Greetings to all my VAN WAGENEN, VAN WAGONER, VAN WAGNER, and VAN WAGNEN relatives, even those who have managed to spell your name incorrectly for the past two-hundred years. I will be making periodic changes as research demands and I invite you to return every now and then to see what’s happening, and to perhaps make a comment or two about the content of my website. There’s an email link at the bottom of this page and I urge you to drop me a note.
Do you have a grandfather or grandmother who is still living and is able to speak about his childhood and growing-up years? Are your own parents reaching the age where you must consider the fact that they won’t be with you forever?
Take some advice from me and purchase a tape and/or a video recorder. Sit down with your family member and spend a few hours while you ask them about what their life was like as they were growing up. Ask about their earliest childhood memories, what they remember about their mother and father and what kind of work they did. Ask about what school was like; what their teenage years were like; what they did at work and at play; ask them exactly where they lived, and ask if that house still stands. A0sk them where their parents or grandparents are buried; etc.
Tags: GENEALOGY
Check out this attached video and learn about your Dutch ancestors and their New Netherlands history.
I don’t wish to be commercial, however it appears that some family members do not realize that my first book “JACOB VAN WAGENEN of Wageningen, Holland” is still available. This book, published in 1994, is hardcovered, contains 440 acid free pages of Van Wagenen, Van Wagoner, Van Wagner, and Van Wagnen family lines, and is fully indexed by the Van Wagenen first name and spouse ‘s last name. Full price for this book is $50 which covers shipping. Check or cash to me at my home address, 32 Barbara’s Court, Saugerties, NY 12477.
I’m pleased to inform you that the genealogy of Gerrit Aertsen Van Wagenen that I’ve been researching for the past twenty-nine years is now available via email to anyone who would like to have it. I’ve not found time to publish these 330 or so pages in book form, and because it’s taken me so long to gather all this information, I decided that it’s time to show family members what it is that I’ve been doing. I know that some people probably still don’t believe that I’ve spent the past 29 years researching our family, but it’s the truth and you can now see for yourself what it’s all about and why it’s taken so long.
In late 2009 I received the results of a DNA test that I had done by “Ancestry.com” and it states that our family belongs to the Stonemasons, haplogroup I, which is about 30,000 years old. The Stonemasons are best known for crafting pointed stone blades, known as Gravette Points, to hunt bison, horse, reindeer and mammoths.
Stone played a functional and religious role for the Stonemasons, who crafted voluptuous Venus figurines, possibly out of steatite, calcite, limestone or other soft stone. Although the exact significance of the figurines is not known, they may represent fertility or the Earth Mother goddess, a concept which prevails in many cultural mythologies. The Stonemasons could have regarded the Earth Mother as a symbol of security or as a deity who enabled plentiful harvents and numerous offspring. The Ice Age probably shaped the story of the Stonemasons. An ice shelf formed during the final stages of the Ice Age moved as far as southern Ireland, mid England and northern Germany, covering all of Scandinavia, where the Stonemasons lived. Northern Spain and continental Europe were covered in tundra during these climatic shifts.
As the Stonemasons moved their homes south to hunt game below the tree line, they settled primarily in the Balkans, southern France, Iberia (present day Spain and Portugal) and Italy. As they migrated, the Stonemasons played a possible role in developing the distinct difference in the languages of eastern and western Europe. When the Ice Age ended, many of the Stonemasons returned to their northern homes and repopulated Scandinavia, Iceland and northwest Europe.
Based on my DNA test, they predict that we belong to a subgroup of the Stonemasons, haplogroup I1. This group may have participated in a coastal migration route about 10,000 years ago, during a time period archaeologists call the Holocene epoch. The I1 Stonemasons primarily occupied Norway, Sweden and Denmark, as well as parts of Finland settled by the Laplanders.
Based upon what they know about those regions and their traditions, it’s possible that our ancient ancestors worshipped the god Woden, also known as Odin. When Christianity replaced paganism, Woden was retained in the culture’s folklore ass a historical king. Tales about Woden describe him as leading a wild hun in the sky with a group of spectral horsemen. In a practical sense, this myth may have been used to explain thunderstorms. Woden is also reflected in mondern languages “Wednesday” is named after the god.
Note: This is only the beginning of my DNA research. I’ll be making additional notes as I find new information or if an when an exact DNA match is found.
Tags: Ancestry.com, GENEALOGY
SOJOURNER TRUTH: Isaac D. Van Wagenen was born 10/11/1796 and died 10/15/1867. He married Maria Schoonmaker, born 10/20/1800, the daughter of Johannis S. Schoonmaker and Maria Markle. They are buried in the Van Wagenen Cemetery at St. Remy, New York (near Kingston). About 1797 Sojourner Truth was born a slave named Isabelle Hardenburgh at the home of Col. Johannis Hardenburgh in Swartkill, near Rifton, in what is now the Town of Esopus. She was freed in 1827 and became an ardent abolitionist, a preacher, a temperance leader and woman’s rights advocate.
THE VAN WAGENEN LIBRARY AT THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT COBLESKILL, SCHOHARIE COUNTY, NEW YORK:
JARED VAN WAGENEN was born on May 14, 1871 at the family homestead at Lawyersville, and died on March 25, 1960 at home. On December 31, 1896 at Cobleskill he married Magdalena Eliza Lamont who was born on April 9, 1874 at Cobleskill and died on December 14, 1965 at Lawyersville. They are both buried in the Cobleskill Cemetery. Jared was a reknowned agriculturist, author, and radio commentator for many years on radio station WGY in Schenectady. He wrote a definitive study on life in the 1800′s which he entitled “The Golden Years of Homespun”.
He was a member of the New York State Assembly, elected on November 4, 1919 as a democratic candidate from Schoharie County.
The genealogical lineage of Jared Van Wagenen is found in my yet-to-be published book entitled “Gerrit Aertsen Van Wagenen of Wageningen, Holland”. Additional information about Jared Van Wagenen may be found by contacting me at Cvanwagenen@hvc.rr.com
Tags: GENEALOGY
