Old Dutch Vanderhoef House of Clifton, New Jersey

The Vanderhoef-Westervelt House in Clifton, Passaic County, New Jersey sits in Weasel Brook Park. I visited on June 6, 2026.

Jody and Angie standing at the door of the Vanderhoef House

The original part of this structure was supposedly built around 1720 by Gysbert Vanderhoef. The nearby brook powered a grist mill.

Plaque affixed to exterior wall to the left of the front door.
Inscription: About 1720
Gysbert Vanderhoef
built here this house and
the second saw and grist mill
in Passaic County
Claverack Cahpter, D.A.R.
Nov 6, 1940

The original structure was expanded and modified over the centuries. The interior, as viewed through the windows, looks completely modern. The inside is not open to the public, but in consolation, if you want to see a replication of the interior of an 18th century Dutch home, this is not the place.

My pictures never do justice to the subject, but I think you can see the reddish brownstone from the local quarries.

By 1720, as Gysbert was building, New Jersey had been newly formed by uniting East and West Jersey. The map below is from 1748, or decades after Gysbert built his tiny house. I placed the yellow dot in the area that I think the house is in. Today, Clifton is a city in Passaic County. When Gysbert lived in this house, this area was not known as Clifton or Passaic County.

Map of New Jersey circa 1748
I added the yellow dot to show the location of the Vanderhoef House on Weasel Brook
Map at David Rumsey dot com

In a book about Vanderhoofs by Wilson V Ledley (1913-1978), he places Guysbert Van Der Hoef (1692-1758) as a son of Jan Cornelise Van Der Hoeven. Jan was born about 1648 in Holland and immigrated about 1661 to New Amsterdam, New York with his mother, Geertje VanFulpen, and siblings. Jan was my 8th great grandfather. Guysbert/Gysbert was my 7th great granduncle.

Excerpt from the book
New Netherland Families. Vanderhoef Family. The First Five Generations.
Author- Wilson V Ledley.
You can view this book on the Internet Archive.

The Vanderhoofs relocated from New Amsterdam to Albany, New York, 150 miles north. This must have been an arduous journey in the 1600s. Some descendants then relocated south again to northern New Jersey/East Jersey in the late 1600s/early 1700s.

According to a book, History of Passaic and its Environs, Gysbert Vanderhoef received land from his father-in-law, John E Vreeland. The area was described as lot number 9 of Weasel Division. Gysbert conveyed the property to Gerret Gerritse on May 1, 1736. Where is this deed? New Jersey State Archives hosts a searchable database index, Early Land Records, 1650-1900s. I don't see a listing for Guysbert/Gysbert Vanderhoef and this property.

Where was Weasel Division in the early 1700s? Bergen County was east of the Hackensack River, but later encroached west, but not past the Passaic River. Acquackanonk was in Essex County. I think this was where the property was. Does anyone know of documentation and maps for this area and time period?

Excerpt from the book History of Passaic and Its Environs
mentioning Gysbert Vanderhoef and the Weasel area (now in Clifton)

To place a building on the National Register of Historic Places, an application and supporting documentation must be submitted to the National Park Service. The paperwork for the Vanderhoef House is online, though it is marked "Draft." Was this structure not accepted for inclusion on the Register?

How can we find these older land records for East Jersey and New Jersey?

Three Plainfields in New Jersey

Plainfield is a city in Union County, New Jersey.

To the northwest is North Plainfield, a borough in Somerset County.

To the south is South Plainfield, a borough in Middlesex County.

Below is a map of these boundaries.

Map showing shared boundaries of North Plainfield, Plainfield, and South Plainfield.
New Jersey Department of Transportation

Below is a map of the wider area within New Jersey.

Map showing area of New Jersey containing the three Plainfields.
Map of New Jersey Department of Transportation

Accuracy is important in genealogy. The location of an event or residence is where we would begin looking for records. The counties recorded marriages until the later 1800s, when state filing took over. The counties still process and maintain probate records.

I just realized this tricky naming pattern spread across three counties and thought I'd share with fellow New Jersey researchers.

Which County?

How do you properly record a county when the location and the information on the record do not align? I am not sure.

When reviewing the death certificates from 1904 for the surname Vanderhoof, we see the record for Clarissa Vanderhoof. She died on April 7 in Mountain View. "MORRIS CO., N.J." was stamped next to this place.

Death certificate of Clarissa Vanderhoof, age 57 years.
Father- John Wilson. Mother- Eliza A Wilson.
Buried in Pompton Plains First Reformed Church Cemetery, Morris County.

Mountain View is a section of Wayne Township, which is in Passaic County, not Morris; however, this area borders Lincoln Park, Morris County on the west.

