Michael Hawkins, Loyalist: A Forgotten Hawkins in the Bergen-Hudson War Zone?

Contributed by Jaime Hawkins

Note: I have Alan Hawkins’s compiled work on Michael Hawkins and descendants and can provide exact page images or citations to anyone researching this line.

I am posting this because I think Eleanor / Elaney / Lanny Brower-Brewer, wife of Michael Hawkins, may be the key to understanding Michael’s pre-New Brunswick network.

I am researching Michael Hawkins, also remembered in family material as John Michael Hawkins, a Loyalist who came to New Brunswick in the Spring Fleet of 1783. He is the brick wall in my Hawkins line — but I now believe he should be studied not as an isolated “New Jersey Loyalist,” but as part of a much more interesting and dangerous wartime network along the Hudson River, Bergen County, Weehawken, Bull’s Ferry, Fort Lee, and British-held New York.

For decades, Alan Hawkins collected and preserved the family’s New Brunswick Hawkins history. His work identifies Michael Hawkins as a native of New Jersey, a Loyalist who served in Major Ward’s Company of Refugees, and a man connected to the defense of the Blockhouse before emigrating to New Brunswick in 1783. Alan’s work also identifies Michael’s wife as Eleanor / Elaney Brower, later often written as Brewer, a woman remembered as being of Dutch/New York background.

 But here is where the story gets more interesting.

 A family letter preserved in Alan Hawkins’s work says that “great grandfather” Michael Hawkins was remembered as John Michael Hawkins, that he “came from New York,” and that he came out with the Brewer family. The same memory says he was the only Hawkins who came to New Brunswick, while two brothers — George Hawkins and Martin Hawkins — remained in New York, along with two unmarried sisters.

 That is not a minor family detail. That is a road sign.

 It suggests Michael may have had one identity in official Loyalist records — native of New Jersey — and another in family memory — John Michael Hawkins from New York, connected to the Brewer/Brower family.

Those two versions do not have to contradict each other. In the Revolutionary War, the border between New York and New Jersey was not a clean genealogical wall. The British operating zone around New York City, Bergen County, Weehawken, Bull’s Ferry, Fort Lee, Hackensack, and the Hudson River was a fluid Loyalist world of guides, refugees, woodcutters, pilots, intelligence gatherers, river men, and families forced to choose sides.

And that brings me to Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken.

Joseph Hawkins appears in the Revolutionary War story as a Loyalist guide from Weehawken, on the estate of the wealthy Loyalist William Bayard. The Journal of the American Revolution states that Joseph Hawkins was the son of a tenant of the same name on Bayard’s estate at Weehawken. Joseph guided Lord Cornwallis at the taking of Fort Lee, and later served as a guide and pilot for British army and navy operations.

The Bergen County Historical Society also identifies Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken as one of three Bergen County Loyalists who led British and Hessian troops up the Palisades during the Fort Lee operation. The same article notes that Joseph was a tenant on William Bayard’s estate.

This matters because Weehawken, Bull’s Ferry, and Fort Lee were not distant places. They were part of the same narrow Hudson-Palisades corridor.

Journal of the American Revolution, The Three Guides

Bergen County's Loyalist Population, by Todd W. Braisted

Michael Hawkins served in Major Ward’s Company of Refugees and was connected to the Blockhouse. Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken was a Loyalist guide and pilot operating in the same corridor. These were not two random Hawkins men in two distant counties. They were two Hawkins Loyalists in the same dangerous military geography, doing the kinds of work that depended on local knowledge: roads, river crossings, landing places, wooded routes, safe houses, and who could be trusted.

Then the Brower/Brewer clue tightens the circle even further.

The Bergen County Historical Society notes that Jacob Brower served in Thomas Ward’s corps of woodcutters and helped defend the blockhouse at Bull’s Ferry, now West New York.

So in the same wartime space we have:

Michael Hawkins — Major Ward’s Refugees / Blockhouse

Joseph Hawkins — Weehawken / Bayard estate / guide and pilot

Jacob Brower — Ward’s woodcutters / Bull’s Ferry

Eleanor / Elaney Brower-Brewer — wife of Michael Hawkins

Brewer family tradition — Michael “came out with the Brewers”

That is not proof of kinship. But it is a serious cluster.

The BrouwerGenealogy blog has already discussed the unresolved identity of Eleanor Brewer/ Lanny Brower, wife of Michael Hawkins. The blog notes possible parentage theories involving Brouwer/Brower families from Hackensack, Bergen County, New Jersey, and Poughkeepsie / Dutchess County, New York, while also emphasizing that Michael Hawkins’s own land petition described him as a Loyalist and native of New Jersey.

In my view, Eleanor Brower may be the key to understanding the entire Hawkins problem.

If Michael came “with the Brewers,” and if a Jacob Brower was serving in the same Ward woodcutter/blockhouse environment, then the Hawkins-Brower connection may not have begun in New Brunswick. It may have begun in the New York–New Jersey war zone before the 1783 evacuation.

 There is also a second postwar connection that deserves attention: the Yerxa family.

 John Yerxa / Johannes Jurckse was a Loyalist from Cortlandt Manor, Westchester County, New York. His 1787 memorial says he was driven within the British lines in 1780 and joined the refugees under Colonel DeLancey, continuing in that service until he came to Nova Scotia/New Brunswick.

After the war, the Hawkins and Yerxa families were closely connected in New Brunswick. Yerxa family material states that James Yerxa married Sarah Hawkins on 8 July 1817. Sarah was a daughter of Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brower/Brewer. Even more importantly, attached to the will of John Yerxa was a property valuation made by Thomas White, Jacob White, and Michael Hawkins Sr.

That means Michael Hawkins was not simply a distant in-law. He was trusted enough to help appraise the estate of John Yerxa, the Cortlandt Manor Loyalist whose family became intertwined with Michael’s.

 So the questions become:

Did Michael Hawkins know the Yerxas only after settlement in New Brunswick?

Or did these families already belong to overlapping Loyalist refugee networks before 1783?

At minimum, Michael Hawkins belongs in the same research conversation as:

Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken

William Bayard’s estate

Major Thomas Ward’s Refugees / Woodcutters

Jacob Brower of the Bull’s Ferry blockhouse world

Eleanor / Elaney Brower-Brewer

John Yerxa of Cortlandt Manor

DeLancey’s Westchester Loyalist refugee network

New Brunswick settlement at Keswick / Douglas

My working theory is this:

Michael Hawkins was probably not merely a generic New Jersey Loyalist. He appears to have been part of a Bergen–Hudson Loyalist network that included Hawkins, Brower/Brewer, Ward’s refugees, Bayard’s Weehawken estate, and postwar New Brunswick families such as Yerxa.

The strongest candidate lead right now is Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken.

Joseph may not be Michael’s father or brother. But given the surname, geography, military role, Loyalist allegiance, and shared Hudson corridor, he is far too close to ignore. In a world of guides, pilots, woodcutters, refugees, blockhouse defenders, and displaced Loyalist families, the idea that Michael Hawkins and Joseph Hawkins were operating in the same corridor and knew nothing of each other seems unlikely.

I am looking for anyone with records, family notes, land documents, church entries, Loyalist claims, or DNA clues involving:

Michael Hawkins / John Michael Hawkins

Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken

Joseph Hawkins Sr., tenant on Bayard’s estate

George Hawkins

Martin Hawkins

Eleanor / Elaney / Lanny Brower / Brewer

Jacob Brower

Major Thomas Ward’s Company of Refugees

Bull’s Ferry / Bergen County blockhouse

Bayard estate, Weehawken

Yerxa / Jurckse family of Cortlandt Manor and New Brunswick

Michael Hawkins has been sitting in the records as a lonely New Brunswick Loyalist for too long. I think he belongs back in the world he came from:

the Hudson corridor, where Hawkins, Brower, Ward, Bayard, DeLancey, Yerxa, New York, New Jersey, and New Brunswick all begin to touch.

If anyone has worked on these families or this Loyalist network, I would be grateful to compare notes. Jaime Hawkins.

For background on the above please see the posts on this website of January 22, 2015, "Who Is Eleanor Brewer, Wife of Michael Hawkins," and the follow-up post of January 30, 2015, "A Bit More On Eleanor Brewer and Michael Hawkins." In addition, see Jamie's post of May 3, 2026 on the Hawkins DNA Project website - Michael Hawkins, Loyalist (c.1750-1845), New Brunswick.

