Preface

When I begin writing, I like to have a clear purpose for my project and then be able to explain to my reader what I’m writing for in the first place. With this project, I wanted to write the story about my search for, and discovery of family history. Searching ought to be a rather simple thing to write about. You start here. You look there. Collect that. Combine these. Write it down. In this particular case, however, it wasn’t as easy as it first appeared.

I knew I’d have to research several surnames. That was the easy part. But I underestimated the task. I didn’t realize at first that my parents were each connected to four surnames. It suddenly dawned on me that there were eight families to search for. I’d never heard mention of more than three or four names before now. It wasn’t at first obvious to me that our ancestry is comprised of eight different families. The more I thought about it, the more aware I became that each generation back added four more names. I was feeling overwhelmed and hadn’t started anything yet. I hoped there would be family still around who might remember enough of our ‘who’s who’ to draw a map leading to my eight surnames.

For some reason, there were relatives who didn’t believe me that what I was doing was important. I was, at the time, fifty years old and didn’t know who my grandfather was. How could that not be important? I was asking simple questions but not getting reliable answers. Right off the bat there were road blocks in two of the eight directions I was heading. Obstacles appeared that were going to stop me before I could barely get started. There were many pieces to this huge puzzle. And I knew that when I finally pieced them all together, I would have some very interesting details of my heritage. But how do I do it?

The late, great author, Steven E. Ambrose was arguably one of the greatest American historians of the 20^th century. He wrote of some of the most trying times of our lives as well as the most formidable times. The renowned publisher, Simon &

Schuster said of him, “... Ambrose brings alive the men and women, famous and not, who have peopled our history and made the United States a model for the world.”[1]

Ambrose himself suggested. “The last five letters of the word ‘history’ tell us that it is an account of the past that is about people and what they did, which is what makes it the most fascinating of subjects.”[2]

I really want this project to be interesting. I want the characters in our story to “people” our family history. Some have been famous in their time, while others have served a term of notoriety. Famous or not, each family member plays a role in the history of our family. As a matter of fact, it has taken several dozen of our cousins just to compile the data needed to write this story. And every single member of the family throughout the course of our history has contributed to it as well.

My old college Thesauraus[3] says history is, “a narration of past events, a factual story of the past; a chronical account. And in my dictionary, history is defined as, “a chronological record of significant events… often including an explanation of their causes.”[4]

So, here we are. We’ve worked long and hard to recreate this story of the events as factually as we could, and in our own words. As you embark upon this journey through time, I hope you will come to realize our effort to breathe life into the past. I hope you’ll find yourself becoming a part of the story as you come to know those people whose birth, life, and death have been inscribed in the archives of the world. You will share the account of the past that is about the family, and what they did, and hopefully find them to be the most fascinating of subjects.

Chapter 1

Beginning

By Rick Barwick

Imagine for a moment that all history is outlawed. No one is allowed to converse about, write about, or even think about the past. It’s improper for a husband and wife to discuss their respective family’s histories. No one can talk about where they came from. You’re not allowed to mention your grandmother’s maiden name. You may never speak of any grandparent or aunt or uncle once they’ve passed away. Your persona is whatever you’ve made of yourself. Background as we know it is neither important nor allowable. You are who and what you are. Nothing about you is dependent upon who your parents were. Each of us is responsible for creating our own niche in this life. Try to Imagine that. What would our world be like?

As crazy as it might seem, that’s sort of the predicament I found myself in when, in September of 2000 I decided I wanted to learn about and then write my family history. I was thinking about my dad’s family background and realized that I had never even seen a photograph of my grandfather Barwick. I found it strange that I didn’t know much about either my Mom’s or my Dad’s grandparents. I was quite young when my Dad’s maternal grandparents died, and I wasn’t even born when his father’s parents passed away. The same was true for my mom’s grandparents.

My Dad had now been dead for ten years. His brother and sister were still alive, but I wondered if they had any knowledge of the family names. The only thing I was ever told was that we were from Poland on both sides of Dad’s family and Dutch-Irish and French on Mom’s side. The names Kostka and Barwick were Dad’s families, and Wendell and Belhumeur were my Mom’s. Beyond that, I hadn’t heard of any others. I was sure of that. Now I was more determined than ever to learn about our family history. If memory served me, there was a conversation that I had with my Grandmother Barwick several years back in which she referred to surnames for both her mother’s and mother-in-law’s families that ended in O-W-S-K-I. Now ten years later I was trying to remember what she had said. Was it Windowski, or Wendowski, or Lendowski, or Lewandoski? I couldn’t remember and was surely making things worse. Instead of eight names to research, this amounted to at least ten, and maybe more. Add to that the thought that my Mother’s grandmother Belhumeur could have spelled her name about three or four different ways, too. This could take forever. I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into.

