Letters 11/27/2019

Happy Thanksgiving to all Dutch Cousins

Please note our webmaster’s note below that more than 400 photos of the 2019 Dutch gathering are now posted on our website: https://bit.ly/2Pm0DVX
While you are there look at the photos of the sad condition of our ancestor’s graves in Conewago Low Dutch burial ground. These were sent by Ernie and Kathy (Banta) Borgoyne of Gilbert Arizona. I have been told the brick wall around the cemetery has collapsed in a couple places also. www.DutchCousins.org

I’ve been swamped ever since getting home from Kentucky in September and many of you probably have been too. I’m still trying to find and pull together all the info we have collected and then decide what more we need for the Conewago project, and also for the newly discovered DeMotte/Banta/Cove Spring cemetery with at least four Dutch Revolutionary Veterans and many, many other family members. 

Laurel Auchampaugh of Auburn NY, Larry Voreis of Taylors SC, and Malcolm Banta of RotundaWest, FL, have agreed to direct work on historical markers and repair of the Conewago Cemetery in PA. 

Greg Barnard of Danville KY, a DeMotte descendant, is making big strides in cleaning up and restoring the cemetery near Harrodsburg, originally known as the DeMotte graveyard.

We Dutch descendants are so thankful for those who volunteer to be in charge of these projects, so important to our history. Charlie Westerfield and crew did such an incredible job on the Kentucky highway historical markers for 2019. What accomplishments will we have to show off in 2021?

Are you ready for the holidays?  I am just fixing a small turkey dinner for three of us tomorrow, but the gang of twenty-five, in all ages and stages of life, will be here Saturday for our annual Thanksgiving pizza party and Jon’s birthday cake. Wish you could join us.  You don’t need to bring a thing, except a card for Jon’s 83rd birthday, a piece of paper with one thing you are thankful for, and maybe a helping hand. We’ll have lots of pizza and other finger foods and snacks. If you prefer to bring some food to share, feel free. We will plan to circle up, share our gratitude list, and eat about 2 pm. 

Jon wants a homemade lemon cake so I am going to do that, and also bake a classic pumpkin pie and a bourbon pecan pie. We will set a place with a candle for our grand Kadi bug, even tho we know she is in Savanah, Georgia, with her soldier boy husband and can’t be here.

One of my favorite memories is from a few years ago. When we read our gratitude list, most people mention family, our leaders, living in a free country, health, enough money, etc.  When Kadi was about 4 years old. She said, I am just thankful for French Fries!

Come with a thankful heart, a smile on your face, and be ready to enjoy being with family!

SENT BY: Carolyn Leonard

Our Dutch Cousins MISSION STATEMENT
 
We are descendants of the Low Dutch who settled New Amsterdam, moved to New Jersey, migrated to near Gettysburg, and made history when they later populated the frontier.  Our Dutch Kentucky Cousins goal is to research, share, and preserve the genealogy and history of our common Low Dutch heritage, including but not limited to, the restoration and preservation of the old Mud Meetinghouse built by our ancestors in the early 1800s near Harrodsburg, KY.  We meet every two years to renew our love for each other.  Our mission is to honor the memory of these ancestors and enjoy the friendship of cousins, both newly- discovered and long-loved.
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HERE ARE THE PHOTOS FROM THE 2019 Dutch Cousins Gathering in Kentucky!

SENT BY:  Pam Ellingson

I did upload Charlie’s photos to the DC google account. The following link should allow access and people can download the file of 429 photos. 

https://bit.ly/2Pm0DVX

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SENT BY:  Darren Westerfield
That was a great post, Carolyn. The Westervelt Massacre is such a part of my family’s history, I would like to go and see the plaque in person.  Evidently, the adjacent outdoor areas have been developed around the area, kayak rentals, etc., pretty cool.

Since I have most of my Westerfield ancestry traced, I am interested in how my particular family unit got from Drenthe Province to New Amsterdam and then to Bergen Co. NJ. in the 1600’s.  Has anyone ever been to Drenthe Province?
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SENT BY: John C. Van Nuys
In Response to Maria Neal (in re:  VAN NUYS)
 
Aucke Janse Van Nuys’ descendants did settle in Mercer County, Kentucky and then Johnson County, Indiana
Aucke is my 10th grandfather back.
To learn more about the Dutch community in Indiana (Hopewell) which was birthed by the Old Mud Meeting House community in Kentucky, check out my mother Kathleen Van Nuys’ (1921-2014) book:  The Hopewell Journey: 350 Years from Immigrant Religion to Hoosier Faith
https://www.amazon.com/Hopewell-Journey-Immigrant-Presbyterian-1831-2006/dp/1425928951/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Hopewell+Journey&qid=1571968510&sr=8-1
I am not trying to peddle the book, but for anyone who wants to know about the Hopewell community and its families my mother’s 684 page mammoth book will tell the tale.
John C. Van Nuys
Crawfordsville, IN

NOTE FROM CAROLYN:  I have a copy of the book and photos with Kathleen Van Nuys in the little museum of things from the old Mud Meetinghouse, including a miniature of the church built by one of the members. The book is very well done with lots of photos, well worth the money. It is a big book of almost 700 pages and easy to read print. Here is a picture of the inside detail of the pulpit inside the Mud’s Replica, shown above.  Here also is the plaque with the list of founders of the church, most if not all came from their “mother” church, the old Mud Meetinghouse. The photos are from our visit there in 2005. I’d love for someone to take time to transcribe the names and wording to go in the next Dutch Letters.
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SENT BY: Doug Demaree

Thank you for your work with the Dutch cousins.  I have found some great things out this week about my Demaree family history.   I have been studying our family history for over 30 years.    I have some things I would like to talk to Vince Akers about.  Could you please have him contact me.  I have misplaced his number….thank you.  Douglas Demaree .      My Gmail account is demareedoug@gmail.com. Thank you so much….tell all the cousins hi.   I am thankful for each one.

