Flipside: Origin: VanGilder--It's all Dutch to Me

Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to join. I am hoping it may help me to pinpoint someone or something that I have researched and not blogged about on Flipside. AND push me to blog about family each week in 2024. Sometimes I get lazy. 😁 Let's see how well I keep up.

Week #2 (January 1-7) is Origins. Back when I first married my husband, his father remarked, "Well Linda, you're the first non German to marry into the family." Through genealogy and a Saturday Night Fun by Randy Seaver, I found out I probably have more German ancestry than my father-in law through my mother's side of the tree. However, that is not the focus of this Origin blog, just me letting off a little steam. 😎

Van Gilder is my paternal grandmother's, Sarah VanGilder Hughes aka Grams, maiden name. Note: I seem to keep going back to Grams for blogs. I will mention here that Grams decided to tweak the spelling of her maiden name to VanGuilder. She didn't stop there. She also decided to write her first name as Sara. Back to Blog #1 in this series--remember she was whimsical. I'm not even working with name corruption at Ellis Island. My own grandmother was corrupting names.

In the beginning the oldest the known VanGilder ancestor was my paternal great great great great grandfather Jacob VanGilder or Vangilder (1752-1846). There is plenty of historical documentation of him in Monongalia and Marion Counties, (West) Virginia.

My first working family tree
Typed by my paternal grandmother, Sarah VanGilder Hughes
Jacob VanGilder listed as born in Holland

My family's old typewritten VanGilder family charts state Jacob VanGilder was born in Netherlands. As a novice genealogist, I went with that. I even googled Van Gilder and found when translated it meant "from Gilder". And so for years, my ancestry was Dutch. Jacob VanGilder was my only link to the Netherlands and he was one of those proverbial genealogy brick walls.

With a surname beginning with Van, why would I even question his nationality. And I didn't.......until one day well over a decade ago, I received an email from a male VanGilder cousin. He was a new cousin to me and probably located me through the Internet and the family genealogy pages I have there.

As I review my VanGilder blogs on Flipside, I am ashamed to say, I have neglected Jacob. In fact, the blog is so old that his Native American heritage is not even mentioned. I have corrected this.

A third cousin, we both descend from Jacob VanGilder, Jacob VanGilder the younger and John Oliphant VanGilder. We both descend from one of John Oliphant VanGilder's sons. Me from George Ethelbert VanGilder and he from Joseph Hill VanGilder. He had taken a Y-DNA test and was questioning me about the Native American test result.

I was mystified. From my research over the years, I had never found any Native American heritage. On the flipside, no one ever was able to get back any further in the VanGilder line then Jacob. A male VanGilder's Y-DNA would show the straight male line.

In 2013, a fellow VanGilder researcher and fifth cousin one time removed, Drew Blattner, contacted me after reading one of my blogs. As a guest writer, his VanGilder research is on Debra Winchell's blog, History's Faces, New VanGilder Branch Confirmed by Y-DNA Testing. Debra Winchell is a researcher of Native American history and genealogy wih particular focus in New York.

A representation of John Van Gilder's signature
embroidered on reproduction 18th century matchcoat
by Debra Winchell
Credit to her blog The Origin of the Van Guilders.

Once Drew determined he was also a descendant of Jacob VanGilder, he was diligent using other male VanGilder Y-DNA results. Working with Debra Winchell, research showed that our mutual Jacob VanGilder line does indeed trace back to a Awansous, to Mohican-Wappinger Native American, Tawanaut/Toanunck who changed his name to Jan Van Gelder and his descendent John VanGilder I.

This revelation has all been very exciting. There continues to be a missing link from Tawanaut to my great great great great grandfather which is not unusual when dealing with research from back in the late 1600's early 1700's, especially when researching indigenous ancestors. DNA research has proven to be so beneficial in clearing up ancestor mysteries.

And in the end, perhaps the joke's on me. Perhaps my Grams actually knew that VanGuilder was the original spelling of her maiden name and she wasn't guilty of tweaking or corrupting it as I first suspected.

This is not completed. I will add any new research. Stay tuned.

More Information on the Internet

Toanuck

History's Faces: The Origin of the Van Guilders by Debra Winchell

History's Faces: Origin of the Van Gilder Surname by Debra Winchell

Drew Blatter's YouTube VanGilder Presentation

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published. PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.