Key Facts

Snapshot:	probably immigrated from Europe to New Netherland; lived in colonial New York
Parents:	uncertain; see notes below
Born:	circa 1646 very likely in Bunschoten, Dutch Republic
Last known record:	22 February 1719 Kingston, Ulster County, New York
Buried:	unknown

We know that 3898Teunis Elissen was born by about 1646.1 There is substantial (but mildly controvertible) evidence that he was born in Bunschoten in the Dutch Republic (modern-day Netherlands). The problem section below addresses these and other topics.

Problem: Unresolved What else do we know of 3898Teunis' early life? A record dated 1 April 1662 mentions "Theunis Elisz de Kaerl" from Bunschoten, age 16.1 Therefore, one could conclude that 3898Teunis was born circa 1646 in Bunschoten. (Note that "de Kaerl" is a Dutch phrase that essentially means "young man" and therefore shouldn't be interpreted as part of 3898Teunis' name.) Although subsequent records typically mention 3898Teunis without adding "van Bunschoten," a few records do include it, and these same records also show that 3898Teunis' children began to adopt "van Bunschoten" as a surname.2,3 Based on the evidence presented above, one would hope to find a Bunschoten church record for the baptism of a boy named Teunis Ellisen in or about 1646. After searching Bunschoten's church records, I found the following record, which shows that Teunis, son of Ellis Teunis, was baptized on 26 November 1643.4 The baptism record of Teunis, son of Ellis Teunis. This may be the same person as our ancestor 3898Teunis. Full page.4 I strongly suspect that this baptismal record refers to our 3898Teunis—even though it's from 1643, in contrast to the later record indicating that 3898Teunis was born circa 1646.1 The latter record was essentially an employment record from a frontier setting, so some inaccuracy is to be expected. However, since I can't be entirely certain that this baptism record indeed refers to our ancestor 3898Teunis, I've relegated it to this problem section.

Whatever his origin, 3898Teunis was in New Netherland by 1662, when he was hired to work as a farmhand at Fort Orange for four years.1

Problem: Unresolved I'm unable to corroborate many facts about 3898Teunis mentioned in earlier works. Two earlier, oft-quoted works that describe 3898Teunis are: (1) William van Benschoten's Concerning the Van Bunschoten or Van Benschoten Family in America: A Genealogy and Brief History (1907), pages 10-20; and (2) Dellmann O. Hood's The Tunis Hood Family: Its Lineage and Traditions (1960), pages 37-42. Unfortunately, both authors routinely fail to provide source citations for many of the statements they make about 3898Teunis. In a few cases I've found the sources on my own (and have included them in this profile), but in many other cases I've been unable to do so. While trying to determine their sources, oftentimes I simply don't know where to look. Occasionally, though, I think I understand where the record seemingly ought to be, but it simply isn't there. Perhaps the most frustrating example of the latter is Dellmann O. Hood's claim, "It is found in the marriage register of the first Dutch Reformed Church of Bergen, New Jersey [...] that Theunis Eliasz Van Bunschoten and Gerritje Gerrit, were married there February 27, 1674." The records of Bergen's Dutch Reformed Church have been transcribed and translated, but 3898Teunis' alleged marriage simply isn't listed among the marriage records where one would expect.5 Perhaps the marriage is recorded elsewhere, or perhaps Dellmann O. Hood conjured up fake data; without a full, proper source citation, one can't know. If you find an adequate source for any of the claims made in either of these books (that I haven't already found and cited on this page), please contact me.

3898Teunis' name appears on an undated list of "tropers" in Esopus, which is now known as Kingston, New York.6 The term "tropers" seems to refer to some type of local militia.

Several child baptism records name 3898Teunis as the father, as summarized below. These records also prove that 3898Teunis married 3899Gerritje Gerrits despite the lack of an actual marriage record.

