaker had married Edward's brother Johannes John De Friest a year earlier.

Between 1855 and 1859, they removed from Potter, Yates, New York to Kalamazoo county, later to Van Buren county, Michigan. Sarah and Edward had three children:

1. Metzer Melzer De Friest;
2. Delphina De Friest;
3. Loren De Friest.

In 1870 Sarah De Freest is recorded as being thirty-four years of age and living in the household of her husband Edward De Freest. ^[2]

Sarah died on 19 July 1896 in Pine Grove, Van Buren county, Michigan. ^[3]

Note on her Name

Sarah's maiden surname is written in various ways in the documentation: her sister Mary De Friest's death record states that her maiden name was SCHOONMAKER, that her father's name was John Schoonmaker. In the 1850 Census of Potter, Yates, NY Sarah is listed as Sarah Shoemaker, daughter of John Shoemaker. On the death certificate of her son Melzer V. DeFriest [sic!], Mother's Name is Sarah Shumacher. Sarah's father was baptised under the name Johannes Schumacker on 7 May 1797 at the Reformed Dutch Church of West Copake, Columbia, NY. His father's name was also JOHANNES SCHUMACKER. This family's surname was originally either the Dutch Schoenmaker (written Schoonmaker in New York), or the German Schuhmacher, also misspelt as Shumacher, Schumacker in New York. Schumacker might, in fact, be an authentic dialectal rendition of the official Dutch or High German spelling of this surname. Whereas later Shoemaker is merely the English translation of those names. In New York, many Dutch and German families intermarried, and even frequented the same churches often called High and Low Dutch Church (High Dutch meaning German, Low Dutch meaning From Holland / Netherlands), so that it is now hard, without further genealogical research, to tell, whether our Schuhmacher/Schoenmaker family originaly came from Germany or from the Netherlands. Sarah and Mary's paternal grandmother Elizabeth (Dietz/Diets/Teats) Schoemaker was in fact German, and of the Lutheran religion. - BdFM

Sources

1. ↑ 1850 Federal Census of Potter, Yates, New York. Text: "Sarah Shoemaker, age 14, daughter of John and Jane Shoemaker."
2. ↑ 1870 Federal Census of Pine Grove Township, Van Buren County, Michigan. Note: This census shows Edward De Freest as 43 years old, a farmer, born in New York. Together with him are listed his wife Sarah De Freest, age 34, and three children - a male 16, a female 11 and a male 5. Sarah's age as listed here agrees with the Potter, Yates, NY Census of 1850, but not with the the other Michigan census and death record. - Albertus
3. ↑ Death Records of Van Buren County, Michigan. Note: Her death record - counting the number of years, months and days she is recorded as having lived - would have her born on 19 Sep 1834.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Albertus for creating WikiTree profile Sarah Schoonmaker on 7 February 2015. Click to the [Changes page] for details of edits by Albertus and others.