Mary (1822-1861), Not a Daughter of Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler

Beware of blindly accepting published family trees!

Jacob Vanderhoof (1772-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841) lived and died in Morris County, New Jersey. This couple produced thousands of descendants, myself included. As a consequence, they are found in lots of online family trees. Vanderhoof and variant spellings were common in New York and New Jersey in the 1700s and 1800s, resulting in many different people having similar first and last names living within miles of one another. The few written records that survive lack details that would help distinguish one person from another of the same name.

The result is lots of trees that merge different people into one, or criss-cross the lines.

As of this writing, I have not sorted all of the men named Jacob Vanderhoof. I'll produce articles as I figure out children, record sets, or locations.

A tree appeared with Jacob, Ann, and sixteen children. I explored this tree because I was curious about the sources about their daughter, Elizabeth (1799-1878). The picture for Elizabeth is that of a young woman. Elizabeth was well-past her youth when cameras and photographs were invented, so this cannot be her.

Tree of Jacob Vanderhoof, Ann Elizabeth Hopler, and sixteen children

I looked at the youngest offered child, Mary, born in 1822, when her mother was fifty. The only source is another family tree. This will not suffice.

Source for the life of Mary Vanderhoof is another tree

In 1848, Mary Vanderhoof and J K Odell married in Sussex County, New Jersey. This was just before state-wide registry was required; however, the event was recorded at the county level and can be viewed online. From this record we see that the bride was described as "of Wantage." This is in Sussex County, about thirty miles northwest of Rockaway Valley in Morris County, where Jacob Vanderhoof and and Ann Hopler had resided before their deaths.

March 30, 1848. Mr J K Odell of Hardiston to Miss Mary Vanderhoof of Wantage.
Sussex County, New Jersey Marriages 1828-1853

On October 30, 1861 Mary Odel died in Vernon, Sussex County. This record is also available online. State-wide registration was in the form of ledger books at this time. The cause of death was consumption, or tuberculosis. Her parents were Jacob and Elizabeth Vanderhoof.

Mary Odell has a memorial page at Find A Grave, along with a photograph of the stone. She was buried at Deckertown Union Cemetery in Wantage.

Mary Vanderhuff Odell (1823-1861)
Memorial page at Find A Grave

The above-mentioned sources don't help us definitively rule Mary in or out as a daughter of Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler. Without visiting this cemetery in person, we can check for other Vanderhoofs buried there.

We find Jacob A Vanderhuff (1791-1870) and Elizabeth Swan (1793-1870) listed in the same cemetery as Mary. They seem more likely to be her parents. (Yes, Mary is listed as their daughter at Find A Grave. This is because I requested this change after finding and reviewing documents.)

Jacob A Vanderhuff (1791-1870)
Memorial page at Find A Grave

Elizabeth Swan Vanderhuff (1793-1870)
Memorial page at Find A Grave

The will of Jacob A Vanderhuff is viewable online. He left his estate to his living children and to three of his grandchildren, "children of John K Odell and my daughter Mary, now deceased."

Will of Jacob A Vanderhuff of Vernon, Sussex County, New Jersey.
Proved August 17, 1870.

This helps chip away at one bit of inaccuracy in the Vanderhoof tree. More to come.

Finding Obituaries of the Unnamed

Obituaries are an invaluable source of information on people from long ago.

Sometimes, unfortunately, a person's full name is not revealed. This happened with Amelia C Degraw, wife of Martin Vanderhoof. She died in Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey on February 5, 1899.

Her obituary called her "Mrs Martin Vanderhoof" and "the deceased." Her first name and name at birth were not mentioned. Even her two daughters were mentioned only by the names of their husbands. Mrs J S Hall was Elsie. Mrs E A Muir was Hattie Amelia.

