Hello again, Thanks for all the replies. I guess my problem is that the boy is not given a name in the records I have seen. Yet, online when I looked up the Pels family, some Pels researchers gave him the name of Hendrick and a possible birth year. I would like to know what record they found that in. I accepted that he must have been the eldest child, if he was a son to Evert. He made the girl pregnant in 1659. His parents were married Dec. of 1641. If he was born in 1642, he would have been around seventeen in 1659. I don't see how he could have been much younger than that, and still be allowed to go out with other men as an escort during a then escalation in the war. I don't know if Native Americans recorded marriages. I wonder if his "parents" made an effort to bring him back to them, since he would have been so young? I would have been devastated, if he had been my child. I suppose you weren't a child long in that era. What a mystery. Howard, I had wondered about the servant to Evert angle myself. He did hire people to work for him. Wolfert Nys being one of them, whom Evert hired in 1643. But, he was to work only two years. I wish they hadn't just called him boy. But, he definitely is connected by historical records as belonging to Evert in some way. Could later writers have just assumed he was a son? I know there are people out there who know so much more than I do about historical records, I was hoping someone may know something more definitive about this. Maybe someone has settled the question? I am not sure what to do with him in my own write-up of the family. I'd love to keep him, simply because of the drama? Thanks again, Leemae ----- Original Message ----- From: dutch-colonies-request@rootsweb.com Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 8:19 PM To: dutch-colonies@rootsweb.com Subject: DUTCH-COLONIES Digest, Vol 2, Issue 54 Today's Topics: 1. Evert Pels "boy" (l. s.) 2. Re: Evert Pels "boy" (Donna Stark) 3. Re: Evert Pels "boy" (Howard Swain) 4. Re: Location of Wolster/Welster? (Howard Swain) 5. Wanamaker - Rev Kocherthal records (ETHELKK@aol.com) 6. Re: Wanamaker - Rev Kocherthal records (Donna Stark) 7. Re: Wanamaker - Rev Kocherthal records (Agnes Mitchell) 8. Re: Location of Wolster/Welster? (Chris Schopfer) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 2 Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 12:14:00 -0500 From: "Donna Stark" <donnaStarkKy@fewpb.net> Subject: Re: [DUTCH-COLONIES] Evert Pels "boy" To: <dutch-colonies@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <003501c75380$2ed07080$494676cc@D2JJ4771> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original In that time period it was not unusual for a young boy to take a wife. Girls even married at 12, 13 and 14, so take that into consideration. ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 16:03:35 -0800 From: "Howard Swain" <hswain@ix.netcom.com> Subject: Re: [DUTCH-COLONIES] Evert Pels "boy" To: <dutch-colonies@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <009a01c753b9$6d14bfc0$c600f604@Howard600m> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Hi Leemae, From: "l. s." <lemaes63@msn.com> To: "dutch" <Dutch-Colonies-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 6:41 AM Subject: [DUTCH-COLONIES] Evert Pels "boy" > Hello, > I am wondering if anyone knows any more about this person. I am wondering how the name Hendrick was given to this "boy" The one who was taken captive by the Indians in 1659. It was written he took a wife among the Indians. But, looking at the possible birth day for this boy, he would probably be only 16-17 years old. His parents married Dec. 1641. Even if he was an early baby, he would be quite young to take a bride. Is it possible he may have been called Pels "boy", because he was a young boy who worked for Evert? And yet, he seems to have been given a name. Who has that record? > How were possible birth dates given to Everts children. I have only found three that were baptized. I kind of was guessing on some of them, by checking the possible marriage dates and subtracting 18-20. I would love to have better church records or family Bible records. > Thanks for any information, When Evert Pels came on Den Houttuyn in 1642 he came with his wife and "his servant". This is from a memo that Van Rensselaer wrote for Megapolensis (who was also on the ship). The name of Evert Pels' servant is not shown. See VRBM p. 609. Also, the Notarial Records abstracted in New Netherland Connections vols 4 and 5 do not show the engagement by Pels of a servant in the months before departure. Could this servant have been the "boy" you refer to? Is the only name you have for him Hendrick? No patronymic or surname? You mention "It was written he took a wife...." Where is this written? And does that place have only the single name "Hendrick" for him? Or does it call him Hendrick Pels? (Note: David Riker's Directory does not show a son Hendrick for Evert Pels.) Regards, Howard hswain@ix.netcom.com ------------------------------Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com