I knew that my mom couldn’t help me much with the Barwick and Kostka family data. (Kostka was Dad’s Mom’s maiden name). I didn’t think my Mom ever knew her father-in-law. My grandfather Barwick had been a serious alcohol abuser who would abuse his wife when he’d been drinking. He was the classic example of an alcoholic spouse who would brutalize his mate while blaming her for his inadequacies and short-comings. There were several accounts of his actions and her reactions, but the long and short of it was that she threw him out shortly after giving birth to her third child, when my dad

was about five-and-a-half years old. Even Dad didn’t know his father. He never discussed it with us kids either. But somehow, over the years, we became aware of the circumstances surrounding the departure of his father from their lives. Maybe my aunt, Nancy would know something. Grandma had lived with Nancy for about 30 years. Mothers and daughters talk, after all, and maybe they talked about family stuff. Maybe Grandma talked to Aunt Nancy about the Barwick family enough that Nancy might be able to get me started in the right direction.

After a few phone calls, and several e-mails and letters between us, Aunt Nancy had been able to provide me with several details that were helpful. Her grandfather’s name was Carl Barwick and grandma’s was Mary. But the most important of the info I got from her was that two of my grandfather’s siblings were still living. She was able to give me the mailing addresses of both. I hurried to send off letters to each, introducing myself and asking for information about their family. The letters were sent and all I could do was wait and hope they’d respond.

This was a pretty rough time for me. I was having medical problems that limited my daily activities. I wasn’t able to sit at the computer for very long stretches, and I wasn’t able to travel out of the house for extended periods of time. I was physically limited by nerve damage to my legs after a series of surgeries I’d undergone in an attempt to improve my mobility and reduce neurological back pain. I could sit at the computer for fifteen of twenty minutes, then recline in my Lazy Boy and watch TV for a period of time, then try another fifteen minutes at the computer. I bragged of being a “professional TV Watcher.”

I’d had access to the Internet for only about two months during the fall of 2000, but was browsing with greater ease. At the same time, the field of genealogy was growing in popularity and approaching the forefront of most popular topics on the World Wide Web. It was my luck to be there, searching at the same time. I purchased a laptop computer with the notion that I could more comfortably browse the genealogical websites from my Lazy Boy Recliner for longer periods, and I was right.

I never heard back from my dad’s uncle and was discouraged at the thought of being completely ignored. But it was a pleasant surprise when I received a very nice letter from Anne Wutkowski, who was my grandfather Barwick’s youngest sister and my father’s aunt. Not only was it a pleasant letter, it was also filled with facts so tremendously significant that it opened up a flood gate of family information. And, as valuable as the new information was, there would be more to come. We exchanged several more letters that would validate the information I’d already collected from other family members. As more and more information surfaced about the Barwick family, so too did details of other branches of my family tree begin to emerge. There were also obstacles to overcome. I was able to find evidence of my Barwick great-grandparents, but couldn’t find anything back beyond them. And when I conducted Internet searches for my mother’s paternal grandparents, the Wendell family, there seemed to be nothing at all. No evidence whatsoever that the family ever existed anywhere in Wisconsin. And, if not in Wisconsin, then we were nowhere.

I pored over ship manifests of immigrants that processed through Ellis Island in New York, but couldn’t find a single Barwick or Wendell that I could connect with. As I saw it, my family connections just didn’t exist. I was absolutely burned out. Why couldn’t I have the kind of success that others were apparently having? Rock County, where the Wendell’s supposedly settled, or Marathon, where the Barwick’s had apparently farmed, should have some evidence that we were there. I had purchased compact computer discs that contained dozens upon dozens of names of families living in both counties who were counted in the U.S. Federal Census of the early 1900s. Through discussions with folks browsing the Marathon County website, I was willingly conducting “Look-ups” for anyone who asked and could provide details to search for. I’d find countless listings for other researchers, but I’d be “damned” if I could find anything of significance about my family. It would have been so easy to quit.

In a similar situation to that of my father’s aunt, Anne Wutkowski, I learned that my mother also had an aunt that was still living. I further learned that this aunt, Maude, had an adult daughter who had been researching her family history. Mom gave me a mailing address so I could write to this aunt and inquire about information that she or her daughter might be willing to share. Aunt Maude, I presumed, was born Maude Wendell, and surely she could offer at least some detail with which I could break my string of dead ends. I wrote another letter outlining what it was I was hoping for. In the meantime, my mother made this startling revelation that she was quite sure her last name had been changed at some point. She didn’t know what it was or why it was changed, but she was sure it happened. I was elated. Now I was sure I hadn’t yet gone crazy.

All these dead ends I was running into. Why hadn’t I heard of this detail sooner? But, that wasn’t important. The fact is that the name was something other than what it is now. Maybe Maude could tell us.

