Social History Case Study: The Dutch Families of Bucks County

In the early 1700s, a group of families moved down to Bucks County from the Dutch strongholds of Staten Island, Long Island, and New Jersey. They settled in the southeastern corner of the county, in Northampton, Southampton, Bensalem, and Warminster. There they founded a church and raised their large families on prosperous farms. Soon the county was filled with Vanarsdalens, Vandegrifts, Kroesens, Corsons, Van Buskirks, Wynkoops, Cravens, Pralls and Bennets. Surrounded by English Quakers, the Dutch spoke a different language and held different traditions. They intermarried and kept their identity as a community through most of the 1700s. They left behind stories of slaveholding, patriotism, and military service, as well as murder and mayhem. We will look at the causes that led them to move to Pennsylvania, at the stories of a few leading families, at the social history that made them distinctive, and at the records available for learning more about them.

Members, use the link in the email you will receive on Monday, September 5, to register.  Member registration fee is $5.00.

Non-members, use this link beginning on Thursday, September 8 to register.  Non-member registration fee is $10.00. 

Sue Long

 BCGS regulars will recall Sue Long’s well received presentations on the 1687 Holme Map of Pennsylvania and The Original Thirteen Families of Germantown. We are delighted she is returning to present to us again. Sue has a doctorate in experimental psychology from Cornell University and later became a computer teacher and technology coordinator. She began her family history research as a teenager. Her first research project was to assist a grandmother who wanted to join the Daughters of the American Revolution, but Sue discovered her family was descended from pacifist Bucks County Quakers, so that proved to be a dead end. However, her Quaker research led her to the 1687 Holme map of early Pennsylvania. However, she continued her research for many years, finding ancestors as diverse as Quakers; Germans fleeing persecution and poverty; early Dutch in New Amsterdam; Irish escaping the potato famine; and even a stray Frenchman. Along the way, she uncovered many stories that she is always willing to share. Sue details her findings online with her blog, Taking the Long View (http://takingthelongview.org/).