Histories

Chapter VIII Children of Leur Jacobsen Van Kuykendaal...

One of the first things that attracts our attention in the record is the great variation in the spelling of the names. Our ancestor's first name is spelled Leur. Luyr, Luir, and Lur. they all having the same sound. In those days they spelled by the sound, that is phonetically. If a word sounded right it was accepted without criticism,

It will be noticed that in every instance the mother's name is given as Grietje Tack. When Seyte's baptism was registered, the father's name is written out in full, LEUR JACOBSEN VAN KUYKENDAAL. It is clear from this, that the name was all along understood to have been Van Kuykendaal, but according to the custom of the time, in writing the name, the patronymic only was used, as Mr. Versteeg suggests.

We have in this baptismal record an illustration of several of the peculiar features connected with the baptism of our forefather's children, as, for instance, the custom of giving the maiden name of the mother, instead of the name by marriage, and of having witnesses or sponsors for each and every child baptized.

We notice in this family there were two children named Johannes. When a child was baptized, and afterward died young, it was a very common custom to give some child born later, the same name ; this was done to perpetuate it in the family, or as they often said, "hand the name down" in the family. Many instances of this kind could be given both in church and family records of the time.<

STYNTIE or CHRISTIA, the first child, a daughter of Luur Jacobsen Van Kuykendaal and wife Grietje Aertze Tack, grew up with her parents about fifteen miles from Kingston. New York. She married Jurian Westfall, about 1710; the baptism of their first child took place in 1711. Jurian and his wife, Christina Van Kuykendaal. lived nearly eleven miles below the present site of Fort Jervis, on the Delaware river, in Sussex County, X. J., adjacent to what was then called the "Big ]Minisink Island." Here Jacob Van Kuykendall and his brother-in-law. Jurian Westfall, lived on part of a tract of land they had bought jointly from Thomas Stevenson, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, containing 500 acres. They sold a part of this tract to a man named Johannes Westbrook. and divided the remainder between them.

The plat of the old original village of Minisink, made April 7. 1725, shows the names of both Jacob Kuykendall and Jurian Westfall and also that of Jacob's brother, Mattheus. Just what time they might have moved on to this place is not known, but it may have been any time between 1714 and 1725. but was probably nearer the first named date.

The marriage of Jurian Westfall and Styntie Kuykendall was the first intermarriage of the two families. By this marriage Christina had three children, viz : Johannes, baptized June 24, 1711; Jacobus, baptized February 8, 1713; Jacob, baptized June 8, 1715.

Christina must have died soon after the birth of this child Jacob, for her husband, Jurian Westfall, married the second time to Marytje Koddebeck. August 20. 1717. Both Cuddebacks and Westfalls intermarried with Kuykendalls afterwards many times.

Family records and genealogical charts taken alone are not usually interesting reading. Family history, all history, in fact, is mostly the sum of the biographies of the men and women connected therewith. As the genealogical record of the sons and grandsons, and daughters of Luer Jacobsen Van Kuykendaal are taken up, we .shall note some of the facts connected with their life histories. Unfortunately there are .some of them of whom we have no record, except that of their baptism.

JACOB VAN KUYKEXDAAL, or Jacob Kuykendall, as he later signed his name, the second child of Luer, was baptized August 12, 1683, at Kingston, N.Y. He was reared to manhood in the region about Kingston, and married , Adrientjcn Tictsoort. who was the daughter of Abram Tietsoort of Kingston, and niece of William Tietsoort, the pioneer blacksmith. The Tietsoorts, (now .spelled Tittsworth ) and the Kuykendalls intermarried in several instances later, as when William, a son of Stephen Tittsworth, married Catherine Kuykendal, daughter of Hendrick Kuykendal and Elizabeth Cole.