There are many resources for genealogical data on the Internet, but the largest collection of that data is the Genealogy Archive owned by the Mormon Church, (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or LDS). The many missions of the LDS throughout the world have acquired the birth, christening, marriage, and death records of families in every corner of the globe. The data is constantly being updated, digitized and placed on the Internet for access by the general public. I’m not sure how I ended up on the LDS website, but over the course of the last several years, nearly ninety percent of our documentation has either been discovered or validated by data on the familysearch.org website. The Mormons have become the guardians of the world’s genealogy.

Now, because of the stir I caused by bugging family members for information about family, I think I was being perceived as keeper of Barwick history. Even though there were some who could care less about where we came from, I wasn’t about to let anyone down. I wanted to write the family history. But I was going to write it the way I saw it. I wouldn’t discourage anybody from doing their own research and having their own conclusions but the history that I write will be from my perspective. Wasn’t it funny, I thought? Nobody was arguing with me. There were no disagreements. I got the job. Now how would I do it?

I knew that my father’s family had originated in the Marathon County area of Wisconsin, often referred to as The Heartland of America because of its location geographically at the heart of the nation. I became convinced that Marathon County was blessed with dedicated guardians of historical archive and they had digitally positioned that data on the Internet for all of us to use. It appeared as if someone had discovered papers in a shoe box and had digitized and placed the content of those papers on the web. That was great except that the data was just put out there without making any connection to other things that came from the same shoe box. The University of Wisconsin at Steven’s Point, (UWSP), had acquired the unofficial title of keeper of the Wisconsin Historical Archive. The library at the university was uploading the data and granting access to it via the Internet. UWSP had already catalogued obituaries which had at one time appeared in Steven’s Point’s two newspapers and, for a small fee, the UWSP students would research, copy, and mail the clipping upon request. The data was there, but it wasn’t always easy to decipher. I located obituaries of several of my dad’s Kostka relatives, and even found the death announcement of my great grandfather Barwick. I filled out the request form and sent it to the university, hoping that I might get some new information from within the notices.

Another item on the Marathon County site caught my eye. I discovered a Last Will and Testament of one Peter Barwig. This man lived in Pike Lake, which was a neighboring community to Bevent, in Marathon County, where my dad’s mother was from. The document listed the legal description of his farm land, his wife and children, and how he wished his estate to be divided. It was a typical bequest. The children’s first and last names were there, but some of the last names were spelled differently from one another. There was a B-A-R-W-I-K, then B-A-R-W-I-C-K, then back to B-A-R-W-I-G. I thought to myself, although it was a stretch, Barwig was close to Barwick in sound and spelling. What would it sound like if it were being spoken by someone who spoke Polish of German? Why not? Anyway, it was a thought I stored in the back of my mind for future reference. I also made sure that I had a copy of that Will. I never imagined how critical this piece of history would prove to be for me.

The Barwick name appeared in federal census records, and there were obituaries and birth records and Social Security Death Index records, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of any of them. I’d never heard of any of these people and was sure that they were not related. I was able to collect enough data to corroborate the information that my great aunt, Anne had given me, but I couldn’t go back beyond her father’s birth. I kept looking back at the Will that I found on the web. Peter Barwig was the man’s name. And it mentioned his thirteen children. I also found a copy of the 1880 U.S. Federal Census that listed this man, Peter, and his family. One of the children, an infant boy, was named Carl in the Will and that name coincided with Karol in the Will. I wrote another letter to Aunt Anne and asked if she recognized anything about this man or his children. Did she know the names of her father’s brothers or sisters? Did she recall the name of her Barwick grandparents? All questions whose answers would be monumental to the search for family. I mailed the letter and prepared for another “snail-mail” wait.

I had so much enthusiasm and exuberance toward this family history project that it was difficult to sit around and wait for fourteen days for the U.S. Mail. I kept pleading with my aunt, Nancy, and also with my Uncle Lee, youngest brother of Nancy and my dad for any little bit of information. Uncle Lee kept insisting that, because he was so young when all of the family crises occurred, he shouldn’t have any memory of anything historically speaking. I tried teasing him with little bits and details I’d put together and, the more I did, the more I sensed his interest growing. On one occasion he sent me an e-mail with several photos attached and apologized that he had forgotten about this shoe box full of photos that his mother, (my grandmother Barwick), had given him. I truly believe that photos, especially old photographs, are invaluable as a means of preserving family history. It just so happened that one photograph from that shoe box, a studio portrait of an old man, a woman and two female children, would turn out to be the key to the family tree. And that tree had thirteen branches. That picture was truly a goldmine.

