Settling down in America

Most genealogists of the family Van Huss (Van Husum, Van Hoesen, etc.) report that Jan and Volkje Van Husum were married in Amsterdam's Nieu Kirke on on April 30, 1639, then soon set sail on the ship Den Herring, arriving in Rensselaerswyck on 12 July 1639.

Fort Orange, Renssalaerwyck

Renssalaerwyck was a feudal estate owned by Killiaen Van Rensselaer and his family. The Rensselaer family provided passage to Dutch immigrants to the plantation in exchange for work. The original settlement called Fort Orange was located at the juncture of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers in the area that now includes the capital city of Albany. As settlers arrived, a new settlement called Beverwyck was built outside Fort Orange.

The settlers swore an oath of fealty to Renssalaer as follows:

I, [name], promise and swear that I shall be true and faithful to the noble Patroon and Co-directors, or those Commissioners and Council, subjecting myself to the good and faithful inhabitant or Burgher, without exciting any opposition, tumult, or noise; but on the contrary, as a loyal inhabitant, to maintain and support offensively and of the Colonie. And with reverence and fear of the Lord, and uplifting of both the first fingers of the right hand, I say — SO TRULY HELP ME GOD ALMIGHTY.

The industrious Jan Van Husum and his wife Volkje set about making a living with Jan working as a clerk for the estate. The couple are reported to have opened a bakery. It is also likely that Jan engaged in the lucrative beaver trade with the Indians. Eventually, Jan and Volkje were able to buy their own land as the Dutch Government recorded the following land grants in the Books of Patents and Town Records:

Van Hoesen, Jan Frs. a lot Beverwyck 25 October 1653
Van Hoesen, Jan Jansen An Indian tract Claverack 05 June 1662

The lot containing a garden where they built their home was on the corner of Broadway and State Street. The tract of land at Claverack included included what is now the city of Hudson from Stockport Creek south along the river to Kishna's Kil at South Bay and east beyond Claverack Creek.

Dutch, Danish, or Frisian?

A rose is a rose is a rose, or is it?

The question is often asked, what nationality were Jan Franz Van Husum and Volkje Jurians Nordstrand?

Joyce Lindstrom in her biography of the progenitor of the Van Huss (Van Hoesen, Van Hooser, etc.) family notes:

"Jan Fransse was born in Husum ... in 1608. Husum lies in the northern duchy of Schleswig, which was once an independent duchy ruled by princes of the old Roman empire. A ducal portion was ruled by the dukes of Holstein and a common portion was ruled jointly by the kings and dukes."

Danish

The self-same duke and King of Denmark was Christian IV, who has come down in history as a sagacious fellow who ruled his kingdom with a level of stability and wealth unmatched elsewhere in Europe. This is not saying much for a Europe in the midst of the Thirty Years War, Dutch struggles for independence, religious conflict, the plague, and the simple daily struggle to survive.


This might settle the question of nationality in favor of the Danish, but not so quick.

Frisian

The western coastline of the Jutland peninsula where Husum and Nordstrand are found is historically part of North Frisia. The North Frisians settled on the coast and in the marshes on tiny islets called “halligs” shored up by wooden posts barely peeking out above Wadden Sea. Frisians are identified by dialect, speaking Low German, a dialect most closely identified with English. Thus, we may conclude that these were part of the Anglo Saxon raiders who invaded England between the 5th and 9th centuries and gave us their language.

Again, not so quick.

Dutch

The Dutch, great hydrologists that they were, moved into Nordstrand. They battled with the sea, attempting to hold back the water with dycks and windmills. The task was given to Jan Leeghwater, who met his match with the Great Flood of 1634.

Jan and Volkje did move to Amsterdam which counts for something.

Conclusion

Joyce concludes:

"Jan Frantz Van Husum wasn't Dutch as many people have supposed. Neither was he German. He was a Schleswigan subjected to Danish rule. He spoke low German, probably with a Fisian or Danish dialect. However, after three generations of living among the Dutch settlers in New Netherlands, his descendants gradually became Dutch by association. There were also more emigrants in New Netherlands who were Danish, Frisian and Schleswigan than Dutch."

