"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.
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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:
- Catherine Casperse Halenbeck (b: 1648) who married Juriaan Janse van Hoesen
- Annetje Casperse Halenbeck (b: 1652) who married Hendrik Verwey
- Jan Casperse Halenbeck (1652 - 1730) who married Rachel Willemse Hoffmeyer
around 1677
- Elizabeth Casperse Halenbeck (b: 1653) who married Hendrick Gerritse Lansing
- Isaac Casperse Halenbeck (1660 - 1709) who married Dorothee Bosch
- Jacob Casperse Halenbeck (1660 - 1730) who married Hendrikje Hanse Dreeper
Those Hallenbecks....some links:
References:
- Immigrants to the Middle Colonies: Representative Pioneer Settlers of New Netherlands
and their Original Home Places, Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, MD
(1978).
- The Albany Protocol, by Wilhelm Christoph Berkenmeyer, Albany Protocol, about
1790.
- 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