Mrs Martin Vanderhoof
Mrs Martin Vanderhoof, aged 64, died on Sunday after an illness of less than two weeks. The deceased had been a member of the Methodist Church for about 35 years. Mrs Vanderhoof is survived by a husband, a son and two daughters. The daughters are Mrs J S Hall and Mrs E A Muir, and the son is Charles Vanderhoof, all of Morristown.
The funeral was held at 2 o'clock Wednesday afternoon from the late residence of the deceased, 8 Court street. The pallbearers were Ellis Coe, Dayton Bobbitt, James Couch, Clifford Fairchild, D H Rodney and D S Brink. Interment was made at Evergreen Cemetery.

Amelia's death certificate confirmed the obituary for Mrs Martin Vanderhoof is indeed hers.

Death certificate of Amelia C Vanderhoof. Died February 5, 1899 in Morristown.
Microfilm available to view and copy at the New Jersey State Archives, Trenton.
Parents- Luke Degraw and Elizabeth Clark.

When Martin died in 1913, his obituary provided Amelia's full name. They were married April 29, 1856- according to Martin's obituary. This may have been in Orange County, New York- where Amelia was from. I have not found a record in New Jersey.

Obituary of Martin Vanderhoof
Morris County Chronicle
August 19, 1913

I photographed the grave of Amelia and Martin when I visited Evergreen Cemetery in August of 2024. Their daughter, Hattie, and Hattie's husband, Edward Muir, are also on the stone.

Gravestone at Evergreen Cemetery, Morristown, New Jersey.
Martin Vanderhoof (November 2, 1830 - August 14, 1913)
Amelia C Degraw (October 2, 1834 - February 5, 1899)
Edward A Muir (August 25, 1852 - January 12, 1881)
Hattie A Vanderhoof (January 17, 1859 - February 17, 1929)

As more historical newspapers and documents appear online, search features improve. Strategies are still needed to find information. Searching for "Amelia" and "Vanderhoof" would not have yielded her obituary from 1899.

Related Stepmother on Marriage Record

A marriage record is an excellent way of discovering the names of the parents of the bride and groom. The parties helped create the document and could ensure completeness and accuracy, as opposed to birth and death records in which the subject of the document is of no assistance in providing information.

That said, the information is not always accurate.

This was the case with the marriage record of William Hanford Ocoboc (1872-1941) and Anna Holander (1874-1948). They married December 15, 1894 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey. William was raised in Rockaway, Morris County, New Jersey, but relocated to Essex County after the marriage. (Hanford is also spelled "Handford." Ocoboc has spelling variants, such as "Ockobock.")

William's parents were Hanford Ocoboc (1844-1918) and Ann Elizabeth Cook (1854-1885); however, on the marriage record, his mother was listed as Clara Lee (1861-1913).

Marriage record.
William Ocoboc and Anna Holander married December 15, 1894
in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.

Names of William Ocoboc's parents as reported on his 1894 marriage record.
His mother was actually Ann Cook, not Clara Lee.

Clara was William's father's second wife. Clara and Ann were first cousins. Their grandparents were Stephen Cook (1798-1853) and Elizabeth Vanderhoof (1799-1878).

Family tree showing relationship of the two wives of Hanford Ocoboc (1844-1918).
William's marriage record listed Clara, not Ann, as his mother.

William was about thirteen years old when his mother died in 1885. The following year, his father remarried, resulting in another child born into the family. William was old enough to remember these events and know that his mother was Ann, not Clara. Perhaps he named Clara as his mother out of respect to her. Perhaps someone else supplied the information and William did not notice the discrepancy. We may never know. We must verify all information with other records whenever possible.

Hanford was related to both his wives. Through Hanford's paternal side, he was their second cousin, once removed. They shared ancestors Conrad Hopler (1730-1816) and Elizabeth Demuth (1735-1814). Handford's mother was Elizabeth Vanderhoff (1812-1889). Presumably she and the other Elizabeth Vanderhoof (1799-1878) were related.

Relationship of Hanford Ocoboc (1844-1918)
and his two wives

The resulting children of these unions were their own cousins.

