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In O'Callaghan's Documentary History of New York, V. III, is found a "Map of the Manor Rensselaerwyck," surveyed and drawn by John Bleecker in 1763. This amazing document is a virtual census of the people living in a large section of what is now Albany County in 1763. But even better, it shows the exact location of each homestead. There are about 250 names listed, but notably absent are David Springer, my gggg-grandfather, and his brother, Benjamin Springer, both of whom resided in the area at that time. There is one listing on Bleecker's map that is intriguing; Instead of the name of the settler, the index refers to it only as "Norman Kills People." This spot is on the west side of the Normanskill, very near the Van Patten farm where David Springer was killed in 1777. Could this map entry refer to a tiny settlement of some sort? Most of the names on the map are tenants of the land-owner or patroon, and the map may have been commissioned to record these leases. The entry could hardly refer to a settlement of squatters, since the Patroon's agents routinely burned down such unleased homesteads. Which leaves the question, who, then, are the "Norman Kills People?" Could David Springer have been among them? Any help would be appreciated.
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