Alan Hawkins compiled work on the Hawkins family (mentioned in the first paragraph) can be obtained directly from Jaime Hawkins. 

Again, Please direct all correspondence to Jaime Hawkins.

BGB 759 

 

Brewer Families From Southside Virginia

 David Brewer has just published a new book, Brewer Families From Southside Virginia. Dave is one of the co-administrators of the Brewer DNA Project. He is focused on the Brewer families whose origins are found in the southern colonies of British North America. 

In Dave's words:

As we all know, over the past decade, several distinct branches of American families with the surname Brewer have been identified thanks to advances in DNA analysis and improved digital access to colonial and early American records. 

I've just published a new book, Brewer Families From Southside Virginia, in a further effort to sort out the ancestry of a broad group of Virginia pioneers, whose forebears mostly migrated from southwest England to the area south of the James River during the colonial period.  Among them were members of haplogroup I-Y15300, including George Brewer of Brunswick County, Thomas Brewer of Sussex County, William Brewer of Martins Brandon Parish in Prince George County, John Brewer of Hertford County, North Carolina, formerly of Southampton County, Virginia, and Benjamin Brewer of Franklin County, Georgia, formerly of North Carolina.  Their descendants have identified earliest known ancestors who lived in Indiana or southeastern states -- especially the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama -- in the decades before and after the turn of the 19th Century.  Until now, traditional record research alone has not allowed them to trace their ancestries back to the period between the mid-1600's and mid-1700's, the heart of the American colonial era.  

This book also studies the possibly related families of John Brewer (I), the Ancient Planter of Jamestown Colony, the 18th and 19th Century John Brewer line of the Upper Parish of Nansemond County, Virginia, William Brewer of Isle of Wight County, Virginia, Joseph Brewer of Warren Counties, North Carolina, George Brewer of Northampton County, North Carolina.  

Several other family groups whose founders settled in the area south of the James River also receive detailed attention.  Those groups include the family of Sackfield Brewer (died 1699), which is unrelated to the members of haplogroup I-Y15300 on the male side.  However, they had common associates and kinships in Virginia.  The book also studies the family of Robert Brewer, who appears to have been of Romany descent, and who settled in Nansemond County in the late 1600’s.  

As with my recent book about the descendants of George Brewer of Brunswick County, I've published the new book with Kindle Books in both e-book and paperback formats.  I like the e-book format.  It's less expensive, and it's reader-friendly, with an interactive table of contents and hot linked end notes.  This makes it easy to navigate.  The cost of printing makes the margins very thin for the paperback version, which, at more than 500 pages in length, is priced at $20.  The e-book is priced at $5.  You can find both versions at Amazon.

Little is tidy in this family history, but such was the stuff of life in the rapidly expanding New America.  Accordingly, this book is work in progress, meant to be supplemented and corrected by the fruits of further research, including DNA test results.  Even now, the journey proceeds.

I look forward to your comments and questions. 

 

 Dave can be contacted through the Brewer DNA Project's website.

BGB 758

New Netherland Settlers

 In 2024 The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society announced the launch of a new project named New Netherland Settlers. Rather than describe this new project I will simply direct you to the webpage which describes the project's purpose and scope and profiles the current key researchers. Last month the first sketches of individuals who settled in New Netherland prior to 1664 were published online. It does appear that they are accessible to non-members of the NYG&B Society, and so I would encourage all those interested in the persons who inhabited the short-lived colony of New Netherland to make use of this new resource. The available Search tool will search within the various individual sketches. In other words you can find individuals in this collection who are not the subject of a sketch themselves.

The format of the sketches is very much similar, perhaps even based upon, the format used by the late Robert Charles Anderson in his Great Migration Study Project which is hosted at American Ancestors, the website of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. The components of the New Netherland Settlers sketches can be found at the bottom of the New Netherland Settler sketches page. 

The introduction tells us that a complete list of known residents for whom sketches are planned will be released in the Fall of 2025. In addition it is stated that in time the sketches will be published in printed volumes.

As it is early in this project I was not surprised to find that, as of this post, sketches are not yet available for any of the New Netherland residents with the surname Brouwer, most of who are found on the Brouwer Genealogy Database website. While we do not yet have a sketch for Adam Brouwer, one has been published for his wife, Magdalena Verdon's maternal grandmother, Aeltje Braconie. The sketch identifies for the first time a previously unknown son of Aeltje Braconie and her first husband Thomas Badie, himself named Thomas and baptized 24 October 1614 at the Roman Catholic church, Notre-Dame-aux-Fonts in Liège, in present day Belgium. My own sketch of Aeltje Braconie was published online on the Brouwer Genealogy Database some years ago. The post covering Aeltje's daughter Maria Badie was posted August 24, 2012. And so thirteen years later we now know of a brother of Maria Badie.

Much thanks to the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society for initiating the New Netherland Settlers project. I'm certain that readers of Brouwer Genealogy will be looking forward to the sketches of Adam Brouwer, Jan Brouwer and Willem Brouwer, all of whom left descendants who are with us today.

BGB 757 

 

 

 

New Book By David Brewer: Brewer Families of Moore, Chatham and Randolph Counties, North Carolina

 David Brewer, a co-administrator for the Brewer DNA Project (Family Tree DNA) has just published a new book, Brewer Families of Moore, Chatham and Randolph Counties, North Carolina: In Search of the Descendants of George Brewer of Brunswick County,Virginia. 

A description of his new book in David's words:

"In 2018, I wrote a book about the Brewer families from Moore and Southwest Chatham Counties, North Carolina. A lot has happened since then, both on the DNA and record fronts. So, I've completely rewritten the book, adding much more material and keeping track of current DNA advances. The new book more broadly focuses on the Brewer families who lived in Moore, Chatham and Randolph Counties, North Carolina in the period between 1750 and 1850. It compiles and integrates existing research with newer information, including current results of YDNA genetic testing of male descendants of the Brewers from this tri-county region. One of the conclusions the book reaches is that three sons of George Brewer of Brunswick County, Howell I, Lanier I, and John, (and their descendants) were present in northern Moore, southwestern Chatham, and southeast Randolph Counties between 1750 and 1850. 

Unlike the first version, this book also discusses in detail the Haw River Brewers, including George Brewer's probable sons Henry, Oliver, and Nathaniel Brewer, as well as probable descendants of George's son Nicholas Brewer, and several other possibly related Brewer families from northern Chatham County, including the families of John, Samuel and Abel Brewer. The book also discusses in detail descendants of these Brewer families who moved to Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina in the early decades of the 1800's. 

The book begins with a chronology, based on publicly recorded data, of early Brewer presence in the region and then turns to a more detailed discussion of particular individuals. Subjects of extended discussion include Lanier Brewers I and II, the Howell Brewers, Ambrose Brewer, men named Drury Brewer, Harmon Brewer, the Willis Brewers of Moore County, Kentucky and Ohio, Sampson Brewer, Micajah (Cager) Brewer, Nicholas Brewer of Bear Creek, the Tick Creek Brewers of southwest Chatham County, the Haw and New Hope River Brewers of Chatham, and the William Brewer family of Randolph County, North Carolina and Morgan County, Indiana, among other lines. 

With that peek under the hood, I've published the new book with Kindle Direct Publishing in both e-book and paperback formats. The e-book is less expensive and more reader-friendly, with an interactive table of contents and hot linked end notes. This makes it easy to navigate. The paperback version is priced at $15. The e-book is priced at $4.99. You can find both versions online at Amazon. I look forward to your comments and questions."

 

 

David can be contacted through the About us page on the Brewer DNA Project website. This book we be of interest to anyone working on tracing their Brewer ancestry to one of the numerous Brewer families whose origins are found in the southeastern U.S. states, whether they are descendants of George Brewer of Brunswick County, Virginia or otherwise.

Thank you David. I'm looking forward to reading the book.

BGB 756

New Links For "The Brower Papers, 1734-1872"

 Below are new links for the posts of January 21, 2017, "The Brower Papers, 1734-1872," and the followup, "The Brower Papers, 1734-1872 Part II (January 24, 2017). As with many other links on this website the links for this post are broken. Such is the nature of the ephemeral internet.

