Today I am beginning a series of narrative blogposts of my
parental ancestors. If you are the grandchild, great grandchild or great great
grandchild or Arabelle Nancy Coovert Barnett, these are probably your ancestors as well.
For my family research purposes I count generations
beginning with the earliest relative who came to America. The first in the
series entitled COMING TO AMERICA
will be Teunis Jansen Covert.
Note as you read these narratives that names are often
spelled in several ways. And in fact in the 1600s those who arrived in America
from Europe did not use surnames. In the case of Teunis, Jansen stands for son of
Jans and he would not have had the surname of Covert. The British on the other
hand did use surnames and sometime after their takeover of parts of America
others took surnames. Often it was the name of the town or village they came
from in Europe. However it does not appear Teunis did that unless Covert is a
derivation of the town of Coevorden in the Netherlands.
So here we go with COMING
TO AMERICA
Tennis Jansen Covert
Teunis and Barbara arrived in New
Amsterdam, New Netherlands, North America on 1650/51 Passenger and Immigration
lists gives the year as 1650; His oath of allegience to Britain 1687 indicates he
had been in New York 36 years. His son Hans was born in the Netherlands in 1651
and most research gives the arrival date for Teunis as 1651.
He was affiliated with
the Dutch Reformed Church, New Amsterdam before 1660 in New Amsterdam (became
New York in 1664) later Manhatten. He was affiliated with the Dutch Reformed
Church of Brooklyn in 1660 in Brooklyn. He lived in Brooklyn in 1662. He
continued to live in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, Long Island where he was
listed in the reconstructed census of 1690.
His regular activity in
the church continued and his name appears as a witness in baptismal records
thru 1692 when he was sixty-seven years old.
His date of death would
be calculated after 1692 although an actual date of death has not been found
Teunis Jansen Covert
and Barbara Lucas van Kessel Covert had the following children:
1. Lucas Teunise Covert was born on 24 Feb 1647 in Holland.
2. Jannetje Covert was born on 29 Mar 1648 in Holland.
3. Aeghie Teunis Covert was born in 1650 in Holland.
4. Hans Teunisen Covert was born in 1651 in Heemstede, North-Holland, Netherlands (Record found in Heemstede, Netherlands Church records.). He died about 1723 in Millstone, Somerset, New Jersey, USA (will written 1719; proved 1723). He married Jeanne Brokaw Covert in 1688 in Brooklyn, NY.
5. Altje Teunise Covert Post was born in 1652 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States.
6. Mauritz Teunise Covert was born on 05 Dec 1663 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States.
7. Annetie Teunise Sprong was born in New York