Eventually there were other pictures, photographs of family members dating back to the 1880s that began turning up everywhere. Now, instead of frustration, I was feeling elated. I began receiving replies to the multitude of messages I had left on “bulletin Boards” on the Internet seeking information. A cousin in Dallas, Texas wrote to me about his mother’s family, named Barwick, and wondered was I related to her. I heard from a long-lost Wandell cousin in North Carolina. She

and another Wandell cousin from Washington had reached an impasse, had become discouraged by the lack of new data in their research and could I help them. I was accumulating so much stuff that I needed a place to put it all and keep it separated by surname and date. I came up with the idea to create my own website. I could build a family genealogy website where I’d post the latest discoveries. I could display all the great photos that were turning up from once forgotten shoe boxes. For a few dollars a month I was able to establish my own domain and have enough space to put up anything I wanted. I located the site of a secure and reliable sponsor and what followed was the birth of www.gramparick.com, new home of my family genealogy. The University of Wisconsin at Steven’s Point was providing a tremendous service for family genealogy researchers like me. The newspaper clippings that I requested finally arrived and I got so much more than I had expected. Receiving the obituary for my great-grandfather Carl Barwick was like winning the lottery. It listed his birth date and the place he was born. It named his surviving children, and those names were validated by information I got from Aunt Anne. She had listed the names of all her siblings and they coincided with the names in Carl’s death notice. But the most significant detail in the announcement was the appearance of the name of Carl’s surviving brother, Peter Barwick of Bevent! PETER!

In the 1880 U.S. Federal Census, in the town of Pike Lake, there was a record of a family whose head of household was one Peter Barwig. Beside his wife and older children, he also

had a son, Peter, and an infant son Carl, who was listed as seven months old. The obituary said Carl was born on November 5, 1879. The census was conducted in June of 1880. This was way more than coincidence. This had to be a match. This had to be my family. Of course. Now it was obvious why I hadn’t been able to find any family connection to Barwick. The family name was BARWIG!!! We all know that Christmas comes only once each year, but I couldn’t help feeling like it was Christmas all over again when I got my second present, gift wrapped as a package from my mother’s Aunt Maude. This time it was a large brown envelope containing eight hand-written pages of a family named WANDELL. Not Wendell, as my mother had spelled it her whole entire life. Not Wendell, as it appeared on the grave marker of my grandparents. Not Wendell, as I’d been entering it for each and every search I’d done on the Internet. Not Wendell. But WANDELL. Wandell was the family name that my Aunt Maude Wandell-Rasmussen wrote of in her reply to my letter. She gave me the names and the important dates of my Wandell ancestors, from my grandfather all the way back to my great-

great-great grandfather. That gentleman was Thomas Stilwell Wandell, born in New York on December 17, 1791. His death occurred on April 2, 1865 in Milton, Wisconsin, but not before fathering ten children.

And so it went. I was now faced with the undaunting task of detailing my rapidly expanding family history. I could now identify five generations of Barwig family ancestors, and six Wandell generations. The rapidly accumulating data with details so different from what I’d earlier presumed as fact had now made it necessary for me to begin all over again. Begin with a much greater knowledge of who we were and where we’d come from. I could now put to good use the hundreds of thousands of family records being made available on the World Wide Web. My fun was about to begin.

Chapter 2

WANDELL: All Joost Up

By Rick Barwick

The evidence I had regarding the origin of my Wandell family pointed to the New York area of the U.S. My first thought was that there is going to be such a tremendous volume of genealogy data to sort through in that part of the country that it would take years rather than the months I had in mind. But I also thought that, compared to the kinds of things that families did in farm country, big city folks would have done much more for the media to write about. Consequently, information about my Wandell ancestors should be in greater quantity and quality and therefore easier to find. I was right about my easy-to-find way of thinking, but I was a little off when it came to finding volumes.

My mother’s Aunt Maude had provided me with a family pedigree that went back to my great-great-great grandfather, Thomas Stilwell Wandell. She had been able to find only that he came from New York, but couldn’t be more specific than that. It gave me a good start though. She also reported his death to be in 1865 in Milton, Wisconsin. And, Maude offered one more detail in that Thomas Stilwell had ten children. Of those children, “the last to die,” she wrote, “was Thomas D. Wandell,” who was her grandfather.

With the substantial amount of family data that Aunt Maude offered, I was ready to attack the “Net”. The various genealogy repositories throughout the Internet were so rapidly expanding their databases that it was possible to find information dating back five, six, even seven hundred years ago. My favorite website had become the LDS Family-Search-dot-org site. Their Missionaries, it seemed, had canvassed all the countries throughout Europe in their effort to collect each and every piece of genealogical and historical data still in existence. I spent hour upon hour inputting the Wandell surname, fully expecting to have volumes of results to sort through. The volumes were there, but the connections were not. There were Wandells from the United Kingdom and there were Wandells from throughout Europe. There were Wandells who had lived all over the United States. There were plenty of Wandell records in New York, but I couldn’t find Thomas Stilwell, or any record that had his name as father, or son or brother to anyone else. Aunt Maude, it seemed, had already completed the research and she had given me everything that was available anywhere.