No. 1. Indenture dated 1 September 1734 between Barhanardus Van diere of Bergen Co., New Jersey and numerous others all of Albany Co., New York and William Brower of "Schonaghton" for lots of woodland lying north of the Mohawk in Stone Arabia, Albany County.

No. 2. Deed for a wood lot in Stone Arabia from Hendreck Walrath to Hendreck Schremling dated 9 October 1739.

No. 3.  Deed from Hendreck Schremling to William Brower for six lots on the north side of the Mohawk, dated 10 December 1739.

No. 4. Bond of Cornelis Feele, Clas Feele and John Feele unto Margaret Acker, daughter of John Acker, dated 2 July 1743. "Margaret Acker" also known as Margariet Ekker or Ecker, was a daughter of Jan Ekker/Ecker/Ekkerson and Margrietje Vile, daughter of "Cornelis Feele" as his name is rendered in the bond. I have not worked out the genealogy but I would suspect that the three bondsman named "Feele" are Margaret's brothers. Margariet Ekker, baptized 21 July 1734 at Schenectady, married Harmanous Brouwer, 8 February 1755. Harmanous is a son of William Brouwer and Rebecca Vedder.

No. 5. The will of William Brower of "Stone Raby In the County of Albany on the Mohawks River yeoman," dated 10 February 1757. He is described as "Being Verry well in Good helth and Sound Perfect Mind and Memory." If born by 1669, which he would have had to have been if he is a son of William Brouwer who died in August 1668 and Lysbeth Drinkvelt, then William Brower of Stone Arabia would have been 86 or 87 years old in early 1757. The will was proved 15 February 1765, which again if born by 1669, would mean that William Brower may have lived to the age of 95 or 96.

No. 6. Indenture dated 2 June 1775 between Arent Brower and Harmen Brower, both of Stone Arabia.

No. 7. Indenture dated 22 May 1793 between Jacob Ekker, Abraham Coopman and Jacob G. Klock, Commissioners for Montgomery County, of the first part and Harmen Brower of the Town of Palatine, Montgomery County, of the second part. The parcels being sold to Harmen Brower appear to be lots that were confiscated from prior owners.

No. 8. Indenture dated 27 February 1798 between Cornelius Brower and Harme Brower, both of the Town of Palatine. The deed is for land that had been bequeathed in the will of William Brower to his sons Arent Brower and Harme Brower.

No. 9. The will of "John B. Jno. Van Eps" of the City of Schenectady, dated 25 March 1799. This would be Jan Baptist Van Eps, baptized 17 June 1752 at Schenectady, the son of Jan Baptist Van Eps and Maria Truax. In his will he names his wife Debora. Jan B. Van Eps married, as his second wife, Debora Brower on 26 January 1799. Debora is a daughter of Harmanus Brower and Margariet Ekker. The rather lengthy will of the elder Jan Baptist Van Eps can be found in Albany County Wills, vol. 3, pp. 241-246. It was dated 13 March 1800, followed by a codicil dated 24 May 1802 and an additional codicil dated 21 June 1805, proved 16 September 1805. The younger Jan Baptist Van Eps is said to have died 28 October 1821. His sister, Sarah Van Eps, married Wilhelmus Brower, a brother of Debora Brouwer.

No. 10. Indenture dated 5 March 1803 between Harme Brower of Palatine in Montgomery County and Margaret his wife, and Harme Brower, Jr., of the same place. The deed is for 47 acres of land in Palatine, New York.

No. 11. Indenture dated 5 March 1803 between Cornelius Brower of Palatine, Montgomery County and Elizabeth his wife, and Harme Brower, Jr., of the same place. This is a deed for lot number 22 in the Patent of Stone Arabia, Montgomery County.

No. 12. The will of Harme Brower of Stone Arabia, dated 14 March 1803. The testator names his son Wilhelmus, son Harme Brower, Jr., "farming utensils to be divided among my five sons," daughter Deborah Brower, three daughters Rebecca Van Deusen, Sarah Docksteder and Deborah Brower. Following the will is a receipt from John B. Jno. Van Eps, dated 1 October 1808 for the legacy left his wife Deborah by her father Harmen Brower.

No. 13. At the top of this page is a Bill of Money received from Benjamin Smith by Mr. Harmen Brower, dated 5 March 1794. The remainder of the page includes receipts from Jacob N. Doxstedder and Arindh Smith.

No. 14. Eight pages. Page 1 is an order for Arent Brower to appear before the Superior Court of Common Pleas in a matter of Hermanus Brower, plaintiff, v. Philip P. Empey. The remainder of the documents consists of varied minutes recorded in the courts (presumably Montgomery County) involving Harmen Brower. Dates are from the 1790s.

No. 15. The will of Herman Brower of the Town of Palatine, Montgomery County. Dated 11 January 1839. Names his wife, Magdalene, and sons and daughters. Signs with his mark. This is a fourteen page document and includes the probate record.

No. 16. Indenture dated 3 March 1848 between Herman H. Brower and Margaret his wife of the Town of Palatine, Montgomery County, and Frederick Brower of the same town and county. This is a deed for a woodlot in Palatine.

No. 17. Five pages of receipts and other varied court records involving Browers in Montgomery County. In at least one instance the surname is recorded as Brewer. 

BGB 755

 

Y-DNA Haplogroups for Willem Adriaense Bennet

Contributed by Ron Bennett.

This is a follow-up to the earlier posts on the Y-DNA haplogroups for Willem Adriaense Bennet (WAB), which were generic. Since that time, eight descendants of WAB have upgraded to an extensive, full chromosome Y-DNA paternity test called BigY-700. Data processing alone for this test takes over 8 weeks, but the result is a sufficiently detailed list of individual mutations, which occur every 50 to 100 years on average, such that the software is able to create a biological family tree (called a TimeTree), showing the birth years of each common ancestor between branches.
 

The unique haplogroup (branch name) for WAB is E-FTB90013 (est. birth 1626, historical ~1605), which includes him, his two sons, and their descendants. His older son, Adrian Willemsen's haplogroup is E-FTB92022 (est. birth 1651, historical 1637). His great-grandson, Isaac Adrianson's haplogroup is E-FTD68674 (est. birth 1708, historical 1717).
 

This haplotree corroborates the WAB family tree on this site with the corrections published by Morrissey, et.al. in 2017, but does not match the original 1962 tree published by Ledley and subsequently by Kenneth Bennett.
The Y-DNA tree is skeletal due to the small number of descendants. Luckily we have four descendants from each of WAB's two sons, but only three of the eight grandsons documented here are represented. Additional male descendants are needed to fully corroborate the historical records family tree. Please contact FTDNA directly to order this test or contact me directly with questions. The test is a bit expensive, but the beauty is that nothing more is required of the participants except their DNA. The analysis will automatically connect you to all other Bennetts and other surnames (including Brouwer) who have ever taken this test.

Bennets/Bennetts interested in participating in the Bennett Y-DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA should contact the Project directly via their website, and/or contact Ron Bennett directly.

Also see the August 21, 2022 post, "Sunset At Gowanus Bay and A Note on the Bennett Project at Family Tree DNA." 

BGB 754 

An Update to "Joseph Driggs Is Not Josias Drake, Jr."

 It has been fifteen years since "Joseph Driggs Is Not Josias Drake, Jr." was posted online. While this update does not change the conclusion of the original post (Joseph Driggs is still NOT Josias Drake, Jr.) it is here to bring to the attention of those interested in the question of Joseph Driggs' ancestry, the research of Richard Davis who has now found the origins of Joseph Driggs who died in East Haddam, Connecticut in 1748. This post will be short and any interest, further inquiry or questions should be directed to Richard Davis.

First a bit of housekeeping. Links provided on the original June 3, 2012 post, which itself was a copy of a post originally from 2008 (see Broken Links, The Ephemeral Nature of the Internet) were in need of repair. The original, "Joseph Driggs Is Not Josias Drake, Jr." is now online as a PDF. Please use the link found in the text of the June 3, 2012 post.