Jacob Kuykendall had only one child, Margrita. by his first wife. She was baptized at Kingston, X. Y., September 11. 1709. This fir.st wife. Adrientje Tietsoort. must have died soon after birth of her daughter Margrita, for his second marriage is recorded as having taken place at Minisink. February 3. 1712. The record in the Church register reads: "Married. Jacob Van Kuykendaal, wid'r of Adrientjen Tietsoort. and Sara Westvaal, maiden, both residing in Mennissing, (Minisink). Family record of Jacob \'an Kuykendaal now follows: Margrita, baptized Sept. 11, 1709. by 1st wife Adrientje Tietsoort. Johannes. (John), baptized Jan. 19. 1713. by 2nd wife Sara Westphael. Jacobus. (James), baptized August 19. 1716. he and the others, by 2nd wife. Dina. baptized Jan. 28. 1719. ]\Iarretjen. baptized Oct. 22. 1721. Benjamin, baptized Sept. 1. 1723. Christina, baptized Feb. 12, 1727. Nathaniel, baptized Oct. 6, 1728. Abraham, was probably born in Virginia, no record found. The family of Jacob, with some of his brothers and their families, went to A'irginia. as elsewhere related, and some of their descendants are found still farther west and south. Going out into the frontier so early, many of the descendants lost trace of their forefathers. The descendants of Pieter. the youngest brother of Jacob, who mostly remained in the east, will be interested with Jacob's descendants, because they have heretofore known so little about the Kuykendalls of the far west, or the source from which they sprang. Those of the early forefathers who remained in the east had considerably better opportunity of keeping trace of their ancestors, as they remained in the same locality, near the old ancestral home, generation after generation. We find Jacob's name several times in the old records. He is mentioned in the Archives of Pennsylvania, as being connected with the survey of the line between New York and New Jersey. There had been some doubt as to where the line really was, and the assemblies of the two colonies. New York and New Jersey, had passed several acts providing for the survey of the division line between them. The record reads : "Whereupon the Commission ordered James Steel and Jacob Taylor to repair to Machackemeck. (a Dutch town on the east side of the Delaware river), when certain Commissioners from the above named provinces were appointed to meet." Steel and Taylor reported April 19th as follows : "We were appointed to set out on a journey to Machackemeck. in order to meet certain persons who were appointed by the government of New York and New Jersey, etc. "In pursuance thereof we sett out from Philadelphia, 20th day of same month (April)." The report goes on to say, they arrived there, "and having made inquiry of several Indians, and particularlyJacob Kuvkendall as Surveyor's Guide 41 of Solomon Davis and Jacob Kiiykendall, (two Indian traders), about the branches of the river Delaware, that were between the said river, called the ffishkill and Susquehanna. The said Solomon Davis and Jacob Kuvkendall. having, as well as those Indians, often traveled between those rivers, from one to the other, and therefore knew perfectly well what branches were to be found proceeding- out of the Delaware. The Commission appointed Alaj. John Harrison to travel over from the ffishkill to Susquehanna, who took with him Jacob Kuvkendall and an Indian for guides, and soon went on his journey, which he undertook on foot." While this incident gives some account of Jacob Kuykendall's life, it also gives other co-related facts. Solomon Davis is well known to have been an Indian trader who lived in jMachackemeck, near the present site of Port Jervis. He and Jacob Kuykendall had, as Indian traders, made many a trip along the Delaware, and between that river and the Susquehanna. The Davids were of English origin, and the name frequently appears written in the old records as Davids, Davis or Devins. One of the sons of Solomon Davids married Marretje Kuykendall, daughter of Cornelis, brother of Jacob Kuykendall. Mr. Xearpass, in "Church Life," says, "This Solomon Davis was a son of Joris Davis and Johanna Davis, an Englishman, who first settled at Hellegat, on the Island of Manhattan, from thence he removed to Fort Orange (Albany), and in 1654, went with his family to Ulster County. He was a trapper, and in 1655 was an interpreter and principal mediator between Whites and Indians." We have here disclosed the fact that the Kuykendalls and Davids began their acquaintance probably as early as 1654, at Fort Orange and may possibly have been ac ;Kuykendall, George Benson "History of The Kuykendall Family Since Its Settlement in Dutch New York in 1646 With Genealogy,etc" (Portland, OR, 1919)