Author: John O. Evjen

Publisher:

Published: 2015-08-05

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 9781332228058

Excerpt from Scandinavian Immigrants in New York, 1630-1674 This volume is a collection of biographic articles on Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish immigrants who settled in New Netherland, or the present state of New York, between the years 1630 and 1674. It is the result of research work begun seven years ago while I was teaching in Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The most elementary, but also the most difficult, task connected with this work was to establish by documentary evidence which persons in the materials examined were Dutch or German, and which persons were Scandinavian. The English and French names were easily recognized. But the more strictly Teutonic names appeared to be fully as much Scandinavian as Dutch. In most instances the Dutch and Scandinavian nomenclature - especially the ending "szen" or "sen" in surnames - necessitated my making excursions into the personal history of the candidates for septentrional glory until their nationality was established. Hundreds of possible Scandinavian names were traced in the documents until they proved to be the property of other Teutons than the Scandinavians. Some of them turned out to be the property of members belonging to the Celtic, to the Mongolian, and to the Ethiopian stock. Thus, a Jan Andersen and a Hendrick Hendricksen were two promising Scandinavian candidates until I discovered that they were, Irish. Jan Swaen was one of my Swedish candidates until I had traced him to his original home, Africa. Promising candidates for my volume were also Emanuel Pieterszen, Lucas Pieterszen, and the latter's wife, Anna Jans. But these, too, proved to be of negro stock. Less promising were the candidates Hans and Hendrick, both without a surname, but Hans proved to be a Mohawk Indian, and Hendrick a plain Indian. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.