The incontestable proof that Joseph Driggs could not possibly be Josias Drake, Jr. was the result of Y-DNA testing of direct descendants of both Joseph Driggs and of Josias Drake's father, Josias Drats/Dratz whose wife was Aeltje Brouwer (a daughter of Adam Brouwer and Magdalena Verdon). Josias Drake, Jr., himself, is not known to have left any descendants. This work was initiated by Richard Davis and now some fifteen years later he has contacted me to inform me that he has "finally found the origin of Joseph Driggs (1681-1748) of Middletown, Connecticut." Richard did this by first matching five Y-DNA test results of five Driggs descendants with three Y-DNA matches from Sao Roque, Pico Island in the Azores, an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean which today is an autonomous region of Portugal. Through the traditional genealogical work that followed, Richard was able to trace Joseph Driggs paternal ancestry back to the late 1400s to some of the earliest settlers of Pico Island. 

Richard has written a 29 page report (including addendums) describing and explaining his research, which includes both genetic and traditional genealogical research. All and all it's a pretty interesting adventure that includes a visit to Pico Island itself. Richard has also created a couple of charts showing the paternal lineages of those tested.

I will not be making available online any of Richard's work. Again, those who are interested should reach out to Richard Davis directly. 

BGB 753

Broken Links, The Ephemeral Nature of the Internet

 The previous post serves as perfect example of the ephemeral nature of the internet. Here one day, perhaps gone the next. Or perhaps gone next week Or maybe next year. Or perhaps in a few years. One thing is for certain, if you are reading it online today, the day will come when you will not be able to find it. Or, perhaps what you are looking for is just misplaced because the URL was changed. This is what happened with the BGD in 2018 after it was restored by RootsWeb  following a ten month or so state of being offline. Many URLs were changed when the site was reinstated. Here we'll address the problem of Broken Links. The Brouwer Genealogy Database (BGD) and this website, Brouwer Genealogy, are both plagued by broken links.

What to do about these broken links?

I could spend my time continuously scouring and checking each of the 751 posts (to date) for broken links, and then repair them. I'm not keen on doing that. That's not going to happen. I'm not going to spend time doing that. However, you the reader, can help to do something about it.

Fixing or replacing broken links on this website can be made a bit more efficient than having one person (me) check through every individual post. You can help by bringing to my attention any broken links that you might encounter during the course using this website. Please do this by using the Comments section of the post in which you encounter the broken link. If you do not see the "Post a Comment" field, just click on the "No comments" link at the bottom of the post. Leave a comment pointing out the broken link. Blogger will notify me via email of your pending comment. When I see it (I usually check email once a day), I will put through your comment online, find a new replacement link, and reply to your comment to confirm that the link has been fixed. I may also add it to the Replacement Links and More page on this website.

Fixing broken links on the BGD is an entirely different matter. The BGD has not been updated since early 2016 and cannot be updated today or at anytime into the future. It is now an Archive, and will remain so, in its present condition until the day that it eventually disappears from the ephemeral internet. A day which will come, we just don't know when. (Although we have been given a hint that it may well happen). This means that broken links on the BGD cannot be fixed on that site.

Back in 2018 I created a page for this website titled, "Replacement Links and More." It is listed in the margin to the right under Pages. It's the second one down from the top. We will use this page to list new links for links that are broken within the BGD. Should you encounter broken links on the BGD, what I would ask you to, using the comments section for THIS POST, is leave a description of the broken link and paste a copy of the URL for the page on which that link appears (unfortunately Comments does not except hyperlinks. I'll copy and paste the URL that you provide to find the page where the problem is found). I'll then reply and acknowledge your comment. I will add a new link to the Replacement Links and More page. You can then find it there. The links are listed alphabetically. Again, I cannot correct the link on the BGD itself. I prefer that you use the Comments section for this rather than contacting me directly through email, simply because doing will so will create a log of broken link replacements right here on the website. Thanks for you help here.

Some exceptions: One, is that I cannot replace links that connect one individual on the BGD to another on the BGD itself. That could only be done by updating the entire site, and as stated, I cannot do that. On the plus side, so long as the site is intact, few, if any of this type of link should be broken. 

A second is the "Brouwer Photos" page and the "Images Off Site" page. Both pages are recent casualties of the ephemeral internet. The photos were housed on Google, on Album Archive, a service which they just recently discontinued. I do have the photos. They are not lost. However, I am not going to place them online again unless they are used within the context of some new post written sometime in the future. Many of them are probably found within the pages of this website anyway.

Of the documents found under the headings of "Notes, Research, Reports," "Index Extractions, and "William B. Bogardus Collection," most still appear to work, although I did find a few which are broken. I looked, but have been unable to find replacement documents in my files offline. Some may have been links to other websites, in which case, if that site or page is gone, there is nothing I can do about it anyway. Just another example of the ephemeral internet.

I will place a link to this post in the margin at the right under the heading Brouwer-Brower-Brewer links, which is right under Featured Post. In that way it will be easier to find. Thank you for your help with this.

As I said above, here one day, gone the next. Have no doubt, the day will come when the BGD is offline for good. When that day comes, it will not be replaced. The same is true for this website. In fact it has happened once already. This site was started in 2008 on an Apple laptop using Apple's blogging program. This was before they were calling programs, apps. In 2011 Apple simply decided that they were done with maintaining the program and providing the online space in which users could post and so they killed it. Here one day, gone the next. I found blogger, then an independent company, reconstituted some of the 2008-2011 posts, but not all (they're gone) and continued. Blogger was soon bought by Google. Over the years Google has dumbed it down a bit. The tools available here are basic at best. There is no ability to use superscripts or subscripts for example, and there is no ability to use hyperlinks in the Comments. But it'll do. It is easy and it is integrated with one's Google account. But I have no doubt. The day will come, I have a feeling sooner than later, when it will no longer be in Google's financial interest to continue carrying or supporting Blogger. When that day comes, Brouwer Genealogy will be no more. When that happens it will not be reconstituted as another site elsewhere on the ephemeral internet. If the site is at all helpful to you, great, take advantage of it while it's here. Like everything else, it is not forever.

BGB 752

The Current State of the Brouwer Genealogy Database Website

 The Brouwer Genealogy Database (BGD) was first launched in 2008 and was last updated in late 2015/early 2016. This post also covers the current state of the other databases that I had placed online, namely Brewer of New England, Brewer-Lanier Database, Descendants of Alice Freeman Thompson Parke, Drake Genealogy Database, and Drake in Devonshire, the links for which can be found in the right hand column of this website.What is said below with regards to the BGD applies to these five databases as well.

If you will travel over to the BGD you will note the new banner headline altering us to the fact that "Hosted websites will become read only beginning in early 2024." In effect this means that RootsWeb, which has been owned by Ancestry.com for some years now, will no longer provide the authors and publishers of websites hosted by RootsWeb with the ability to update or in any way add to or alter their sites. The websites will remain "static" in their words. This, in actuality, is not new to the BGD. It has been "static" since April 6, 2016. I have not updated the BGD since then, and I have no intention of doing so in the future. Since then I have used this website, Brouwer Genealogy, to add new information and to correct errors in the existing BGD. Please note: RootsWeb has not stated in its notice that they will be removing the websites that they host. What they do state is that they are removing the ability for authors to edit or otherwise amend their websites. Having said that, there is a significant problem left behind after RootsWeb posted their banner alert.

You will note that the original introduction to the database that appeared on the Main Page has been severely truncated. It's in effect, gone. In addition, and this greatly effects the functionality and ease of use of the site, the indexes (Surname Index and Master Index) are empty. Users no longer have the ability to locate any particular or specific individual within the 744 pages that contain the individual profiles. There is nothing that I can do about this. Unless RootsWeb/Ancestry.com corrects this themselves, the Indexes are lost. In an email to their Support staff I have asked if they could address and fix this. While I have received acknowledgement that my inquiry has been received and have been given a "Case number," I have not yet received a reply. As of this writing it is still possible to access some individual profiles through the Charts, Progenitors, Unplaced, and DNA Analysis pages found in the space below the title. All and all, the BGD is very inefficient without the Indexes. However...

