Descendants from our
ancestor Roelof Martense Schenck (b. 1619) are many, and there is a vast amount
of information found on the Internet and elsewhere about the American part of
the line. Roelof Schenck and his siblings Jan and Annetje migrated to the Dutch
colonies in America in 1650. Roelof was said to have been born (1619) in Amersfoort,
Utrecht Province. There are many people (now and in centuries past) who link
our Roelof’s ancestry to the aristocratic line of Schenck Van Nydeggen, despite
the lack of evidence (e.g. church records). The case against this assumption: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Dutch-Colonies/1998-01/0885241193 My correspondent Pete Schenck has provided me
with pdf images of the April 1937 issue of “The New York Genealogical and
Biographical Record”, which forms the basis of this note.
An extract: “It is a
difficult and thankless, even an almost hopeless task, to convince the average
amateur genealogist that it would he better to give up a long cherished belief
in a descent from distinguished, preferably noble, forbears when it has been
proven that the pedigree cannot stand close investigation.” In other
genealogical research, I have encountered instances where long-standing and
widely believed views are just wrong. And good luck trying to get a
substantiated alternate view accepted.
 |
Nydeggen Castle of the Count of Jülich. Christianus
Schenck (born 1220) lived and worked here and became
the first of the Schenck Van Nydeggen cadet line |
Marten Schenck, alleged
father of our Roelof Martense Schenck, was said to have been married at
Amersfoort about 1618 to Maria Margaretha De Boeckhorst. My microfilm search
failed to locate a record of this marriage. This microfilm was FHL INTL Film
543971, Dutch Reformed Church records for Amersfoort, 1583-1624. “Fiches
collectie van trouwen in de Nederlands Hervormde Kerk: Fiches Trouwen
1583-1624”. The only Schenck marriage on this entire microfilm was for Matijs
Christoffel Schenck, 28 February, 1617. The name of his wife is a bit unclear,
but she came from nearby Soest. The microfilm listed several men with the given
name Roelof, which is reportedly found more in areas associated with Schenck
Van Toutenburg, but not in Limburg, ground zero for Schenck Van Nydeggen.
Dutch practices of naming
kids varied, but the most common practice was for a first son to be named after
the paternal grandfather, a second son to be named after the maternal
grandfather, a third son to be named after the father’s paternal grandfather,
and so on down through 6 sons and 6 daughters. If Roelof Martense Schenck and
first wife Neeltje Gerretse Van Kouwenhoven followed this practice, let us look
at what the ancestral names should have been. First son Jan. Second son Martin.
Third son Garret. Well, it looks like Roelof and Neeltje varied the pattern a
bit. It looks like Garret was named after Neeltje’s father. Martin was
presumably named after Roelof’s father. Who was Jan named after? Roelof had a
brother Jan and a first son named Jan (died as a child). Who was Jan in
Roelof’s ancestry? And why did Roelof have no descendant named Pieter (his
alleged grandfather)? Look at this pattern of descent: Marten Schenck
(father of Roelof and Jan) – Jan Martense Schenck – Martin Janse Schenck – John
Schenck – Martin Schenck, etc.
Some Jan Janssen Schenck
was baptized on November 27, 1645, at Wijk bij Duurstede, which lies just south
of Amersfoort, Utrecht Province. The Jan Schenck who was father to this guy
would have been a contemporary of our Roelof Martense Schenck. Roelof allegedly
lived in Amersfoort from 1630 to 1650. Wijk bij Duurstede was quite rich
in the surname Van Scherpenzeel, and was also associated with Utrecht Catholic
Archbishop Fredrik Schenck Van Toutenburg (d. 1580).
It is usually claimed
that Roelof’s grandfather was Pieter Schenck Van Nydeggen (b. 1547, Goch,
Germany). Pieter reportedly married Johanna Van Scherpenzeel in 1580 in
Doesburg, Gelderland. This marriage does not appear to be in the online Gelders
archives records. www.geldersarchief.nl Pieter was said to have died at Doesburg. In
April, 2012, I had a private tour of the Martinikerk in Doesburg. My guide was
a Doesburg man who researches burials there. A fairly complete 1937 inventory
of burials listed no Schenck. My guide said that Judge Van Scherpenzeel was a
Doesburg name known to him. This was possibly Johann (the reported father of
Johanna Van Scherpenzeel), who was said to have been a judge. Further, Pieter’s
sister Maria Margrieta Schenck Van Nijdeggen Voorst appears in 1614 online
records in connection with Doesburg. My Doesburg guide suggested that I look
further south for the Schenck Van Nydeggen surname.
In addition to online
data, the Gelderland archives at Arnhem may have unpublicized family folders, I
was told by my guide at Doesburg. There was no time on this holiday for
archives work. Archives at The Hague may also have pertinent information, he
said.
A Schenck correspondent
who lives in Limburg Province, Netherlands, thinks that our Roelof may have
instead descended from the Schenck Van Toutenburg line. Particular given names
in Dutch families tend to recur. The name Roelof is unknown among the Schenck
Van Nydeggen line, and is indeed unusual in the south of the Netherlands where
many Schenck Van Nydeggen lived (especially Limburg Province). The given name
Roelof occurs more often in the middle of the Netherlands, in regions where
Schenck Van Toutenburg lived. An up-to-date summary of Schenck Van Nydeggen: www.genbronnen.nl/genealogie/schenck-van-nydeggen/deel-I.html I encountered the given name Roelof several
times on that microfilm of Amersfoort marriages.
