The theme for week 20 was “language.” I’m in the middle of packing for a move, so this post will be short.
Do you notice anything different about Aeltje van Couwenhoven’s headstone? It was written in Dutch, not English. Quite a few people in the Dutch community at that time still spoke Dutch as a first language. After Aeltje’s death, her husband Dirck remarried and went to live on property he bought in Fishkill, NY in Dutchess County. The house his descendants built is still standing and is owned by the East Fishkill Historical Society. He was supposed to have died and been buried in Fishkill, but I have not found any documents to support that and the burial place is not known.
An abstract of his will was published by the New York Historical Society back in 1895 in English. It would be interesting to find out if his headstone was also in Dutch.
Newtown Genealogy 