If you’re lucky, your family has never immigrated. It happens. But since the discovery of the Americas, people have been migrating with increasing frequency. No matter where you live, if you are anything other than indigenous, you can be sure you will find immigrants in your past. People marry outside their traditional cultural and social sets all the time, bringing more groups into the mixture.
While this is usually a good thing, it often makes it difficult to do genealogy. But as my family has found, focusing on one family group at a time helps to organize and focus on the task at hand.
A curious thing about my ancestors–they’re all dead. It’s the one thing they have in common. When they die, they get buried. At least back in the day, that’s what they did. Today, cremation is a definite possibility, and it’s getting more common. Especially in Europe where they are running out of room for all of the bodies. But where did the bodies of our Euro-American ancestors go? I have some guesses, and going by family names, religions, places of settlement, and places of origin, I’d bet some good money that I’ve got late relatives buried in each one of the cemeteries I found.
Of course, I promised that I’d do some looking into the Polhemus family cemetery where my 5th great-grandfather was buried. You would think that would be an easy thing considering that the cemetery is smack in the middle of American Revolutionary history. Not so. None of the links to Colts Neck New Jersey Cemeteries seem to be working correctly. However, I was able to get some interesting photos with definite possibilities.
I did some sleuth work, based on things I know about the Wyckoff family. First, I know that they are Dutch; we have traced their records back to the Netherlands. Second, I know that they originally settled in the area of Monmouth County in New Jersey. Third, I have some evidence from Find-a-Grave that indicates that Aukey Wyckoff was buried in the Polhemus family cemetery in Colt’s Neck, New Jersey. And, of course, I know their last name would have been Wikoff, Wykoff, or Wyckoff. Knowing these things, I have come up with the following photos:
The Polhemus family cemetery, where Auke Wykoff is said to be buried, is located in the Colts Neck Reformed Church Cemetery. This makes sense, since most Dutch immigrants belonged to the Dutch Reformend Church. This is the only photo I could find of the “church” or cemetery.The Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church in Monmouth county. I would not be surprised at all to find ancestors buried here, even if they are not Wyckoffs.This is actually a screenshot of a street-view looking at the Wyckoff Reformed Church Cemetery in New Jersey. The Wyckoff Reformed Church
There are so many possibilities in New Jersey. I would love to take a trip there sometime and do some cemetery hopping. It would be a lot of fun to see how many of my Dutch ancestors I can find while I am there.
There are so many possibilities in New Jersey. I would love to take a trip there sometime and do some cemetery hopping. It would be a lot of fun to see how many of my Dutch ancestors I can find while I am there.
StoriesFromthePast.com 