Coming to America Narratives - #1

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 Jansen Covert was born in 1625 as the first child of Jans pratonymic. When he was 20, he married Barbara Lucas van Kessel Covert, daughter of Lucas Van Kessel, in Dec 1645 in Swaegh, North Holland, Netherlands. Their marriage appears in church records of Heemstedt, North Netherlands where they were married in village near Hoom.

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