- Just when, where and how Jaques Cortelyou became acquainted with
Neeltje Van Duyn we do not know. Their marriage date can only be
approximated, and few details concerning Neeltje's background are
available.
The circumstances connected with Neeltje's coming to New Netherlands were
a little unusual, for she and her brother, Gerrit Cornelise Van Duyn,
seem to have come to the Dutch Settlements as unmarried young people,
unaccompanied by their parents, some three years before Jaques arrived.
Bergen (ELKC, p. 331) sates the Gerrit Cornelise (Van Duyn), the common
ancestor of the family, emigrated in 1649 from Nieuwkerk, in Zeeland.
This date is no doubt correct, for Gerrit, when taking the oath of
allegiance in 1687, declared that he had arrived thirty-eitght years
earlier.
Neeltje presumably crossed the Atlantic with her brother. Where she and
her brother lived until her marriage to Jaques, around 1655-56, is not
known. Gerrit did not marry until October, 1663."
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