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From: (Howard Swain)
Subject: [HWE] Re: Jean Guenon (was: May I introduce a new surname?)
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2001 01:44:47 -0400 (EDT)


Hi all,

At 01:24 PM 7/5/01 EDT, J T Boyd wrote:
>Dear Everybody,
snip
>I do not have my primary source but I will give it a try from memory
>
>My mother's maiden is Ganong. In a report done in 1894 it traces the family
>line back to a Jean Geunon (b.March 21, 1613/14 d.May 21, 1714). He is said
>to have been a Huguenot that left France from La Rochelle. He had been
>living in Saintonge, Charente, France. An alternate report has him leaving
>France and traveling to Holland.
>
>Then he traveled to Flushing, Queens, New York (1658). Then he married a
>Margareta Sneden (b.Abt. 1640 d. 1727) on August 13, 1662 in Dutch Reformed
>Church, Brooklyn, New York. I suspect that they too may have been Huguenots
>but I do not really know for sure. Her line goes back directly to Holland
>for two more generations.

The actual marriage record as transcribed in
Old First Dutch Reformed Church of Brooklyn New York,
First Book of Records 1660-1752, trans. and ed. by A.P.G. Jos
van der Linde, p.212 says (the " marks and [ ] are in the book):

1662 August 13
"married on the [Director-] General's Bowery [=farm]":
Jan Ginom, "from Leijden",
to Grietie Snedinx, "from Amst[erdam]";
witnesses: Marcus Suson, Jan Duurkop.

At this time, the minister at Brooklyn, Dom. Selyns, also
preached at a small chapel on Director Peter Stuyvesant's
"Bowery" somewhat north of New Amsterdam. Your people were
married there, not in Brooklyn. Dom. Selyns recorded these
marriages he perfomed at the Bowery in the Brooklyn church
records.

The people from (New) Harlem (at the north end of Manhattan Island)
found it more convenient to have marriages and baptisms done
at Stuyvesant's Bowery than to go all the way down to the
church in New Amsterdam. So, I suspect that your couple
was living in (New) Harlem at the time. Although, they could
have been living near Stuyvesants bowery instead.

In the New Netherland Dutch church records, when it says that
someone was "from ____" or "van _____" it almost always means
that that is where they were _born_. Therefore, I would look
for your Jean's baptism in Leiden. You might want to try the
Leiden or Walloon Index available from the LDS.

Note the witness: "Marcus Suson". This is probably Marc
Du Sauchoy aka Marcus De Chousoy, etc.
Your guy left Amsterdam on April 2, 1657 on the ship Draetvat
(Wire-cask). On an account book of people who still owed
for their passage, he is shown as "Jan Guion from Leyden"
traveling with Marcus de Chousoy. He is evidently one of
the "two boys, over 12." See:
"Emigrants to New Netherland" by Rosalie Fellows Bailey in the
New York Genealogical and Biographic Record vol 94 p. 193-200.

Marcus also settled in New Harlem. So, I bet your guy went
with him as a workman or servant or maybe apprentice.

I'm not sure the age range for "boys" on the ship list
above. Since Jean married 5 years later, lets assume he
was not over 25 when he married. That would put his age in
1657 at between 12 and 20. So, you should look for a
Jean Guenon, etc. baptised in Leiden between 1637 and
1645.

It appears to me he may have been an orphan. So, another
place to look (if they have survived) is the records of
the Orphanmasters in Leiden. I would look in 1657 and a few
years earlier to see if he had been placed in the care of
Marcus Du Sauchoi or whateever. These records may very
well show the parents of Jean.

You can read a little more about Marcus and Jean in the
Revised History of Harlem by James Riker.

The baptism of the children of Jean (Jan) is shown in the
Reformed Dutch Church of New Amsterdam / New York.

I haven't found him in Flushing till 1675; but then there
aren't many records that have survived for Flushing. He may have
moved there shortly after he got married. As you probably know,
you will have to search a great many variations on the
spelling of his last name.

The complete original will of both "John Genonge" and
his wife, "Margaret Genoung" are available from the LDS on
microfilm. The abstracts of these as published in the
Collections of the New York Historical Society -- Abstracts
of Wills vol 2 and vol 11 don't mention anything about
Europe; but you never can tell what the complete will
might reveal.

By the way, his wife's parents were Jan Snedick and
Grietje Jans. They left Amsterdam on Dec 23, 1657 in the
ship, St. Jan Baptist.

Regards,
Howard


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