There is a Work Around

A work around to this problem is to use an internet search engine like Google or Bing to locate an individual within the BGD's pages. I first tried this with Google using a rather uncommon Brewer name, Elazerus Brewer. I entered Elazerus Brewer, Brouwer Genealogy Database on Google Search. The results were useless. Among them was the Brouwer Genealogy Databases' main page, but that doesn't help me get to Elazerus himself. I then tried "Elazerus Brewer" and "Brouwer Genealogy Database," both in quotation marks and separated by the word, and. The third suggestion down was Brouwer Genealogy Database - Person Page 101. That takes me to page 101 of the BGD and then I scrolled through the page for Elazerus. As I recall, I think that I had this set up for 100 profiles per page. This more precise search request did bring me to Person Page 101, and scrolling down, or using your browser's "Find in page" tool (I'm using a Fire Fox browser here) this work around does work. Using Bing, I pretty much had the same result. You need to be specific and use perimeters like quotation marks to narrow down your search. Keep in mind, with this test I did use an uncommon given name, Elazerus. Try this with say, John Brewer, Brouwer Genealogy Database, and you will have far more search results to consider. Here I would suggest adding more info to the search, such as a birth or death date, or by searching using the spouse's name (if known). This is all I can suggest with regards to finding an individual on the BGD. Should RootsWeb fix the index problem - great. Should they not - oh well, users will just have to trudge on without it.

The Bigger Issue

As mentioned, the BGD was first created and uploaded in 2008 and was frequently updated through the end of 2015. This was for me, a lot of work. The technical aspects of what was involved in creating the website and the reason why I created it were summed up back in 2008/09 in "About the Brouwer Genealogy Database." In 2017 RootsWeb was hacked and all of their hosted websites and forums were taken down. They were offline for, as I recall, ten months or so. See the post of June 9, 2018. Soon thereafter, by July 20, 2018, the BGD was restored by RootsWeb, although some stand alone pages that were linked to by this website, Brouwer Genealogy, remained lost. Also lost was my ability to manage the many files needed to create the BGD. That is to say, I lost the ability to replace incorrect information with replacement information or add new information to the pages already online. RootsWeb had taken away their free and easy to use upload tool. This meant that site publishers had to find and use a third party alternative, i.e. some FTP client software. I was not interested in doing this and simply decided that it was a good time to stop working on the BGD. As a result, the website you now find online is the same as it was back in late 2015/early 2016. It is in RootsWeb's words, "static," and has been for the past eight years. This final condition of the BGD includes the errors within the database and does not include all of the additional information that has been discovered and learned over the past seven to eight years since it went "static". Since early 2016  I have been using this website, Brouwer Genealogy, to point out errors, to correct profiles (see the recent post of April 6, 2023 for an example) and to add new names and info. This isn't how I envisioned this turning out way back in 2008 when I created the site. But, it is what it is. Unforeseen events often alter initial plans. It is the way things will remain with the BGD from here on out into the future.

There are other issues with the "static" BGD that I have but I will not go into them in detail now or here. In short, the flaws in it irritate me to the point that I would just as soon see the entire site taken offline once and for all and for good, and the time and effort required to maintain and update the BGD in the format in which it stands, is time and effort that I would prefer to spend elsewhere. I did, however, receive an email from Richard Brewer, the previous administrator of the Brewer DNA Project, in which he described the BGD, not as "static," but as "an Archive." This is perhaps a better way to think about the condition of the BGD. Think about it as an archive of the work done on numerous Brouwer/Brower/Brewer, etc., and associated families between the years of 2000 and 2016. In that light, I can live with it remaining online in it's present, and final form, errors, omissions, warts and all, for as long as RootsWeb is willing to host it. And for those who are persistent and willing to do a little extra work, the BGD can still be a useful tool. Looking at the BGD as an archive is the thing which stops me from taking RootsWeb's advise to use a FTP client tool to download my files from the RootsWeb server which would in turn remove the site in its entirety from the internet. If I did or do remove the files I would not reconstitute it online using another hosting provider. Having now said that the BGD is to a degree outdated, please keep that in mind when using it. The strength of this website is its numerous sited sources. Use them to check the work for yourself and please don't re-post any images or screenshots of profiles or pages elsewhere online, like in your Ancestry.com Tree, without first validating the content within said image or screenshot. So, to be clear...

RootsWeb tells us that, "website owners wishing to maintain their sites must migrate to a different hosting provider before 2024." That will not happen with the archival BGD. It will not be migrated to a new hosting platform, nor will it be altered from it's present, that is to say, "static" or "archived" form. I have contacted RootsWeb support and asked whether or not they intended to continue hosting websites, whether or not the websites would be migrated to Ancestry.com (as they did with World Connect Trees), and if so, would the pages have new URLs. My inquiry was acknowledged and I was given a case number, but I have yet to receive a reply. If I do not hear back we'll just have to wait until 2024 to see just how Ancestry.com handles the RootsWeb hosted websites that have not migrated to a different hosting provider. Perhaps when that is completed, or perhaps sooner as per my request, the banner notices on the BGD's site will be removed and the indexes will be restored. If they aren't, as I've said, users will have to get along without them.

BGB 751

 

Some BREWER Wills, Etc., In Kentucky: Mercer County

 Mercer County, Kentucky was formed in 1785 out of what was then Lincoln County, Virginia (and is now Lincoln County, Kentucky). Kentucky was admitted to the Union as a state, June 1, 1792. Harrodsburg, the county seat of Mercer County, was first settled in 1774. Below are BREWER wills and other probate records found in the books of Mercer County, Kentucky and available on FamilySearch.org, "Probate Records 1786-1865; General Index, 1786-1946," Kentucky. County Court (Mercer County).

1. Daniel Brewer.* 1791. 1:49. Will.

2. Daniel Brewer. 1799. 2:134. Guardian Account.

3. David Brewer. 1819. 6:214. Will.

4. David Brewer. 1819-20. 6:230, 232. Inventory.

5. Dilly Brewer. 1820. 6:333. Dower.

6. Daniel A. Brewer. 1822. 7:333. Guardian Account.

7. John Brewer. 1826. 8:324. Inventory.

8. David Brewer. 1826. 8:395. Settlement.

9. John Brewer. 1828. 9:113. Settlement.

10. Abraham Brewer. 1828. 9:137. Will.

11. David Brewer. 1828. 9:149. Settlement

12. Abraham Brewer. 1828. 9:151. Inventory.

13. David Brewer. 1833. 10:66. Settlement.

14. L. D. Brewer. 1851. 14:36. Guard. Settlement.

15. H. R. Brewer. 1853. 14:204. Guard. Settlement.

16. Robert Brewer. 1854. 15:36. Guard. Settlement.

17. Abram A. Brewer. 1858. 15:527. Will.

18. A. A. Brewer. 1858. 15:527. Inventory.

19. A. A. Brewer. 1858. 16:43. Exor. Settlement.

20. L. D. Brewer. 1882. 18:336. Will

21. Ethelinda Brewer. 1882. 18:339. Renunciation.

22. Ethelinda Brewer. 1899. 19:102. Will.

This post has been in the draft file for some months now. My original plan was to include an abstract of the above records. At this time that project would be too time consuming and is not possible within the foreseeable future, so rather than have this much of the post linger in the draft file, perhaps this can serve as a head start for anyone researching the Brewers of Mercer County, Kentucky.

*Daniel Brouwer/Brewer (1719-1791) is a great-grandson of Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, L. I. (Adam>Pieter>Abraham>Daniel).

BGB 750

A List of BREWER Deeds in Kentucky: Hardin County

 Hardin County, Kentucky was formed in 1792 from land partitioned from Nelson County, which itself was created from Jefferson County in 1784. Kentucky was admitted to the Union as the 15th State on June 1, 1792. Prior to that it was known as the Kentucky District and was within the jurisdiction of Virginia. The first permanent European settlement was founded in 1774 by James Harrod at the site of present day Harrodsburg in Mercer County. On 4 March 1843, the southeast portion of Hardin County was set of to form LaRue County. 

The Family History Library has filmed and since digitized the deed books for Hardin County. Digital images can be accessed from a home computer at the FamilySearch.org website: Hardin County, Kentucky Deeds, 1793-1902; index 1795-1904. A list of deeds involving persons named BREWER.

