PELS, VAN WAGENER

I have recently joined a few lists on rootsweb. The most active of those I joined are Rockland County, Dutchess County, and Dutch Colonies. All 3 mainly discuss Dutch families. I read them, check my database to see if I have the name, and then go on. Today, however, I found out why I bother.

A couple of days ago I had answered a post about an Evert Pels and his wife, who are my direct ancestors. They are not well researched lines (by me at least) so asked her if she had more information and sources that she wouldn't mind giving me. Today I got her response: about 40 pages of information complete with sources. As a matter of fact she went beyond including the sources, she quoted them!

With this goldmine I took a break from Phillips and Knapp collaterals and did some of my own work for a change, Pels work naturally. The Pels family married into the Van Wagener family. My 3G grandmother was Eliza Van Wagner--her father had shortened the surname. Evert Pels is a 9G grandfather. Another 9G grandfather is Aart Jacobsen, the Van Wagoner immigrant. The two families intermarried so much that I have had difficulty getting the correct families between these 2 9G grandfathers and my 4G grandfather Jacob Van Wagner. That problem wasn't resolved, but I learned a lot more about both families in the 17th century, and got the names of my 10th and 11th great grandparents in the line of the wife of Evert Pels, Jannetje Symens Floriszen. Her grandfather was born in 1560. I've spent all day, and only gone through the shortest document I was sent. I can't wait to start reading the long one! That is the one with the sources quoted, so I will study it intently.