Exploring My Family Tree
One Branch at a Time
A Family Profile Drawn from Oral Stories, Archival Research, and DNA Testing
Image: "T'Fort Nieuw Amsterdam op de Manhatans", 1651. Courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collections at https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/8ca09b1d-1e92-b5ce-e040-e00a180668ec
My introduction to family history was through my parents, who often shared family stories at the dinner table. From a young age, I was captivated by their memories - some sad, some light-hearted - of their large extended families in Augusta, Georgia during the Great Depression.
Over the years, my father and members of our extended family researched the oral histories, people, and events that make up our family history. Taken together, this information leads back to 17th, 18th and 19th century immigrants from Northwestern Europe who settled in Massachusetts, New Netherland (in present-day New York), South Carolina, and Georgia. DNA test results support this family profile and have broadened it on my father’s side to include at least one 18th century ancestor from West Africa.
1865: From Co. Sligo, Ireland to Augusta, Georgia
In 2010, I began helping my cousin Marie Van Sant Hudson research our great-great grandfather, John Francis Armstrong (1845-1893). According to family lore, JF had to leave Ireland in 1865 to escape being arrested for anti-British activities. In the US, JF became a successful businessman and joined Irish nationalist organizations. Our great aunt, Frances Armstrong Casey (1893-1988), was JF’s oldest grandchild. When we were children, Aunt Frankie told us stories about JF raising money in the US and smuggling it to Ireland, where he was followed by British spies. Interesting claims but were they true? We decided to see what we could find out.
Image: Dry goods merchant and Irish nationalist JF Armstrong in Augusta, Georgia in 1887 with his sisters Anne and Kitty Armstrong, who were visiting from County Sligo, Ireland.
LEARN MOREMid-1700s: A Wheeler Family in South Carolina’s Dutch Fork
My paternal grandfather, Ellis Levi Wheeler (1896-1944), bottom image, was born and raised in South Carolina’s Dutch Fork (Deutsch Fork). His parents, Thompson Luther Wheeler (1855-1920) and Ida Rebecca Rikard Wheeler (1859-1936), were descendants of the German-speaking German and Swiss Lutheran immigrants who settled in the fork between the Broad and Saluda Rivers in the mid-1700s.
Our family’s Dutch Fork surnames include: Wheeler, Rikard, Fike, Kinard, Bowers, Hermann, Addy, Mayer, Eichelberger, and Bates.
Learn MoreMid to Late 1700s: Ancestors from West Africa
Two of the major DNA testing companies estimate that I have at least one line of ancestors from West Africa on my paternal side. DNA test results from members of our extended family appear to lead back to the ancestors of my father’s maternal grandmother, Martha Tallulah “Lula” Swindler McGuinn Brennan (1879-1953). Lula was born in the area of Edgefield County, South Carolina that became Saluda County in 1895. She was the daughter of John Benjamin “Momma Bennie” Elizabeth Campbell Swindler Coleman (1864-1931) and James Monroe Swindler (1853-1946).
Image: 1708 map “L’Afrique” by Guillaume Delisle courtesy of Special Collections University of Amsterdam at: https://picryl.com/media/map-special-collections-university-of-amsterdam-otm-hb-kzl-331759-3591ee
Learn More1738: A “wicked and offensive and harmful man” and the Georgia Salzburgers
Image: Historical marker at the Salzburger Monument of Reconciliation in Savannah, Georgia. Image courtesy of Mike Stroud, 2008, Historical Marker Data Base at https://www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=18297
My father’s 5 x great-grandparents, Solomon and Margaretha Ade, and their young son, Johann Heinrich, were German Lutheran refugees from Tubingen in Baden-Wurttemberg in present-day Germany. They arrived in Savannah in the Colony of Georgia in October 1738 as part of the Third Palatine Transport from London. To pay for their passage, James Oglethorpe sent Solomon, a shoemaker, to work at the Salzburger community at Ebenezer. Within months, the Rev. Johann Martin Boltzius requested that Solomon, whom he described as “this wicked and offensive and harmful man”, be removed from Ebenezer and sent back to Savannah.