1. Mark Brewer from Benjamin Chastee, G:71 (1819)
   
2. Mark Brewer from John Brewer, I:15 (1823)
   
3. Isaac Brewer from John Willett, T:385 (1841)
   
4. John Brewer to Stephen French, T:41 (1840)
   
5. Isaac Brewer from Edward Sutton, T:380 (1841)
   
6. Isaac Brewer to Nathaniel Whitehead, V:221 (1841)
   
7. Uriah Brewer from Henry F. McBride by Comr., Y:247 (1850)
   
8. John Brewer from L & N Rail Road Co., Z:388 (1852)
   
9. Uriah Brewer to Felix J. Fowler, 2:431 (1854)
   

This post has been in the draft file for some months now. My original intention was to abstract these deeds. Plans have changed, I will not be doing that at this time. Perhaps this list will serve as a bit of a shortcut to anyone who may be interested in the Brewer families of Hardin County, Kentucky.

BGB 749

Revising The Family of Jan Brouwer and Helena Van Cleef

 The post, "The Family of Jan Brouwer and Helena Van Cleef," was published October 24, 2012. A profile, with source citations, for Jan Brouwer can be found on the Brouwer Genealogy Database (last updated late 2015). The family was also covered back in 2007 in "Jan Brouwer of Flatlands and Descendants," New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 138(2007):254. In each of these instances we see a family consisting of eleven or twelve children. We also see that the mother of these children is recorded variously as Helena, Hilletje, Lena, and Mardelena. We also see some conflicts among the baptism dates of the children, specifically with the children, Pieter, Benjamin, and Marytje, who were baptized 26 Dec. 1737, 19 Feb. 1738 and 3 Oct. 1738 respectively. Ten years later I have had reason to revisit this family and today I see it very differently. Rather than one family of eleven or twelve children, I believe that what we have here are TWO families, a family of Jan Brouwer and Hilletje Van Cleef, and another family of a different Jan Brouwer and his wife Lena/Mardelena (___).

Both the 2007 "Jan Brouwer of Flatlands and Descendants" article and my post of October 24, 2012 acknowledges the problems with the original family of Jan Brouwer and Helena Van Cleef. With regards to the 2007 article see footnote 45 on page 254 which, in short, explains the "odd spacing of baptisms" in this family, to the personality of the minister, Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen. I should quote the full footnote here:

"The odd spacing of baptisms may be due to Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, the autocratic minister of the churches at Three-Mile Run (New Brunswick), Raritan (Somerville), North Branch (Readington) and Six-Mile Run, who, influenced by the Great Awakening, withheld communion and baptisms from various church members for extended periods of time in the 1720s and 1730s and even excommunicated some who would not conform to his evangelical views. Some members occasionally sought the sacraments from other ministers in the area. Thus, although Reformed baptisms usually followed soon after birth, in this part of New Jersey, in this time period, baptismal dates are not necessarily good estimators of birth of birth dates." 

Perhaps. Or perhaps not. Do we have record of Rev. Frelinghuysen specifically withholding baptism from some children of Jan Brouwer and Hilletje Van Cleef? If such a record exists, it is not presented in the article. And since it is not, I would then assume that we do not have this evidence and that there is no reason to assume that that is what is happening here. The author(s) of this article (see footnote 2 on page 250), is (are) suggesting that Jan Brouwer and Hilletje Van Cleef went to the Reformed minister at Freehold-Middletown to baptize children that Rev. Frelinghuysen would not baptize at North Branch or Raritan. In other words, Jan Brouwer lived in the area of Raritan in Somerset or Hunterdon Counties when these children were born, whereas other evidence suggests that he lived at Middletown in Monmouth County. Having the children baptized  by the Freehold-Middletown minister would have been the parents first option, as is the case with the couples first four baptisms and the sixth (see below).

In my own post on October 24, 2012, I recognize this and try to explain away not only the problem of the "odd baptism spacing," but also the problem of the children's mother having a wide variety of recorded given names. Hilletje a Dutch diminutive of Hillegondt, and equivalent in English to Hilda, and Lena, a diminutive of both Helena and Magdalena, are just two very different names. Hilletje Van Cleef was a daughter of Isbrandt Van Cleef and Jannetje Arise Van der Bilt. Her maternal grandmother was Hillitje Remse (a daughter of Rem Jansen and Jannetje Jorise Rapalje). She was likely named for her maternal grandmother. The correct name of Jan Brouwer's wife is Hilletje Van Cleef. Her name is mistakenly recorded or transcribed from the original in one baptism record as Helena. However, the other baptisms in which the mother's name is Lena or, in one instance, Mardelena, is not a recording error. It's the name of a different mother, of a different family. Back in 2012 I incorrectly assessed this family. But, let's just list all of the baptisms here once again:

1. 1724 June 21. A child; parents: Jan Brower, (blank) Van Kleve; no witnesses recorded (Freehold-Middletown 23:12)
2. 1726 April 11. A child; parents: Jan Brouwer, Helena Van Cleve; witnesses: Isbrant Van Cleve, Janneke, his wife (Freehold-Middletown 23:43)
3. 1727 Aug. __. Pieter; parents: Jan Brouwer, Hilletie; no witnesses recorded (Freehold-Middletown 23:44)
4. 1735 Dec. 25. Henrikus; parents: Jan Brouwer, Hilletje Van Kleef; no witnesses recorded (Freehold-Middletown 24:46)
5. 1737 Dec 26. Peeteres; parents: Yan Brouwer, Leena; no witnesses recorded (Harlingen 17:80)
6. 1738 Feb. 19.  Benjamin; parents: Jan Brouwer, Hilletje Van Kleef; witnesses: Benjamin Van Kleef, Rachel Couwenhove (Freehold-Middletown 24:91)
7. 1738 Oct. 3. Marytje; parents: Jan Brouwer and Lena; no witnesses recorded (Readington 4:217)
8. 1741 June 28. Catrina; parents: Brouwer, Jan and wife, Mardelena; no witnesses recorded (Raritan 2:302)
9. 1743 Jan. 14.  Leena; parents: Yan Brouwer, Leenaa; no witnesses recorded (Harlingen 17:82)
10. 1746 Dec. 10. Elsje; parents: Jan Brouwer and Lena; no witnesses recorded (Readington 4:303)
11. 1749 Dec. 26.  Johannis; parents: Jan Brouwer and Lena; no witnesses recorded (Readington 4:305)

Sources for the above:

Freehold-Middletown: "Records of the Dutch Congregations of Freehold and Middletown," Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey Vols. 22-38 (1947-1963)

Harlingen: "Reformed Dutch Church of Harlingen, Baptisms," Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey Vols. 15-20 (1940-45)

Readington: "Readington Church Baptisms From 1720," Somerset County Historical Quarterly vol.4-8 (1915-19)

Raritan: "First Reformed Church Raritan (Somerville) Baptisms," Somerset County Historical Quarterly Vols. 2-7 (1913-18)

Notes on the above baptisms:

I suspect that either no. 1 or no. 2, where in both cases the child's name was not recorded, belongs to Aris Brower who married Neeltje Cooper by 1756. He would have been named for his maternal great grandfather Aris Janse Van der Bilt. He is on the BGD but is not included in the 2007 NYGBR article.

No. 8, Catrina is not included in the 2007 NYGBR article, but her baptism record is there. The author(s) in 2007 missed it.

The baptisms span 25 years, from 1724 to 1749. A long period of time. Possible, but not that typical. Magdalena Verdon was mother of 14 children from 1646 to 1672, a span of 26 years, but she was likely married at, or by age 16. [See  Harry Macy Jr., "Some New Light on Aeltje Braconie and Maria Badie," New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 142(2011):21-36, which suggests that Magdalena may have been married as early as age 13 or 14]. We do not have baptism records for either Jan or Hilletje, but as Jan's father died between 1702 and 1706, and as Helletje, being named for a maternal grandmother, would probably be an older daughter of her parents, both were born either in the 1690s or early 1700s (I have estimates of ca. 1692 for Jan and ca. 1703-1708 for Helena Van Cleef on the BGD. The later date for Helena allows her to have a child born in 1749, something I no longer believe is correct).

There is a glaring gap of eight years between the baptisms of no. 3 and no. 4. That is a long period of time for a couple who are in their mid twenties to early or mid thirties. Two to four additional children may be missing from this family. Perhaps Hilletje had a few miscarriages or stillbirths. Perhaps the couple were separated for one reason or another for this period, although I truly doubt this. Perhaps they were back on Long Island where church records for the Breukelen and Flatbush churches are missing. Maybe there are some unplaced Brouwers out there (and there are quite a few of them) that belong in this family.

