Chat | Daily Search | My GenForum | Community Standards | Terms of Service

Jump to Forum

The information that I have currently available is limited, so I can't do a comprehensive search. I can make some suggestions though:

1. *If* the families in question followed Dutch naming customs, these customs might help you determine which family group they belong with. If you’re not familiar with Dutch naming customs, here’s a short summary from "New Netherland Naming Systems and Customs" by Kenn Stryker-Rodda (NYGB&S Record, Vol. 126 No. 1, Jan. 1995, pp. 35-45):

"Most, but not all, Dutch families preserved quite late… certain customs of child naming. The two eldest sons were named for the grandfathers, the paternal one first unless the maternal one had some claim of prior distinction, such as more money, higher social position, or being dead. Similarly, the two eldest daughters were named for their grandmothers. Some families alternated; if the first son was named for his paternal grandfather, the first daughter was named for her maternal grandmother, and so on; but this was a subsidiary custom…. Another almost invariable naming custom: if a child died, the next of the same sex was given that name, even though one of the grandparents had not yet been honored."
. . .
"An additional custom is helpful: the first child of appropriate sex born of a second marriage was often named for the deceased spouse."

Does the genealogy that you have have a list of Franchie Brouwer's siblings? Of Franchie Brouwer and Cornelius Tunison's children? Any information about Cornelius Tunison or his ancestors and siblings?

There’s more info about Dutch naming customs at Lorine McGinnis Schulze’s The Olive Tree Genealogy (http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/) and at Donna Speer Ristenbatt’s site: (http://www.ristenbatt.com/genealogy/homepag2.htm)

Many times a particular individual would be known by several different names. Your Cornelius Tunison looks like his name was derived from Dutch patronymics, and it is quite possible that he may appear in the records under several different variations of his name, making him difficult to trace. Lorine McGinnis Schulze has an ancestor with a similar name, Cornelis Antoniszen Van Slyke, (I’m not suggesting that they are the same person) and she lists several variations of his name, including "Cornelis Teuniszen (Teunis being the diminutive of Antony)".

2. Do you have the names of the sponsors at baptism?

The sponsors or witnesses at a baptism would usually be relatives, if there were any in the area. In addition, if a child were named for someone on a particular side of the family, the sponsors would frequently be from that side of the family.

For examples of what these records look like, check out the Baptisms at the Reformed Dutch Church of New Amsterdam (1639-1730) at Theodore Brassard’s site (http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~tbrass/) or at http://www.altlaw.com/edball/dutchbap.htm.

3. Who compiled the genealogy that you are referring to? When? Do you know what sources they used?

If you know either the sources, or the time period that it was compiled in, you can take a look at those sources or find what sources were available then, and then look for subsequent corrections of those sources.

4. Check out the possibility that your Franchie Brouwer *might* come from a different Brouwer family.

For example, there was a Jan (also known as Johannes or John) Brouwer and his wife Jannetje Jans who lived in Flatlands, Kings Co. ("Brooklyn") NY. He emigrated to New Netherland ca 1657 and died before 17 Nov 1702.(Source: Brouwer (Brower-Brewer) Family Notes by John Reynolds Totten, NYG&BS Record, 1936). They had several children, and there is sometimes confusion as to which child belongs to which Brouwer family.

Hope this helps.

Followups:

http://genforum.genealogy.com/brower/messages/98.html
Search this forum: Find all of the words Find any of the words	Search all of GenForum: Proximity matching
	Agreement of Use Link to GenForum Add Forum