van Vondelen and Wandell

by Rick Barwick with Frank Wandell, revised

We’ve developed a pedigree that we hope will show the Wandells in America as the descendents in a line of van Vondelen first known to originate in Belgium. The name evolved from van Vondelen to van den Vondelen, then van den vondel, as new generations of the family moved from Belgium, to the Rhineland, and/or Germany, and finally to Holland. For over 200 years the family held fast to its homeland and stayed in The Netherlands until finally escaping religious persecution and fleeing to America. Upon settling in the new world, they either adopted the name Wandell, or anglicized the original family surname to Wandell, just as New Amsterdam became New York.

The LDS genealogy library lists a birth record in Antwerpen, Belgium, of one Matheus VAN VONDELEN in the year 1494. The collection of records follows his descendents beginning in 1520 with the birth of a son he would name JOOST. This son became the first of six descending males to be so named. None of the six named Joost would die before producing a son to carry on the family name.

The records we discovered show that the family began in Belgium and ended in Waalwijk, Noos Brabant, Netherlands with the birth of JACOBUS in 1719. There were no records present that revealed a direct connection between van Vondelen and Wandell. Names, dates, and locations are all derived from the LDS record accessible at www.familysearch.org. Although speculation abounds, we believe the pedigree that follows is true and factual from beginning to end.

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Our theory was developed in this manner: We first assumed that the relationship that appeared in a historical passage of New York between the New York Wandells and the Dutch poet van den Vondel had merit. We then located the oldest available record of van den vondel discovered in the LDS repository and made a chart of all relationships and descendents. The only mystery that remains is the likelihood of the evolution of the name, from van Vondelen in Belgium in the year1494 to Wandell in 18th century New Amsterdam/New York.

I invite all offers of fact, guesswork and speculation.

1. MATHEUS VAN VONDELEN, born in 1494 in Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium. He marries ADRIANA RABEELS in 1519, in Antwerpen. She was born in 1498. The record reflects that the couple had only one child who they named JOOST.

2. JOOST VAN DEN VONDELEN was born in Antwerpen in 1520 and his was the first of six generations to have a Joost in the family. In other words, he is Joost no.1, in what is to be a succession of six. Joost number 1 was married on November 28, 1545 to ANNA VAN UFFELEN. She was born in 1524, the daughter of Jan Van Uffelen and Anna 'S Bolen of Antwerpen, Belgium.

Joost and Anna had three children, one of which they named Joost (Joost no. 2).

Joost number 1 remarried upon Anna's death. This second marriage was to CATHARINA SAMPSON, in 1562. Catharina was born in 1541, and she and Joost no. 1 had one child.

3. JOOST VAN DEN VONDEL. Joost no. 2. (Notice how the name has begun to evolve. Either there are language principles at work here, modifying the family surname as it identifies an offspring, or there are errors in the transposition of records by the LDS recorder). Joost number 2 was born in Antwerpen in 1554. Joost no. 2's marriage to SARA KRANEN (who was born in 1558) takes place in Köln Stadt, Rhineland, Preussen in 1585.

4. JOOST VAN DEN VONDEL. Joost No. 3, the son of Joost no.2 and Sara Kranen, was born in Köln, Rhineland, Preussen, (Cologne, Germany), on November 17, 1587. This Joost has been eluded to in various other family history recordings as living long beyond the norm, and in all actuality, this Joost is famous in his own right. Read on.

Vondel, Joost van den (1587 - 1679), Dutch poet and playwright, born in     Cologne, Germany; for most of his life he lived in Amsterdam. Although largely self-taught, Vondel became the outstanding poet of Holland's golden age. He is the Poet Laureate of Holland, and is also known as the Dutch Shakespeare. As a humanist, he rebelled against the strict Calvinism of his day, and later converted to Roman Catholicism. Joost no. 3's first successful play, Het Pascha (The Passover), and his early poems were the result of his study of classical drama and poetic theory. Lyrics from his subsequent plays are considered the finest poetry in the Dutch language.

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Joost no. 3, at age 23, married MAYKEN DE WOLF. The marriage took place on November 20, 1610, in Amsterdam. Joost and Mayken would have 5 children, although only two would live to adulthood. The first of these was a daughter, Anna, who was born in 1611 and lived to the age of 63. The second was a son they named Joost (Joost no. 4, who was born in 1612 and died in 1660 when he was 48 years old)

Joost number 3 died at age 91 on February 5, 1679.

