South Dakota Vandervoorts,
Hudson Valley Schuylers
and Oyster Bay Roosevelts

Myrtle (Vandervoort) Windhorst's sister Celia claimed that the Vandervoorts were lineal descendants of Revolutionary War General Philip Schuyler. (She said a relative had learned this in an effort to bolster her claims for membership in the DAR.) It turns out that the Vandervoorts are distantly related to the General but not lineally.

What Celia apparently never suspected was that, because of the Schuyler connection, they are also relatives of the wife of Alexander Hamilton, and of Teddy and Eleanor Roosevelt.  With respect to the Roosevelts, the closest  common ancestor was from the 17th Century, David Pieterse Schuyler (d. 1690), who was Celia and Myrtle's 6 times great grandfather.

As for the General and his daughter Elizabeth (Hamilton's wife), the common ancestors were David Schuyler's parents. Their other son, Philip Pieterse Schuyler (d. 1683 and pictured just below to the right), was General Schuyler's great grandfather.*

Schuyler descent tree
simple list (pdf)
full text with notes (rtf)

Until recently, Celia Vandervoort's claim of descent from Gen. Philip Schuyler has been casually accepted in the Vandervoort and Windhorst families without much scrutiny. We were supposed to be descended through the General's daughter Nellie, married to Abraham Veeder. This now appears not to be the case. In fact, the General had no daughter Nellie, and no son-in-law named Abraham Veeder. Abraham Veeder (our ancestor) did marry a Neeltje Schuyler (who I suppose could well have gone by the nickname Nellie), but she was almost certainly the daughter of Jacobus/Jacob Schuyler (although sources conflict a bit on this point, see note).

It seems all the Schuylers in New York were derived from two Dutch brothers, David and Philip Pieterse Schuyler, who emigrated in the 1650s, both settling in Albany and becoming fur traders. Gen. Schuyler was the great grandson of Philip Pieterse Schuyler, the older brother, pictured at the top with his wife Margarita. Neeltje Schuyler was the great granddaughter of David Pieterse Schuyler. General Philip Schuyler and Neeltje Schuyler were thus third cousins, not father-daughter. And the General, instead of being Celia's 4th great grandfather, was her 3rd cousin, 5 times removed.

These facts can be found in a two volume work by George W. Schuyler, published in 1885. It is available in full text on-line at:

Colonial New York: Philip Schuyler and his Family, Volume I

Colonial New York: Philip Schuyler and his Family, Volume II

The Philip Schuyler of the title of this thousand page document is the 17th Century Philip Pieterse Schuyler, not the General. General Schuyler's children and their marriages are listed on pp. 242-243 of volume II. The David side of the family is given more abbreviated treatment in an appendix at the back of the second volume, where "our" Jacob and his daughter Neeltje appear on p. 463.

By the way, these books aren't mere dry genealogy. On a quick look, there appear to be many interesting vignettes. For example, one Schuyler, Johan, went native and married an Oneida Indian, initiating an Oneida branch of the Schuyler family, which may have been a little hard for the aristocrats of the Hudson Valley to stomach, though their inital fortune was based on fur trading and good relations with the Native Americans. Johan seems to have been quite colorful, and played an interesting and controversial role in the Revolutionary War. The Oneida apparently made him one of their sachems. In about 1805 the Oneida executed two of their women for witchcraft, and the executioner was Schuyler: "He entered the lodge according to a prior decree of the Council, and struck them down with a tomahawk." (See Johan Jost Schuyler, aka Hon Yost, d. about 1810, vol. II, pp. 473-477.)

Another helpful Schuyler resource is:

The Colonial Albany Social History Project

I have attached the relevant gleanings from this site in the format of a descendant report:

Descent from Geertruy Philips van Schuyler (pdf)

Until recently, the Vandervoort chart of the Schuyler connection read as follows:

Here is the corrected and current version:

And for the brother Philip Pieterse Schuyler's side:

Note that the General's parents were first cousins.

As for the Veeders, the family Neeltje Schuyler married into, I have found this:

ABRAHAM VEEDER1 (son of Myndert Veeder and Elizabeth Douw)
Born: September 30, 1741
Baptized October 18, 1741Albany Dutch Reformed Church
Died: February 20, 1817 AE 75y4m21d Buried: Prospect Hill Cemetery
Wife: Neeltje Schuyler (daughter of Jacob Schuyler and Geertruy Staats)
Married: April 2, 1770
Baptized November 22, 1747 Albany Dutch Reformed Church, sponsors were Gerrit Staats and Annatje Fisscher (probably Visscher).
Died: November 14, 1832 AE 84y2d Buried: Prospect Hill Cemetery
CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM VEEDER AND NEELTJE SCHUYLER:
Elizabeth Born: July 6, 1781
Baptized August 12, 1781 sponsors were Simon Veeder and Susanna Roseboon at Albany Dutch Reformed Church
Simon
Elizabeth Baptized May 28, 1785 Schenectady Dutch Reformed Church
Married: November 22, 1806 to Myndert Mynderse
Geertruy Born: July 27, 1789
Baptized August 23, 1789 at the Albany Dutch Reformed Church sponsors
were Dirk Schuyler and Annatje
First Husband: Daniel Winne
Second Husband: Isaac LaGrange
Myndert Born: July 5, 1793 Albany
Baptized August 10, 1793 at Albany Dutch Reformed Church sponsors
were Jacob Veeder and Catharine Shawn
Died: January 29, 1843
Buried: Prospect Hill Cemetery
Married: probably Elisa Veeder

"Abraham was listed as First Lieutenant of the Fourth Regiment and Third Company on October 20, 1775. He was listed as Captain in the Third Regiment and Sixth Company on February 20, 1776. April 4, 1778 he was reported to be a Captain of the Sixth Company. After the Revolutionary War Abraham was an assessor in Guilderland."

So if Celia wasn't lineally descended from a Revolutionary War General, she at least had a Revolutionary War Captain, Abraham Veeder, as 3 times great grandfather.

The above Veeder data is taken from a more extensive document of Veeder ancestry (pdf). It takes the Veeders  back to early 15th Century France, but the writer cautions that everything before 1624 may be a hoax.


December 2016