Elisabeth Jansen (1696- )

Elisabeth was baptized on 13 Dec 1696 in the DRC in Brooklyn, 321 years ago. Her parents Jan Fredericks and Aeltje Jans, lived in Gowanus, and were my son-in-law’s 10th great-grandparents. She was the last of eight children, and probably did not live very long, as nothing more is known about her.

Jan had come from Pernambuco in Brazil, where he was born in 1649 of a Danish father. By 1676 he is in Brooklyn (Jean Frederickse was on the Assesment List of Breukelen in Sep 1676. He was assessed for 1 poll, 2 horses, 2 cows, and 2 morgen of land. Total assessment £ 66.) and Aeltje was on 11 Jun 1677 admitted as a member of the DRC of Brooklyn.

His father Frederick Janss, a Dane from Flensborch and a ship carpenter, was living in Brazil in 1649 in the employ of the Dutch West India Co., (according to the records of William Blue who has written a book about the family). Frederick Jans had first come to New Amsterdam and was there first on 30 May 1641 when he sued Claes Sybrantsen Veringh for wages earned in making a canoe which had been delivered to Claes.
He was on the coast of Brazil (Pernambuco, now Recife) in the mid-1640s when he and wife Grietien Jans bp. their first child, Anna, at the Dutch Reformed Church there on 16 Dec. 1646. The mother of Jan Fredericks and his sister Aeltje (perhaps twins), bp. Aug. 1649, in Brazil was also Grietien, no family name mentioned.
He died before about 1652 when his widow married (2) (banns 15 May 1652 NYC Ref Ch), Jan Pieterszen van Husum [Staats].  Stokes’ shows [Icon II:361] that Frederick Jansen was granted a lot west side of Broadway in 10 March 1651. That lot was sold 23 Jun 1656 by “Jan Pietersen, husband and guardian of Gretchen Jansen, wid. of Frederic Jansen.”⁽¹⁾

It is fascinating to think that a Danish carpenter, working for a Dutch Company, has children baptized in Brazil, and leaves progeny all over the US.

(1) Bergen County Families, by Patricia Wardell. Blauw File. Available from the Genealogical Society of Bergen County