Re: Connecting Hendrick of Penns Neck to his dots
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In reply to:
Connecting Hendrick of Penns Neck to his dots
Toby Koosman 8/29/05
With regard to early Dutch settlers, if a marriage between first-cousins is evidenced by careful analysis of historical records, there's little reason to question the apparent relationship.
I've identified a couple such marriages in my own family tree, and I've seen many more among early Dutch families in general.Among my ancestors, Covenhovens and Conovers married close-kin Schencks and Vanderveers in Monmouth, NJ in the 1600s and 1700s.
Close-kinship marriage appears driven by demographics; it's more frequent among the earliest settlers and also among those small communities of families that first ventured away from main population centers.