Hello All, I'm looking for information on my 6th great grandmother, Sarah Theunis, or Teunis. I recently found her on a passenger list on a ship called The Trouw, (The Faith).. she came to New Amsterdam alone from Amsterdam on Jan. 20, 1664 and arrived in April, 1664. The Captain was Jan Jansen Bestever. I don't have any information on Sarah's parents. She married Jan Dirksz VanArnhem 28 June 1664. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who might have the Theunis genealogy, or any information on this family. Would also like to know where I might find more information on the ship. Many thanks! Sandra VanOrman

Dear Sandra-- I, too, believe the Sara Theunis on "De Trauw" is the one who became the wife of Jan Dircks (Van Arnhem). The reasons to believe this are rather involved and ultimately tenuous, however. (I've recently been severely chastised offlist for failing to adequately qualify my conclusions.) As Howard has pointed out to me, the passengers listed on "De Trauw" are those whose passages were not pre-paid. It would be extremely interesting to know who paid for the passage of this Sara Theunis but I'm at a loss on where to find this record, if it exists in the first place. (Howard??) Ryker in "Annals of Harlem" seems to claim (without citation) that Jan Theunissen who eventually took the surname "Van Tilburg" was Sara Theunis' brother. A couple of Harlem court cases show that Jan Theunissen was intimately familiar with Jan Dircks (Van Arnhem)'s home and that his wife accompanied Sara Theunis at least once to New York. Several of Jan Theunissen's children bear the same names as several of Sara Theunis' children (although they are fairly common names.) On the other hand, Tilburg is a heck of a way from Rotterdam whence Sara supposedly hailed. Jan Theunissen Van Tilburg may have been the Jan Theunissen, possibly a carpenter from Leiden, who was Schout of Brooklyn in 1646. That Jan Theunissen may have been either a relative or friend of Tobias Theunissen from Leiden who was friend and neighbor to Cornelis Switz whose daughter was Apollonia Eckerson the mother of two of the spouses of Sara Theunis' children. It's hard to tell if all the Jan Theunissens over the years in various places are all the man who became Jan Van Tilburg. They might be, though, since he looks to have been a peripatetic sort. If Jan Theunissen is shrouded in uncertaintly, the good news is that Riker indicates there are records relating to Tobias's Theunissen's family; the bad news is they're in Leiden. So, at the moment, the short answer is no one knows who Sara Theunis was. --pete ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandra VanOrman" <sandra_vanorman@msn.com> To: <DUTCH-COLONIES@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 10:46 PM Subject: [DUTCH-COLONIES] Theunis / VanArnhem genealogy > Hello All, > I'm looking for information on my 6th great grandmother, Sarah Theunis, or Teunis. I recently found her on a passenger list on a ship called The Trouw, (The Faith).. she came to New Amsterdam alone from Amsterdam on Jan. 20, 1664 and arrived in April, 1664. The Captain was Jan Jansen Bestever. > > I don't have any information on Sarah's parents. She married Jan Dirksz VanArnhem 28 June 1664. > > I would appreciate hearing from anyone who might have the Theunis genealogy, or any information on this family. > Would also like to know where I might find more information on the ship. > > Many thanks! > > Sandra VanOrman > > > ------------------------------- > 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