Over time, all of the German-speaking immigrants sent to Ebenezer were referred to as Georgia Salzburgers, although many, like the Ades, were not originally from Salzburg.
Name variants: Ade, Adde, Addie, Addy
Learn More1640s and 1650s: Van Sant Ancestors in New Netherland
Image: Old gravestones in the New Utrecht Reformed Church Cemetery in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, NY, courtesy of Rachel Silberstein at https://bklyner.com/a-walk-through-forgotten-brooklyn-at-old-new-utrecht-cemetery-bensonhurst/. Christofel Harmenss may have been buried here in 1655. However, no 17th century grave markers survive. Those made of wood disintegrated; those made of stone were used for target practice by British soldiers camped nearby during the American Revolution.
My maternal grandfather, Clarence Rowley Van Sant (1891-1963), was a direct descendant of Christoffel Harmenss/Harmenszen (abt. 1618-1655) and Moeder Gerrits (1623-1644) and their son Gerret Stoffelse/Stoffelszen (1644-1706) of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Christoffel and eight-year-old Gerret arrived in New Netherland (in present-day New York) with Christoffel’s second wife, Tryntje Claes (1619-unknown), in 1651. Christoffel was killed in the Peach War in 1655. In the late 1690s, Gerret and his sons began buying land in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Around this time, the family started using the surname van Sand or van Sant.
In the 1770s, Garret Vansant (1745-1797), who served in the US Continental Army during the American Revolution, married Elizabeth Larue (1759-1835). Distant cousins, they were both descended from Christoffel Harmenss/Harmenszen and Moeder Gerrits. Elizabeth was also a direct descendant, through her mother, of Jacob Lendertsen Van der Grift/Vandegrift (1620-1686) and Rebecca Frederics Lubbertsen Van der Grift (1628-1711), Dutch immigrants who married in New Amsterdam in 1648.
Name variants: Vansand, Van Sand, Van Sant, Van Zandt, Van Zant and Van der Grift, Vandergrift, Vandegrift
Learn MoreMassachusetts - 1630: The Winthrop Fleet and 1692: A Convicted Witch at Salem
Image of the Winthrop Fleet courtesy of The Winthrop Society at https://www.winthropsociety.com/
My mother’s father, Clarence Rowley Van Sant (1891-1963), was a descendant of the Puritans who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s. Mary’s paternal grandmother, Margaret Gertrude Rowley Van Sant (1869-1951), was the great-great granddaughter of William Gammell II (1750-1838), who fought in the American Revolution, and Thankful Keyes Gammell (1752-1828). I need to track down more sources but, so far, everything I’ve found states that William, through his mother, Anne Page Gammell (1726-1764), was a direct descendant of John Page (1586-1676), the first constable of Watertown, Massachusetts, and Phoebe Paine Page (1594-1677). John and Phoebe arrived in Massachusetts with the Winthrop Fleet as part of the Great Migration of Puritans in 1630.
William Gammell II’s wife, Thankful Keyes Gammell, was the great-great granddaughter of Anne Alcock Foster (1617-1692), who was convicted of witchcraft in Salem in 1692. Anne was 72 years old at the time of her conviction and died in the Salem jail in December of 1692. In May 1693, Governor Phips pardoned all of the people who had been accused of withcraft and released them from prison.
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Maternal Grandparents
Clarence Rowley Van Sant (1891-1963) and Sarah Theresa Casey Van Sant (1895-1992)
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Parents
Mary Annette Van Sant Wheeler (1927-2020) and Thomas Ellis Wheeler (1926-2014)
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Paternal Grandparents
Mary Agnes Brennan Wheeler (1904-1997) and Ellis Levi Wheeler (1895-1944)