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The earliest ancestors on the DeWandelaer side originated with a French trader and Iroqoius indian princess, who married an early Mohawk Valley settler. They were soon joined by the German Palatines who settled in Schorarie and the Mohawk Valley.
In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman employed by the Dutch, sailed up the river that now bears his name. He was looking for a northwest passage to the Orient!. Hudson's voyage gave the Netherlands a claim to the territory covering New York, New Jersey, Delaware and part of Connecticut. The territory was called `New Netherlands'. The Dutch established several trading posts and prosperous settlements in the Hudson Valley soon after Hudson's visit. They built up a profitable fur trade with the Indians. The same year, 1609, Samuel de Champlain entered the northern part of New York from Quebec; his visit gave France claim to the land.
Two large and most powerful Indian groups in North America lived in New York region before the white man came. One group consisted of the tribes of the Algonkian family of indians. The other was the fierce and greatly feared Iroquois, or Five Nations. The Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Omondaga, and Senaca tribes made up the Five Nations. The Iroquois were especially advance in political and social organization.
The Dutch West India Company was formed by Dutch merchants and chartered by the government of Netherlands in 1621. The company was given trading and colonizing privileges for a period of 24 years in North America, the West Indies, and Africa. The objective of the company was to compete with the Spanish Empire, to colonize New Netherlands, and to develop the region's fur trade. The colony of New Netherlands included parts of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut. The colony was founded by the Dutch West India Company and had headquarters in New Amsterdam (now New York City).Thirty families of Dutch settlers were sponsored by the company to establish a Dutch colony at the mouth of the Hudson River in 1624. Some of these families founded Fort Orange, which became Beverwyck and then Albany, New York. Fort Orange was the first permanent settlement in the colony; other established settlements in parts of New Netherlands.
In 1626 Peter Minuit, the Dutch Governor (director) bought Manhattan from the Indians for goods worth about $24. During the next few years, Wiltwyck (now Kingston), Rensselaerwyck (now Rensselaer), Breuckelen (now Brooklyn), Schenanectady, and other settlements were established by the Dutch settlers.
The Patroon System was a plan set up by the Dutch West India Company about 1629. It was used for the colonization of New Netherlands. Any company member who brought over fifty families of settlers at his own expense could have an extensive tract of land. The patroon (owner of the land) became a kind of feudal lord. Five patroonships were granted but only the Van Renssalaer grant prospered. Kiliaen Van Rensselaer was an Amsterdam diamond merchant. His land covered much of the present day Albany, Columbia and Rensselaer counties. Van Rensselaer began leasing his land and established the tenant system in New York which lasted until the tenant farmers rebelled in the early 1800's when the state of New York declared the system illegal. In 1640 the Netherlands government encouraged immigration to New Netherlands by offering Netherlanders some of the freedom that other colonists had.
In some places the Indians were friendly and helped the settlers. Elsewhere the tribes tried to drive the colonists out of the lands. Terrible wars broke out. The struggles between the colonists and the indians became a large-scale warfare because of the fighting between England and France. Each side had strong supporters among the Indian tribes. For that reason, the colonists called the wars the French and Indian Wars.
Under English rule, the English cooperated with the Dutch for a long time. But gradually the English began to oppose the Dutch. In addition, King Charles II of England decided to take over New Netherlands. King Charles II gave his brother James, the Duke of York, a charter for the territory. In 1664 the English sent a fleet to seize New Netherlands. The warships dropped anchor in the harbor of New Amsterdam. The Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, surrendered the settlement without a fight. At first the colony prospered under English rule. Later dishonest governors and the farm tenant system discouraged progress. Poor persons who wanted land of their own had to settle outside their colony.
Over 3,000 GERMAN PALATINES, given temporary refuge in England (1709) from devastations of War of Spanish Succession and severe winter, were transported to N.Y. to produce naval stores in the Hudson Valley. The Palatines first went to Holland to sail to England; from there they would sail to New York. Unfavorable economic conditions caused migration to Schoharie Valley, then to the Mohawk Valley, and ultimately to Bucks and Berks counties in PA.
The Palantines arrived in America in the summer of 1710 and lived in tents on Nutten's (Governor's Island). Some 3000 Palatine Germans arrived at New York on 13 June 1710. In October 1710, the Palantines moved 90 miles up the Hudson River to settle on 6,300 acres owned by the government on the West Bank, and on 6,000 acres purchased for their use in Livingston's Manor on the East Bank. They were quartered for the winter in three villages on the East Bank (Hunterstown, Queensbury and Annsbury), and in two villages on the West Bank (Elizabeth Town and George Town). Here they eked out a miserable existence until the tar making project was declared unsuccessful and abandoned in September 1712. Uncertainties developed over the ownership of the lands that the Palatines settled on at Schoharie, and they had to either buy the land, rent it, or vacate these lands. Negotiations dragged on until after 1722. Discouraged by these uncertainties, many Palatines left and gradually settled in the Mohawk Valley. Governor Burnet assisted them in acquiring land. The Stone Arabia Patent was granted in 1723, and the Burnetsfield Patent in German Flats on 30 April 1725.