Amanuensis Monday: Will of Conrad Hopler, proved 1816 in Morris County, New Jersey

In the name of God Amen.

I, Conrad Hopler, of the Township of Pequanack, in the County of Morris, and State of New Jersey, being sound of mind and memory this tenth day of May in the year of our Lord Eighteen hundred and fifteen, do make the following as my last will and testament.

First I give and bequeath unto my daughters, Charlotte, wife of Henry Mourison, Elizabeth, wife of William vanWinkle, Catharine, wife ofIsaac Tuttle, Ann, wife of Jacob Vanderhoof, Sarah, wife of David Occabock, Margaret, wife of James Shaw, and Susannah, wife of James Lyon, and to their heirs and assigns forever all that part of two certain tracts of land which I am lawfully seized of at present, the one originally contained sixty three acres and four tenths and the other eighty six acres and six tenths which said two tracts of land was surveyed and returned to Joseph Hopler, my father, on the twenty eighth day of March AD Seventeen hundred and fifty by virtue of a deed to him from Gershom Mott by a deed bearing date the twelfth day of March Seventeen hundred and forty nine fifty- this is now about sixty seven acres of the two said tracts that I am now possessed of which I wish to be equally divided between my said six daughters above named or their lawful representatives according to quantity and quality- to them their heirs or assigns forever. The said lands being situate near where John Tucker now living in the township of Pequanack abovesaid.

Second I give and bequeath unto my son, Peter Hopler, and to his heirs and assigns forever, the house and barn where I now live and the lot of land where they stand bounded as follows- Beginning in the road distant one chain and ninety links due west from the west corner of my dwelling house, thence /1/ north forty two degrees and fifteen minutes east four chains and fifty links to an apple tree; thence /2/ south seventy one degrees and thirty minutes east one chain and thirty four links; thence /3/ south three degrees west three chains and twenty links; thence /4/ south fifty degrees and thirty minutes west two chains, to the middle of the aforesaid road; thence /5/ westerly along the said road to the place of beginning, containing one acre be the same more or less.

Thirdly I give and bequeath unto my said son Peter Hopler and to his heirs and assigns forever all that other lot of land also in the township of Pequanack lying about a quarter of a mile from the road that leads from Boonton to Frederick Miller on the north east side of said road about north east from where Frederick Hopler now lives- beginning at a small black oak saplin, the north east corner of Jacob Kanous’ lands, being also a corner in the Boonton tract; thence /1/ north sixty two degrees with twenty chains partly by a stone fence to a corner in a road lately laid out from Jacob Demouth’s barn to the publick road near Frederick Hopler’s; thence /2/ along said road or near the same north forty one degrees east twelve chains and fifty links to another line of the Boonton tract; thence /3/ along the same southerly about five chains to another line thereof; thence /4/ along the same to the place of beginning, containing twenty acres be the same more or less.

Fourth I give and bequeath unto my son, Frederick Hopler, during his natural life and to his heirs after his decease the following lots of land and premises situate in the township of Pequanack aforesaid.

First lot bounded as follows. Beginning at the south east end of the bridge that crosses the Beaver brook in the road leading from where I now live and to Frederick Miller’s; thence /1/ southeasterly along in the middle of the road fourteen chains and forty three links thence /2/ south forty one degrees and thirty minutes west nine chains and eighty seven links; thence /3/ north fifty two degrees and thirty minutes west to the said Beaver brook; thence /4/ up the stream of said brook the final courses thereof to the place of beginning containing fifteen acres be the same more or less.

The second lott, called the barn lot, beginning at the north east side of a large rock in the road about three or four chains southeasterly from my dwelling house; thence /1/ south twenty four degrees west two chains; thence /2/ south fifty nine degrees and thirty minutes east eight chains and fifty links; thence /3/ north twenty four degrees east two chains to the middle of the aforesaid road; thence /4/ along in the said road north fifty nine degrees and thirty minutes west eight chains and fifty links to the place of beginning, containing one acre and seventy hundredths of an acre.

