Hi all, There may be no person in early Germantown whose name has been so frequently gotten wrong for so long and in so many places. It is seldom (luckily) that people get both the given name and the surname wrong. Perhaps we should call her TWIKAES, ie. The Woman Incorrectly Known As Elin Streypers. :) As far as I know, we have only 4 primary, contemporary records of her name. And they are these: Leentien Doormans at her bap (as an adult) in 1670 Lentgen Matteisen at her marriage in 1677 Lijntijen Teisen on the 1681 marriage certificate Lentje Kunders on the 1710 marriage certificate I would be interested if anyone can cite any other _contemporary_ record of her name. All the different spellings of the first name are fairly common variations that were found in the lower Rhineland at that time. They are also a diminutive form of a longer name. That longer name could be Magdalena, or Helena, or even Elenora. (I suppose it is also possible that the diminutive _was_ her complete name.) As I imply above, as far as I know, no one has found a contemporary record of her name in other than the diminutive form. So, which of the 3 possible "full" names might we guess would be hers? She had 2 grand-daughters named Magdalena. Therefore, that is a reasonable assumption as to her probable "full" name. As far as I know, she had no grand-daughters named Helena or Elenora. Furthermore, Magadalena was the most common name of the 3 at that place and time, as far as I know. So, as far as I can see, there is no justification to call her Helena, Helen, Ellen, Elin, etc. You can make a case (see above) for Magdalena. But the most conservative is just to go with what there is primary evidence for and that is to stay with the diminutive Lentje or one of the other spellings. What is frustrating is that (although he may have made other errors) William I. Hull got it right re. Lentje's first name in his 1935 book, William Penn and the Dutch Quaker Migration to Pennsylvania (see p. 219). So, the truth has been out there for nearly 70 years. If anyone wants even more on this topic plus how the erroneous Streypers name could have been given her, see the message I sent to this list back in 2000: http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ifetch2?/u1/textindices/O/ORIGINAL-13+2000+221441865+F Regards, Howard hswain@ix.netcom.com