Re: Hester Vandercook, wife of Jacob Snyder, Rensselaer County NY
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In reply to:
Re: Hester Vandercook, wife of Jacob Snyder, Rensselaer County NY
Ronald Bachman 2/27/08
Ron, one of the biggest problems I have encountered when attempting to trace the early VanDerCooks is the absence of data for the family of the Michael VanDerCook, born 4 September, 1744 in Morris Co., NJ. This Michael VDC was the eldest child of Michael and Cornelia (VAN NESS) VDC. He fought with his brothers as a Private in the 14th Albany County Militia in the Revolution and appears on that unit's muster roll in NEW YORK IN THE REVOLUTION AS COLONY AND STATE. He married his wife, Maria OLLER/AULES/VAN AULEN/VAN ALLEN, on 11 February, 1768 in NY. (The resource is New York Marriages XVII, page 51.) I currrently have a total of seven children born to them between 1769 and 1785, but the list is largely the result of more guesswork on my part than anything and doubtlessly contains errors. I also tend to believe that it is nowhere near complete!
The families of the rest of Michael and Cornelia VDC's children are tightly enough documented that whenever the occasional "stray" VanDerCook crops up with ties to Upper Albany/Rensselaer Co., NY, Michael and Maria's family is the first place I tend to look. If your Martha's ties are to New Jersey, she would be descended from one of the VDCs who remained there.
In my investigations, I have found that George is not the most common given name in the VDC family. I have a huge database and the name only crops up a total of six times.
I do realize that doing genealogy by process of elimination (called "guess and b'gosh" around here) is LOUSY science! However, it can seem like the only way possible to proceed when the primary sources just aren't there!