Dear John,

I've just been reviewing your "Discussion about ANTJE [VAN SICKLE" who you've proposed as the wife of Hendrick Vanderveer. I believe that there is a serious flaw therein.

Let me preface a bit by telling you that I've been working on trying to disintangle the various Van Sickle families for a good time now. John W. VanSickle's work of 1880 (your #1 source for the discsussion) provides an outline on this family but there are many errors in the early generations - the same ones which appear in Bergen's KCo and probably based on correspondance between the two men.

You propose Antje (VnS) Vanderveer's parents as being Ferdinand Reinierse VnS and Mary Lane. However, this couple are the parents of the Cornelis VnS who married Antje Vanderveer's daughter Femmetje...highly unlikely that a niece would marry her uncle.

Ferdinand Reinierse VnS and his uncle of the same given name, Ferdinand2 both lived on Long Island when their children were born. The nephew was probably not a great deal younger than the uncle and, indeed, there was some overlapping of the births of children in both family groups. The uncle probably married about Sep 1698 when his father conveyed land to him; the nephew married about 10 years later based on his first child's dob in 1709.

Ferdinand2 (the uncle) named 6 daughters and 2 sons in his will of 25 Jun 1737. Unfortunately for us he did not name any sons-in-laws, but the 5th of the 6 daughters named was "Annie". [Note that the 1880 compilation by John W. VnS does *not* name all of the children of this family - he omits Eva, Rensje, and Annie/Antje.]

It is my opinion that the wife of Hendrick Vanderveer was Antje, d/o Ferdinand2 & his wife Gertje/Gertruy Minnie-Johannes. The husband of Femmetje Vanderveer was her second cousin, Cornelis, s/o Ferdinandus Reinierse VanSickle & his wife, Mary Lane.

The specific dobs listed by Bergen & VanSickle for the children of Ferdinand Reinierse VnS leads me to believe that one of the compilers must have had access to a family record of some kind, perhaps a Bible. This Ferdinand supposedly left a will dated 28 Apr 1749 but I've not found an abstract or reference to a location for it.

Lastly, if you receive any further information on Antje's definitive identification, I would be most grateful if you would share it with me!

Sincerely, Laurie Lightfoot >[email protected]<

Below is my previous (and erroneous) thoughts on Antje Van Sickle's ancestry:

The identity of the wife of Hendrick Vanderveer, son of Jan Corneliszen Vanderveer and Femmetje Bergen, is, to the best of my knowledge, unknown. The children of Hendrick who were baptised at the Reformed Dutch Church of Harlingen all had their mother's name recorded as Antie/Antje (__). Not all of his children had surviving baptismal records though. A number of unsourced websites have listed her surname as Van Sickle with no supporting documentation. How plausible is it that she is a Van Sickle, and if true, what is her probably ancestry.

Hendrick Vanderveer wrote his will on 10 December 1779 (proved 22 October 1781) [New Jersey, Lib. M, p. 102]. No mention of his wife's name was found in the will leading to the speculation that she was deceased. He mentioned his (surviving?) children: Michael, Mary Bragaw (widow of John), Fametye (late wife of Cornelius Vansicle), Ferdinant, and John. According to records of the Reformed Dutch Church of Harlingen, Ferdinand was baptised 11 January 1740, Mary was baptised 12 February 1742, and Michael was baptised 31 August 1744 (wit.: Femmetie Vanderveer).

If Hendrick and his wife followed the Dutch practice of naming their children, it would be expected that they would name a son, Jan (or John), after Hendrick's father, Jan Corneliszen Vanderveer, and a daughter, Femmetje, after Hendrick's mother, Femmetje Bergen. Indeed this is the case. It seems reasonable to suppose then that two children, a son and a daughter, would be named for Antje's parents.

As stated before, there is speculation that Antje was a Van Sickle. If that is true, then she might possible be the daughter of a man named either Michael or Ferdinand, and a woman named Mary. This of course assumes that all of the names of Hendrick and Antje's children, both alive and deceased, are known from Hendrick's will. All in all it's a dangerous bit of business to base theories on incomplete information, and any speculations made here are to be viewed with caution.

There appears to be no Michael Van Sickle that exists at the probable time of Antje's birth (say 1710), but there is a couple named Ferdinand Van Sickle and Mary Lane who married about 1708.

According to "A History of the Van Sickle Family in the United States of America", Ferdinand Van Sickle and Mary Lane had the following children: Mary (born 14 May 1709), Jannetje (born 3 March 1711), Eva (born 14 July 1714), Reinier (born 8 April 1716), Gysbert (born 8 April 1718), Johannes (born 25 November 1722), Arie/Aaron (born 30 March 1724), Catherine (born 24 April 1727), and Cornelius (born about 1730).

Is this a complete list? Perhaps, but it can be pointed out that the known children of Ferdinand and Mary were born at approximately two year intervals, except for the periods 1711-1714 and 1718-1722. Antje could easily have been born during one of these intervals.

Consider the following: Femmetje Vanderveer, daughter of Hendrick and Antje, gave birth to her first child on 14 November 1749. If we assumed that she was about 18, then her birth date would be about 1730/1731. Femmetje appears to be the first child of Hendrick and Antje based on, again, unsourced web site information. If this is true, and assuming that Antje was about 18 when she had her first child (about 1730/1731), then her birth year would be about 1712, which places her comfortably within the birth of Jannetje (born 3 March 1711) and Eva (born 14 July 1714).

I have hopefully given some food for thought for further research into confirming the identity of Antje, wife of Hendrick Vanderveer, supposed daughter of Ferdinand Van Sickle and Mary Lane. Additions, corrections, and comments may be addressed to me (John Camp) at [email protected].