Greetings from New Board Members

Good Morning Cousins

Your newly elected board members,
From left to right.
Ron Snider, Brenda Snider, Paul Gregory, Kevin Banta, Tandy Meng, Pam Banta, Kay Rogers and Robin Barnett

Greetings Dutch Cousins of Kentucky (DCKY) from your new, incoming president Paul Gregory. I am excited to work with our group and plan our 2026 Gathering.

I would like to thank all of those members who led and fostered our group along over the years. All of your efforts are much appreciated. I would also like to thank our group of volunteers who stepped up to fill those shoes. I look forward to working with you.

I first became involved with genealogy during the wave of interest generated by the TV miniseries Roots. Pre-covid I served as president, vice president and board member for the Kentucky Genealogical Society (KGS). I am a past president of the Woodford County Historical Society and current president of the Scott County Genealogical Society. Two of my main duties with KGS were the planning and hosting of our monthly Second Saturday events at the Kentucky Historical Society and our annual all-day seminar. As an aside, I also plan and host my class reunion every five years.

I really enjoy learning about genealogy and new techniques. I have attended conferences for both the National Genealogical Society and Federation of Genealogical Societies several times. I have attended, both in person and virtually, the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research four times. This summer I am enrolling in their second of three-year program on land records.

My genealogy is 100% colonial. I am still trying to back some of my surnames out of early Kentucky. I am predominately from VIrginia and Pennsylvania. My first encounter with a Dutch ancestor is my 3G grandmother Helena Voorhees. She was a member of the 1779/1780 migration to Kentucky as a young girl with her siblings and her widowed mother Sophia. Helena married Richard Gregory, who oddly enough was from Pennsylvania.

My Kentucky research stretches from Breathitt County to Jefferson County and from Carroll County to Laurel County. I was bred and raised on a tobacco and beef cattle farm in Scott County, Kentucky. I graduated from the University of Kentucky and worked in Lexington for 40-plus years for Thoroughbred magazines. In 2013, I returned home to aid my mother and in 2017 inherited the family home my parents built. Unlike our pioneer ancestors the Gregory boys don’t travel far…my oldest brother is a half mile from the back door, the next is two miles and the wanderer is six miles away. Other than genealogy my interests are vegetable gardening, cooking, quilting, porch sitting, and cats (4).

If you have ideas, concerns or simply want to reach out to me, my email address is:
paulgregory40504 at gmail.com
I do request that you start each new email subject line with DCKY. That really helps me sort my incoming gmail.

Be blessed.
As Always
Paul
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Brenda and Ron Snider
Good Morning Dutch Cousins I want to introduce myself. I am Ron Snider from Warsaw, IN. I will be serving as your new Newsletter Editor. My loving wife is a Dutch Cousin from the Banta Family line and many more. Lol. She is behind all the Genealogy stuff. I just tag along and drive her to see many things. I do enjoy learning about the past. So with that said I am looking forward to serving this group and creating the
Newsletter. Would like to thank the past creator King Cole. Also my wife Brenda is the New Silent Auction Person taking Sharon Cole’s place. Looking forward to meeting many new people on this journey.

If you have contents for the newsletter please reply to this newsletter.
Thanks in advanced
Ron Snider
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Pam Ellingson wrote:

I have been the webmaster for the www.DutchCousins.org since 2011. I will continue unless someone would like to take over the duties. I am thankful to Jeremy Westerfield for creating the current website and for covering the cost of the hosting.

I have Westerfield, Cozine, Demerest (and a few other) ancestors.
I am a retired Library Director moving from northeast Wisconsin to central Wisconsin where the current temperature (Jan 21) at noon is minus 11 F.

Five things that I learned at the recent Dutch Cousins Gathering
*There are wonderful people willing to step up and lead the group. Welcome to the new officers, board members and other positions.

*Fascinating facts about the Battle of Blue Licks (the last battle of the Revolutionary War), Rosemary Clooney’s life and Heather French Henry’s experience as Miss America.

*I need to promote http://www.DutchCousins.org website more in these e-newsletters. On the resources page there are many documents, links to photo albums & videos and Internet sites.
There is also a lot of exchange of information in the Facebook group- Dutch Cousins in Kentucky.

*The desire to travel is in our ancestral DNA– there were 61 cousins from 16 states at the gathering.

*There is never enough time to meet, chat and share information with all of the cousins— we need another gathering.

Pam Ellingson

See http://www.DutchCousins.org website for more resources. Many documents, links to photo albums & videos and Internet sites.
There is also a lot of exchange of information in the Facebook group- Dutch Cousins in Kentucky.
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Hello!
I’m Pam Banta. I live in Utah. My husband is Kevin. I’ve done family history off and on for many years. We have children (5 birth kids and 7 adopted) and 17 grandchildren. I breed ragdoll cats that keep me pretty busy on top of family. I look forward to getting to know more of you!
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I’m Robin Banta Barnett. I’m originally from Henry Co. KY, just a few miles from the Shelby/Henry Co. KY Low Dutch Colony. I’m the 9th generation born in the US.

I finally made it to the meeting in September 2024. I enjoyed it immensely. I enjoyed all of the presentations, but especially the mix of presentations about Shelby/Henry and Mercer Co. KY. I would like to continue to see presentations on those topics, plus presentations on the Low Dutch prior to KY (PA, NJ, NY, etc.) and post KY (IN, KS, CA, etc.).

I have the following Dutch names in my ancestry:
Ackerman/Akkerman
Baddia/Baddie/Badie/Badia/Badye/Van Der Beek
Banta
Bosch
Braconie/Bredenbent
Brickers
Brouwer
DeBaun/De Boon
DeMarest
DeRiemer
Dircksda/Dircks/Dircksdochter
Epkesz/Epke
Fonda
Helling (Helm)
Hendricks/Hendrik
Jans
Longstreet/Langstraat
Lubbertse/Lubbert
Monfort/Montfoort
Schenk/Schenck/Schenke
Sickedatter/Sickedr/Sickel
Stryker/Strijker
Terhune
Woertman/Wortman

I have the following names in my ancestry which are not considered Dutch, but in my genealogy shows them living in New Amsterdam:
Denyce
Haff
Haldron

Epke Jacobse Banta 1619–23 October 1686
When Epke Jacobse Banta was born in 1619, in Minnertsga, Friesland, Netherlands, his father, Jacob Epkesz Te Bonta, was 22 and his mother, Reystke Sickedatter, was 21. He married Sitske Dircksdochter in 1650, in Harlingen, Friesland, Netherlands. They were the parents of at least 5 sons. He died on 23 October 1686, in Hackensack, Bergen, New Jersey, United States, at the age of 67, and was buried in New Jersey, British Colonial America.

Sincerely,
Robin Barnett

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