Maria Vanderhoof Tucker 1807-1879

Research Question

Was Maria Tucker (1807-1879) a daughter of Jacob Vanderhoof (1772-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841)?

Published Book

In her book Vanderhoof (1991), Louisa Caroline Freeman Hickerson did not list Maria Vanderhoof, wife of Charles Tucker, as one of the children of Jacob and Ann. If she was born around 1807, there was room for this birth between John in 1804 and Charlotte in 1809.

Children of Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler (with notation that any might be in error and some children may be omitted):

1. Peter (1797-1847) married Rachel Peer (1800-1850)

2. Elizabeth (1799-1878) married Stephen H Cook (1797-1853)

3. Mary (1801-1853) probably unmarried

4. Hyla (1803-1888) married William Cook (1801-18xx)

5. John (1804-1888) married Sarah Dobbin (1805-1876)

6. Charlotte (1809-1886) married Chilion Cook (1807-1888)

7. Samuel Saron (1811-????) married Eleanor Anderson (1815-????)

8. Richard Vanderhoof (1814-1892) married Eliza Cook (1810-1875) and Jane Tunis (1832-1919)

9. Conrad (1817-1874) married Mary Hopler (1823-1903)

Family Trees

Find A Grave and family trees posit Maria Vanderhoof as the wife of Charles Canfield Tucker (born about 1805). Imaged below is an example of one such tree.

Proposed daughters of Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler
named Mary or Maria.
Example of online tree configuration of this family.

These trees do not attach or link to documentation on the parents of Maria/Mary Vanderhoof, wife of Charles Tucker.

Other Women Named Mary

A prior article discussed Mary Vanderhoof (1822-1861), wife of John K ODell (1824-1898). I determined that she was not a child of Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler. A future article will discuss Mary Vanderhoof (1800-1853) and Mary VanFleet.

The Vanderhoof family includes multiple women named Mary or Maria in overlapping generations. This article focuses only on Maria Vanderhoof, wife of Charles Tucker, and does not assume that she is the same Mary Vanderhoof who died in 1853 or the Mary Vanderhoof who married a man named VanFleet.

Records of Mary or Maria Vanderhoof, Wife of Charles Tucker

New Jersey did not begin registration of births until 1848, well before Maria was born. A baptismal record would provide the name of her father and probably her mother, but this record has not been identified yet.

Marriage records of the 1820s were created by the religious officiant and filed with the County of Morris. Such records did not usually provide names of parents, but this would at least confirm that Charles Tucker married Maria Vanderhoof and not Maria with another surname. As of this writing, I have not found a marriage record in Morris County in the 1820s for Mary Vanderhoof and Charles Tucker.

Maria's first chronological appearance in a record was the 1850 federal census, the first to list all members of households.

Below are snapshots of Charles, Maria, and their children from the 1850 and 1870 census entries for Rockaway Township. She was 43 in 1850 and 63 in 1870, which is consistent with being born in 1807.

1850 census in Rockaway, Morris County, New Jersey.
Charles Tucker and Mary resided with seven children
ages 1 through 21.

1870 census in Rockaway, Morris County, New Jersey.
Charles C Tucker and Maria with Sarah J,
their youngest child.

Charles Tucker and Maria were last seen in the 1870 census. I have not found a record of the death of Charles. A gravestone has not surfaced.

Maria was buried at Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery in Boonton. Many Vanderhoofs were laid to rest here. Maria's stone gives her date of death as September 13, 1879, age 72 years, 7 months, and 17 days. The calculated date of birth would be January 27, 1807. This date of death does not correspond with an entry in New Jersey's index of deaths. A death certificate would be another chance of seeing the names of her parents. Imaged below is Maria's memorial page on Find A Grave.

Memorial page at Find A Grave
for Maria Vanderhoof Tucker (1807-1879)

Maria Vanderhoof and Charles Tucker had at least eleven children from 1829 through 1851: Peter Vanderhoof, John, Elias, Mary Etta, George Allen, Charles, Marinda, Helen Elizabeth, Laura A, Agnes, and Sarah Jane. They probably had other children who died early.