From among the many cousins that were researching the family files I was forwarded an excerpt from a book written about New York history. As I began to read the material, my heart started to race. My hands began to shake ever so slightly and I think my face became flushed, all because, as I read the material, I realized I was reading about my ancestors. Here is the excerpt as it was sent to me

FAMILY OF WANDELL[5]

This family, which dates back to the earliest Dutch period, had as its first representative Thomas Wandell. On March 28, 1658, Jan Peterson Van Holstein sold to Thomas Wandell, “resident at Mespot Kill, a house and lot in the Prince Graght, bounded north by the house and lot of the Fiscal, Nieasius De Sille, east by the lot of said De Sille, south by the house and lot of Mr. Herman Van Hoboken, and west by the Graght.” This house and lot were on the east side of Broad street in New York, between Beaver street and Exchange Place. He sold his house and lot to Katrina Kroegers in 1672 and the deed mentions him as residing at Mespot Kill. He was also the owner of several houses and lots in New Amsterdam and was evidently a man of extensive means. His house and land at Mespot Kill (now Maspeth) seem to have been the same place famous in later years as the country seat of Governor De Witt Clinton. He left no descendents, and died in 1688.

The progenitors of the present families in the name were two brothers, Johannes and Jacobus Wandell, who fled from Holland secretly in the night, leaving lights burning in their houses, to escape Roman Catholic persecution. They escaped with their lives but their extensive possessions were confiscated. Family tradition connects the earlier generation with the famous poet, Joost Voudel, known as “the Dutch Shakespeare”. To this connection our country’s poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, pleasantly alludes in one of his poems. Like most other family names, this has had its changes and is spelled by various branches as Wandal, Wandel, Wandle, and other forms.

I Johannes Wandell settled in Fishkill, Dutchess county, New York, and married a Miss Thurston. By this marriage, he had four sons and one daughter: Samuel, Jacob, Daniel, John, and Polly.

II Jacob Wandell, the second son, was born at Fishkill, May 30, 1747, and died at Haverstraw, Rockland county, New York, in 1827. He married Catharine Stilwell, (of) a well known and honored family, February 8, 1770. She was born at Hempstead, Long Island, March 26, 1749, and was the daughter of Stephen Stilwell, Brother of Samuel Stilwell who was the owner of a large amount of real estate in New York. They were the parents of ten children: Daniel T., born October 22, 1770, at Fishkill; John, October 10, 1772, at Newburgh, New York; William, October 10, 1772, at Newburgh, New York; Samuel, March 13, 1775; George, March 26, 1777, at Tappan, New York; Jacob, October 22, 1779; Abraham, December 24, 1781, at Tappan; James, August 3, 1784; Catharine, October 28, 1787; Thomas, December 17, 1791.

III Abraham Wandell, the seventh child, married Martha Coe, daughter of Benjamin Coe, of Haverstraw. Her father, who was of a distinguished family, was (a) member of the Assembly of New York State from Orange county, 1778, 1779 and 1798. His father, John Coe, was (a) member of the Provincial Congress, 1775, and was also Judge of Orange County and Member of Assembly, 1778, 1779, 1780, a curious instance of father and son being members of the Legislature at the same time. Benjamin Coe was the fourth member of Assembly for Rockland county in 1799, after that county was set off from Orange. He was in the State Senate 1807 to 1812 and was one of the Council of Appointment 1810-1811. His son Benjamin was Judge of Rockland county for many years. Martha Coe was born October 1, 1782, and died February 6, 1849. Her Husband, Abraham Wandell, died December 9, 1823. They were the parents of eight

children; Livingston, born March 11, 1801; Stilwell, born October 22, 1803; Sarah, born April 4, 1806, married Alonzo Vrendenburgh; March 19, 1809, married Nathan Sutton; Catherine,

born August 25, 1812, married (first) George Bride, (second) David Bartley; Adeline, born March 7, 1815; Juliet, born March 21, 1817, married Charles Sutton; Benjamin Coe, born December 28,1819.Benjamin Coe Wandell was born at the residence of his father in Van Dam street, New York. He married February 10, 1840, Caroline Sophia Pangburn, daughter of Jeremiah Pangburn, an old resident of the ninth ward. The children of this marriage were Townsend, born in New York, April 13, 1841; Caroline; Francis L.; Martha, wife of Charles R. Stilwell, and Josephine.

Among the early residents in New York may be mentioned Johannes and Abraham Wandell, who may have been of the same stock as the family we have mentioned. The latter was alderman in 1710-1711 and 1716. A branch of the Wandell family has lived on Staten Island from very early times. The Wandell Memorial Chapel (at) Concord stands on land owned by them in former times, and perpetuates the name.

