Re: Lefferts of New York
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In reply to:
Re: Lefferts of New York
sharon wieland 4/28/01
Get in touch with the Lefferts House (Museum) in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The DAR has used this house for years. Part of it dates to the immigrant Pieter Janse Van Houghwout and his wife Femmetje Hermanse. They came from Holland on the ship Die Bonte Coe (The Spotted Cow) I belive with four children, two of whom survived, Leffert Pieterse and Pieter Pieterse. Pieter Pieterse' descendants dropped the patronym and took the surname Houghwout. Leffert Pieterse children used the patronym hence two sons Pieter Lefferts and Leffert Lefferts. It was Pieter Lefferts line that owned the Lefferts House. In the house is a cradle brought over on the Spotted Cow. My daughter Therese napped for about an hour in that ancient cradle while her great grandmother Helen Lefferts Bloomfield Slinn , a lineal descendant of Pieter Lefferts rocked her. The house originally was in Flatbush near theReformed Dutch Church and passed in the female line into the Vanderbilt family who later donated the house and it was moved to its current site in Prospect Park. It once housed American prisoners during the Revolutionary War during the Battle of Brooklyn Heights. One ownerwas a John Lefferts who was a judge and I believe that there were two other judges, one Pieter Lefferts and Leffert lefferts. The Curator has some very interesting genealogical/family tree charts in the house. It has been 35 years or so since my last visit but the house is still on the list of historic sites in Brooklyn. Many family members were buried in the Reformed Dutch Church Cemetary in Flatbush. Later that church was moved and those buried there were transferred to other cemetaries. In our case four generations were moved to Greenwood Cemetary in Brooklyn on the same day in , I believe, 1888. to include above Helen Lefferts Bloomfield Slinn's father James Myers Bloomfield, grandmother Sarah Lefferts Redfield Bloomfield and husband Jonathon Bloomfield. Sarah Lefferts Redfield was the dau of (John) Redfield and Sarah Lefferts Schenk. Sarah Lefferts Schenk was the dau of Pieter Teunis Schenk and Sarah Lefferts(last transferred to Greenwood) dau of John Lefferts and (Ailtje)?_______Vanderbilt. John lefferts was the last Lefferts owner of the house, I believe, and was the son of Pieter Lefferts, son of Leffert Pieterse, son of Pieter Janse Van Houghwout and Femmetje Hermanse.My memory is a bit rusty but I believe I have recalled this fairly accurately.
Walt