Jacob Berry (1660-)

Jacob Berry was baptized 11 Apr 1660 in the DRC in New Amsterdam, eldest son of Samuel Jacobs Berry and Diever Paulus. He is my son-in-law’s paternal 8th great-granduncle.

It is unclear when the parents came to New Amsterdam, there seems to be no marriage record for them here. Diever Paulus seems decidedly Dutch, Samuel Berry less so. The New Netherland Project has him born in England, and immigrating with his (unidentified) parents.⁽¹⁾

Earlier accounts thought that Samuel was descended from John Berry, who was in 1669 granted a tract in New Jersey, which he called New Barbadoes, but the baptisms of the children of Samuel Jacobs (Berry) and Dievertje Paulus are way before John Berry shows up in New Netherland, and Samuel and his descendants are totally integrated in the Dutch community of New Netherland, with no connections to the descendants of John Berry.⁽²⁾

From the paper trail we will probably never know where Samuel came from. DNA might eventually give a hint.

(1) WikiTree: Samuel Jacobszen Berry
(2) Dorothy A Koenig, “New Amsterdam Berrys,” New Netherland Connections 1 (Apr 1996): 37-44.