Jacobus Wandell (brother of Johannes) settled in Albany or Troy. He had a very large family whose descendents are numerous and elsewhere. The Staten Island family is probably derived from him. Johannes Wandell is said to have been the owner of a thousand acres of land on the upper Hudson.

Jacob Wandell, his son, was a soldier in the Revolution and served throughout the war, and was paid off and discharged when the army was disbanded at Newburgh. He was personally acquainted with La Fayette, and upon his visit to the United States in 1824, the Marquis recognized and embraced him. At the close of the Revolution, Jacob Wandell was entitled to the sum of $800, which was never paid. He, however, obtained a grant of land upon which the city of Auburn is situated.

The discharge of Jacob Wandell, signed by General Washington is now among the historical relics at the headquarters in Newburgh. After the war he moved to Rockland county and settled at Tappan. In 1794 he went to Haverstraw and became a millwright. He and his wife died on Wyatt’s Island, now Long Island.

Abraham Wandell passed the early part of his life at Haverstraw, but came to New York soon after his marriage. He was master and owner of a sloop, and engaged in transportation between New York and Haverstraw. His son, Benjamin Coe Wandell, was engaged in the dry goods business in New York, in partnership with James H. Townsend until 1850. He then entered the China trade in the firm of Chambers and Heiser, who owned and sailed many Clipper ships. Upon one occasion he was shipwrecked in the China Sea, and barely escaped with his life. In 1857 he was sent to China with a large sum in gold for the purchase(d) of tea. For various reasons he did not think it advisable to invest and returned bringing the gold with him. This saved the firm from bankruptcy in the financial panic of 1857. In the meantime he loaded the ships with tea belonging to other parties, and thus made a large sum as freight. In 1873 the Board of Police Justices of New York had become so corrupt that they were legislated out of office, and the power to appoint a new board was vested in the mayor, Hon. William F. Havemeyer. Among the new justices appointed was Benjamin Coe Wandell. Although he had never studied law with a view of making it a profession, yet his sterling good sense and perfect knowledge of human nature made him exactly fitted for his new position. No justice was more respected, and no man in the city was more widely known, or highly esteemed than Judge Wandell. He possessed

remarkable facility as a public speaker, expressing his view with great force and eloquence. He was very prominently connected with the public schools and was one of their strongest supporters. After his term as justice ha(s) expired he lived a retired life at his residence, No. 157 East 83^rd street, and died there March 23, 1887, leaving an honored memory.

Townsend Wandell was born at his father’s residence, No. 704 Washington street, New York. His earliest education was obtained at a private school, and later at the public school in

Twenty-fourth street, which was under the charge of Thomas Foulke, a Quaker teacher and a man of marked ability. His assistant, Nelson B. Bartram, was equally noted as a teacher, and was a colonel in the Civil war. He then attended the New York Free Academy (now the College of the City of New York), being graduated in 1863, and the second in his class. In all the schools he attended he was remarkably successful in winning prizes and medals for superior scholarship. He then entered Columbia College Law School under Professor Dwight, noted as a lecturer and teacher. Upon being graduated and admitted to the bar, he established a law office in connection with William A. Whitbeck, but soon after practiced on his own account.

I was astounded by what I read in this article. Astounded and suddenly quite proud of my ancestors. Not a single nick in the armor. All well educated, highly respected. Politicians. Judges. Lawyers. Landowners. My 4^th Great Grandfather, Jacob Wandell was honorably discharged from the Revolutionary Army and by non other than General George Washington, himself. My ancestor was personally acquainted with the first President of the United States.

At this point I was thinking how much trouble I’d encountered trying to make connections via the Internet to something solid and with validity. There were those times when I seriously considered doing something else. Something altogether different from searching for my family history. But now I had this information. It was obvious to me that a tremendous amount of research went into the development of this story and these names and dates were priceless. Here were the facts and details that might have taken months to collect and verify and validate, and I came upon it in an e-mail from a cousin.

More than astonished by these new facts, I was excited by the connection that I now had to New York and to Thomas Stilwell Wandell. I had details about his parents and siblings. I had details about other branches of the family. The material provided important dates for many of the names. Armed with these vital statistics I hoped that my research into the origin of the family might become easier. Also, the article made mention of a famous poet Joost Voudel, the Dutch Shakespeare. Biographical data of famous people throughout

history can often be found in encyclopedias. I had the most current edition of “Encarta”[6] on my computer. Would I be able to make a link between my 3^rd Great-grandfather, Thomas Wandell, and this so-called “Dutch Shakespeare”? I was skeptical about finding any connection only because of the man’s name; Voudel. It seemed to be too much of a difference, even in another language. Surnames are usually just as they appear in most any language, and I didn’t think that Dutch was any exception. But I crossed my fingers and hoped that my luck would continue.