Fifthly all the residue of my land, not heretofore bequeathed, situate on the northeast side of the road leading from William Scott’s to the bridge crossing the beaver brook near the school house, I give and bequeath unto my son, Frederick Hopler, during his natural life and to his heirs after his decease forever.

Sixthly all the residue of my land not heretofore bequeathed, lying on the southwest side of the road leading from William Scott’s to the bridge crossing the beaver brook near the school house in Rockaway valley I give and bequeath unto my son, Peter Hopler, and to his heirs and assigns forever.

Seventhly after my Just debts are paid I give and bequeath all my personal estate to my seven daughters first above named and the heirs of my daughter, Mary, deceased, that is, the heirs of my daughter, Mary, deceased, to have one eighth part thereof and that to be divided, share and share alike amongst them and my seven daughters above named to have seven eighths thereof that is of my personal estate after the debt are paid to be divided share and share alike.

I appoint Jacob Demouth and my son-in-law, Henry Mowrison, to be executors to this, my testament and last will.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the day and year above written.

Conrad Hopler, his mark

Signed, sealed, published, and declared by the said Conrad Hopler to be his testament and last will in the presence of us:

Thomas Vanwinkle

John Kanouss

Thomas Kanouse

Henry Morrison renounced April 10, 1816, witnessed by Hezekiah Schofield and James Lyon.

Proved by Thomas Vanwinkle May 3, 1816.

Inventory by Aaron Miller and William Allger

Notes against:

Mary Vanwinkle  7.70

Frederick Hopler  29.80

Tunis Kanouse  6.90

James Lyon  22.05

David Kanouse  31.35

Matthew Stagg 5.35

Thomas Stagg  1.06

Isaac Tuttle  9.62

Peter Earl  3

Aaron Miller  4.45

Jacob Demouth  3.42

James Shaw  2.29

Conrad Kanouse  9.25

Bond against Jacob Kanouse Junior  300

In hand of John Earl  0.87

In hand of James Cardiff  0.66

In hand of John Pier  0.12

Triple Cousins

Two interesting DNA matches appeared at 23andMe on my father's side.

They are close cousins to each other.  Each shares one to four small segments of DNA with my father and his siblings.

Sharing several small segments can indicate endogamy, or intermarrying within a small group of people over several generations.

Below is the DNA shared by my aunt and these two matches.

A comparison of family trees produced the same location of Morris County, New Jersey.  From there, we had to figure out the common ancestors, which turned out to be on more than one line, as predicted by the DNA.  These two DNA cousins are descended from Anna Augusta Cook (born 1843) and James Augustus Estler (1840-1921).

The common ancestors were:

- John Cook (1745-1821) and Jane Peer (dates not determined): My sixth great grandparents.
  My line descends from their son, Henry Cook (1777-1831).
  The Estler/Cook cousins descend from another son, David Cook (1780-1860).

- George Wiggins (dates not determined) and Unknown: My sixth great grandparents.
  My line descends from their daughter, Susannah Wiggins.
  The Estler/Cook cousins descend from another daughter, Jemima Wiggins (1780-1851).

Yes, two brothers married two sisters.

- Jacob vanderHoof (1774-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841): My fifth great grandparents.
  My line descends from their daughter, Elizabeth vanderHoof (1799-1878).
  The Estler Cook cousins descend from another daughter, Charlotte vanderHoof (1809-1886).



A family tree contained a picture of James Augustus Estler and ten of his children.  These children are my cousins in three different ways.

If anyone has further information on Wiggins in Morris County, New Jersey, please reach out to me.  Thank you.

DNA Chart for Cook/VanderHoof Descendants

It took a while, but I finally created a McGuire Method DNA Chart for a branch of my family.

Several descendants of my fourth great grandparents, Stephen Cook (1797-1853) and Elizabeth Vanderhoof (1799-1878) have tested their DNA.  Most have uploaded to GedMatch.com, where we can compare everyone, even though people tested at three different companies.

