Waling van Winkle

At the moment I am adding data that were donated to the Genealogical Society of Bergen County to their database. These data consist of pages and pages of Family Group sheets. The goal is to add all this to the Society’s website, eventually.

A lot of the this pertains to New Netherland, and by extension to the Netherlands, which makes it interesting and challenging for me. My personal goal is to add enough data to make the link to the Netherlands. But extensive research is out of the question, as otherwise I would never get finished.

The Van Winkle family originates from Winkel in West Friesland, and while checking that name at the website of the West Frisian Archives found some interesting stuff, that no doubt is known to serious Van Winkle researchers, but made me realize, how much these people travelled.
In 1631 Ariaentje Walings became a member of the church in Hoorn, she was from New Netherland. In 1633 she has a child baptized with her first husband, and a note states that she grew up and was married in the ‘Virgines,’ She married 2nd in 1635 she was ‘wid. from den Bil in Vrieslant,’ living in Hoorn.
In 1633 Jacob and Simon Walings also come to Hoorn from New Netherland. Jacob (and probably Simon as well) left again in 1634 (from Van Winkle Genealogy), and came back in 1642, when he is ‘”Uyt the Virginis.’ When he married in late 1642, he is jm from Bil, living in Hoorn. At the baptisms of two children in 1643 and 1648 he is ‘from Vrieslant.’

They all end up in New Netherland, where they have progeny. Jacob is the progenitor of the Van Winkle family; Ariaentje seems to have had only daughters; and Simon I haven’t figured out.

And I wonder about all the travel in those small boats on the treacherous seas. Months at sea, with small children. Was it worth it for the women? Would they rather have stayed home? Did they have choices? It makes one think about how easy, even with the present pandemic, we really have it.