Who stamped "Morris County" on the death certificate? Did Mountain View span both counties in 1904?

We have the same type of issue with the marriage of Clarissa and Andrew.

In 1863, Clarissa Wilson became the second wife of Andrew J Vanderhoof (1838-1919). The marriage was recorded with other marriages in Morris County, though the location of the ceremony was Bloomingdale, which is in Passaic County, though on the border with Morris.

Ledger book of marriages and deaths in Morris County, New Jersey
covering the years 1848-1867. "Book Z."
Viewable at Ancestry and at the New Jersey State Archives.

Map of Morris County, New Jersey 1853

An enlargement of the focal points on this ledger page reveals that the entry above Andrew J Vanderhoff and Clarrisa Wilson is Nathan Courter and Martha Vanderhoof.

Enlargement of marriage record of Nathan Courter and Martha Vanderhoof and of Andrew J Vanderhoff and Clarrisa Wilson, 1863

Nathan and Martha were married March 15, 1863. The date for Andrew and Clarrisa is scratched out, but maybe is the same. Both couples were married in Bloomingdale by the same person, whose name is also scribbled out, but looks something like "Castell."

I think that Martha and Andrew were siblings. Their father was Jacob G Vanderhoof. I don't know why Martha's father is listed as "Aaron Vanderhoff." Their brother, Peter J Vanderhoof (1834-1862), was discussed in the article about Peter Vanderhoof of Wisconsin.

I will have to copy Martha's death certificate on my next trip to the Archives to see what was recorded for her parents. Martha died in 1914 and Nathan died in 1910. They were buried in Whitehall Methodist Church Cemetery in Towaco, Morris County.

Pictures on Gravestones

Gravestone of Di Agostino family:
Anna, Constandino, and their daughter Mary

Ceramic pictures occasionally appear on gravestones. Photographing them helps preserve these images.

These images of Anna Picone (1875-1958) and Constandino Di Agostino (1877-1936) are affixed to their gravestone in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey. As time passes, these pictures will become worn. They might fall from the stone or go missing.

(Holy Sepulchre lies in East Orange and Newark. This gravestone is in Newark.)

Some poking around at Ancestry revealed that someone else took pictures of these photographs, but now they are preserved in additional locations online.

Obituary of Anna Di Agostino, born Picone.
May 8, 1958. Newark Star Ledger newspaper.

Anna's obituary references a tunnel leading to parking area. Anyone know what or where this is? Is it South Orange Avenue (County Route 510) as it passes under the Parkway? Section V, where this gravestone resides, is close to the Garden State Parkway. It is visible from the northbound lanes. The Parkway was nearing completion in 1958, when Anna died.

Picture taken standing in Section V and the Parkway
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Newark, New Jersey

The southbound lanes border another side of the cemetery. Below is an undated earlier aerial picture of the Parkway and the cemetery on both sides of the road, followed by the modern-day Google aerial map.

Historical photograph of the Garden State Parkway.
This section lies in Newark, New Jersey.
The Parkway does not run through West Orange.

Same view of the Parkway and Holy Sepulchre Cemetery modern-day

Cummings and Grant Ancestors in a Book

Thank you to the person who sent me this research tip that my Cummings and Grant ancestry is detailed in a book, Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution, by Bernard Bailyn with the assistance of Barbara DeWolfe.

Book jacket
Voyagers to the West

William Henry Cummins (1858-1882) was one of my third great grandfathers. He lived his life in Catskill, Greene County, New York. About 1877 he married Anna Belle Heiser (1860-1934). I descend from their only known child, Nellie Cummings (1879-1965). (These surnames are also spelled Cummings and Hyser.)

Family tree
Parents and grandparents of William Henry Cummins (1858-1882)
Catskill, Greene County, New York

After William's death, Anna Belle joined her parents in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey. This is 120 miles south of Catskill.

Map showing distance between Catskill, New York and Jersey City, New Jersey

William Cummins and Anna Belle Heiser/Hyser were both buried in their respective family plots in the Catskill Village Cemetery in Catskill. The stones next to William reveal are his maternal grandparents, Annie Cumming (1793-1876) and John A Grant (1792-1882), revealing the intermarriage in his family. 

Gravestones of William Cummins' maternal grandparents,
Annie Cumming (1793-1876) and John Grant (1792-1882).
Catskill Village Cemetery, New York.

Around 1880 the State of New York phased in laws requiring births, marriages, and deaths to be recorded with the State. Today the indexes are published in a few places. You can view for free at FamilySearch. The individual certificates are not available online or in any repository; instead, they must be ordered for a fee from the State.

Recording was spotty at first. I do not see a match in the index for William's death in 1882.