To the mixture we can add the many German immigrants who arrived in America and added to the melting pot. In time Jan became Johannes, then John.

In the end, we conclude that Jan Franz Van Husum was American.

Valentine "Felty" Van Hooser (1726 - 1781)

Genealogy can be a veritable alphabet soup, sons are named after fathers or grandfathers, or uncles. Names appear and reappear quite frequently making it difficult to distinguish one apple from another, or in this case, Valentine Van Hooser from another.

New York

This Valentine Van Hooser (1726-1781) was born 16 Jan 1726 in Claverack, Albany, New York. If we are looking for namesakes, then Valentine takes his name from his mother's father, Johann Valentin (Laux) Lauck. "Felty" which is often attached to Valentine's name is but a nickname like Tom, Dick, or Harry.

Valentine a fourth generation Van Huss, and direct descendant of Jan Franz Van Husum. As is often the case with children not the first born, they move on to other lands. So it was that Jan Franz Van Husum who settled in upstate New York near present day Albany would watch as later born children moved on. In the case of the Van Husums, Van Hoesens, Van Hoosers, and Van Huss, it was west to Pennsylvania, south to North Carolina, up to Virginia, then across the Smokey Mountains to Tennessee and beyond.

Pennsylvania

Our fourth generation Valentine finds himself in Tulpehocken (Land of the Turtles), Lancaster County (now Berks), Pennsylvania, home to many German families like the Laux and the Zerbe that mixed with Valentine on the maternal side of the family, and interestingly, the ancestral home of Abraham Lincoln and the birthplace of Daniel Boone. Valentine came there in 1728 at the age of 2  with his parents and siblings. They settled among Germans who had first come in 1723 and squatted on land that by rights belonged to the Indians. Thus, when the Van Hooser family arrived, the dispute with the local Delawares had yet to be settled. Only in 1732, when Thomas Penn purchase of the land from the Indians, were things made right.

Then, there was the matter of his marriage to Maria Barbara (Zerwe) Zerbe on 22 December 1746 in Tulpehocken. The couple had begun a family by the 5th of March 1750, when Valentine took out a land patent for 50 acre.

North Carolina

Perhaps the reason was the impending Indian troubles, or the growing number of German immigrants moving in, or just the need for change and new land, but, for whatever reason, the couple moves to Rowan County, North Carolina.They would travel by wagon drawn by horse. Their route was The Great Valley Road, aka the "Great Wagon Road," "Great Warriors' Path," "Valley Pike," "Carolina Road," or "Trading Path" which forked at Big Lick Virginia (Roanoke) and took our travelers south to Salisbury North Carolina where they found land.

North Carolina had its own Indian troubles and then there was the matter of the Regulators, who were incensed at paying taxes to absent British "landowners". The farmers "rebellion" against British authority culminated with the Battle of Alamance in 1771, which the Regulators lost. Many of the farmers who had taken up arms then fled to the hills of Tennessee or Virginia.

Virginia

This would explain the strange case of McKenney vs. Preston--O. S. 308; N. S. 110, Chancery Court, Chalkley's Chronicles, Vol 2, Court records of Augusta Virginia, page 228.

Thomas Beelor being deposed remembers:  "...[The] family Hooser or Van Hooser, as they were called, ... settled on North Fork of Clinch near Flat Lick in 1775. The oldest Van Hooser (deponent understood from his father) made the upper improvement, and the old man's son John was the next oldest man and made an improvement near the old man."

Various sources state that Valentine, 51 years old, died at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. Valentine's name is not included among those listed by the Daughters of the American Revolution, but there is a note that the list is not complete.

