The Importance of Collaboration
The Van Voorhees Family in America includes a number of families whose ancestors have not been identified. Often there is little documentation for them in the earliest generation beyond family traditions, often flawed. However, different branches of a family often have different traditions, each with its own set of insights and mistakes. When combined together with other seemingly unrelated records, they can begin to form a more complete picture of a family.
The family of Jacob (184198) Voorhees and Tryphena is such a case.1 They were thought to have had a child, also named Tryphena, born about 1778, suggesting Jacob was born about 1758. Tryphena Jr. married Jonathan Palmer2 before 1806 when their eldest child, Gilbert, was born. No other children of Jacob and Tryphena were known. Jacob and Tryphena joined the Reformed Dutch Church of Gilboa, Schoharie Co., NY on 4 Sep 1831. He died in Delaware Co., NY before 18 Jul 1840 when his estate was probated.
Harold Hazelton noted the marriage of a Jacob Voorhees and Phebe Norton at Gilboa, Schoharie Co., NY. However, he gave no further information or sources.
A Hiram D. Voorhees was born on 17 Jan 1809 at Greene Co., NY.3 He married Charlotte Bates (182633) on 2 Nov 1826 at Reformed Dutch Church of Gilboa, Schoharie Co., NY. He was a witness at the marriage of Huldah Voorhees (not otherwise mentioned in VVFA published volumes) to James Palmer at the Reformed Dutch Church of Gilboa on 29 May 1832, but the relationship between Hiram and Huldah was unknown. He was listed next to Tryphena Voorhees in the 1840 census of Davenport, Delaware Co., NY.
A researcher found online located the death record of a Margaret Markum, daughter of Jacob Voorhees and Tryphena A. Voorhees.4 That there should be two marriages of a Jacob Voorhees and a Tryphena seemed highly unlikely. A search for Mr. Hazelton's record of the marriage of Jacob Voorhees and Phebe Norton turned out to be at the Reformed Dutch Church of Gilboa in 1808. Another transcription of that record lists the wife's name as Phene, a shortening of Tryphena, being mistaken by Hazelton as Phebe.
Margaret's death record records she was born 13 May 1818 at Windham, Greene, NY. A review of the 1820 census of Windham, NY shows Jacob Voorhees with 1 male under 10, 1 male between 10 and 15, 1 male between 26 and 44, 2 females under ten, 1 female between 26 and 44. The probable residents were Elam, Hiram, Jacob, Margaret, Huldah and Tryphena, to be discussed later. This Jacob Voorhees was born no earlier than 1776, not 1758. His tombstone lists his death as 10 Jan 1839, aged 64 years.5
If there were not two men named Jacob Voorhees who married a woman named Tryphena, where might the tradition of their daughter, Tryphena Jr., marrying a man named Jonathan Palmer come from? As noted earlier, a Huldah Voorhees married a James Palmer on 29 May 1832 at the Reformed Dutch Church of Gilboa, NY. That James Palmer was the son of Jonathan Palmer and Martha Webb.6 Martha was thought to be the second wife of Jonathan Palmer, but a Bible record shows they were married on 19 Sep 1804.7 Though not proven, I believe Tryphena, Jr. was a mistake for Huldah, and that she married Jonathan’s son, James, not Jonathan himself., another family tradition gone slightly awry.
Given Hiram’s birth in Greene Co., NY (where Margaret was born) in 1809, shortly after Jacob Voorhees and Tryphena Norton were married, his association with Huldah, his being listed in the 1840 census next to Tryphena Voorhees, and the likelihood he was the male between 10 and 15 years of age in the 1820 census, Hiram is undoubtedly their son as well.
