Re: Valentyn Claes. Family from Transylvania
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In reply to:
Valentyn Claes. Family from Transylvania
8/28/99
I hope that this is not too late but I thought that you might find this interesting. I am researching the same family for a friend.
"The Valentine family of Westchester, from which most of the
name in New York City have sprung, has been quite
misapprehended as regards its common ancestor, who was not
'Benjamin Valentine, a dragoon in the French military service,
Canada', as per Bolton, iĆ®.544, but Valentyn Claessen...
who as a soldier gained his laurels under Stuyvesant, not in
Canada, but in an expedition to Esopus in 1660. His sons took
and retained the patronymic Valentine. He was from Saxenlant,
in Transylvania; married 14 April 1662, Marritie Jacobs from
Beest, and before settling in Westchester County, lived some
years in Harlem where his vrouw found people from her native
place, the Kortright and Buys brothers. Valentyn Claessen is
named as late as 1688. His children, Jacob, born 1663;
Matthys, born 1665, John, born 1671, Mary, born 1674, are all
of which we find notice." _The Rev iced History of Harlem,
Its Origin and Early Annals_, James Riker, pub 1904.
A marriage entry in records of the Reformed Dutch Church of New Amsterdam in the Dutch colony of New Netherland shows:
"Valentyn Claes, jm uyt Saxenlant un Marritje Jacobs, j.d. van Beast , uyt't Graef shap van Cuylenb., were married April 14, 1662".
"Klasin, Valentin aus Siebenburgen -1662- Marritje Jacobs aus Beest in der Grafschaft Cuylenburg. Ahnherr der Valentinesippe". _Ship Passenbers New York and New Jersey 1600-1825_, p 20, Carl Boyer, 3rd, pub 1978, Newhall, CA.