Sources

* History of Tulpehocken, Berks County by Judy Thayer

Van Hooose, Van Hooser, Van Huss (Van Hoesen, Van Husum and other variations) Family in America by Joyce Lindstrom

Franz

We know him by no other name than Franz, father to Jan Franz Van Husum (the first Van Huss, Van Hoesen to come to America). He possessed no last name. None was needed and if further distinction was required, he might be addressed as Blackbeard, or Red Franz or Tall Franz, or whatever distinguishing characteristic he might have possessed.

He was of the late 16th century (Jan was born in 1608) and was likely a seaman, for two reasons: first, this was the primary occupation of those living along the North Sea coast and second, his son was also a "sea-going" man.

We know that his name is Franz because of the marriage certificate which gives Jan's first name, his father's name Franz, and his place of origin, Van Husum. We do not know if he was Dutch or Frisian or Danish. Modern DNA tests might answer this question with some statistical probability. If we go simply by place of origin, then we would say that he was Danish or at least a subject of the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein. Then again, the ancient North Frisians had inhabited the coastline of the Jutland Peninsula for millennia. The Dutch also have a claim on our Franz, for the name screams Dutch, but that is not to say that the Danish and the Frisians did not use similar names. Moreover, it was the Dutch who came to the island of Nordstrand and with their technical know-how, attempted, poorly as it turned out, to reclaim the land from the fierce North Sea.

What he looked like is anyone's guess, but we can imagine that he might have been a character out of Isack van Ostade painting, Workmen before the Inn, 1645, National Gallery of Art.

Franz likely visited an alehouse and drank ale to while away the time. While drinking he most likely broke out in song:

Come all you young Maidens & lend an ear
Come listen awhile and you shall hear,
How the Keepers did sport with the fallow deer
Amongst the leaves so green ah
Hey down derry derry down,
Hey down down, ho down down,
Het down ho down derry derry down
Amongst the leaves so green ah...
The Huntsmans Delight, Or, The Foresters Pleasure.

A churning song

Johannes Vermeer, the Milkmaid, c. 1658

On the last day of the last year of her life on Nordstrand, Volkje and her sister Annetje would have gone about their daily tasks, rising to feed the chickens, tend the ducks, milk the cows, wash the clothes, prepare and cook the food. In 1634 a terrific gale hit the island of Nordstrand, causing the sea to break the dykes, flood the island and destroy churches, farms, and homes with great loss of life. Sixteen year old Volkje and her older sister Annetje are the only two in her family who are known to have survived.

We find her, five years later in Amsterdam, marrying Jan Franz Van Husum (Husem), and ready to depart for the New World and New Holland for a new life.

The butter churn surely followed.

‘Apron on and dash in hand
O’er the churn I stand’
Cachug, cachink!
Aching back and arms so weary

We are not so dumb as you might think
It’s just that we have no time
We must work
We milk the cows, we let it sit
While we mend, clean and cook
Then take the cream
And place it in a barrel
From which we churn and turn
Hour after hour
To make our bread and butter

And you my child, the future
You are not so smart
Yes you, who do nothing more than text
You see, oh no you don't
That iPhone in your hand is
But a stratagem to beguile
A clever ruse, a simple trick
A wile they say is free, and
All the while
They charge you out the ass
And turn your brain to mush

Bruegal, Visit to a Farmhouse

Life in 17th century Netherlands

Life in 17th century Netherlands

Roelant Roghman, (Dutch 1627–1692), The Breach in the Dike between Amsterdam and Diemen in 1651

 

Frisian is a Dutch dialect spoken by a Dutch minority. They were recognized as far back as Roman times and they inhabited the coastline of Holland and the Jutland Peninsula. Frisia was comprised of West and East Friesland and North Friesland, the area from which Jan and Volkje came. There has been much discussion on whether the name Van Huss and Van Hoesen is Dutch or Frisian. The question can not be answered clearly. Husum and Nordstrand where the two came from was once upon a time Danish, then part of the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein, but in the main, the inhabitants were culturally Dutch.

