Hi To answer your last question first: Each generation had a greater number to support than the previous generation. As an area grew more congested, groups moved on to new lands. Often first groups settling a new area were all related to each other, if not by blood then by marriage. The earliest new settlements were established along waterways which provided a needed commodity plus a mode of transporting people & goods prior to 'roads' being cut through unopened lands. A *very* general general discription of where 'the Minisink' was/is located is to tell one to look for the place where the present-day boundaries of NJ & PA meet the NY line....note the bend of the Delaware River at this point. French's 1860 NY Gazetteer describes Minisink [Orange Co, NY] as: "formed March 7, 1788...It lies upon the NJ line...Its surface is rolling and hilly. The slopes are generally gradual, and the hills are arable to their summits..The soil is principally a gravelly loam." As a farmer's daughter my definition of 'a gravelly loam' is soil with good drainage and a good nutrient base to support a crop! In the early 1700s the principal settlers would have been the Dutch colonists, perhaps some early folks of Germanic origins...many having removed there from the Kingston area. The Dutch Reformed Church (I believe) was predominent. DRC records are wonderful for researching as maiden names are usually recorded for the women, even the mothers given in baptismal records of their wives. The sponsors recorded on baptismal records are usually related to the baptismal family in some way also so that obtaining as many bpt records as possible for a particular family is also collecting valuable clues to extended family members. It was common practice to baptize children as infants so that a baptismal record is a valuable clue to approximate dates of birth when other records are not available. Some bpt records also give birthdate; others record an age for a child not baptised as an infant. However, be aware that one family may have resided in the same spot when all their children were baptised but the baptisms might be recorded in several different DRCs---either because the minister or "Domine" served more than one congregation & records are where ever he made them or because the family traveled to another congregation for the baptism. The latter not unusual when the child was taken to the location of its namesake for baptism. However, I have one baptism where the child's sponsors were the grandparents & the only time the grandparents' names appear on that church's records were at that baptism. This was a key though as it was the first record I found which included the grandmother's maiden name! Hope this helps in some way. Laurie <laurielightfoot@prodigy.net> -----Original Message----- From: ZLIFE@aol.com <ZLIFE@aol.com> To: NYULSTER-L@rootsweb.com <NYULSTER-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Saturday, June 26, 1999 11:12 AM Subject: VanKuykendaal querry >The web has helped me find my ancestors from Jacob Leurson VanKuykendaal born >in Netherlands-1616, to Leur Jacobson born in New Amsterdam-1650, to Jacob >born near Kingston-Ulster county-1683, to Johannes born in >Minisink-Orange-NY1713, to Henry Kuykendall Sr. born in Hamphire >county,VA-1765 or Walpack-NJ, to Henry Jr. born in Hamshire county, >Virginia-1765. > Can anyone help identify where Minisink is located and what type of >community was there in the era 1700 to 1720. I would love to know more about >these folks and why each generation moved as they did. > Any information or search suggestions would be appreciated. >Thanks for your help !! >