Online Utrecht archives
data have multiple references to both Schenck Van Nydeggen and Schenck Van
Toutenburg. Around the time of Roelof’s reported birth at Amersfoort,
there were some Schenck and several Scherpenzeel persons on Dutch Reformed Church
records (on DVD from www.DutchGenealogy.com) at Wijk bij Duurstede, which lies south of
Amersfoort and southeast of Utrecht. There are Schenck persons living in that
village today. They could descend from either aristocratic line, or other lines
altogether. The Bishops of Utrecht held Duurstede Castle www.castles.nl/duur/duur.html including Archbishop Frederik Schenck Van
Toutenburg.
Some Berndt Schenck Van Nijdeggen
of Emmerijck married Beeligje Meussen in Wijk bij Duurstede on September 20,
1618, the year before our ancestor Roelof was reportedly (where is the evidence
for that?) born at nearby Amersfoort. Over 3 decades prior to this wedding, a
Berndt Schenck Van Nijdeggen was described as a cousin of Peter/Pieter Schenck
Van Nydeggen (b. 1547, Goch). In order to secure Maarten Schenck Van Nydeggen’s
release from captivity, hostages were part of a complex deal. Hostages included
Maarten’s brother Peter, and cousins Berndt Schenck Van Nijdeggen and “Johann
Van Cleet” (Cleef?). This was reported on page 19 of “The Rev. William Schenck:
His ancestors and descendants”. I don’t know where that book author got the
name of the earlier Berndt Schenck Van Nijdeggen, but I’ll bet that the author
was unaware of the existence of the later Berndt Schenck Van Nijdeggen. So, we
have a Berndt allegedly a cousin of Pieter, and a Berndt showing up near
Amersfoort just prior to the reported birth of Roelof. Interesting.
Are we to be stuck in
limbo forever? I don’t think so, but it will require some enthusiasm for yDNA
testing among Schenck-surnamed men of probable Dutch origin in America, in
North Limburg (plus the Nijmegen area, rich in the Schenck surname in 1947),
and Schenck whose ancestors came from Schenck Van Toutenburg areas (Gelderland,
Utrecht, and Overijssel). It will take several high-resolution STR yDNA
samples to be able to triangulate on number of generations to Most Recent
Common Ancestors, arrive at meaningful groupings of lineages, and tease out
Non-Paternal Events (e.g. adoptions). Deep ancestry would also prove
interesting. I don’t mean to imply that yDNA can give us answers to all the
particular questions we might have about the ancestry. But, I do think it is
possible to prove or disprove genetic kinship among the Dutch Schenck groups,
and descendants of the Schenck men who settled in New Netherlands in the 1600s.
It is hoped that eventually there will be yDNA profiles available from both of
these aristocratic Schenck lines, as well as non-Dutch lines. A few years ago
there was no Clan Donald DNA Project; today the project is huge. The same could
be done for Schenck.
Surnames distribution
mapping at various time periods have shown some degree of stability over time.
The book “Surnames, DNA, and Family History” outlines the case for this in
England. Cleves district Germany & Limburg Province Netherlands were
two main centers for Schenck Van Nydeggen. Cleves: Goch, Gaesdonck Monastery,
Walbeck Castle, Schenckenshans Fortress, Wachtendonk, and Emmerich. Limburg:
Afferden, Bleijenbeek Castle, a castle at Venlo, Sevenum, and Castle
Hillenraad.
Given the number of
centuries during which North Limburg Province and neighboring parts of Germany
and Netherlands were ground-zero for Schenck Van Nydeggen, many
Schenck-surnamed males now living in this vicinity would seem to stand a good
chance of being linked via yDNA to Schenck Van Nydeggen. Currently, New Jersey
and Delaware have relatively high concentrations of the Schenck surname.
Undoubtedly, many of these persons descend from Dutch Schenck people who
appeared in the 1600s in future New York State. There is a New York State DNA
project which includes the surname Schenck, but as of mid-2012 the Schenck samples
were autosomal DNA, not yDNA. Autosomal DNA can help spot genetic cousins with
the Most Recent Common Ancestor only about 5 generations back. We need
Schenck-surname high-resolution (67 STR markers or more) yDNA to track the male
line back indefinitely in time. The Netherlands Y DNA Project www.familytreedna.com/public/NetherlandsY and joint Netherlands yDNA and mtDNA project www.familytreedna.com/public/Netherlands/default.aspx are in need of Schenck samples. Currently
(Winter 2012), Family Tree DNA has 4 Schenck yDNA samples, but the ancestry of
the donors is not public. Two of the 4 samples had a common ancestor
several generations ago, and these samples fall into Haplogroup R1b, which is
quite common in Western Europe.
where my ancestors Daniel
and Mary Van Voorhees Brewer appear. Family Tree DNA Kit # 55150 came from a
distant Brewer cousin of mine, a descendant of Daniel Brewer who married Mary
Van Voorhees, Butler Co. Ohio. These were the parents of Tina Brewer Williamson
(mother of Margaret Williamson McCreary).
is interesting,
particularly regarding a possible Balkans connection.