The Mystery Cousin discussed a few weeks ago also belongs on this chart; I just don't know where yet.

click to enlarge

More Morris County, New Jersey DNA

A connection was solved with a DNA cousin at 23andMe.

This match stood out because the shared DNA was 1.57% over a single segment.  This placed the match among my father's closest family, where it sat anonymously for over a year.

A name was finally revealed this week and I found the person on FaceBook.  She accepted my request to "share" on 23andMe and provided the names of her four grandparents so we could figure out the precise relation.

Her grandparents were from New Jersey, which is where we needed to be geographically.

The FindAGrave memorial for her grandfather, Charles Graner (1924-1985), included a note about the 1920 federal census in Denville, Morris County, New Jersey.  Her grandfather was living with Cooks.  My paternal grandmother was Beulah Cook (1921-2003), descended from Cooks in Morris County.

After reviewing the Cook branch, Charles Graner's mother was determined to be Lena Cook, a daughter of Charles Cook (1859-1921), granddaughter of Henry Cook (1828-1902), and a great granddaughter of Stephen H Cook- my ancestor.

Thus, our most recent common ancestors were Stephen H Cook (1797-1853) and Elizabeth Vanderhoof (1799-1878).  This DNA cousin is related to my father as a fourth cousin, once removed, and to me as a fifth cousin.

Below is the shared DNA reported at 23andMe between this Cook/Vanderhoof cousin and my father, his siblings, and a third cousin of theirs.  All five have the exact relation to the newly discovered cousin- fourth cousins, once removed.  Note that two of them share only one small segment.

Almost all of chromosome 10 remained intact for my father and one of his brothers.  Total length was 116 cM and 21,000 SNPs for my father.

For the next generation, comparing what my father passed on to my sister and me, I inherited the entire segment while my sister received half.  Amazing that this whole segment survived six generations down to me.  We do not know if the segment is from Stephen H Cook or Elizabeth Vanderhoof.

For fourth and fifth cousins to share such a long segment is an outlier in expected amount of shared DNA.

These are pictures of photographs housed in the Denville Historical Society and Museum.  Henry Cook (1828-1902) and Emiline Young (1834-1906) were the third great grandparents of this latest DNA cousin.

DNA from Morris County, New Jersey: Family Tree DNA

At FamilyTreeDNA, my uncles share a segment on chromosome 1 with two individuals.

We need to know if these two DNA cousins match each other in the same spot.  FamilyTreeDNA does not allow you to make this comparison.  One of the cousins checked on his end, and sure enough, he matches this other cousin on the same segment.

Common ancestors of all of us were Richard/Dirk Vanderhoof (b 1745) and Catrina Young/Jong (b 1753).  My line descends from Dirk and Catrina's son, Jacob Vanderhoof (1774-1847) and then granddaughter, Elizabeth Vanderhoof (1799-1878).  The cousin in blue in the first graph is also descended from Jacob Vanderhoof, but through Jacob's son, Peter Vanderhoof (1797-1847).

The cousin in orange descends from Dirk and Catrina's daughter, Elizabeth Vanderhoof (b1775).  She married John Taylor.

But that's not all.

The cousin in orange also descends from Frederick DeMouth and Charlotte Muller/Miller.  For my line, they were the maternal grandparents of Ann Hopler (1772-1841) - wife of Jacob Vanderhoof (1774-1847).  If the other distant cousin on this segment (the "blue cousin") is not descended from DeMouth and Miller, then we can say that the DNA came from Vanderhoof and Young.  With the close geography and intermingling of these lines, we may not be able to sort out exactly whose DNA this is- just that it is from the Morris County lines.

DNA from Morris County, New Jersey: AncestryDNA/GedMatch

The next DNA cousins from Morris County, New Jersey appeared among my matches at AncestryDNA.  By comparing our attached family trees, Ancestry suggested that we share a set of ancestors, Jacob Vanderhoof (1772-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841).  These cousins, like the ones in prior posts, are also descended from Jacob and Ann's son, Peter Vanderhoof (1797-1847), by his marriage to Rachel Peer (1800-1850).