In baptism no. 1 the mother's given name is blank. In no. 2 she is called Helena Van Cleve. In nos. 3, 4, and 6 she is Hilletje (Van Kleef in 3 and 4). In no. 8 she is Mardelena (undoubtedly an error for Magdelena) and in nos. 5, 7, 9, 10 and 11, she is Lena/Leenaa. 

As pointed out, in the October 24, 2012 post, I presented this family with a full eleven or twelve children and argued for explanations that would cover up the inconsistencies outlined above. But now, ten years later, I believe that was incorrect. While it's possible to hold on to this family as being accurately described in the older accounts, both my online posts here and on the BGD, and the 2007 NYGBR article, I'm now inclined to think otherwise. What we actually have here are two distinct families.

Make the following changes to the Brouwer Genealogy Database

1. Change Helena Van Cleef's primary name to Hilletje Van Cleef. The appearance of her name as Helena in baptism no. 2 is likely an error, perhaps on the part of the transcriber. 
2. Remove the following children: no. 5 Peeterse (Pieter), no. 7 Marytje, no. 8 Catrina, no. 9 Leena, no. 10 Elsje and no. 11 Johannis from this family.
3. Change the husband of Antje Van Dyk from Pieter Brouwer, bp. 26 Dec 1737 (no.5) to Pieter Brouwer, bp. Aug. 1727 (no.3). The children of Antje (Joannes and Petrus) are now sons of Pieter (bp. 1727). 
4. Change the date of death for Pieter Brouwer, bp. Aug 1727, from "bef Dec. 1737" to "bef 22 September 1759" and move the 1759 administration of estate record and "resided at Shrewsbury" statement from Pieter (1737) to Pieter 1727).
5. Create the new family of Jan Brouwer and Lena/Mardelena (___) with their children, nos. 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 above.

Now stand back and take a look at these two newly reconstructed families and tell me if this doesn't make better sense. We now have the family of Jan Brouwer and Helletje Van Cleef with five or six children (depending on whether or not you wish to assign one of the first two baptisms to the supposed son Aris Brower) with children born between 1724 and 1738 (14 years) with an eight year gap from 1727 to 1735 in which perhaps 2 to 4 additional children may have been born. This Jan Brouwer lived at Middletown, Monmouth Co., New Jersey from 1719 (ear mark recorded) through 1727 and from 1735 to at least 1738, but may have been elsewhere between the years 1727 and 1735. 

The new second family is Jan Brouwer and his wife Lena/Mardelena (Magdalena) who lived in the Raritan River Valley area of Somerset and Hunterdon Counties at least between 1737 and 1749 when they had six children baptized at Raritan, Readington and Harlingen. Whether they remained there after 1749 or were there before 1737 is not (yet) known. If the 1737 baptism is that of their first child, a son named Peeteres (Pieter), then perhaps they were married around 1736 and if in their early to mid 20s at their marriage were perhaps born 1710 to 1717 or so. This Jan is not necessarily a descendant of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, L.I., whereas the other Jan Brouwer certainly is. This new Jan Brouwer may well be a descendant of Adam Brouwer which leads me to one additional change in something I previously published. Back in 2012, in the post of October 28, "Unplaced: John Brewer, Revolutionary War Patriot of New Jersey and Pennsylvania," I suggested that this John Brewer, who was born 4 July 1749 as per a D.A.R. lineage application could be one and the same with Johannis, baptized 26 Dec. 1749 (no. 11 above). I then updated and reversed this idea in the post of February 25, 2022, when, after the Brewer DNA Project received test results from a descendant of Thomas Brewer of East Buffalo and Annville, Pennsylvania, a very likely son of John Brewer, born 4 July1749, and with those results showing that the participant was a certain descendant of Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, L.I., I wrote that the two (John and Johannis) were not likely the same. Well, sorry to have to do this, but when evidence changes or becomes clearer, we do have to change our opinions. It may well be that John Brewer, b. 4 July 1749 and Johannis Brouwer, bapt. 26 Dec 1749 are one and the same.To be clear, this last statement is not to be taken as fact. The trick now is to find evidence that either demonstrates that the two are one and the same, or proves that they are instead two different men born at about the same time.

While I would expect that others may disagree with my new assessment of the family of Jan Brouwer and Helena (now Hilletje) Van Cleef, there does exist enough ambiguity and incompleteness with what we have regarded as fact in the past, to state that this new arrangement of two families from one incorrectly reconstructed family, is viable option. As we search for linking the descendants who form the Sub-Unit E-FTC5921 at the Brewer DNA Project, this is the scenario that I would suggest researchers begin working from.

BGB 748

New Publication From David V. Brewer, "Brewer Families of Moore, Chatham, and Randolph Counties, North Carolina"

 Just released and placed online last night, the full title: "Brewer Families of Moore, Chatham, and Randolph Counties, North Carolina: In Search of the Descendants of George Brewer of Brunswick County, Virginia," is the latest work from David V. Brewer, a co-administrator of the Brewer DNA Project who oversees the Project's Group known as "Lanier-Brewer." David has very generously made his 357 page paper available with the link below. But first, I suggest you read through David's preview and synopsis as originally posted on the Brewer DNA Project's Activity Feed page:

"In 2018, I wrote a paper about the Brewers from Moore and Southwest Chatham Counties, North Carolina, mainly because I knew that my ancestors haled from there. I finished too quickly, missing many details, clues, and family connections. I also made the mistake of thinking I needed to publish something on paper, which I've learned makes it even harder to correct mistakes. Since then, picking up more leads and confronting mistakes where I'd been too quick in the curves, helped me appreciate the value of patience in this hobby. So, the link below will take you to a broader, hopefully more carefully researched, yet still hopelessly incomplete effort to sort out and trace the Brewers of the tri-county region (Moore, Chatham, Randolph). Unlike the first version, this version of the paper discusses in detail the Haw River Brewers, including Henry, Oliver, and Nathaniel Brewer, as well as the descendants of Nicholas Brewer and several Brewer families from northern Chatham County, including the families of John, Samuel and Abel Brewer, who were closely associated with the other Brewers in the area. The paper also discusses in detail descendants of the tri-county Brewers who moved to Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina in the early decades of the 1800's. 

 "I'm now even more convinced that most of the sons of George Brewer (1680?-1744?) of Brunswick County, Virginia moved to the tri-county region in the 1750's and 1760's. Among those sons, Howell (I), Lanier (I), and probably John and their offspring settled in southwest Chatham, northern Moore, and southeast Randolph Counties. Henry, Oliver, and probably Nathaniel settled in the Haw River area of central and northern Chatham County, as did sons of Nicholas Brewer (I). In fact, the only two branches of George's supposed male descendants that didn't move to the tri-county region in that era were William and George Brewer Jr. and their children. Interestingly, DNA evidence has shown that several Brewer Project members who credibly trace their ancestry to those two men, unlike the descendants of Lanier (I), Howell (I), John, Henry, and either Oliver or Nathaniel, aren't positive for haplogroup I-Y82422. The significance of that variance remains unclear. 

"As before, this paper is not a list of family trees or pedigrees. All you need to do is poke at the pedigrees in hundreds of Brewer family trees purporting to date back to the 1700's that are posted on Ancestry.com to see that the vast majority of them simply are not adequately supported by credible data. In my view, the certainty that we all understandably seek isn't possible at this stage of our collective knowledge. There simply are too many record gaps in virtually all the lines under study. Instead, my goal has been to compile and integrate existing research about the obscure period between 1750 and 1850 with some newer information, including the early results of YDNA genetic testing of male line descendants of the Brewer families from this region. At most, this is just a next step in the process of filling gaps in our knowledge. 

