Van Woggelum & potential Native American ancestry

[Benjamin Christensen]

Here are several interesting resources on this line of the family, most of which mention this Mohawk conjecture:

• Page at the New York State Museum
• Genealogical Society of Bergen County page on the Van Woggelum family - starts one generation too late for these purposes, but, as you would expect, nicely sourced
  
• RootsWeb discussion thread 1
• RootsWeb discussion thread 2

Basically, it seems to come down to strong family traditions that he did indeed marry the daughter of a Mohawk sachem, partially supported by some circumstantial evidence (like how various records refuse to list the name of his wife), but with nothing truly clear - and with the complication that he had another wife, and we can't really say which children came from which at what time. All very long ago!

On Thu, Oct 6, 2016 at 7:20 PM, Connie Rinaldi wrote:

As I mentioned earlier, there is a van Woggelum tree that claims to include a member of the Seneca tribe in New York.  I have typed up what I found on the Tim Dowling family tree, which was corroborated by other trees online.  It places the Native American wife in the tree but it also gives a name for the father of Thomas Pursell, who married Christiana van Woggelum.  You'll find it of interest.  It includes dates and places I haven't seen on our family trees.  Wish I knew where he and others got the information. Mr. Dowling has not replied to my query as yet.

Connie

Indeed! That is both the weakness and the strength of Familysearch and Wikitree - they allow both perpetuation of errors, but also attachment of sources and correction of errors, once and for all. But it doesn't look like any members have dug deep into this particular connection yet. 

On Thu, Oct 6, 2016 at 1:25 PM, Connie Rinaldi wrote:

This would be the same Powhatan who was chief during the days of the original Jamestown settlement in Virginia.  Yes, it should have further investigation.  Thanks, Benj.

One caution with online family trees is that they cannibalize each other and mistakes or mistaken assumption are repeated in one tree after another.  For example, my 4 times great grandfather (on my dad's side) Samuel Magee of Sussex county DE was said to be married to Eleanor Baker...but Eleanor, if her maiden name was indeed Baker, was more likely the woman who took him and his sister in when their parents....Samuel and Mary Magee....died within a year of each other.  But her name was written in a family bible of a couple of generations later; perhaps she had been called "mother" by their grandmother.  Samuel and his sister had been minor children when their real mother died.  And now the internet is full of Magee trees with Eleanor's name in them.  So I like to have concrete sources, preferably two or more.

On Thu, Oct 6, 2016 at 12:11 AM, Benjamin Christensen wrote:

This is quite interesting. The same conjecture is supported by the global public trees of familysearch.org and wikitree.com. Screenshot of fan shot view below from familysearch.org - and here's a link. Wikitree link is here. Wikitree has at least some sources, although I haven't spent time to vet them. It's not just one person making it up, in any case!

What's even more interesting is if the link is true, you can see on the far right of the chart there an Emperor Powhatan figure - this is the same Powhatan who was the father of Pocahontas! That would be quite a story.

Could be a great article for the newsletter if we can get a little more investigation! And, I hope, a demonstration of the value of global public family trees :-). I think we should be spending significantly more focus in contributing to and directing people towards these public trees (familysearch.org and wikitree.com are the most prominent free ones - each has their strengths and weaknesses).

On Wed, Oct 5, 2016 at 5:18 PM, Connie Rinaldi wrote:

You know, we really need to have a listing of who is descended from whom in the Purcell lineages.  I have just found a family tree posted on geneanet.org (a French website) by a fellow in the US who has an extensive tree that includes Thomas and Christiana and lists her father and grandfather.  The fellow who posted the tree lists her van Woggelum grandmother as Caniachkoo Turtle Clan, born in NY about 1613.  So it would seem that we of that line may have native American blood!  Imagine that!

I have written to this fellow Tim Dowling to ask how convinced he is of the accuracy of the information.  I'll let you know what he replies.