The following article from "The American Genealogist" was contributed by Ray Hollenbeck.

John Halenbeck Who Married Marytje James

by
Robert V. Anderson 

The identity of John or Jan or Johannes Halenbeck who married Marytje or Polly James is very troublesome. They appeared unheralded, at the baptism of their daughter Sara at the German Reformed Church at Germantown, New York, 2 March 1748.

John and Marytje had other children whose baptisms were recorded: Johannes, 14 Feb. 1751 (Claverack); Marytje, 25 Oct. 1755 (Linlithgow) and Bata, 8 March 1761 (Claverack). We infer additional children, including a Margaret, born by 1766, who may have been the Marytje above, and Eva born by 1757.

At some time before the Revolution John moved to the Fonda area, where, starting in 1773, the records of the Caughnawaga Church contain a marriage and baptisms of children of the Halenbecks who have the names of John’s children: Sara married to Cornelis Oosterhout; Johannes married 30 Dec. 1777 to Anna Margaret Ergitsinger; Bata married to Philip Erghersinger; and John’s probable children: Margaret/Mary married Ludwig Putnam, and Eva married Esmael Beekman.

Our John was probably the John appointed 1^st Lieutenant 25 June 1778 in Col. Fisher’s Regiment, 3^rd Battalion (Mohawk), Tryon County Militia (Berthold Fernow, New York State Archives: New York in the Revolution [Albany 1887] 1:296). The officers tended to be older men and this John’s son Johannes, was still a relatively young man. The names of two of John’s supposed sons-in-law, Ludwig Putnam and Ismael Beekman, also are on the militia list of Col. Fisher’s regiment (James A. Roberts, New York in the Revolution as Colony and State [Albany 1904], 1:181, 258).

The disturbed conditions in the Mohawk Valley during the Revolution seem not to have displaced John’s family. He may have survived until the 1790 Census since in it there were two John Halenbecks in the Fonda area.

But who were his parents? If we assume that he was at least 18 years old when his daughter Sara was born, and that he lived in what is now Columbia County, where we find his children baptized, it may be suggested that he was an otherwise unrecorded son of Jan Williamse Halenbeck (1701-ca. 1771) and his wife Tryntje Goes, on who see my article on the Halenbeck family (National Genealogical Society Quarterly 65:99). However, the data do not support this assumption.

Some earlier compiler assigned John a baptism date of 1726, making him a son of Jan Williamse and Tryntje. A diligent search has not, so far, found any trace of this baptism. In fact, it is doubtful that he was a son of Jan Williamse. Jan Williamse’s will dated 10 May 1771, recorded at Pittsfield, Mass. January 1779 [National Genealogical Society Quarterly 31:97], mentions all his older children but no son John. This is not conclusive but, taken with several other indications, achieves importance.

Assuming that the baptisms of his children took place a short time after birth, and that these were full nine months children, we find a Fytje baptized at the Albany Dutch Church 2 Oct. 1725, and a daughter Cornelia, baptized at Claverack Church (13 Feb.?) 1727. The son John, supposedly baptized in 1726, would have had to be conceived in May 1726, so the times make the 1726 baptism unlikely, if Jan Williamse and Tryntje Goes were the parents.

Moreover, John and his wife Marytje do not appear as witnesses of any of the baptisms of his supposed nieces and nephews, nor do any Halenbecks sponsor his children, although there were many in the area who would normally have done so if they were closely related.

I suggest that he is the John, otherwise unknown, who is in the will of Jacob Jacobse Halenbeck of Klinkenburg, dated 5 July 1746, probated, according to Fernow (Calendar of Wills . . . 1626-1836 #902) 25 Oct. 1779 (which is probably a misprint - - the will does not seem to be found by Pelletreau in New York Wills]) At the date of Jacob’s will in 1746, John would have been ready to launch out on his own, if he had been born in 1726. For a long time it was assumed that the John of Jacob’s will was a Jurge born 24 Feb., baptized 13 March 1734 (Loonenburg Lutheran Church, Athens, Greene County, New York), but Mr. Arthur M. Kelly’s new reading of the church record shows that the names of parents and sponsors were mixed and that this Jurge (George) was the son of Hannes Klauw and Marytje Halenbeck who were known to have had a son Jurge whose baptism had not been found. This again leaves a John Halenbeck whose baptism has not been found, this time a son of Jacob. It is possible that John’s baptism is represented by that of one of the two sons of Jacob named Hendrick in the Loonenburg Lutheran Church record. One baptized 1 Jan. 1720, the other Septuagesima 1726. This would assume that John was named John Henry or Henry John in the confusing Palatine manner. Though the double naming practice is rare in the Halenbeck family, it does occur. In the listing of sons in Jacob’s will, John occupies the position of the 1720 Hendrick, after Nanning and before the second Hendrick of 1726. Regardless of this speculation, there is solid evidence of Jacob’s will that the latter had a son named Johannes, as the name appears in Fernow’s abstract.

Jacob Jacobse Halenbeck married Maria Vischer, a relative of Col. Fischer (Vischer). This relationship may have been a factor in John’s locating in Tyron County and getting there a commission.

Just as John does not appear in the records relating to Jan Williamse’s family, he also does not appear in conjunction with Jacob’s family. However, if he moved to the east side of the Hudson River, we might expect that he would not, since Jacob’s family otherwise remained on the west side.

Inspection of the names of John’s children with a view to relating them to possible grandparents is not very helpful. His wife, Marytje James, is not firmly identified and none of the James family sponsored the baptisms of the children of John and Marytje. Sarah and Johannes may have been named for Marytje’s unknown parents. Johannes may have been named for Jan Williamse, but there is no Catherine among the daughters of John to have been named for Tryntje Goes, Jan Williamse’s wife. There is a Marytje who might have been named for Maria Vischer, Jacob’s wife, but none named Jacob.

Since there is no other known, but unplaced, John Halenbeck, the choice of parents is between Jan Williamse and Jacob. Because of the mention of a son John in Jacob’s will and not in that of Jan Williamse, the improbability of a son born in 1726 to Jan Williamse, and the relationship of Maria to Col. Fisher, I conclude that the probability is that out John was the son of Jacob Jacobse Halenbeck and Marytje Vischer.

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