5. JOOST VAN DEN VONDEL. Joost no. 4, son of Joost and Mayken, was born 1612 in Amsterdam and died in 1660. Although he died at the young age of 48, he still managed to be married twice and father five children. His first wife was AALTJE VAN BANCKEN, who was born in Amsterdam in 1622. They married on August 7, 1643. Aaltje presumably died in childbirth in November, 1648.

On May 21, 1650 Joost married BAERTGEN HOOFT. There is no other information available on Baertgen, except that she was the mother of our 5th Joost.

6. JOOST VAN DEN VONDEL, Joost no. 5 was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 1651. On May 7, 1674 he married AALTJE VAN RECHTEREN. Holding with family tradition, they gave the name of Joost (Joost no. 6) to a son, born in 1675.

7. JOOST VAN DEN VONDEL. Joost no. 6. Born in Amsterdam in 1675. His travels took him to Waalwijk, Noos Brabant, Netherlands, where he met and married JACOBA DU BOIS on July 7, 1704.

Jacoba was born in 1683 and died October 8, 1721. Prior to her death at the young age of 38, she gave birth to three sons.

The first son, born in 1717, was named DIONYSIUS.

The second son was born in 1718, and was named JOHANNES.

The third son was born 1719 and was named JACOBUS.

The European van den Vondel story ends here, in Waalwijk, Netherlands, with the birth of the three sons to Joost no. 6 and Jacoba Dubois.

Another version of the story, or perhaps a continuation of this version, takes place when at least two of the three sons (Johannes and Jacobus) leave the Netherlands under duress, fearful of persecution by the Catholic Church. They take up residence in New Amsterdam, which later becomes New York City. It has been written that these two brothers, Johannes and Jacobus, are the progenitors (forefathers) of the American Wandell family as they settled in the state of New York. Little more has been discovered about the third brother, Dionysius, and there are few connections of interest in the line descending from Jacobus.

Based on the information as we have stated it above, the actual patriarch of the American Wandell family is Matheus van Vondelen and the six Joost van den Vondels also referenced herein, tracing all the way back to 1494 in Antwerpen.

On May 30, 1747, in Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York, a son was born to Johannes van den Vondel and Eleanor Thurston. His name was Jacob Wandell, and he would be the first American born "Wandell" and quite probably the principle patriarch of the American Wandell Family, whether or not his father, Johannes, had already taken the name "Wandell", a point for which no determination has been made.

We have reason to believe that Jacob Wandell served as a Quartermaster Sergeant in George Washington's army. This is certainly a point of interest. There is, however, a question surrounding another member of General Washington's troop, that being a young man named John Wandell (a private). There is an item on exhibit with Washington's Headquarters Museum, in Newburgh, New York, a discharge document signed by George Washington, himself. The name of the soldier, John Wandell may be an ancestor in our direct line of descendents, but we currently have no conclusive evidence to positively acert that claim. This Revolutionary War private may, however, be a younger brother to Jacob Wandell, the Revolutionary War Quartermaster Sergeant. It seems clear that Johannes and wife Eleanor Thurston, had four sons and one daughter, shown chronologically as Samuel, Jacob (our ancestor), Daniel, John, (probably the Revolutionary War private), and daughter Polly. Since our ancestor Jacob was born in 1747 and therefore of sufficient age to have been a Revolutionary War soldier, it seems reasonable that John was perhaps two years, and possibly three to five years younger, but still a good age to also be a Revolutionary War soldier. Johannes did not become a Revolutionary war soldier, and was probably not known as John, even though he had a son named John. In 1783, Johannes would have been 65 years old. His son Jacob would have been 36 years old, and the youngest, John, would have been two or more years younger.

Jacob Wandell married Catharine Stilwell and together they had ten children. Among their ten children, one would become a lawyer, another a politician. One son (Thomas) would travel west and settle in Wisconsin. His is the legacy of the family name that is still present today in that small Midwestern town. Another son (William) would become the father of two Civil War veteran brothers James and John Wandell. They were predecessors of the Wandell Clans still in New England and as far West as California.

Today, some of the diverse Americans who are the multiple great grandchildren of Thomas and James and John Wandell -- and their father Jacob Wandell, are in touch with one another. They are scattered across the U.S. A few years ago they did not even know of each others existence, and now, because of their genealogical research, their quest to find their kindred dead, they have also found each other -- distant cousins, other descendants of the same bloodlines, the same patriarchs and matriarchs. They have found family, the most eternal bond, and they have combined their efforts to create the written history that will appear on this website, the instrument for future generations to add their own stories.