To indirectly catch Maria's birth name, we can look at the marriage and death records of her children. I found only one record that identifies Maria, wife of Charles Tucker, as a Vanderhoof. Their son, Elias, died November 25, 1913 at the New Jersey State Hospital in Morris Plains. This is locally known as "Greystone" and still exists today for inpatient treatment of mental illness. The death certificate of Elias Tucker provides his mother's name as Maria Vanderhoof. Below is the image of Elias' death certificate.

Death certificate of Elias Tucker died November 25, 1913
in Morris Plains, Morris County, New Jersey 
(New Jersey State Hospital).
Father- Charles C Tucker. Mother- Maria Vanderhoof.
Death certificates are not online but can be ordered from the New Jersey State Archives
or copied in person.

Elias Tucker (1833-1913) was one of the older children of Maria and Charles. In 1860 he married Phebe Elizabeth Blanchard. He served in the Civil War.

Conclusions

None of these sources provide the parentage of Maria Vanderhoof. More information is needed to link Maria to any parents.

Deborah Vanderhoof Decker 1805-1832

Research Question

Was Deborah Vanderhoof (1805-1832) a daughter of Jacob Vanderhoof (1772-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841)?

Online family trees

Some trees posit Deborah as a child of Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler.

One of the many trees at Ancestry listing children
of Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler

Published book of Vanderhoof researcher

Louisa Caroline Freeman Hickerson mentioned Deborah Vanderhoof in her book, Vanderhoof, though not as a daughter of Jacob and Ann. Three Decker brothers married Vanderhoof women. Louisa did not determine the parentage of Deborah.

Page of Freeman's book about Decker and Vanderhoof marriages.
Housed at the Denville Historical Society

Marriage of Deborah Vanderhoof and John Decker, 1822

On March 19, 1822 Deborah Vanderhoof and John Decker were married by Pastor John Ford in Morris County, New Jersey. Marriages in Morris County can be found in books digitized at Family Search. The range of years is from the late 1700s through the late 1800s, including past 1848, when New Jersey required centralized recording of marriages.

"March 19 1822 John Decker, Stony Brook to
Deborah Vanderhoof of Rockaway Valley"

"March 19 1822 John Decker, Stony Brook to
Deborah Vanderhoof of Rockaway Valley"

The problem with these marriage records is that additional information is scarce. For example, ages of the parties and names of parents are often not given.

Burial and gravestone evidence

Deborah Vanderhoof and John Decker were buried at Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery in Boonton, Morris County.

Gravestones in Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery
visited on the cold day of November 11, 2025.
Deborah Vanderhoof died March 13, 1832 
John Decker died September 5, 1877
Rachel Jacobus died November 17, 1866

The date of death etched on Deborah's stone is March 13, 1832. I'm no expert on gravestones, but I do not think that her stone was created at the time of her death; therefore, it is prone to inaccuracies. Next to Deborah is her husband, John Decker (1800-1877). Next to John is his second wife, Rachel Jacobus (1796-1866).

Children of Deborah Vanderhoof and John Decker and problems with the timeline

Deborah and John had children. Names of the children can reveal names of grandparents. John Decker's parents were Andrew Decker and Elizabeth Dulhagle. The two oldest children were named Elizabeth and Andrew. It is possible that other children were born and named after Deborah's side of the family and that we do not know about these children because they died young or they married and moved away before the 1850 census.

--Elizabeth Decker (1822-1897) married Cyrus Dixon (1814-1868)

--Andrew Decker (1827-1906) married Martha Dixon (1830-1919)

--Sarah Louise Decker (1830-19xx) married William Kanouse (1823-1903)

--Catherine Amanda Decker (1835-1915) married Charles Augustus Kincaid (1832-1901).

