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From: "Haar, Evert ter" <>
Subject: RE: [D-Col] Bunschoten
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 22:54:07 +0100


Hi all,
I did some research in a book containing the Bunschoten records and I found
this family:

father: Lambert Thomassen
child 1: Aert, baptized in Bunschoten July 29th 1632, mother: Rijckgen
child 2: Gerrit, baptized in Bunschoten January 12th 1645, no mother
mentioned here

This family lived in Spakenburg, a twin village of Bunschoten (distance 1
and a half miles North of Bunschoten, situated at the Zuiderzee), both
members of the municipality of Bunschoten.

Let's analyse what we have here:
At that period in time, very few families in Bunschoten (and elsewhere) had
a surname. Most people used patronymia, which could be spelled in several
different ways, depending on the person that was supposed to write it down.
So here we see Lambert Thomassen (Lambert, son of Thomas) and his sons Aert
and Gerrit, who most likely would have been called Aert and Gerrit
Lambertsen (or Lamberts, or Lambertsz, or Lammertsz).
There's a gap of 12 and a half years between these two brothers. This could
be caused by the fact that there are some gaps in the baptismal records (I
don't know which years are missing, but the book says there are gaps), which
could implicate this list is not complete, so there could have been more
children. The other possibility is that the mother (Rijckgen) died some time
after 1632 and Lambert married another wife, who would be Gerrit
Lambertsen's mother. That could be the reason why Rijckgen is only mentioned
as the mother of Aert.

What else do we have? This is the only Gerrit Lambertsen that I was able to
find in that period of time, plus the records don't mention any spouse, nor
children of Gerrit in Bunschoten. This is possible if the person either died
or moved to another place, so this is most likely the Gerrit Lambertsen that
emigrated to America.

The Van Rensselaer family was from Nijkerk if I recall well and Nijkerk is a
neighbor village of Bunschoten, distance about 5 miles east of Bunschoten
and I know of the shiplist that I mentioned earlier, that many young men
were recruted from Nijkerk, some from Bunschoten and a couple from
Amersfoort (8 miles South of Bunschoten).

And last but not least: Antje Hooghlandt. She is not in the Bunschoten
records as far as I can see, but her surname Hooghland is striking: Hoogland
is a village between Bunschoten and Amersfoort (about 4 miles South of
Bunschoten), so they may have known each other from the Netherlands.

Another fact is Gerrit's nickname Teerpenning. I can tell you that almost
everybody here in Bunschoten and Spakenburg had a nickname and many of the
people still have one, most of the times to distinguish people with the same
name, so it's very well possible that Gerrit got a nickname.

So my conviction is: Gerrit Lambertsen was born in Bunschoten and he's the
same person that married Antje Hooghlandt.

Question: is there anything known about the names of Gerrit's children?
Because most of the times the first children were named after their
Grandparents.

I hope this helps solving the mysteries of our common past...

Kind regards,
Evert ter Haar
Bunschoten, the Netherlands

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: [mailto:]
Verzonden: donderdag 3 januari 2002 19:11
Aan: ;
Onderwerp: Re: [D-Col] Bunschoten


Hello Evert and all,

I have been away over the holidays and just returned to the Bunschoten
discussion.

Evert, welcome to our list! I am very pleased that you have arrived since
several years ago I was in contact with someone from Bunschoten who gave me
the name and address of a non-email contact who spoke little English. My
inqueries were then placed on the "back burner" and I never did get around
to
following up.

As Lorine and Dorothy mentioned, there has been a "mystery man" of sorts
named Gerrit Lambertsen from Bunschoten. He came as a youth (age 18) to the
New Netherland in 1663 as an employee for the Van Rensselaer family. Some
records have been found in the Albany NY area that are thought to pertain to

this same individual.

Some time between 1690 and 1693 an individual named Gerrit Lambertsen
married
Antje Hooghlandt (a widow with three children....and also the mother of an
illegitimate son when she was 15) and settled in Ulster County NY. The
descendants of their children took the surname Teerpenning (later spelled
Terpening). Some think that this man was an entirely different individual
also called Gerrit Lambertsen and the son of a man named Lambert Huybertsen
of Wageningen Gelderland Netherlands. (This conclusion has been based on the

fact that Lambert's children and Gerrit share the same patronymic name,
Lambertsen, and that Gerrit used two of Lambert's children and their spouses

as sponsors at the baptism of two of his children) But there are many
questions around this. All of Lambert Huybertsen's children took the surname

BRINK (a name still found in Wageningen), there is no record of a baptism of

a son Gerrit, none of Gerrit's children carry names of Lambert's family,
Gerrit is not named in Lambert's will, none of Lambert's children use Gerrit

or his wife as sponsors at the baptisms of their children (although among
them they had about 45 children!). So this leads us back to the Gerrit
Lambertsen from Bunschoten and the question as to whether this could be the
Gerrit who married Antje Hooghlandt.

The surname Teerpenning is quite strange. Resaerch indicates that it is not
a
name found in the Netherlands. It is thought to have been a word used to
describe this man relating somehow to "money for a travel". (Well, Gerrit
from Bunschoten had his passage paid for by the Van Rensselaer family).
...and he was also successful in collecting additional payment for a later
trip that he took to "Mohawk country" from his employer at that time. (this
was all documented in a court case) So it is possible that this Gerrit (of
Bunschoten) did receive at some point a "nickname" that stereotyped him that

was related to all of this money for travel .

Possibly with digging deeper into his roots some answers might be found.

1. Gerrit Lambertsen would have been born around the year 1645....probably
in
Bunschoten. His father's name would have been Lambert. This is not a lot to
go on, but if there were church records of that year we might learn who his
parents were and possibly the family surname.

2. I am not sure which ship Gerrit Lambertsen came on in 1663. An earlier
researcher claimed it was the Bonte Koe but I have no evidence of this.

Evert, any help on this mystery would be very much appreciated!

Susan



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