I opened the program on my computer and typed the name in the search box as it appeared in the book excerpt. V-O-U-D-E-L. My first reaction to the “0 matches” result was discouragement until I read further down the screen and noticed the “Alternate Spellings” list. None seemed apt to produce anything substantial except Vondel. I pointed the cursor to the name and clicked. BAM! In a flash I saw three 7’s line up when I pulled the handle on a slot machine. I saw the checkered flag and I was leading the race. I imagined a huge banner reading, “WINNER” and I was outrunning everyone else.

On my computer screen, I read, “matches for Vondel”, and then below that, “Joost van den Vondel”. Following that was, “Items containing the word(s) “Vondel”, and then, “Dutch literature, and Vondel, Joost van den”. At once it occurred to me that Vondel versus Wandell wasn’t any different than connecting Barwig and Barwick. I figured that the van den part of the name was like, “son of” or “of the”, or something similar to surname prefixes in other languages and cultures. At this point I believed that the Dutch Poet Laureate, Joost van den Vondel was my ancestor and I’d just discovered this fact that no one in the family had ever known or suspected. First I was able to trace an ancestor back to the Revolutionary War and some kind of relationship with first U.S. President and Army General George Washington. Now I have evidence of a possible direct link to a famous Dutch poet, whose name appears in my encyclopedia. I was really batting a thousand.

The Joost van den Vondel that became known as Dutch Poet Laureate lived from 1587 to 1670. Based on the data that appeared in the excerpt from the New York history book, Jacob Wandell lived from 1747 to 1827. If I were able to find the Wandells and Vondels that lived between 1670 and 1747, I could then claim with near absolute fact that I was descended from the “Dutch Shakespeare”. The first order of business was to find van den Vondel in the LDS archive. I’d need to locate his birth, marriage, and death record, and through these records I would hope to discover his offspring. I guessed that he might father children from age 20 to age 50. I needed to do a search for any van den Vondels born between 1607 and 1637. As I logged on to the Internet, I wondered what more I could uncover that would make our history one that would interest almost anyone interested in genealogy and family ancestry research.

Once on the Internet, I linked to the LDS site and signed in. the “search” screen, I typed in the first and last name, Joost van den Vondel, and clicked on the “Search” tab. When the search results appeared, there were not one or two but ten different records. The list was that of the International Genealogical Index for Continental Europe, and every one was of the same name, with a variety of record types and with dates spanning one hundred fifty years. Of course I was elated. The first Joost record was a birth in the year 1554. Another birth record was in 1587, which was Joost the poet. That was followed by a marriage in 1610; a birth in 1612; a marriage in 1643; and another marriage in 1650. Then there came a christening record in 1651; a marriage in 1674; a birth in 1675 and a marriage in 1704. The most important of the ten were the births and the one christening record. As the documents that were used to validate these entries included the parents’ names, I was able to make the pedigree list in descending order and eventually located birth records for Johannes and Jacobus, who were the purported progenitors of the Wandell family. I was ecstatic and more than ready to begin describing the story of my family.

As I prepared to write about the earliest ancestors of our Wandell family, it came to mind that there should be some telling of the history of our homelands and not just of the people who preceded us. I’d read through some of the family background of our famous poet ancestor and discovered that the history of the world during his lifetime was as interesting and significant as details of his life. It made good sense to me

that the state of their world was as much a part of our history as the people. I shouldn’t, no; I couldn’t have one without the other. But my knowledge of the history of the middle ages was from back in high school. Ancient and medieval history was one of my worst subjects in school. Again I’d rely on the Encarta encyclopedia and the “google” search engine on the Internet to put the color to my images.

Chapter 3

Wooden Shoes

By Rick Barwick

Whenever I think about anything Dutch, automatically I envision windmills and tulips. I imagine little blond, blue-eyed boys and girls, the latter with pig-tails tied in their bonneted hair wearing white aprons tied over their sun-faded blue full skirts. And wooden shoes. Dutch, to me, always meant Holland, and Holland meant wooden shoes. Before I got started doing the research for this project I wasn’t certain where Holland or the Netherlands were. I was surprised to learn that Holland is the unofficial name of The Netherlands.

The Netherlands are in Northern Europe bounded on the north by the North Sea; on the east by Germany; on the south by Belgium; and on the west across the North Sea from England. The Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are north of Germany and northeast of The Netherlands.

During the 9^th and 10^th centuries Scandinavian raiders, called Vikings, frequently invaded the coastal areas of the Netherlands, sailing far up the rivers in search of loot. The need for a stronger system of defenses against such marauders gradually led to an increase in the power of the local rulers and their vassals[7], who were largely a warrior class. Concurrently, the towns began to grow in importance, as artisans and merchants settled in them and improved their defenses.[8]

The middle ages proved to be a vital period of Dutch growth in economy and geography. As the population grew larger it led to the reclamation of greater amounts of land from lakes and marshes. This reclaiming of the land allowed for hundreds of new settlements, which gradually developed into quite powerful towns. The Netherlands became an important trading center. The wealthy merchants began to challenge the power of the nobles who ruled the countryside and as the regional leaders gained support from the merchants against the less regarded noblemen, those regional rulers extended privileges that promoted commerce in the towns. This led to the strengthening of the town and to improved stature of the merchant class.

