Founders of New Jersey,USA in my Family Tree

Genealogical research leads us down many different paths, as I imagine most of you would agree. As a person who grew up in the Southern United States, Virginia to be exact, learning I had northern ancestors was a big surprise!  Steeped in Virginia history and desiring to be a “Southern Belle” limited my vision greatly! I was sixty years old when I started my genealogical research, I will soon be 67.  What a  lot I have learned!

I had traced ancestors who had participated in the American Revolutionary War, making me eligible for membership in the DAR, Daughters of the American Revolution. I had also traced ancestors to the Mayflower and to Jamestown, making me eligible for several more historically based societies. I have to say, Virginians are generally very aware of their family roots, and these three societies, the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, the Jamestown Society, and the DAR were the ones to establish your pedigree! But as I continued my research, I realized that members of my family were some of the first settlers of many eventual states of America who had their own societies. Of course, that is logical, people here in the very beginning intermarried and spread all across this great country.

You can imagine my surprise when I found many paternal ancestors from New Jersey-- even fighters for the Union in the American Civil War! As it turns out, my maiden name Youngblood came from a branch of that family who had settled in New Jersey! As I traced them back, it included the Spear/Spier/Speers as well. In the late 1600's, my Speers married a Vreeland from the Netherlands. The Vreelands were well documented back to where they left the Netherlands and settled first in New Amsterdam (New York), then in New Jersey.  It was my seventh great grandparents, Hartman Mickelson/Michielse Vreeland, 1651-1707,  and Maritje Braecke, 1652-1724 who caught my attention.

Hartman Mickelson/Michielse Vreeland,  my 7th great-grandfather, was famous in his own little world. He was one of the founders of the State of New Jersey! In fact, he is credited with being “the first white man to settle in what is now the city of Passaic“, New Jersey. He actually purchased the land from the Lenni Lenape Tribe of the Algonquin nation of Indians-- an island in the Passaic River, now part of Acquackanonk Park where he settled. In Passaic there is a plaque honoring Hartman and thanks to the Passaic County Historical Society, I can now see it and learn about my  grandfather.

“This tablet is erected to the memory of Hartman Michielse.

The first white man to set foot in this county,

who on April 4, 1678, settled on this spot then known as

Meneheniki Island, which he then purchased from the Indians.”

Isn’t that amazing! The blood of a true pioneer runs through my veins, and my sister and brothers’ veins, my children and grandchildren and cousins! Wow! Hartman’s father, Michael Jansen Vreeland was born in Zeeland, Netherlands in 1610 and died in Bergen, New Jersey, in the American Colonies in 1663. Hartman himself was born 1651 in New Amsterdam, New York and died in Bergen, NJ in 1707. He was a wealthy man as was his wife, Maritje Braecke, 1652-1724.  He and Maritje had 13 children together! He was a skilled wheelwright, a man who made wooden wheels for carts and carriages, although his wealth was inherited according to The History and Genealogy of the Vreeland Family, 1999, by Nicholas Vreeland.

I’ve learned that since I am a direct descendant of one of the citizens of New Jersey who settled there before 1702, I am eligible to become a member of the “Descendants of Founders of New Jersey"!  Evelyn Ogden, PhD, has provided a revised and updated book published in 2011 titled  Founders of New Jersey, Brief Biographies by Descendants. It is available to be downloaded as a pdf at this link.   Biographies are included for  the people listed below, of whom, I am pretty sure I am related to six or seven more families! That’s what happens when your family is present at the beginning of settlements and the population is limited.

Biographical entries include:

DAVID ACKERMAN (1653 – 1710/24)

THOMAS ALGER (16XX – 1687)

OBADIAH AYERS (1636 – 1694)

GUILIAEM BERTHOLF (1655 – ABT. 1726)

JOHN BISHOP SR. (1621-1684)

THOMAS BLOOMFIELD SR. (16XX – 1685)

ROBERT BOND (1596 – 1677)

RICHARD BORDEN (1595/6 – 1671)

ALEXANDER/SANDER BOYER (1618-1661)

JAMES BOWNE (1636 – 1695)

GEORGE BROWN ( 16XX -1717/8)

JAMES BROWN (1656-1715/6)

MATTHEW CAMFIELD (1604 – 1673)

CALEB CARMAN (1644/5 – 1693)

ROBERT CARR (1614 – 1681)

JOHN CHAMBERLIN (1687-1739)

RICHARD CLARK (C. 1613 – 1697)

WILLIAM CLAYTON (1632 – 1689)

ROBERT CLEMENTS, JR (C 1634-C 1714)

FRANCIS COLLINS (1635 – 1720)

JOHN CONGER (C 1645-1712)

CORNELIS WILLEMSE COUWENHOVEN.