There are entries in the index for:

James Cummings 1912 Catskill Fourth great grandfather

Jane Cummings 1899 Fourth great grandmother

John Grant 1882 Fifth great grandfather

I ordered these three death certificates from New York State in February 2024. I do not expect to receive these records for a few years. I have been waiting two and a half years for a death certificate requested in March of 2022.

Death Index New York State
John A Grant died December 27, 1882 in Catskill.
I sent a copy of this index with highlighting to increase the chances
that the State finds this record and fulfills my order.

The grandparents of William Cummins were born in the 1790s, after the American Revolution ended. The excerpt in the book explains the arrival of the prior generation as they arrived in New York as the War was starting.

Gleaned from the book is some genealogy as well as a history lesson about what was happening in Scotland and New York in the 1770s.

In 1774 John Cumming arrived in New York from Scotland with several other people, mostly Grants and Cummings. "He was a native of Strathspey, the broad valley of the Spey River, southeast of Inverness in the eastern Highlands." John was a half brother of James Grant, governor of East Florida. John's brother was Alexander Cumming, a watch maker in London.

In 1776 John Cumming purchased land called Tapugieht, 1000 acres of land in the Catskill Patent, thirty miles south of Albany. He renamed this area Oswald Field. The families farmed the land. (This was in Albany County but became Greene County in 1800.)

This was a tumultuous time. The American Revolutionary War began in 1775. Great Britain versus the Colonies, which became the United States of America. John Cummings was deemed a Loyalist, meaning he supported the British crown and not the newly emerging country in which he found himself. (What a person had to do, or not do, to prove loyalty to one side or the other can vary and is subject to debate and confusion and is not the topic of this writing, though it is fascinating to explore.)

John Cumming was eventually arrested, lost his land and possessions, and allowed to return to Britain.

Many of the people who originally traveled with John Cumming in 1774 remained on the land, which lost the name Oswald Field.

I would normally place an old map here to help visualize these places, but "Oswald Field" and "Tapugieht" are not used in the literature and do not show up in a Google search. Use this link to view a map of Catskill from 1798- after the War. No Oswald Field or Tapugieht on this map.

I suppose that my third great grandfather, William Cummins, descended from these Scottish immigrants to Catskill who were thrown into a war shortly after their arrival. His grandparents were born to people who grew up during the Revolutionary War.

Citation of book:
Bailyn, Bernard, and Barbara DeWolfe. "The Rise and Fall of Oswald Field." Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution. Alfred A Knopf, Inc, 1986, pp. 597-604.

New York City Jury Census 1816

My fourth great grandfather, Garrett Smith Duryea (1777-1834), was a cartman and grocer in New York City. (The name is spelled with variations throughout records.)

In between the federal decennial census, individual locales ran their own enumerations of inhabitants.

In 1816, New York City created a Jury Census- people who were possibly qualified to serve on a jury.

A search tool for this collection is at Ancestry while images are on the website of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services. 

The address of a person in the jury census is provided by the index at Ancestry. To find this entry in the images, you need to look page by page, or find the possible ward by using a map from this time. Garrit S Duryee was living at 168 Maiden Lane, according to the index. On a map from 1817, Maiden Lane was in Ward 2. (Some streets lie in more than one ward.)

Map of New York City 1817
The New York Public Library Digital Collections

This jury census is different from the federal census in that it provides the exact age of the subject. Garrit was 39 years old in 1816, which matches a year of birth of 1777. His occupation was grocer and he had no exemptions from jury service.

The second page provides details about the household. He was a freeholder of more than 100 pounds (not dollars). This could have been 134 Delancey Street, which he purchased in 1807. Four males and three females lived in this household in 1816. The males were probably Garrett and his three sons, Rulief, John, and Stephen. One of the females was likely my fourth great grandmother, Ann Cornell (1784-1871). The other females could have been servants, siblings, mothers, or daughters who died young and are not named in any records discovered yet.

New York City city directory
Images online at The New York Public Library Digital Collections

The 1816 New York City city directory provides Garrett's address as 168 Fly-market. His address changed often.

For comparison, in 1810 Garret Deryea lived in the tenth ward, probably on Broome or Grand, based on the city directories for this time period. He was the male between the ages of 26 and 44. The two young males were probably his sons John and Rulief. One of the females was probably his first wife, Charity Horton.

In the 1820 census, the household had grown.

Rulief was about 16 years old and the oldest living child. Next were John, Stephen, Garrett Junior, and Jacob. Because the rest of the household is not named, we cannot know if these were the children represented by these counts.

The rest of the household was probably a mixture of other relatives. Some of the young males might be undiscoverable children who died young.

Or the numbers might be wrong.