Leemae, I don't know if you've seen this online version of a 1913 pamphlet about the whole affair: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ny/state/bios/fg/vosburgh001.txt It would appear that, at least 100 years ago, there was a lot of surviving correspondence relating to the incident; it's simply a matter of locating the relevant passages in the letters and journals of Stuyvesant, Montagne and Ensign Smidt. (I'll pause while you laugh hysterically.) The pamphlet claims Evert Pels was killed in the same attack in which his "boy" was abducted which would help explain the youth's presence in the first place. As for the part about the boy's choosing to remain with the indians, there seem to have been several well-documented instances of this over the years. I'm most familiar with one in about 1860 in which a 10 year old boy named Reuben Van Ornum was abducted following the massacre of a wagon train in Idaho. By the time his uncle Zacheus Van Ornum found him four years later he had completely assimilated Indian culture. According to tradition he returned to the tribe after a couple of unhappy years of "civilization". (In an example of how people haven't really changed all that much, Uncle Zacheus tried to sue the government for all the time he spent looking for the boy.) --pete ----- Original Message ----- From: "l. s." <lemaes63@msn.com> To: <dutch-colonies@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 10:32 AM Subject: [DUTCH-COLONIES] Evert Pels boy > > Hello again, > Thanks for all the replies. > I guess my problem is that the boy is not given a name in the records I have seen. Yet, online when I looked up the Pels family, some Pels researchers gave him the name of Hendrick and a possible birth year. I would like to know what record they found that in. I accepted that he must have been the eldest child, if he was a son to Evert. He made the girl pregnant in 1659. His parents were married Dec. of 1641. If he was born in 1642, he would have been around seventeen in 1659. I don't see how he could have been much younger than that, and still be allowed to go out with other men as an escort during a then escalation in the war. > I don't know if Native Americans recorded marriages. I wonder if his "parents" made an effort to bring him back to them, since he would have been so young? I would have been devastated, if he had been my child. I suppose you weren't a child long in that era. What a mystery. > > Howard, I had wondered about the servant to Evert angle myself. He did hire people to work for him. Wolfert Nys being one of them, whom Evert hired in 1643. But, he was to work only two years. > > I wish they hadn't just called him boy. But, he definitely is connected by historical records as belonging to Evert in some way. Could later writers have just assumed he was a son? I know there are people out there who know so much more than I do about historical records, I was hoping someone may know something more definitive about this. Maybe someone has settled the question? I am not sure what to do with him in my own write-up of the family. I'd love to keep him, simply because of the drama? > Thanks again, > Leemae > ----- Original Message ----- > From: dutch-colonies-request@rootsweb.com > Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 8:19 PM > To: dutch-colonies@rootsweb.com > Subject: DUTCH-COLONIES Digest, Vol 2, Issue 54 > > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Evert Pels "boy" (l. s.) > 2. Re: Evert Pels "boy" (Donna Stark) > 3. Re: Evert Pels "boy" (Howard Swain) > 4. Re: Location of Wolster/Welster? (Howard Swain) > 5. Wanamaker - Rev Kocherthal records (ETHELKK@aol.com) > 6. Re: Wanamaker - Rev Kocherthal records (Donna Stark) > 7. Re: Wanamaker - Rev Kocherthal records (Agnes Mitchell) > 8. Re: Location of Wolster/Welster? (Chris Schopfer) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > Message: 2 > Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 12:14:00 -0500 > From: "Donna Stark" <donnaStarkKy@fewpb.net> > Subject: Re: [DUTCH-COLONIES] Evert Pels "boy" > To: <dutch-colonies@rootsweb.com> > Message-ID: <003501c75380$2ed07080$494676cc@D2JJ4771> > Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; > reply-type=original > > In that time period it was not unusual for a young boy to take a wife. Girls > even married at 12, 13 and 14, so take that into consideration. > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 16:03:35 -0800 > From: "Howard Swain" <hswain@ix.netcom.com> > Subject: Re: [DUTCH-COLONIES] Evert Pels "boy" > To: <dutch-colonies@rootsweb.com> > Message-ID: <009a01c753b9$6d14bfc0$c600f604@Howard600m> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Hi Leemae, > > From: "l. s." <lemaes63@msn.com> > To: "dutch" <Dutch-Colonies-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 6:41 AM > Subject: [DUTCH-COLONIES] Evert Pels "boy" > > > > Hello, > > I am wondering if anyone knows any more about this person. I am wondering how the name Hendrick was given to this "boy" The one who was taken captive by the Indians in 1659. It was written he took a wife among the Indians. But, looking at the possible birth day for this boy, he would probably be only 16-17 years old. His parents married Dec. 1641. Even if he was an early baby, he would be quite young to take a bride. Is it possible he may have been called Pels "boy", because he was a young boy who worked for Evert? And yet, he seems to have been given a name. Who has that record? > > How were possible birth dates given to Everts children. I have only found three that were baptized. I kind of was guessing on some of them, by checking the possible marriage dates and subtracting 18-20. I would love to have better church records or family Bible records. > > Thanks for any information, > > > When Evert Pels came on Den Houttuyn in 1642 he came with his wife > and "his servant". This is from a memo that Van Rensselaer wrote for > Megapolensis (who was also on the ship). The name of Evert Pels' > servant is not shown. See VRBM p. 609. > > Also, the Notarial Records abstracted in New Netherland Connections vols 4 and 5 > do not show the engagement by Pels of a servant in the months before departure. > > Could this servant have been the "boy" you refer to? > Is the only name you have for him Hendrick? No patronymic or surname? > You mention "It was written he took a wife...." Where is this written? > And does that place have only the single name "Hendrick" for him? > Or does it call him Hendrick Pels? > (Note: David Riker's Directory does not show a son Hendrick for Evert Pels.) > > Regards, > Howard > hswain@ix.netcom.com > > > > > > > ------------------------------Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DUTCH-COLONIES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message