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ONE:  VAN METRES / VAN METERS
 

Internet sources are indicated by tildes (e.g. ~internet).  A complete list can be found on the Sources page.
 

            V-3    Maycken Hendricks

 

    ● Her Name

Jan Joosten's wife is remembered today by a wide variety of names, all of which may be translated as "little Mary, Henry's daughter."  Out of this myriad I have selected Maycken Hendricks as a compromise with the closest resemblance to (a) apparent accuracy, and (b) all the other variants.  Many webgens use "Macyke" or "Macyken," which look like a transposition or misreading of "Maeyke(n)."  Only in connection with Jan Joosten's wife does "Macyken" appear on the Internet; ditto "Macyke" (as a first name).

As mentioned in Chapter V-1, Maycke and Maycken—and Maaicke(n), Maaike(n), Maeijke(n), Maejke(n), Maeyke(n), Maike(n), and Marike(n)—are "endearing diminutives" of Maria.
 

    ● Her Birthplace and Parents

Maycken's estimated birthyear ranges from "about 1614" to "about 1629"; some webgens confidently give an exact birthdate of December 12, 1624.  Most sources agree she was born in Meppel, the port and market center of Drenthe, a sparsely-populated region in the northeastern Netherlands.  Meppel is less than fifteen miles east of the Zuider Zee (as it was then), but almost seventy miles northeast of Meteren.

Several webgens name her parents as Hendricks of Laeckervelt and Anne Jan Jans; but this is the result of confusion between our Maycken Hendricks and a Maycke Hendrieux, whose parents were Hendrick Adriense van de/der/den  Burchgraef(f) and Annetje Janse of Laeckervelt.  Maycke Hendrieux was born as early as 1602; married Cornelis Hendrik van Ness in 1625; had six (or as many as eleven) children; and died circa 1663—in the future Fairfield, Essex County, New York, according to one source.  (As a side effect of this mix-up, three webgens say our Maycken Hendricks died in Wyltwick, Ulster County, New York in 1653—nine years before she emigrated there!)

Likelier candidates for Maycken's parents are Hendrick Hendricksen van den Oever and Lysbet Voet.  This is supported by Maycken herself appearing (even when no parents are mentioned) with the place-surname van den Oever, which means "of the seashore" or "riverbank."  Although this could apply to a large percentage of 17th Century Netherlanders, ~jabberwocky's Peter van Maanen reminds us there was a wealthy Van (den) Oever clan who intermarried with the Houses of Van Haeften, Van Naeldwijk, and Van Cuijck van Meteren—as illustrated in the Van Haeften / Van Oever Tree.
 

    ● Possible Siblings

Two other Hendrickses from Meppel preceded Maycken to New Amsterdam: Roeloft, a farmhand, and Femmetje, a "maiden," came circa 1659-61 on De Trouw (the Faith).  At the New Amsterdam Reformed Dutch Church in the Spring of 1663, Femmetje Hendricks van Meppel married Joost Adriaenszen van Pynacker, who had been a fellow passenger aboard De Trouw.  Then in October 1668, widower Joost married Lysbet Willems Krom, the eldest daughter of Maycken Hendricks.  From these correlations, Maycken "is supposed to have been the sister of Femmetjen Hendricksen"—though this would indicate that Joost Adriaenszen married his late wife's teenaged niece.

But others dissent, convincingly.  Femmetje's sister, they say, was named Hilletje, and their brother's name was Roeloff.  Hilletje, widow of the soldier Andries Barentsen, married Albert Jansen of Steenwyck in 1664.  Later that year, Roeloff (now a carpenter) married Aeltje Lubberse of Elburgh.  Also in 1664, Femmetje and Joost's daughter Maertje was baptized; the witnesses were Roeloff, Hilletje, and Albert Jansen.  Not till Joost married Lysbet four years later was there any authenticated tie between these siblings and Maycken—other than their all hailing from Meppel, and having fathers named Hendrick.
 

    ● Willem Krom (Crom)

A number of webgens say Maycken married Jan Joosten in or around 1646; but as ~vm/profiles remarks, "It appears possible that Macyken Henderson [sic] was the widow of Willem Crom."  There is in fact substantial documentation that Maycken's first husband was Willem Gijsbertsz Krom of Opijnen in the Tielerwaard; that they married on April 7, 1645 in nearby Waardenburg; and that Willem was the father of most of Maycken's children (of which/whom more in Chapter V-4).

Willem—as per the Krom Tree—was one of five children of Gijsbert Willemsz Krom and Lysbet Cornelisdr.  If Maycken's mother was indeed Lysbet Voet, then Maycken and Willem's daughter Lysbet Willems Krom was named after both her grandmothers.

What brought Maycken from Meppel down to Opijnen on the bank of the Waal, and how she and Willem became acquainted, and what Willem did for a living, remain unanswered questions.  Also unsettled is when Willem died, since its timing "depends" on how many of Maycken's five kids you claim to be Willem's, and how many Jan Joosten's.  More easily guessed is that Jan must have been a friend and neighbor (Meteren is less than three miles north of Opijnen), and that Maycken did not undergo a lengthy widowhood before Jan married her and adopted Willem's children—to a greater or lesser extent: they retained the surname Krom, which in America tended more often to be spelled Crom.
 

                   

            Notes

                   

Proceed to Chapter V-4

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Last updated August 22, 2009


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