"The Hallenbecks..."


  According to family lore repeated whenever the family gathered, the Hallenbecks got their name after they came to North America. When the settlers who were already here met and got to know them, they would stand on the shores of the Atlantic, cupping their hands and yelling, "Haul-em-back", finding their new neighbors somewhat less pious than the puritanical folks already here desired, rather cantankerous and stubborn, and sometimes downright unsavory!
 
 There are, of course, alternative explanations for the origins of the Hallenbeck name. One explanation is that the name means swamp brook, which might suggest that at one time the family lived near a swamp. Another explanation is that the name was adopted from the place where the family originally lived, possibly Hollenbek in Holstein, Germany.

 Just a wee bit of history:1,2,3 Most members of the Hallenbeck (variously spelled Hallenbeck, Hollenbeck, Haulenbeck, Hollenbach, and Hollandbeck, to name a few) family in North America are thought to have descended from Casper Jacobse Halenbeck, who came to North America sometime before 1651, when it was noted that Casper Jacobse, a day laborer, was granted a lease to a "hofstede" (houselot) in the Colony of Rensselaerwyck in New York State. He also appeared to have occupied himself as a carpenter, and in 1687, Maria Van Rensselaer (who was short of cash and trying to raise money) wrote of Casper Jacobse, "the pasture rents for 3 beavers and the old man can not manage it, so his son desires to take it over."
 Casper and his wife, Lysbeth, were married around 1648 in Beverwyck, Albany County, New York. They had the following children:

  1. Catherine Casperse Halenbeck (b: 1648) who married Juriaan Janse van Hoesen
  2. Annetje Casperse Halenbeck (b: 1652) who married Hendrik Verwey
  3. Jan Casperse Halenbeck (1652 - 1730) who married Rachel Willemse Hoffmeyer around 1677
  4. Elizabeth Casperse Halenbeck (b: 1653) who married Hendrick Gerritse Lansing
  5. Isaac Casperse Halenbeck (1660 - 1709) who married Dorothee Bosch
  6. Jacob Casperse Halenbeck (1660 - 1730) who married Hendrikje Hanse Dreeper

 Those Hallenbecks....some links:

In love and war...  Hallenbecks who served in the Albany Militia during the Revolutionary War
By way of Schoharie...  Hallenbecks listed in the Schoharie County in the late 1800s
Of murder and mayhem...  The family of Jacob Casperse Halenbeck was involved in a famous murder
Mug shots... The Hallenbecks were connected to a famous face or two...
They didn't...  Haul 'em back, that is. Here is a site with a wealth of Hallenbeck information

References:

  1. Immigrants to the Middle Colonies: Representative Pioneer Settlers of New Netherlands and their Original Home Places, Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, MD (1978).
  2. The Albany Protocol, by Wilhelm Christoph Berkenmeyer, Albany Protocol, about 1790.
  3. Ancestors and Descendants of James Hollenbeck (1801-1901), John Cooper (1799-1875), and S. Nels Anderson (1839-1903), by Twyla J. Stone, May 31, 1989.

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Page last updated August 21, 1999