Departing Amsterdam, 1624

Johann Teyler after Jan van Call, 1648/1697. River IJ at Amsterdam.

Around New Years I hinted at extensive research on my Dutch roots. This is still in process, just moving a bit slow at the moment due to other obligations. The print above shows a scene that my 10th-great-grandparents may have seen when they departed Amsterdam for America (although several decades before this etching was made).

Philippe du Trieux was descended from Walloons on the border of northeast France and present-day Belgium. He and his first and second wives were members at the Walloon Church in Amsterdam and Leiden from 1615-1624. According to the book by Lucy Garrison Green, The De Forests and the Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam (1916), Philippe, second wife Susanna Duchesne and children Maria and Philippe were among 30 Walloon families aboard the Niew Nederlandt (New Netherland) to be the first settlers of New Amsterdam in 1624. They departed Amsterdam in March 1624, sailing first to the Canary Islands, before continuing on to America. The Niew Nederlandt arrived in May 1624. The colony was created by the Dutch West India Company. Philippe would have signed a contract with the West India Company to make the voyage.

Philippe would have been about 39 when he arrived in New Amsterdam. Susanna would have been about 23. A copy of their marriage record from Amsterdam dated 17 July 1621 (via the Amsterdam City Archives) is below:

Source: Amsterdam Archives, 17 Jul 1621.

Much more to follow.

Friday Photo - Welcome to Los Angeles

Photo by Patrick Jones. LAX, 9 Jan 2017.

The photo above is from Terminal 6 at LAX, heading down the stairs toward the tunnel to baggage claim and ground transportation. I have passed by this welcome sign many times, and never stopped to take a picture. This time I took a few seconds out of my walk down the stairs to capture a photo.

Friday Photo - Anything Can Happen...

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mural by Ruben Rojas, Santa Monica. Sep 2016.

New Amsterdam

Source: NYPL Digital Collection. New Amsterdam.

In following the line of my 6th-great-grandfather John Truax backward, I run into research on the Truax (and earlier Du Trieux) family and their arrival in America. The progenitor of the Truax family, Philippe Du Trieux, was one of the earliest settlers in New Amsterdam. This settlement would later become New York on 8 September 1664. I will have much more on Philippe and how he connects to John Truax in New Jersey. In the meantime, I have started to reach out to the Association of Philippe Du Trieux Descendants and their extensive research on the family.

The research into my Dutch roots aligns with a brief visit to Amsterdam I am planning later in the year. I hope to see some of the locations related to the Du Trieux family and others on my Dutch side of the tree.

Much more can be found on New Amsterdam and New Netherland at the websites of the New Netherland Institute, and New Amsterdam History Center.

Source: NYPL Digital Collection. Early depiction of New Amsterdam.

Revolutionary Pension File of David Truax

Source: Fold3. Pension file of David Truax, page 2.

As I continue along the Truax family trail, I'm looking at the Revolutionary War pension file of David Truax, brother of my 5th-great-grandmother Margaret Truax Smith. David was born in New Jersey, but moved with his parents and siblings to Loudoun County, Virginia. According to an obituary for David, published in the Gallipolis Journal (republished from the Eaton Register) on 8 March 1855, he lived to be almost 100 years old.

Newspapers.com. 8 Mar 1855.

David's pension file mentioned that he served in Captain James Radican's company of the Loudoun County militia, and he was stationed at Alexandria, Virginia building gun batteries. After serving a tour in Alexandria, he volunteered in Captain Radican's company again. The company marched to Pittsburgh under the command of Colonel Gibson. From there, the company marched to Wheeling (present-day West Virginia), and then back to Loudoun County, where they were discharged in March 1778. In July 1781 he was drafted into Captain Hugh Douglas' company in the Loudoun County militia and marched to Williamsburg.

Fold3. Pension file of David Truax, page 6.

David states in his file that he was born in Morris County, New Jersey on 19 February 1756. The obituary notes he moved with his parents to Loudoun County at the age of 14 in 1769. After the war, Truax moved to Washington County, Pennsylvania, then Fayette County, Kentucky and later Adair County, Kentucky. He likely moved to Adair County with the families of his sister Margaret Truax Smith and others. David later moved to Preble County, Ohio.

David's daughter, Lydia Truax, also lived to be nearly 100 years old. Her obituary, published 11 June 1891 in the Miami Helmet of Piqua, Ohio, says she was born in Pennsylvania and taken to Kentucky by her parents when she was three years old (about 1794). The obituary also notes she had lived in Preble County since 1809.

Descendants of David Truax will want to look at the full pension file. My interest in David was more to see if there were possible connections in his Revolutionary War service with James Smith and to learn more about his arrival in Loudoun County from New Jersey.

The research trail now brings us to my 7th-great-grandparents, John Truax and Sytje Van Kirk. There is quite a bit of information on the Truax line and their relation to Philippe Du Trieux, the first of the family to arrive in America, through the Association of Philippe Du Trieux.