From In front of the village of Hees

I received an email this morning from my dad. He attached a document titled "Notes on the Life and Descent of Charles Smith Van Voorhis"... I now know where I came from...

"According to the Honorable Tenis G. Bergan, early historian of our early Dutch settlers, Coerts Alberts of voor Hees resided prior to the year 1600, in front of the village of Hees, situated about one half mile South of the Town of Runen, in the provence of Drenthe, Holland.

As the letters used as a suffix to proper name in the Holland language means "son of" we may with reasonable safety infer that Coart Alberts was the son of Albert of voor Hees.

Alberts first child, Stephen van Voorhees, eldest of seven children, was born about 1600.

The Van Voorhis generations, thirteen in number, average thirty-two years. Is it not reasonably safe to say, in view of all facts, that the Van Voorhis ancestral line extends at least to the year 1535?

The Holland word voor means in English "before or in front of"; van means "from." The meaning of Van Voor Hees therefore is; from in front of the village of Hees.

Steven Coerts of Voorhees, married Willemple Roeloffe, [sidenote - that is an amazing name! i just might have to name my first daughter Willemple...] who was born in the year 1619. He emigrated from Holland in April 1660 in the ship Bentokoe (Spotted Cow), Captain Pieter Lucassen in command with his wife and all his children except the oldest daughter, Merghir. He purchased on November 29, 1660, a farm in Amerafoort, now Flatlands, Long Island, NY, from Cornnelis Horgland, on which he settled and where he died February 16, 1684, his will having been dated August 25, 1677.

The family became numerous and widely scattered ----- There have been a number of modifications of the family name. There being at least a dozen different forms, some with, others without the Van.

Note the spelling in the following ancestral table.

Albert                                                          Born (?) 1535

Coerts Alberts of voor Hees                                   1567

Steven Coerts of Voorhees                              1600 Emigrant

Coerts Stevenese van Voorhees                            1637

Cornelis Coerts Van Voorhees                        Jan. 23, 1678

Daniel Van Voorhees                                        Dec. 17, 1701

Daniel Van Voorhis (Captain)                            Jul. 6, 1738

Samiel Newton Van Voorhis                             Jul. 10, 1774

Charles Edward Van Voorhis                            Oct. 8, 1809

Charles Smith Van Voorhis                               Apr. 2, 1839

Frank Lemert Van Voorhis                                Apr. 7, 1873

Reginald Frank Van Voorhis                            Nov. 4, 1902

Clemons Joseph Van Voorhis                             Jul. 3, 1927

Glenn Edward & Paul Earl VanVoorhis

Scott Alan & Brett Adam Van Voorhis   Apr. 15, 1982 & Oct. 31, 1983

Asher Van Voorhis                                           July 25, 2005

* Reginald Frank, Clemons Joseph, Glenn Edward & Paul Earl added by Grace Clemons, Alta, Iowa. May 5, 1961

* Scott Alan, Brett Adam & Asher added by Dawn Van Voorhis, Seattle, Washington. September 22, 2009."

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Family history. Its a pretty cool thing.

Oh, and if you look at the names in the table... my grandpa is Clemons, my dad is Paul, my brothers are Scott and Brett and my nephew is Asher. 

The Van Voorhis name lives on.