Historically, it is important to know that the nation state of the Netherlands only came into being in 1596 when the kings of France and England arranged a treaty with the Republic of the United Netherlands, giving the fledgling state international recognition. The Kingdom of Spain continued to wage war on the Dutch until 1609 when they too recognized Dutch independence. The North Friesland coast where Jan Fanz Van Husum originated was for the most part a "vast swampy moor." Husum was a seaport and it is likely that Jan, who was a sailor, sailed into the North Atlantic to catch cod. Because of its remoteness from Amsterdam and the major Dutch cities, Husum and the island of Nordstrand escaped the fighting between the Spanish and the Dutch. Dutch engineers had come to the island of Nordstrand to battle the sea and reclaim the land.

It was not a battle they could win.

Go stroll along the sandy dunes and march through the muddy marshes. See the world the way they saw it. For a good article on Dutch life in the 16th and 17th century with images go to the following link:

Nederland naar ’t leven: Een inleiding

Dear Lilith

Reinier Zeeman (ca. 1623–1667 Dutch), Flooded

I often wonder what thoughts they had, what they said to each other, what they felt. They were, after all, no different than you or I, touched by human emotions.

His name was Jan, nothing more. Like all the Biblical characters, like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, a first name was enough.

He was a 30 year old sailor from Husum.

Volkje was a 20 year old farm girl from Nordstrand, brought together by a terrible storm that took thousands of lives. Her parents killed in the deluge, his occupation as a sailor likely ended with the flooding of Husum, a seaport along the tidal flats and salt marshes of Wadden Sea. Like hundreds, if not thousands, of survivors, making their way to Amsterdam. Then offered a chance to settle in the New World.

Married in Amsterdam's Nieue Kirche, where for the first he took the name Jan Van Husum. They then prepared to set sail across the Atlantic to New Amsterdam and a new life. She would be his guiding life, the mother of his children, the keeper of the house. Together they would share life's journey.

What thoughts had they, we can only imagine...

Dear Lyltsen

Dear Lyltsen, when I am with thee
(My light, my flame, my sun, my eye)
As dark as deep as night may be
When through the sky stars steer their course
No matter how dark it may be
It is light as the daylight sun for me.

But when your flare flares not unto me,
I have no star to steer my turning;
I move then blind as a stick, a stone,
Though mid-day sun is burning.
What use if the sun in my eyes is bright?
Lylts is all, my dark, my light.

Gysbert Japicx (b. 1603)

Lyltsen  (the diminutive and enduring way of referring to Lylt), possibly Lilith. In Jewish mythology, Lilith refers to a demon in the night. Volkje (Volkie and its variants) is the diminutive of  the Dutch word for falcon.

Gysbert Japicx (also Japiks; 1603–66) was a 17th century Dutch poet who wrote in Latin as well as the Frisian dialect, Friesche Rymlerye (1668; “Frisian Verse”). Japicx or Japiks spoke of his beloved Lylt in several verses. Whether she was real or just a vision is uncertain.

Life in the Netherlands

Historically, it is important to know that the nation state of the Netherlands only came into being in 1596 when the kings of France and England arranged a treaty with the Republic of the United Netherlands, giving the fledgling state international recognition. The Kingdom of Spain continued to wage war on the Dutch until 1609 when they too recognized Dutch independence. The North Friesland coast where Jan Fanz Van Husum originated was for the most part a "vast swampy moor." Husum was a seaport and it is likely that Jan, who was a sailor, sailed into the North Atlantic to catch cod. Because of its remoteness from Amsterdam and the major Dutch cities, Husum and the island of Nordstrand escaped the fighting between the Spanish and the Dutch. Dutch engineers had come to the island of Nordstrand to battle the sea and reclaim the land.

It was not a battle they could win.

Go stroll along the sandy dunes and march through the muddy marshes. See the world the way they saw it. For a good article on Dutch life in the 16th and 17th century with images go to the following link:

Nederland naar ’t leven: Een inleiding