Reviewing the Unplaced Genetic Descendants of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, L. I. Revisited (Part I)

 The June 19, 2015 post reviewed the unplaced genetic descendants of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, Long Island. That post included a link to a PDF providing my thoughts at that time. That link, however, appears to be broken. Such is life online. Here is a new link: A Review of the Early Descendants of Jan Brouwer and the Possible Placement of Known Genetic Descendants Whose Ancestry is Not Known. Having done this it now needs to be said that this document was created nearly seven years ago and since then new info has been learned and more importantly, additional YDNA testing of more descendants coupled with more advanced testing, namely FTDNA's BigY-700 test, as made this document, although not obsolete, at least a bit dated. It's due for an upgrade. The intention of this post is to revisit and update the 2015 PDF and since it will be confined to a blog post I will try to be concise and brief while conveying critical new info for those continuing this research, so lets get right into it.

The Progenitor: Jan Brouwer came to New Amsterdam in 1657. He was a blacksmith and lived at Flatlands, Long Island. It does not appear that he lived at any other location. There is no extant record of his death or burial and no probate record. In April 1700 he executed a deed of maintenance with his son Pieter where by Pieter gained his father's property in exchange for maintaining Jan now in his old age. He confirmed the deed on 17 November 1702 and likely died sometime soon afterwards. Of his seven children, five were sons, four of whom reached adulthood, only two of whom had children of their own. Those two sons are Pieter, baptized 20 October 1660 at the New Amsterdam RDC, and Derck for whom no record of baptism survives but who was likely born by 1666 (took the Oath at Flatlands in September 1687 and so was at least 21 years of age). YDNA testing of descendants identify their common ancestral SNP as I-Y7214 (YFull's Y-Tree). All direct descendants, through direct paternal lines, of Jan Brouwer will be positive for this SNP and must be direct paternal line descendants of one of Jan's two sons, Pieter or Derck.

The Two Sons: Pieter Brouwer (bapt. 1660) likely lived his entire life at Flatlands, and apparently died between 1702 when his father confirmed his deed, and 1706 when his wife Antje Jans Berge(n) is listed on an assessment at Flatlands. She was living in 1731 when she was a member of the Dutch Reformed Congregation at Freehold and Middletown in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The couple may have had seven children although baptism records for only two survive. Of the children, two sons, Jan and Hans (yes they are different names) had children. Son, Jan, perhaps born about 1692, married Helena Van Cleef by 1724 and they had 10-12 children baptized between 1724 and 1749. The older children were baptized at Freehold-Middletown while later children were baptized at Harlingen and Raritan in Somerset County, or Readington in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Four sons of Jan and Helena had descendants. A fifth, Johannes, the youngest, baptized in 1749 at Readington has not been traced. In 2015 we had yet to encounter a known, provable descendant of Pieter Brouwer who had taken a YDNA test. Since then we have found one. He is a descendant of Pieter's son Jan. He is found on the above mentioned YFull Y-Tree as id:YF67184 under I-Y7214. When or where Jan Brouwer (a.k.a. John Brewer) died has not been discovered. Pieter's other son leaving descendants was Hans, baptized 30 October 1695 at Flatbush, L.I. His wife was Nelke Goulder, they were married by 1720. He was a member of the Freehold-Middletown Church in 1725. Four known children were baptized there between 1720 and 1731. Of the four baptisms the child was named in only two, daughter Anke in 1720 and son Jan in 1731. "A son" was baptized in 1723, and "a child" in 1725. We have no idea if either of the two reached adulthood. It should be noted that there is a gap of six years between the baptism of Han's third and fourth child. Hans and Nelke may have had two or three additional children who have otherwise escaped identification. We do not know when or where Hans Brouwer died. No record of probate has been found. The last record for him is the baptism of his son Jan in 1731. 

The Two Sons: Derck Brouwer (b. ca. 1666). By my count there are now 40 members of the Brewer DNA Project who are identified by their Y-DNA tests as descendants of Jan Brouwer. Of these, as mentioned above, only one can be identified by traditional means as a descendant of Jan's son Pieter. In contrast the Project has eight who can show a confirm-able line back to Derck. Of the remainder, the majority, by virtue of DNA analysis, are also descendants of Derck Brouwer. It is apparent that Derck Brouwer left many more male descendants then did his older brother Pieter. Derck Brouwer married Hannah Daws on 6 October 1694 at Flatlands (according to T.G. Bergen). She was a daughter of Elias Daws who was at Gravesend, L. I. Derck and Hannah were inhabitants of Flushing, L. I. in 1698. "Derick Brewer's house" was mentioned in a deed from Stephen Hudson to Jeremiah Bedel (Hempstead, L.I. Town Records 8:294). No date on the deed, but from the time that Derck, or his son of the same name, would have been living.  [The date of this deed is 1742 and so the Derick Brewer mentioned must be Derck's presumed son]. On 22 September 1700, "Dirrick Brewer of Jamaica and Hendrick Brewer of Flatlands" sold a house and 75 acres on the borders of Hempstead, Flushing and Jamaica (Long Island). Back in 1694, Dirck Brower and Cornelius Williamson (Derck's brother-in-law) bought of Peter Carston of Cape May in West Jersey, two allotments of land at Gravesend. Derck likely died in 1702 or 1703. No record of probate is found. His wife, Hannah, remarried Joseph Goulder probably by 1704. Derck and Hannah had five sons. Jan is confirmed by a baptism record at Flatbush, 9 June 1695. Elias, likely born about 1699, is placed as a son by virtue of his name, having been named for his maternal grandfather. Sons Pieter and Jacob are likely by virtue of the fact that they both in turn gave sons the name Derck. They also named daughters Annatje which can be a diminutive of either Anna or Hannah. A likely son, Derck, again by virtue of his name, was on a 1738 muster roll in Queens County. He lived in Hempstead. To follow Derck's known descendants please see the October 6, 2012 post, and his profile on the Brouwer Genealogy Database. One final note regarding Derck. If your colonial period ancestor was named either Derck (Richard) or Elias, he is most certainly a descendant of Jan Brouwer's son, Derck Brouwer. The two names are not found among Pieter's known sons or grandsons, and neither name is found among the descendants of the unrelated New Netherland/New York/New Jersey families of Adam Brouwer (Gowanus, L. I.) or Willem Brouwer of Beverwijck (Albany, NY).

The 2015 PDF, linked above, described 12 Earliest Known Ancestors (EKFs) of members of the Brewer DNA Project who are genetic descendants of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands who have yet to discover their exact lineage back to Jan. We will revisit them, and a few new ones, in subsequent posts which I'll post soon.  

This series continues with the post of March 24, 2022.

BGB 710