De Nederlandse Brazilianen

for the longest time Thomas Robinson (abt 1803 - aft 1860) and his wife "Thurzy" (1811 - 1872) were a proverbial genealogical brick wall/dead-end. Always frustrating when you can't find any ancestral leads. Plenty of other folks with mysterious pasts (Eli Rowell, Minerva Winslow, Caroline Clarissa Covell, John Henry Carothers), but sometimes discovering a bit of info can led to the a whole bunch more ancestors. The 1925 Iowa Census is awesome. 84 year old Mary Elizabeth Carothers (née Robinson) lists her parents as Thomas Robinson and Theresa Howland. WHOOO HOO ! ! !

mother's maiden name = all I need. Still don't know anything 'bout Thomas Robinson and not trusting any info 'bout William Howland 'til someone can tell me who his mother was, but her mother Sarah Wiltse is descended from some interesting folks



the Dutch didn't have quite as much success in the New World as did the other European countries. They lost New Holland (Brazil) to Portugal and New Amsterdam (New York) to the British. Our ancestors participated in the loss of both

here is the story of our Brazilian-born 9x great-grandma Margaret Jansen Meyers. Don't really have any additional information about her parents. The history of her second husband (our 9x great-grandaddy) is also unknown. Maybe he was born in Copenhagen or maybe not. Nobody really knows the origins of Hendrick Martenszen Wiltse. In 1900, Jerome Wiltsee wrote a book in which he fabricated a swashbuckling father for him who was one of the first Dutch settlers who built Fort New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island and was killed by Indians. Then 9x great-grandpa was born at sea and he and a brother were kidnapped by Indians and taken to Canadia and blah blah blah. And of course we are descended from European royalty. Typical sham genealogy

if anyone cares (you really shouldn't), Jerome Wiltsee's embellished family history is available for download or can be read online

A genealogical and psychological memoir of Philippe Maton Wiltsee and his descendants : with a historical introduction referring to the Wiltsee nation and its colonies


our other Brazilian-born 9x great-grandmother was one of the daughters of Jonannes Theodorus Polhemius, who was born in Germany, but we really don't know any further back than that

same for her husband Cornelius Barentse Van Wyck. There are rumors and unsubstantiated links of him to royalty too, which is always a red flag. If you were royalty, would you come to 'Merica and hang out with Pilgrims? Pilgrims weren't exactly a fun-loving bunch, and life in the 1600s wasn't easy. Maybe come to the New World and be a wealthy land-owner or a merchant or somthing, but not some share-cropper. I'm calling shenanigans on us being related to Jan van Wyck who converted from Catholism when he married Wynanda van Asch because her brother died without issue and named her sole heir to his fortune on the condition that her kids carry the van Asch name and family coat of arms. That might have actually happened, and there are folks who had the name van Asch van Wyck (also his daddy , and granddaddy), but 10x great-grandpa Cornelius didn't have that double last name. And without any birth or death dates or siblings or uncles or cousins or ANY SORT OF ANYTHING, our lineage ends with his arrival in the New World

2g+1

actually, it should be 2^g+1-2. That's the total number of ancestors. 2g+1 has a nicer ring to it though. And the punchline is still just as funny. Plus maybe I was kinda drunk and didn't quite do the math right. Whatever, 2g+1 is way better than 2^(g+1)-2. And you can't really write that in URL form

anywhoo . . . 2^g = the number of folks in that generation

1 generation back = your parents
you have 2 parents
2¹=2
2 parents

2 generations back = your grandparents
you have 4 grandparents
2²=4
4 grandparents

3 generations back = your great-grandparents
you have 8 great-grandparents
2³=8
8 great-grandparents

4 generations back = your great-great-grandparents
you have 16 great-great-grandparents
2⁴=16
16 great-great-grandparents

basically, every generation you go back has double the number of ancestors in it as does the generation before. It starts out manageable, but pretty soon gets completely out of control

10 generations back = your 8x great-grandparents
you may not know this offhand, but you have 1024 8x great-grandparents
2¹⁰=1024
1024 8x great-grandparents

16 generations back = your 14x great-grandparents
2¹⁶=65,536
that's a lot of 14x great-grandparents

the punchline is you actually have far fewer ancestors than that because you're inbred. Don't be too insulted though, everybody is. Do the math. Let's use that 2^g formula and see how many grandparents you'd have if you weren't inbred. There might not be any duplicate grandparents in the first few generations, but go back a few hundred years and guarantee that your ancestors were marrying their cousins. Again and again and again and again

going back 2000 years with an average of 33 years per generation = just over 60 generations

60 generation back = your 58x great-grandparents
2⁶⁰= more than a quintillion
you don't have more than a quintillion 58x great-grandparents

you don't even know what a quintillion is. That's because you're inbred and not very good at math, ha ha ha. But seriously, you're inbred. At the moment there are around 7 billion people on the planet. If you weren't inbred, you'd have more 31x great-grandparents than that. 33 generations is around 1000 years ago. But there weren't even 7 billion people on the planet a thousand years ago, only a few hundred million. Do the math, make a graph, whatever it takes for you to come to terms with the fact that you are severely inbred

so that is 2^g. 2^g+1-2 = all your ancestors including the ones in that generation

1 generation back = your parents
2¹⁺¹-2
2²-2
4-2=2
2 parents

2 generation back = your grandparents
2²⁺¹-2
2³-2
8-2=6
6 ancestors total (2 parents + 4 grandparents)

3 generation back = your great-grandparents
2³⁺¹-2
2⁴-2
16-2=14
14 ancestors total (2 parents + 4 grandparents + 8 great-grandparents)

10 generation back = your 8x great-grandparents
2¹⁰⁺¹-2
2¹¹-2
2048-2=2046
2046 ancestors total (2 parents + 4 grandparents + 8 great-grandparents ... +1024 8x great-grandparents)

of course, you don't actually have 2046 ancestors 10 generations back because you're inbred

new blog

so I've been lazy and haven't written much in a while. My lack of published verbosity resulted in an economic recession (note the recent spike in unemployment rates amongst North African dictators), LeBron James moving to Florida, Tiger Woods' wife moving out of Florida, all sorts of unforeseen events. With the recent news that maybe neutrinos can go faster than the speed of light, reckon I better start blogging again ere the laws of physics cease to exist

been playing the ancestor game for a while now and suppose I might as well share some of the silliness. Used to have a weekly genealogy segment over on the myspace and made a few youtube videos, but perhaps this will serve as a better medium. Also, perhaps I'll revive the Awesome Dude of the Week. And perhaps I'll get a real job. And perhaps I'll stop being homeless. And perhaps . . .