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by Harry Macy, Jr., F.A.S.G., F.G.B.S.

Originally published in The NYG&B Newsletter, Winter 1997, updated August 2000

Dutch Reformed Church of New Utrecht, erected 1700, demolished 1828. Many early N.Y. and N.J. Dutch churches were built in this style.

Kings County (now also called the Borough of Brooklyn) is an ancestral home to a very large number of Americans, many of whom trace lines back to the county's colonial period. The first European settlers arrived in 1636, when the area was part of New Netherland; it came under English control in 1664. The population grew rapidly, and with almost everyone trying to make a living through agriculture, this small county could not support so many people. Thus in the late 17th and early 18th centuries many families left for New Jersey, other parts of Long Island, the Hudson Valley, Manhattan, Staten Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and other colonies. After that the remaining population grew very slowly, until the 19th century saw the rise of the City of Brooklyn.

Dutch families dominated the county for some two hundred years after the first settlement. Most other ethnic groups that came to the county in the early years either intermarried with the Dutch or adopted their language and customs. Thus anyone researching colonial Kings County must understand the Dutch naming system and other unique aspects of Dutch-American genealogy (see Henry Hoff, “Researching Dutch Families: A Checklist Approach ,” Newsletter 7:12-14 [Summer 1996]).

Church records are perhaps the single most important source for colonial Kings County genealogy. For most of the colonial period each town had one church. All of these churches were Dutch Reformed, and because they were so near each other, often sharing a minister, it is important to search the records for all of them and not just those for the town where a family lived.

Church records are described below for each of the county's six towns: Brooklyn, Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, Gravesend and New Utrecht. NYG&B library call numbers are shown in brackets. There are some brief references to post-colonial records, which will be covered in a later article.

Brooklyn. Jos van der Linde, New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch, Old First Dutch Reformed Church of Brooklyn, New York (Baltimore: GPC, 1983) [NY G 55.1]: baptisms 1660-1710, 1719; marriages 1660-1696; members 1663-64, 1677-1702; miscellaneous records 1660-1752.

Other transcriptions, such as that in the 1897 Year Book of the Holland Society of New York, can be inaccurate and should not be used. The original church records are on loan to the Gardner Sage Library, New Brunswick (N.J.) Theological Seminary. Remaining pre-Revoutionary records of the Brooklyn church were taken to England during the Revolution by a Loyalist, and have never been recovered. Complete records exist from 1785 on (typescript and film at NYG&B).

NYG&B also has a pew list of this church, 1769 (original document in Dutch, 7 leaves) [Special MSS. (Brooklyn, N.Y.)]

Brooklyn's second church was St. Ann's Anglican/Episcopal, established at the end of the colonial period. Records begin in 1780 (typescript at Brooklyn Historical Society).

Bushwick. The earliest surviving records of this church date from 1792 (microfilm at NYG&B). However, many Bushwick baptisms and marriages of the colonial period are found in other Kings County (and New York City) churches.

Flatbush (Midwout). Frank L. Van Cleef, translator, “Records of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Flatbush,” typescript, 5 vols., NYG&B MS. Coll. [Frost Churches 11-15, 2nd copy on film]: baptisms 1677-90, 1695, 1697-99, 1709-10, 1722, 1725, 1750-54, 1792-1872; marriages 1677-94, 1703, 1706-20, 1742-57, 1787-1866; marriage and burial fees 1657-c.1724; members 1677-c.1690.

The version of these records in the 1898 Year Book of the Holland Society of New York is incomplete and inaccurate, and should not be used. The church retains the original books, but photocopies of them, and of the full Van Cleef transcript/translation, are at The Holland Society. The Holland Society is preparing these records for publication (see addendum below).

A recent study of the Flatbush church and its role in the community is Wm. Frederic (Eric) Nooter, “Between Heaven and Earth: Church and Society in Pre-Revolutionary Flatbush, Long Island,” doctoral thesis, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, 1994, copy in NYG&B MS. Coll. [Loc. Shelf 1 (L851)].

Flatlands (Nieuw Amersfoort). Harriet and Kenn Stryker-Rodda, “Records of the Reformed Dutch Church of Flatlands, 1737-1914,” typescript, 3 vols. [NY L B793.8]: baptisms 1747-, marriages 1825-, deaths 1870-, members 1788-, all to 1914.

The Gardner Sage Library (see above) has records or copies of records of this church, including the 17th-18th century deacons' accounts, which have not been transcribed or translated (the Brooklyn Historical Society library has a film copy of the deacons' records).

Gravesend. This was the only Kings County town founded by English settlers, dissenters from the Church of England. No records of their church survive, but a few residents who became Quakers are mentioned in records of the New York/Flushing Monthly Meeting. The town's civil records contain some early births and marriages 1664-1702 (Record 4: 39,199, reprinted Long Island Source Records, 1987, pp. 20-21).

Early in the 18th century any distinct English community essentially disappeared, its members either moving out or intermarrying with Dutch families who took their place. Everyone attended the Dutch Reformed church, for which see William Henry Stillwell, History of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Gravesend, 1892 [NY L B792.22]: baptisms 1714-1890, marriages 1832-1890, deaths 1714-1891, communicants 1763-1890, officers 1766-1806.

Harriet Mott Stryker-Rodda, “Gravesend 1762-63 Baptisms,” Record 119:5, is a correction to Stillwell.

New Utrecht. Frances Bergen Cropsey and Harriet Mott Stryker-Rodda, “Records of the Reformed Church of New Utrecht, Long Island,” Record vols. 112-115 (1981-84): baptisms 1718-41, 1776-1802, 1835-80; marriages 1835-80. See other Kings County churches for pre-1718 and 1741-76 New Utrecht events. The version of the 1718-41 baptisms in Record vol. 73 should not be used, as it omits the all-important names of witnesses.

Cemeteries: Each of the Dutch Reformed churches had an adjacent cemetery, with some markers from the colonial period or for persons born in that time. Brooklyn inscriptions were published in Long Island Historical Society Quarterly 1:82-86 [LI G 22.9], and Flatlands, Gravesend, New Utrecht and Bushwick in Kings County Genealogical Club Collections, vol. 1, nos. 1-4 [NY Co K6112]. Flatbush, Flatlands and Gravesend are found in Josephine C. Frost, “Long Island Cemetery Inscriptions,” vols. 11-12 [MS., Frost Coll.].

For additional cemetery compilations and other Kings County resources, see Herbert F. Seversmith and Kenn Stryker-Rodda, Long Island Genealogical Source Material [A Bibliography], National Genealogical Society Special Publication No. 24 (1962) [LI G 21.1]. This publication is also available for purchase from NGS.

Addendum: In 1998 The Holland Society of New York published Records of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Flatbush, Kings County, Volume 1 1677-1720, translated and edited by Dr. David William Voorhees. This volume contains the previously unpublished consistory minutes 1678-86 as well as baptisms 1677-90, 1695-99, and 1709-10; marriages 1677-94 and 1706-20; and membership 1679-85; being all the surviving records in these categories through 1720. A second volume, including the deacons' accounts for this period, is in preparation. Genealogists should use this version of the Flatbush records in lieu of those previously available.