"But that doesn't mean we should demand too much certainty before drawing tentative conclusions. For example, the paper addresses two questions that researchers of the extended Brewer families of the tri-county region must confront. How do we know whether Howell Brewer I was the father of Howell Brewer II, and how do we know whether Lanier Brewer I was the father of Lanier Brewer II. The simple answer to both questions is we don’t know. But that’s a bit of a dodge as more layers of genetic evidence have been unpeeled, most of them in the last decade. The fact is that we have three distinct subgroups of closely related Brewer descendants who can trace their ancestry to the tri-county region and, from there, most probably to George Brewer of Brunswick. The first, haplogroup I-Y15300, subclade I-Y182422, Brewer DNA Project subgroup A, probably consists of descendants of John Brewer, the son of George Brewer. In addition, there are two more defined branches of subclade I-Y182422 that probably are more than 250 years old years old. Descendants of Willis Brewer (born in the 1760’s), Royal Brewer (born about 1770-1775), Henry Brewer (born about 1780), Solomon Brewer (born about 1785), Wiley Brewer (born about 1790), Jenkins Brewer (born 1812-1815), and Andrew Brewer (born about 1818) all have tested positive for subclade I-Y29640. The common ancestor of these men almost certainly was born in the early to mid-1700’s, and no later than the 1740’s. As discussed in the paper, we have an even further refinement of this line showing that another sub-branch, SNP FTD55716, probably arose in the mid-1700’s. Lanier Brewer II, likely born in the 1740’s or 1750’s, probably wasn’t positive for that mutation, but I suspect that a sibling of his was. That man, in turn, probably was the grandfather or great grandfather of Willis, Jenkins, and Andrew Brewer. 

"A somewhat similar pattern exists for descendants of haplogroup I-Y15300, I-Y182422, subclade I-Y23708. Descendants of Isaac Brewer (born 1763), Harmon Brewer (born mid-1760’s), and Cornelius Brewer (born early 1780’s), as examples, all are positive for subclade I-Y23708. The first-hand account of Isaac Brewer stated that his father was Howell Brewer (II), who almost certainly was born before 1745. Isaac Brewer stated that he had an Uncle John Brewer, and more than 100 years ago, Street Brewer passed on the family history that Harmon Brewer’s father was John Brewer. If that information is correct, and there’s no reason apart from sheer fussiness to ignore it -- especially in light of YDNA evidence that descendants of Harmon and Howell II are both positive for subclade I-Y23708 – then the grandfather of Isaac and Harmon Brewer also probably would have been positive for subclade I-Y23708. That man would have been born no later than the early 1720’s and, based on what we know about the earliest Brewer migrants to the tri-county area, there are three reasonable possibilities: Howell I, Lanier I, and John Brewer. 

"Again, the paper argues that descendants of George Brewer's son John probably fall into Haplogroup I-Y15300, I-Y182422, Brewer Project Subgroup A. If that's right, this leaves Howell I and Lanier I. Because subclade I-Y23708 probably arose in their generation, and membership in that subclade and subclade I-Y29640 is mutually exclusive, those two subclades most likely are separate YDNA branches representing those two sons of George Brewer. True, we can’t yet say to a reasonable probability whether subclade I-Y29640 arose in the first or second generation after George Brewer. But that doesn’t undermine the essential point that these two subclades probably are distinct earmarks for descendants of Howell I and Lanier I. 

"As discussed in the paper, there are generations of old stories in the families of Solomon (born about 1785), Wiley (born about 1790), and George Brewer (born about 1775) that the father of those men was named Lanier Brewer. Those stories, shared among geographically separated family clusters whose descendants all are positive for subclade I-Y29640, ultimately tip the scales for me. If we conducted a civil trial where the proponent’s burden of proof is by a preponderance of the evidence, most jurors would give the answer common sense suggests is correct: Descendants of Howell Brewer I are positive for subclade I-Y23708, and descendants of Lanier Brewer I are positive for subclade I-Y29640, with one of his sons (not Lanier II) probably having been the source of the further downstream mutation of SNP FTD55716. The same evidence wouldn’t satisfy the criminal law standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. But my instinct tells me that, in time, more evidence will. And, if not, there will be many opportunities to reconsider. 

"With that peek under the hood, here's the link to the current version of the paper:

 

Brewer Families of Moore, Chatham and Randolph Counties, North Carolina: In Search of the Descendants of George Brewer of Brunswick County, Virginia

 

I look forward to your comments, questions and corrections."

 

Thank you David.

 

David can be contacted through the Brewer DNA Project website. And a little note of my own: The paper is a relatively large file, should it not completely load on your computer, close it, then try again. It should then load.

 

BGB 747 

Henry Brewer and Mary Wickoff, New Jersey Marriage License

 The January 13, 2023 post, "New Jersey Marriage Records, 1665-1800: BREWER and BROWER," includes an entry for Brewer, John, Hunterdon, and Mary Wickoff, taken from"Index to Marriage Bonds and Marriage Records in the Office of the Secretary of State at Trenton," found in Nelson, William. Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey. Volume XXII. Marriage Records, 1665-1800. Archives of the State of New Jersey. First Series. Paterson, N.J.: Press Printing and Publishing Co., 1900:32. I followed this up with a note that the New Jersey State Archives Searchable Database for Colonial Marriage Bonds, shows the couple as Henry Brewer, of Hunterdon (County) and Mary Wickoff. So, which one is it? Was it a John Brewer, or was it a Henry Brewer who had a license to Mary Wickoff dated April 5, 1783?

For a small fee a copy, either physical or digital, can be ordered from the New Jersey State Archives. I did just this. Turn around time was fairly quick. And the original license shows that it was a Henry Brewer who married Mary Wickoff with a license dated April 5, 1783. I received via email a digital copy which was delivered as a PDF, which you dear reader, can now view here. The bond of five hundred pounds for the license was put up by "Henry Brewer of Hunterdon County and Jacob Johnston of the same place yeomen." The marriage license itself does not state the residence of the bride, Mary Wickoff.

A quick search at FamilySearch.org's database titled, "New Jersey Marriages, 1678-1985," using the name, Henry Brewer, gives us a bit more info into the couple. The search results tell us that Henry was born in Hunterdon County and that his father was named Daniel Brewer. Mary Wickoff's place of birth is not recorded, but the record names her father as William Wickoff. 

William F. Wyckoff, in "Notes On The Wyckoff Family," published in the Somerset County Historical Quarterly volumes 2 and 3 (1913-1914) at 3:202, tells us that the above mentioned William Wickoff, whose wife was named Mollie or Mary (see 3:42), had children Nicholas (the eldest), Phebe (m. Sickles) and Mary (m. Brewer). It is also stated that William Wickoff "moved to Central New York and died there in 1812 at Fayette, Seneca County." The previous entry for William Wickoff (at 3:42) had omitted these three children, but had included a son Edward, baptized 12 April 1772 at the North Branch Reformed Church in Readington, Hunterdon Co., New Jersey. This baptism can be found in Readington (North Branch) Baptisms in SCHQ 5:305, where the parents are recorded as Williem Wickoff and Mollie, but no witnesses/sponsors are given.

If we assume that both Henry Brewer and Mary Wickoff were young adults when married, it is probable that they were both born in the early 1760s, or perhaps the late 1750s. William F. Wyckoff presumably did not find baptism records for Mary or the other two children included in his followup piece. I have not looked for such baptisms myself. Perhaps he learned the names of these children from some probate record, but if so, he does not mention it specifically. His "notes" do not provide source citations. I have not had the opportunity to check the Seneca County, New York probate records.

There is a Daniel Brouwer, variously recorded as Brouer and Brower, who along with his wife Maria/Marya had six children baptized in the Raritan River valley Reformed Churches, one in 1755, then a gap of nine years, followed by five more 1764 through 1770, which includes two, Daniel and Maria (perhaps twins, but not specifically stated as such) on 24 June 1764 at Readington (SCHQ 5:146). The previous post of February 25, 2023, mentions this baptism. I have not found a record for the baptism of a son named Henry, however as just mentioned, there is a nine year gap where other children may have been born, but who were either not baptized, or for whom baptism records have not been found, at least not among the Reformed Dutch Church records. This Daniel Brouwer is not found on the BGD, and perhaps we'll look into him a bit more in a future post.

An important take away from all of this is off course the fact that transcribed records, even highly regarded and frequently cited ones such as William Nelson's "Index to Marriage Bonds and Marriage Records..." can have errors. In this case the error clearly is on the part of the transcriber/compiler. The original record, once sought out, reveals that is was a Henry Brewer, and not a John Brewer, who married Mary Wickoff with a bond dated April 5, 1783.

BGB 746