THOMAS COX (1620 – 1681)

JASPER CRANE (1605 – 1681)

DAVID DEMAREST (1620 – 1693)

ROBERT DENNIS (C. 1619 – 1683+)

DANIEL DOD (C.1649 – 1701+)

CORNELIS DOREMUS C 1655-1715)

SAMUEL DOTY (1643 – 1715)

GAVINE DRUMMOND (1659 – 1724)

JONATHAN DUNHAM (1639/40 – 1702)

NICHOLAS DUPUI (1634-1691) JOSHUA ELY (16XX– 1702)

DAVID FALCONER (1630-1713)

EDWARD FITZ-RANDOLPH (C.1607 – 1675/6)

THOMAS FRENCH (1639 – 1699)

HANNAH FULLER (1636 – AFT.1686)

WILLIAM GIFFORD (1615-1687)

THOMAS HAND (C. 1646-1714)

RICHARD HARTSHORNE (1641 – 1722)

MATTHIAS HATFIELD ( 16XX – 1687)

JOHN HAVENS (C. 1635 – C. 1687)

REV. OBADIAH HOLMES (1606/7 – 1682)

HENRY JAQUES (C. 1618-1687)

JEFFERY JONES (C.1643 – 1717)

ISAAC KINGSLAND (1648 – 1698)

FRANCIS LINLE (LINDSLEY/LINDLEY) (16XX – 1704)

HENRY LYON ( 16XX – 1703)

SAMUEL MARSH (C.1620 – 1683)

WILLIAM MATLACK (1648-1738)

SAMUEL MOORE (C.1630 – 1688)

THOMAS MORRIS ( – 1673)

JOHN OGDEN (1609 – 1682)

GEORGE PACK (C. 1634-1704)

JOHN PANCOAST (PANCKHURST) (C. 1630 – 1694)

REV. ABRAHAM PIERSON (1611-1678)

JOHN PIKE (1613 – 1689/90)

RICHARD PITTENGER (PEWTINGER) (ABT 1645 – 17XX)

ELIZABETH POWELL (1677 – 1714)

BENJAMIN PRICE (1621-1712)

JOHN PRIDMORE (PREDMORE) (1661-1702)

JOHN READING (1657-1717)

WALTER REEVE (1650/57 – 1698)

EDWARD RIGGS (C. 1614 – 1668)

THOMAS SCATTERGOOD ( 16XX – 1697)

JOHN SCHENCK (1670-1753)

THOMAS SCHOOLEY (1650 – 1724)

ANDERS SINNICKSON (C. 1651 -1699)

GILES SLOCUM (C. 1623 – 1681)

JOHN SOMERS (1623/24-1723)

JAMES STEELMAN (JONS MANSSON) (1660/70 – 1734/35)

ROBERT STILES (1655-1728)

RICHARD STOUT (C. 1615 – C. 1705)

CAPTAIN SAMUEL SWAINE (SWAYNE) (C. 1620 – 1685)

JOHN THROCKMORTON (1601 – 1684)

MARTIN TICHENOR (C.1615 – 1681)

ROBERT TREAT (1622/24 – 1710)

CORNELIUS (TEUNISSEN) TUNISON (1694 – 1775)

JOHANNES UPDIKE (OPDYKE) (1651 – 1729)

LUBBERT GYSBERTSEN VAN BLARICUM (C.1601 – C.1655)

CORNELIS VAN VOORST (C. 1580 – 1638)

WALING JACOBSE VAN WINKLE (C.1650 – C.1729)

HARTUIAN “HARTMAN” (MICKIELSEN) VREELAND (1651-1707)

JOHN WARD ( – 1684)

JOHN WARD (C. 1625 – 1694)

THOMAS WARNE (C. 1652 – 1722)

BARTHOLOMEW WEST ( 16XX – C.1674)

JOHN WINANS (WYNANTS) (1640 – 1694)

BARNABAS WINES (1628 – 1715)

JOSEPH WOODRUFF (1676-1742)

WILLIAM WOOLMAN (C.1625 – 1692)

JOSHUA WRIGHT (BEFORE 1633-1695)

ROBERT ZANE (1642-1694)

For those who like to see the relationship charts, this shows my descendancy from Hartman Vreeland:

Hartman Vreeland (1651 – 1707)

is your 7th great grandfather

Dirck Vreeland (1681 – 1773)

son of Hartman Vreeland

Dirck Vreeland (1716 – 1804)

son of Dirck Vreeland

Metje Vreeland (1754 – 1842)

daughter of Dirck Vreeland

Jacob Speer (1788 – 1858)

son of Metje Vreeland

Edwin Speer (1822 – 1861)

son of Jacob Speer

Clara B. Spear (1851 – 1931)

daughter of Edwin Speer

Edwin Spear Youngblood (1882 – 1943)

son of Clara B. Spear

Cecil Hogue Youngblood (1910 – 1988)

son of Edwin Spear Youngblood

Helen Spear Youngblood Holshouser

You are the daughter of Cecil Hogue Youngblood

I am looking forward to seeing if you have recognized some of your own ancestors on this list!  Until we meet again, Helen