3898Teunis signed as the witness to two deeds in 1702. He may have been illiterate, since he signed with his mark, a trident.15,16

3898Teunis' mark on a deed dated 15 February 1702/3. Full page.16

In contrast, he apparently did not use his mark when he—as a representative of Kingston—signed a petition "relating to the payment and arrears of the quit rents" to New York Governor Robert Hunter on 4 June 1714.17

3898Teunis sponsored the baptism of his grandson 974Tunis Hood in Kingston on 22 February 1719.18 This is the last record I've found pertaining to 3898Teunis.

Sources Cited:

1: Pim Nieuwenhuis, “Abstracts from Notarial Documents in the Amsterdam Archive,” New Netherland Connections, Volume 5, page 79. Nieuwenhuis' entry reads, "1 Apr 1662 [not. J. van de Ven, 1141/1]. Jan Baptista van Rensselaer engages Theunis Elisz de Kaerl from Bunschoten, age 16, to work for Jan Barentse Post at Fort Orange as a farmhand for four years, earning 80 guilders in the first two years and 100 guilders in the final two years."

2: Roswell Randall Hoes, ed., Baptismal and Marriage Registers of the Old Dutch Church of Kingston, Ulster County, New York (De Vinne Press, New York, 1891), page 123, entry #2591 for the baptism of Theunis on 13 July 1718.

3: ibid., page 125, entry #2643 for the baptism of Theunis on 22 February 1719.

4: Bunschoten, Utrecht province, Netherlands. Dopen 1631-1809 and Lidmaten 1795-1853, image #18 (where image #1 is the title card, which has a black background and a large "7" in the bottom right corner), right column, entry #1, an entry dated 26 November 1643 that reads "Ellis Teunis kint Teunis." The year (1643) is shown on image #16.

5: Year Book of the Holland Society of New York: 1914, page 59.

6: Peter R. Cristoph, ed., The Dongan Papers: 1683-1688, Part II: Files of the Provincial Secretary of New York during the Administration of Governor Thomas Dongan (Syracuse University Press, 1996), pages 41-42. The name "Tunis Elisen" is listed under the heading "A lest of the tropers," and a footnote at the bottom of page 41 reads, "The date of this document is not known, and may be much later than the time period of this volume. Several of these names do not appear in the records of the Reformed Church at Kingston until the 1720s. However, the absence of German names on the list makes a date that late impossible."

7: Year Book of the Holland Society of New York: 1913, page 23, entry #40 for the baptism of Hendrickje on 22 May 1676.

8: Roswell Randall Hoes, ed., Baptismal and Marriage Registers of the Old Dutch Church of Kingston, Ulster County, New York (De Vinne Press, New York, 1891), page 13, entry #199 for the baptism of Elias on 23 November 1679.

9: ibid., page 16, entry #256 for the baptism of Gerrit on 12 March 1682.

10: ibid., page 21, entry #351 for the baptism of Rebecca on 10 February 1684.

11: ibid., page 25, entry #444 for the baptism of Rachel on 17 January 1686.

12: ibid., page 30, entry #550 for the baptism of Jacob on 15 January 1688.

13: ibid., page 37, entry #693 for the baptism of Rebecca on 28 January 1692.

14: ibid., page 46, entry #882 for the baptism of Rachel on 22 December 1695.

15: Ulster County, New York. Deeds book AA (for the years 1685 through March 1709/10), page 285. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89WR-FHGZ?i=205&cc=2078654&cat=253564>, accessed 4 August 2021.

16: ibid., page 297, a deed dated 15 February 1702/3. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9WR-FC8P?i=212&cc=2078654&cat=253564>, accessed 4 August 2021.

17: Ulster County, New York. Deeds book CC (1714/5 - 1727/8), page 190. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89WR-847R?i=448&cc=2078654&cat=253564>, accessed 5 August 2021.

18: Roswell Randall Hoes, ed., Baptismal and Marriage registers of the Old Dutch Church of Kingston, Ulster County, New York (De Vinne Press, New York, 1891), page 125, entry #2643 for the baptism of Theunis on 22 February 1719.