The actual relationship, based on descent from Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler, is fourth cousins, once removed.

We can't see the shared segments at AncestryDNA, but these cousins fortunately uploaded to GedMatch.

My father shares five segments with one of the cousins, which is a great lead.

The amount and location of shared DNA among the other relatives varies.

We can triangulate the relation using the DNA of my father's brothers and their third cousin.  All three match this AncestryDNA cousin on chromosome 12.  (This segment immediately follows the segment shared by the DNA cousins from yesterday's post.)  The branch of my father's tree common to him and his third cousin holds Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler, the predicted Most Recent Common Ancestors.

We are presented with the same issue here as with the other cousins who are descendants of the couple Peter Vanderhoof and Rachel Peer:  Are we also related through the Peer line?  More research will hopefully produce the ancestry of Rachel Peer.

DNA from Morris County, New Jersey: 23andMe

From my Morris County, New Jersey ancestors, some cousins appear in the DNA databases.

My father's third cousin from this branch has tested his DNA.  We can see the shared segments of autosomal DNA shared with my father, his siblings, and this third cousin.  The common ancestors were Calvin Cook (1827 - 1889) and Mary Neal (1829 - 1898) of Morris County.

By viewing where the DNA is shared, we can find other, more distant cousins who also share DNA in these same spots.

For this discussion, we focus on the shared segments on chromosome 12 at 23andMe.  Two of my father's siblings share DNA on chromosome 12 with the third cousin.

A few people ("DNA cousins") also share these same segments with the relatives on my end- my uncle and our third cousin.  One of them has a family tree and responded to my inquiry.  She shares an identical segment of DNA with two of my uncles and third cousin.

We need to triangulate the match.  Two full siblings count as one point of the triangle, as their ancestors are identical.  We do not have to search our entire family tree to find the Most Recent Common Ancestor.  We look instead at the set of ancestors common to the third cousins:  Calvin Cook and Mary Neal.

Mary Neal is a tail end in my family tree.  Her ancestry is unknown to me at this time.  Only Calvin Cook's tree is available.  If the segment came from Mary Neal, we could possibly break through that brick wall.

One of two branches that may hold the Most Recent Common Ancestor
of the DNA cousin.

When asked for ancestors that were in northern New Jersey in the 1800s, the DNA cousin provided the couple Peter Vanderhoof (1797-1847) and Rachel Peer (1800-1850).  After time, research, and correspondence, the Most Recent Common Ancestors were identified as Jacob Vanderhoof (1772-1847) and Ann Hopler (1772-1841).  They were the parents of Peter Vanderhoof, the direct ancestor of the DNA match, and they were the parents of Elizabeth Vanderhoof (1799-1878), the mother of Calvin Cook, in my direct line.

This makes this DNA cousin a Fifth Cousin to my father, his siblings, and their third cousin.

Elizabeth Vanderhoof (1799-1878) is buried with her husband, Stephen Cook (1797-1843), in the Cook Cemetery in Denville, Morris County, New Jersey.  (Now enclosed by a golf course.)

Peter Vanderhoof and his wife, Rachel Peer, are buried in the DeMouth Family Burial Ground (front yard of a house) in Denville, along with Peter and Elizabeth's parents, Jacob Vanderhoof and Ann Hopler.  (Ann Hopler's mother was Elizabeth DeMouth.)

But there could be other ancestors in common.

Jane Peer was the 5th great grandmother of my father.  She married John Cook (1745-1821).  She was probably born around 1750 and died before her father, Samuel Peer, died in 1818.

Rachel Peer (1800-1850) was the 3rd great grandmother of the DNA cousin.  Rachel's place in the Peer family of Morris County has not been determined.  Rachel Peer and Jane Peer, like the other Morris County lines, were probably related.  The shared DNA could be from Peer and not Vanderhoof and Hopler.