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SENT BY: Firth Fabend, Author of A Dutch Family in the Middle Colonies
How are you in Oklahoma? And how did the last reunion go? I’m looking forward to reports and lots of pictures of the goings on!

I’m reaching out to you and the Dutch Cousins here on behalf of the New Amsterdam History Center, where I’ve been on the Board for about seven years. We would like to offer the Dutch Cousins the opportunity to view our lectures (of which we present two or three a year) either by video or live podcasts. Would there be any interest in this, do you think? 

You can go to our website and view past lectures to see the quality and types of topic we cover. The most recent is an event we sponsored earlier this month featuring Jaap Jacobs, a well-known historian of New Netherland, who is also a good friend of mine. 

We are making this offer to you in the spirit of interaction, getting to know each other in the fascinating universe of Dutch-American studies! I am copying Esme Berg, our Executive Director and Interim President, who also most warmly hopes to welcome you. 

We don’t want to miss this opportunity to expand public knowledge of our organization, so Esme and I, in consultation with other Board members, have decided to add your email to our mailing list, free of charge, in the hope that you will share our notices with your organization. Your members can access our lectures online at www.newamsterdamhistorycenter.org. We are planning our next lecture for February and another in April, and possibly something in December.

We hope and trust that many Dutch Cousins will take advantage of this opportunity to learn more of their origins back East! We are sure it will enhance their awareness of their own long and eventful trek to parts West–and that by sharing our joint histories we may both be made wiser!
All best,
Firth
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SENT BY: 
The New Amsterdam History Center Lecture Series 
With The Holland Society of New York
Presents
PLEASE SAVE THE DATE
“A Dangerous Liberty” 
Mohawk-Dutch Relations and the Colonial Gunpowder Trade, 1639-1665
A Talk By Shaun Sayres, Clark University Followed by a Q & A
Wednesday, February 5, 2020 from 6:30 to 8:00 PM
St. Mark’s Church In-the-Bowery, New York
131 East 10th Street (at Second Avenue)
Admission $25.  NAHC and Holland Society Members $15
*Space is Limited*  RSVP to: events@newamsterdamhistorycenter.org
for more info, email Esme Berg – nahceberg@gmail.com

The Mohawks and Dutch engaged in cross-cultural interactions centered around the exchange of furs and gunpowder that culminated in the formation of a mutually-beneficial partnership.  These Mohawk-Dutch encounters and negotiations, reveal a distinct arc of intertwined fates, outlining their shared rise, peak, and decline within a world embroiled in conflict.  Ultimately, the Mohawks survived, but the Dutch did not, relinquishing New Netherland to the English without a shot in 1664.

Shaun Sayres is a doctoral student at Clark University where he studies colonial American history, the Atlantic world, and the age of revolutions. His dissertation research focuses on intercultural encounters, exchanges, and partnerships in the Atlantic world with special attention to New Netherland and seventeenth-century North America. 

St. Marks Church In-the-Bowery is one of the most famous and important architectural landmarks in New York City.  Its origins date back to 1660 when Peter Stuyvesant, the Director-General of the Dutch Colony of New Netherlands, built the first chapel on the site.  Though the structure he designed is long gone, his remains still lie in a sealed vault at St. Mark’s.
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SENT BY:  Just FYI from Carolyn Leonard

GUESS WHAT? It’s finally available! My new book THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS went online tonight. See it here http://amzn.to/2oYsTjG and order if you want to. I ordered some copies just now myself. If you like the book, and if you care to, would you write a couple sentences and post on the book’s page in Amazon.com. Book reviews have a profound impact on sales. It is a nice thing to do for your favorite author. If you want a signed copy, send a request to me, but I just ordered my author copies today so they won’t be here for a week or two.
Here’s a hotlink: https://amzn.to/2KV2CgS
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SENT BY:  To stay in touch, we mainly use our official website, www.DutchCousins.org, and the weekly or so Dutch Letters email sent through MailChimp mailing service. The email goes out to almost 1,000 addresses – and I know it is passed on to others who do not use computers, and is posted at some libraries.  The letters are also archived on the website. 

SENT BY: Carolyn Leonard
Editor, Dutch cousins of Kentucky
E-mail me: Editor234 (at) gmail.com
On my web page www.CarolynBLeonard.com 
Dutch letters are archived on our official webpage, www.DutchCousins.org by Pam Ellingson
Barbara Whiteside has a facebook page that you may find interesting, Dutch Cousins in Kentucky