Another daughter, Harriet Ann, was identified by other researchers.8 She was born about 1824 in Schoharie Co., NY according to the 1855 census of Worchester, Otsego, NY9 and married Henry Nelson Mackey. Jacob and Tryphena Voorhees joined the Reformed Dutch Church at Gilboa, Schoharie, NY in 1831, so they may have moved there by 1824. There is a female of Harriet’s age listed in the 1840 census of Davenport, Delaware, NY living with Tryphena Voorhees.10 There family moved to Georgia in the 1850s, where Herny died on 8 Aug 1889, in Butts Co., GA, buried at Sardis Baptist Church Cemetery.11 It is not known when Harriet died, but Henry married second, Maryette Etter, widow of Henry King,12 on 30 Sep 1869 at Butts, GA.13
Another son, Elam/Elon, was identified by other researchers.14 He was born in 1818 in Little Falls, Herkimer, NY. He fits the male listed in the 1820 census of Windham, NY. As Elon Vorus he was issued a license to marry Mary Ann Starr on 1 Sep 1838 in Stewart Co., Georgia,15 as well as in the 1850, 1860, and 1870 census records. He was likely named after his maternal grandfather, Elon Norton. This placement may not be correct as Little Falls is quite a distance from Windham, NY, where his sister was born. Also, there is a male of Elon’s age listed with age listed in the 1840 census of Davenport, Delaware, NY living with Tryphena Voorhees.16 Interestingly, in the 1850 census of Stewart Co., GA, Elon’s eldest child was only 6 years old (born about 1844),17 and he is not found in the 1840 census of Georgia. Mary Ann was only 16 when they obtained their marriage license. Perhaps the actual marriage was delayed.
Another daughter, Louisa M., was identified by other researchers.18 She was born about 1827 in Delaware Co., NY according to the 1855 census of Gilboa, Schoharie, NY.19 Given the information above, she was probably not born in Delaware Co., but moved there when she was young as Tryphena is listed in the 1840 census in Delaware Co. There is a female of Louisa’s age listed in the 1840 census of Davenport, Delaware, NY living with Tryphena Voorhees.20 She married James Mackey.
Though his family has now been clarified, his parents have not. One possibility is the family of John Voorhees (30781) and Neltje Polhemus who also lived in Delaware Co., NY. Another possibility is Hiram Voorhees (30279) and Hilletje Vanderbilt of Oxford, Sussex Co., NJ. Hiram’s will makes specific bequests to several named sons, but only mentions “his daughters”, not their names. The will is written in such a way as to allow for other sons, since it does not say that those mentioned were all his sons. If Jacob was his son, he would have been born about 1784, early enough to have been married in 1808. The only suggestion that he had a son named Jacob (possibly named after Hilletje's brother, Jacob) is the possible naming of his eldest son, Hiram, and his eldest daughter, Huldah (a variant of Hilletje),21 after their paternal grandparents. Jacob named his second son, Elon, after his maternal grandfather, though he did not have a known daughter, Chloe, named after her maternal grandmother.
Endnotes
1. Van Voorhees Family in America, the First Six Generations, by Florence Christoph, pg. 799.
2. The Palmer Family in America, by Horace Wilbur Palmer, Vol. 1, pg. 375. Martha is named as Jonathan’s second wife.
3. Van Voorhees Family in America, the Seventh and Eighth Generations, by Florence Christoph, Vol. 2, pg. 1264.
4. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NWM4-RGQ
5. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29656880/jacob-voorhies
6. https://www.familysearch.org/search/tree/results?q.fatherGivenName=Jonathan&q.fatherSurname=Palmer&q.givenName=James&q.motherGivenName=Martha&q.motherSurname=Webb&q.surname=Palmer Martha Palmer, age 68, is listed in the 1850 census of Gilboa, Schoharie, NY with the family of James and Huldah Palmer, undoubtedly his mother.
7. http://schoharie.nygenweb.net/fbible4.html
8. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L63J-DZ6
11. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31950961/henry-nelson-mackey
12. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31950962/mary-etter-mackey
14. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GMT6-K25
18. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LX9L-Y6X
21. In the "Van Deursen Family" by Captain A. H. Van Deusen (pages 693-716), there is a 24-page glossary of Dutch names entitled, "Christian Names as Used Among the New Netherland Settlers, and Their Approximate Equivalents in English"
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