Note: this is not the same Garret Duryea (1750-1825) who lived in Orange County, New York.

Towns of Origin in Hungary

Was Rose Roth (1907-1964), wife of Theodore Marmorstein, related to Theodore's mother, Emilia Roth?

Marriage certificate, New York City, May 4, 1929.
Theodore Marmorstein, son of Emilia Roth and Bernard Marmorstein,
married Rose Rother, daughter Helen (Annie) Bercholtz and William Roth.

Someone raised the question upon reading the article about the two marriage ceremonies of Theodore and Rose.

The answer is I do not know, but I don't think so.

Roth is not an unusual name. Just because people share a surname does not mean that they are related.

The Roths were from the country of Hungary. Identifying a hometown will tell us if a relation was geographically possible.

Emilia (mother of Theodore Marmorstein) filed a Petition for Naturalization in 1935. Her information included her birthplace of Abony, Hungary on July 16, 1877.

Petition for Naturalization
Emilie Marmorstein 1935
Collection at Ancestry

William Roth (father of the bride Rose) filed an application for a passport in 1922. His information included his birthplace of Gönc, Hungary on April 18, 1869.

Application for Passport
William Roth 1922
Collection at Ancestry

I visited Jewish Gen to locate these towns. Their Communities Database is vital for locating present-day towns or areas that may have undergone name changes over the generations.

Abony, Hungary
Communities Database of Jewish Gen

Gönc, Hungary
Communities Database of Jewish Gen

I mapped out these two towns. Using modern roads, these two towns are over 200 kilometers apart and about three hours away.

Distance between Abony and Gönc in Hungary
Google Maps

I think it is unlikely that these two Roth lines are related on their most recent lines.

A House Eighty Years Later

Among the pictures taken by my grandfather, Clifford Lutter (1915-1980), is this house. My aunt said it was in Nutley where Clifford's sister, Beryl lived after she married, but nobody remembered the address.

I revisited this project and located the modern-day house and address.

Beryl Lutter (1918-1988) married Harry Nanejian (1901-1986) in 1937 in Suffern, Rockland County, New York. I do not know why they traveled there to marry.

In the 1938 city directory for Nutley, New Jersey (collection at Ancestry.com), Harry and Beryl are living at 104 McKinley Street. This address, accessible via Google Street View, looks like the house in the photograph. The couple moved around in the years that followed, but those houses do not resemble the house in the photograph.

FindAGrave 11th Anniversary

Yesterday was 10 years, 11 months, and 30 days.
Today is 11 years, 1 day.

Eleven years contributing to FindAGrave!

1,800 memorials are my contribution, with over 2,000 pictures.

When I first started contributing, I did not have a digital camera.  I handwrote the information from the stones and created the memorial later on a computer.  Later I included pictures by using a digital camera: unloaded the pictures onto the computer, compressed their size, and then uploaded to the FindAGrave.

Just this year, in 2014, FindAGrave introduced its mobile app.  Now it is so easy to add a new memorial and include a picture and even the exact location using GPS coordinates via your phone.  You can also locate cemeteries in an area on a map by using the Search for a Cemetery function.

Many people have contacted me about graves I've posted in these eleven years.  Some are seeking family members; others are still gathering information to link lines.  People have posted graves of my family that I needed to see, but had not yet traveled to the location.

In 2013, Ancestry.com acquired FindAGrave.  FindAGrave continues to be free of charge, which it should remain.  The 121 million records continue to grow from volunteer contributors.  Users can add content, or search and view the entire site, for free.

Legible Writing, a Rare and Wonderful Find

The marriage record for Carl Robert Bossert and Pauline Mathilda Maier is the clearest and most detailed I have found.  It's as if the writer wanted to convey legible information to future viewers.

We have full names of both parties.  The bride's birthdate is given, which was not directly asked.  Full names of both sets of parents are given:  Johannes Bossert, Johanna Kukle; Friedrich Maier and Mathilda Heiss.  We also get the hometowns in Germany:  Remsheim and Oberenzingen, both in Württemberg.  The marriage date is clarified:  "July fourth (4) 1897."  You don't find this often.

JewishGen helps you locate places in Europe, even if the name or borders have changed

I attempted to find these locations on a map.  My current theory is that the bride is from Oberensingen, which is now in Nürtingen in the district of Esslingen in the state of Baden-Württemberg.

The groom's location is trickier.  I don't find Remsheim.  On a subsequent marriage record, Robert Carl listed his birthplace as Wimsheim.  This I can find, about 30 miles northwest of Oberensingen.  Wimsheim is in the district of Enz in the state of Baden-Württemberg.

Wimsheim and Oberensingen are in southwest Germany near Pforzheim and Stuttgart.