Hi Pat, You wrote: <My thought is that Margariet, baptized 1641 was perhaps a few years old at the time of her baptism. The NYC Ref Ch record does not give a date of birth. Is there any other mention of her date of birth or age in any other records? > ekk: As was usual at the time, the NYDCh records give the bp date and seldom do they include the birth date. I included in my query the bp records of Margariet and her four siblings to show the order of birth, dates of baptism and witnesses. Margariet is the second child of Cosyn Gerritsen Cozyn and Vroutje Gerrits to be bp in the NYDC on 5 May 1641. You wrote: <I'm thinking that since Vrouwtje apparently made trips to the Netherlands and back, perhaps this child had been born in the Netherlands, and remained there when Cozyn Gerritszen & Vrouwtje first came to New Netherland. Perhaps, in this scenario, her mother brought her to New Amsterdam in a "return" trip, and had her baptized there in 1641 (when she was a few years old).> ekk: I found only one reference to her returning to the Netherlands. 12 Feb 1659 which would have nothing to do with finding info in the much earlier New Amsterdam records in the 1640's. When did she make other trips to the Netherlands? ekk: Vroutje made a trip back to the Netherlands and returned 12 February 1659. In De Trouw [The Faith], Captain Jan Janse Bestevaer. "Vroutgen Gerritsen, wife of Cosyn Gerritsen, wheelwright." Holland Society Yearbook [HSYB 1902:9] [Boyer:120] What are the earlier dates and records that Vroutje Gerrits made return trips to the Netherlands? Pat, thanks for adding info to a family that is loaded with question marks. Regards, Ethel = = = = = = = = From PAW. My thought is that Margariet, baptized 1641 was perhaps a few years old at the time of her baptism. The NYC Ref Ch record does not give a date of birth. Is there any other mention of her date of birth or age in any other records? I think because it was, at that period, the norm to baptize infants soon after their births, it has always been generally accepted that if she was baptized in 1641, she was born in 1641. I'm thinking that since Vrouwtje apparently made trips to the Netherlands and back, perhaps this child had been born in the Netherlands, and remained there when Cozyn Gerritszen & Vrouwtje first came to New Netherland. Perhaps, in this scenario, her mother brought her to New Amsterdam in a "return" trip, and had her baptized there in 1641 (when she was a few years old). It seems a better solution than the drastically young child bride theory. I don't know how this could ever be proved, though. What I would really like to see is a separate documented mention of her birth date or age at any given time. Pat