Thanks for your insight, Nancy. It sounds like a common attribute of your family's and mine is "cement feet". While the original Cockefair settler had hundreds descendants by my grandfather's day, only six inherited the homestead--precisely the men you would expect to be marrying into other established families of the area. Most of the collateral descendants migrated westward, and my mother is the only Cockefair still in Bloomfield. She, her brother, and her sister all married first-generation Americans--German, English, and Irish. My uncle was killed in WWII, so the homestead passed to my aunt, who passed it to my cousins. They sold it to a developer in 1995, and it was promptly replaced by an apartment building. It also sounds like my grandfather's pedigree was indeed highly collapsed in its seven generations there. I can only imagine what it would have looked like had it gone eleven generations! By the way, his best friend was a Demarest--the mayor of Bloomfield in his day. My grandfather was a councilman. Chris On 3/21/07, nancyterhune@optonline.net <nancyterhune@optonline.net> wrote: > > Chris: > > I believe that the term is "pedigree collapse." Common ancestral lines > repeating; thereby collapsing lines (including the literal ones on your > chart) into one another leading back to the same ancestors. > > No, it is not unusual -- at least not as unusual as you might think. > In fact it's logical: > > If your ancestors were among the first Europeans to settle a geographic > area, such as your Essex County NJ people (also my people), they were > initially of a small pool of families. These families married into each > other by necessity, and sometimes repeatedly over the early > generations. Continuing geographic proximity plus familiarity through > marriage created more intermarriage. Cultural alignment prolonged > intermarriage among the Dutch families in this (northern NJ) area, even as > they decreased to a modest minority. My own parents, married in 1955, were > lineal descendants of two of the oldest families in Bergen County, > NJ: Terhune and Van Blarcom. > > I have often said that my ancestors -- three quarters of them ended up in > Bergen and Essex Counties -- had "feet of cement." Nobody went west, or in > any other direction. In the patrilineal sense, I am 11th generation Bergen > County, and I have many multiple descents. My pedigree is highly collapsed, > with six Terhune descents, three Van Blarcom descents, nine Ackerman > descents, six Bogert descents, four Van Voorhees and Van Winkle descents - > and several others like this - and the Grand Prize winner: ten descents > from David Demarest. Because of this (Demarest) and other repeating common > ancestry, a man I work with, a Demarest, and I are related dozens of times > over. My parents were related many, many times over. Distantly! :-) I am > my own cousin (over and over). I joke that it is amazing there isn't more > that's wrong with me. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Chris Schopfer > Date: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 6:53 pm > Subject: Re: [DUTCH-COLONIES] Tangled Roots (was: How I discovered I have > Dutch ancestry) > To: dutch-colonies@rootsweb.com > > > I wonder about my own tangled roots, and would be interested to > > hear others' > > thoughts on the subject. > > > > While I have a number of two- and three-line ancestors, my grandfather > > Cockefair (Coquefaire/Kokever/etc.) was descended along four > > lines from > > Thomas Fredericks (Cadmus), and along FIVE lines from each of: > > > > Hendrick Janszen Spier > > Teunis Jansen Pier (son of Jan Teunissen) > > Gerbrant/Garrabrant Claesen (son of Claes Van Schouw) > > Roelof Cornelisssen (Van Houten) > > > > Although not all my lines are perfectly proven, the vast > > majority are pretty > > well documented; I doubt errors have created a wrong picture. > > There are also > > unsolved lines that could show even more overlaps. > > > > If the concentration of my grandfather's genealogy is indeed > > rare, I suspect > > it is due to geography. His line of the Cockefair family lived > > for well over > > two centuries on a homestead at a remote edge of Dutch > > territory, just south > > of the "plain" of Stone House Plains (today, Bloomfield), NJ. To > > the south > > lay English neighborhoods; to the west was a ridge (today, Glen > > Ridge, NJ); > > and to the east was the Yantecaw (Third) River. Points north were > > Dutch. Early farms there were frequently a half mile or so > > apart, so I think > > marital opportunties were comparatively limited. > > > > To what extent are there other "concentrated" Dutch genealogies? > > > > Chris > > > > > > On 3/21/07, ETHELKK@aol.com < ETHELKK@aol.com> wrote: > > > > > I always knew I was Dutch. My maternal grandparents, the Van Wycks, > > > emigrated from Holland in 1864. I knew nothing of my > > > paternal grandparents. When > > > my daughter was expecting her first child, I knew I had to > > give my first > > > grandchild roots and I became hooked on genealogy. What a > > nice surprise > > > to find > > > I have 'New Dutch' and 'Old Dutch'. On my paternal old Dutch > > side, I > > > have > > > about 30 ancestors in New Amsterdam. The next surprise was > > finding I had > > > very > > > tangled roots and was descended from the same ancestor more > > than once. > > > > > > > > > My tangled roots. > > > *I am descended from three sons of Epke Jacobsen Banta, the > > immigrant.> *I am descended from two sons of David J Demarest, > > the immigrant. > > > *I am descended from two daughters of Lubbert Gysbertsen Van > > Blarcom, the > > > immigrant. > > > *I am descended from two sons of David Ackerman, the immigrant. > > > *I am descended from a son and a daughter of Jan Louwe Bogert, > > the > > > immigrant. > > > *I am descended from a son and a daughter of Joost DeBaun, > > the immigrant. > > > > > > *I am descended from a son and a daughter of Jan Tiebout, the > > immigrant.> *I am descended from two daughters of Simon DeRuine, > > the immigrant. > > > *Jannetje Jans married 1) Christiaen Barentsen Van Horn, the > > immigrant> and 2) Laurens Andriessen Van Buskirk, the immigrant, > > and I am descended > > > from a son from both of Jannetje's marriages. > > > > > > Ethel Kay Konight > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ************************************** AOL now offers free > > email to > > > everyone. > > > Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.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 > > > > > > > ------------------------------- > > 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 > > > > ------------------------------- > 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 >