The year of birth for the youngest child, Catherine, varies in records, but is usually in the early 1830s. The year of birth on her gravestone is 1835. So Catherine's mother, Deborah, died anytime after her birth until her father remarried before the 1850 census. There were no recordings of deaths to the county or State of New Jersey in the 1830s. Either Deborah did not die in 1832 or Catherine was not born in 1835, or Deborah was not her mother.

Conclusion

With the information so far gathered, the parentage of Deborah Vanderhoof remains a mystery. No direct evidence links Deborah to Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler. None of the known and speculated children of Jacob and Ann named a daughter Deborah. Online trees copy one another. Further evidence is required to link Deborah to any set of parents.

If you have probate, church, or family Bible records related to Morris County Vanderhoofs, I would welcome hearing from you.

The Two Samuel Vanderhoofs

Sometimes two people share similar facts, causing confusion to later generations who try to sort through records to craft accurate family trees.

This happened with two men named Samuel Vanderhoof. Both men were born about 1811 in Morris County, New Jersey. We know they were two different people because they are listed separately in the census and because one relocated to Wisconsin. Family trees and hints at Ancestry intermingle the two individuals as one.

1880 federal census
Town of Plymouth, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.
Samuel Vanderhoof, age 72.
With wife and children.

The Samuel Vanderhoof pictured in the 1880 census in Wisconsin married Eleanor Anderson in New Jersey. They moved to Wisconsin in the early 1850s. He is likely a son of Jacob Vanderhoof (1772-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841), though no documentation of this has surfaced yet.

The Samuel Vanderhoof who remained in New Jersey was the son of Cornelius Vanderhoof and maybe Catharine Smith.

1880 federal census
Boonton Township, Morris County, New Jersey.
Samuel Vanderhoof, age 69.
With second wife, Sarah, and her son, Walter Stiers.
Samuel's daughter, Mary Catherine, is with husband Charles Struble
in the first listed household.

New Jersey Samuel Vanderhoof married Julie Ann Vanderhoof in the early 1840s. She was the daughter of Abraham Johannis Vanderhoof (died 1836) and Catharine Kierstede. Julie died between the 1870 census and Samuel's remarriage in 1878. 1876 is her year of death on her gravestone in Rockaway Valley United Methodist Church Cemetery in Boonton, but I have not found a record of her death filed with the Archives. Presumably Samuel and Julie were cousins on their Vanderhoof lines, but I have not determined how at this point in the research.

Samuel and Julie had a daughter who lived to adulthood and had children. She was born around 1842 and used two different given names, Mary and Catherine, which added to the confusion of this branch. On January 1, 1862 in Boonton she married Charles Struble (1840-1926). Mary/Catherine died in 1898.

On August 21, 1878 Samuel Vanderhoof remarried to Sarah Ann Moore (1812-1894) in Rockaway Valley. This was Sarah's third marriage. Her first husband was Samuel Garrison Stires (1815-1869). Her second husband was Washington Stickle (1806-1877).

Marriage record
Samuel Vanderhooff (Vanderhoof) and Sarah Stickle
married August 21, 1878
in Rockaway Valley, Boonton, Morris County, New Jersey.
Available on microfilm at the New Jersey State Archives, Trenton.

According to this marriage record, the parents of Samuel were Cornelius Vanderhoof and Catharine [no surname]. Samuel died February 21, 1886 in Rockaway Valley. His parents on the death certificate were Cornelius Vanderhoof and --- Smith [no given name].

Death certificate
Samuel Vanderhoff died February 21, 1886
in Rockaway Valley, Boonton, Morris County, New Jersey.
Available on microfilm at the New Jersey State Archives, Trenton.

As I sift through Vanderhoof records, the gains are generation by generation. Records are sparser in the first half of the 1800s. Marriages were recorded in Morris County prior to state-wide registration began in 1848, but names of parents were rare on these early marriage records.

Other articles about Vanderhoofs with the same names, places, and dates:

-Elizabeth Cook married Vanderhoof

-William Vanderhoof (born early 1860s)

-Peter Vanderhoof