Much of the territory inland came under secular rule while the far north remained under the control of local headmen. Unlike much of central and southern Europe, which became part of the Holy Roman Empire, association with the Netherlands was nominal. Early on, trade was conducted with German coastal cities to the east but the end of the middle ages brought major cultural influence to the Dutch from France.

The 15^th century saw control of the Netherlands fall into the hands of dukes of Burgundy through marriage, war, and political maneuvering. Burgundy was comprised of several duchies in France, part of which made up the Holy Roman Empire during the 15^th and 16^th centuries. At the time, the Roman emperor was also the King of Spain. Oppressive rule by

The king’s son led to the epochal war of independence waged by the Dutch against Spain. A major point of contention was the political disaffection between Spain and the Dutch and
happened to coincided with the Protestant revolt against the Roman Catholic Church. The disaffected group included several generations of the Wandell family, (van den Vondel and van Vondedlen). The family origin is believed to be in the “Low Countries”. Present-day Belgium and The Netherlands were called the Low Countries during much of the middle Ages.

In the 16^th century the population of much of the Low Countries was artisan, merchant and Protestant. Anabaptists were a radical group of those Protestants who, for one thing, rejected the practice of baptizing infants. Instead, Baptism was administered to adults as a profession of their faith. Anabaptism appealed most strongly to the poor and to uneducated peasants and artisans. The Anabaptist groups were widely persecuted by the two influential segments of society, aristocrats and Orthodox reformers who were united against the strong opposition to state churches by the radical protesters. Because they rejected the hierarchy of the church and the authority of civil bodies in religious matters, the Anabaptists were often accused of sedition and heresy, and often martyred.

Perhaps Matheus van Vondelen, of Antwerpen, was a member of that Protestant radical group. And it is then likely that his son, Joost van den Vondelen, (the first Joost), who was also born in Antwerpen, (in 1520), followed his father’s beliefs.

Joost (#1) married Anna van Uffelen on November 28, 1545. Anna was born in Antwerpen in 1524, the daughter of Jan van Uffelen and Anna ‘S Bolen. Joost van den Vondelen and Anna van Uffelen had a son, Joost van den Vondel, (Joost #2), born in Antwerpen in 1554.

This man Joost might have worked in the textile industry and was said to have been a hatter, (maker of hats?). He, too, was an Anabaptist, and, it was because of his opinions that he found it necessary to leave Antwerpen. He took up residency in Cologne, Germany. There is where he married Sara Kranen in 1585.

Joost (#2) and Sara had three children while in Germany. Their first, a daughter, they named Clementia. She was born in 1586. Little more than a year later they had a son they would name Joost, (#3), the third male child in as many generations to be so named). He was born on November 17, 1587. Then was born another daughter. Sara was born in 1594 when Joost was about 7 years old. Shortly thereafter the senior Joost (#2) would take his family to Holland and establish their home in Amsterdam. Young Joost (#3) was about ten years old. Here it is said the elder van Vondelen became a business owner making hosiery.

There is little known about the early years of young Joost (#3). Some say he was expected to succeed his father in the hosiery business. Despite whatever he was expected to do, he turned his attention to literature, and finally showed exceptional talent at creating poetry. I was surprised and really quite happy to discover an ancestor of mine with his own place in the encyclopedias of the world. There was even an artist’s rendering of his likeness. I could easily have taken the biographical data as it appeared in the encyclopedia, but there were things in it that I didn’t understand and couldn’t explain. There was a sentence about van den Vondel that said, “He was introduced to the chamber of the Eglantine, however, and devoted most of his time to poetry and study.” I was sure that Eglantine had something to do with the Roman Catholic Church, because Joost (#3) would convert to Catholicism later in his life and devote many of his writings to his faith. On the Internet there was a website for the Saints of the Eglantine Catholic Church in Ireland, but the church wasn’t dedicated until sometime in the 1700’s and Joost (#3) died in 1670, so he couldn’t have been introduce to that chamber. The word eglantine is the name of a bush or shrub that bears flowers like roses, and has thorns. It resembles honeysuckle and has been called

Dog Rose. It’s a stretch, but van den Vondel could have been introduced to a bunch of prickly-stemmed rose-like flowers and been influenced by the scent. He could have, but I seriously doubted that it was that kind of an influence that turned him into the Dutch Shakespeare. I gave up on eglantine and turned my attention back to the encyclopedia and the bio of my ancestor.