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.
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| 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.
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| 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).
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| 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].
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| 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)
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