Genealogical Gems

Today (Sunday, 17 June) is Family Day at Historic Huguenot Street .. Admission is free and includes the historic house tours and exhibits. Tours will be done on a first come first serve basis with a limit to 12 people per tour. You are welcome to bring a blanket and bagged lunch and have a picnic on the grounds.  Learn about the families who founded New Paltz, including Pierre Deyo. The Pierre Deyo House, built in 1692, is one of the house on the tour. We went awhile back, not on Family Day but just a regular day. My husband is descended from Jacobus "James" Deyoe (1760-1819) and Annatje "Hannah" Walker (1764-1835). The Deyoe and the Deyo families are of the same family.  Those interested in tracing their family lineage to one of the 12 lines may also be interested in this (from a March 2018 press release): Thanks to a grant from the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Historic Huguenot Street (HHS) has digitized records from the Reformed ...

Huguenot Street is historic and, for three upcoming weekends, haunted! The Haunted Huguenot Street program runs the 16 th and 17 th , the 23 rd and 24 th , as well as Halloween weekend itself, 30 th and 31 st October. A guilt boy reveals his nightmares at the Jean Hasbrouck House. This session is based on events that Abraham Hasbrouck himself recorded in his 18th century diary. At the historic burial ground guests will be treated to an interpretation adapted from Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology during which the dead will speak for themselves.    Inspired by, according to the HHS, decades of reported paranormal experiences, a house maid is haunted by the ghost of the tragically demised Gertrude Deyo at the Deyo House mansion.    These are the three highlights of the weekends. However, the entire street will be decorated in Halloween and fall decorum.   The tours sell out quickly. They will leave the DuBois Fort Visitor Center ...

I knew the Deyo clan was rather large before we even went to New Paltz earlier this week. My husband, ironically, seemed surprised at how vast the Deyo/Deyoe family is and what an impact they had – and continue to have – on the community there. Today, I too was surprised by the Deyo clan. Skimming through Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, I came across an article, dated 26 August 1908, about one group of Deyos. The headline reads: Fugitive Who Attacked Deyo Family Up the State Trapped at Greenwood Lake . The dateline is Middletown , NY .   The article states: “Weak from loss of blood and in a starving condition “Bill” Monroe, the desperado who murderously assaulted six members of the Deyo family and burned a barn at New Paltz on Friday afternoon, was trapped at Greenwood Lake to-day.”   Monroe himself was in a weak condition and bleeding from pistol wounds. A family finally let him in and summoned the physician who examined him. Monroe had sta...

We finally made it up here! This is the first year … oh gosh probably since our honeymoon … that we have been able to get away and have a real family vacation. On top of that we finally made it to New Paltz, New York where the Deyo family was one of the original patentees! Oh, I should back up … my husband is descended from the Deyoe family of New York . Now all this time, I have been thinking he has actually been listening to me when I talk about the Deyo/Deyoe line. I lost count of the times he began a sentence with “Oh my gosh my family …”   My goal while we were up there was to connect the famous Deyo line with his Deyoe line. I have a probable connection. I just really wanted proof. One way or the other. Just proof.   Sunday we went to the free Family Day at the Historic Huguenot Street . Basically the HHS is a street – literally – where the original patentees of the town built their homes and settled. Today it is a historic site consisting of seven home...

Family vacation to New Paltz, NY

Walter G. Deyoe died when he was only three years old. I know little of him. He is the son of Daniel and Louise Sharp Deyoe, my husband’s great grandparents. Walter was born on 11 February 1871 and died on 30 March 1874. Since he was born and died between census records, the only proof per se I have of his existence is Find A Grave and other Deyoe researchers.  I have not found an obituary or church record for him yet either. He is buried in the Deyoe Family Cemetery, Greene County, NY. The stone pictured here is from Find A Grave  (by B rian Christensen ) and I have seen it in several trees that include young Walter. It shows a lamb, which is so often used for graves of children. The lamb symbolizes innocence. Some sources also say the lamb symbolizes the Lamb of God.   Wednesday's Child is a genealogical prompt of GeneaBloggers.   © Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman, 2014

Historic Huguenot Street will remember the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572 this weekend. On 24 August 1572, over 2,000 Protestants were slain in the city of Paris during what is now known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Public programming is planned to provide guests with a historic look back at the event and its effect on the future of the Huguenots in France. A series of two educational and touching vignettes will be performed today at the DuBois Fort at noon and 4 p.m. Inspired by Giacomo Meyerbeer’s grand opera Les Huguenots (1836) and John Everett Millais’ pre-Raphaelite painting “A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew’s Day, Refusing to Shield Himself from Danger by Wearing the Roman Catholic Badge” (1852), the vignettes will depict the circumstances of two star crossed lovers on the eve of the massacre. These performances are free and open to the public. Throughout the weekend, the daily interpretation of the Crispell Memorial French Church will be updat...

Last summer, Professor Joseph Diamond and the SUNY New Paltz Archaeological Field School excavated six units at Historic Huguenot Street and the New Paltz Reformed Church. These units revealed evidence of early Native American presence, circa 1200-1575 AD. It also revealed pottery, projectile points, prehistoric food remains, and more! New Paltz was founded in 1677 by the Huguenots who fled Northern France and the persecution of the Catholic Church. The Deyo family was among the men who purchased land from the Esopus. The other men were from the Bevier, Crispell, DuBois, Freer, Hasbrouck, and LeFevre families. Professor Diamond will present his findings this Thursday, 27 March 27. He will also answer questions regarding his work. The lecture will take place at 7 p.m. in Deyo Hall of the Huguenot Historic Street . General admission is $8. Members and seniors are just $5 and students are free. Diamond is a professor in the Anthropology Department at SUNY New Paltz .

Historic Huguenot Street will host "Book Talk: Espionage in the American Revolution" on Saturday, 15 March. Award-winning author John A. Nagy will speak about an intriguing, secret part of the Revolutionary War based on his book Invisible Ink: Spycraft of the American Revolution . Explaining cyphers, codes, paper masks and hidden compartments, Nagy tells stories of the Revolution’s unsung heroes, including several based in the Hudson River Valley. Tickets are $8 at the door ($5 for seniors, free for students). The talk will be held in Deyo Hall, Broadhead Avenue, New Paltz, NY.   Note: The above was from a press release from Historic Huguenot Street

New Paltz was founded in 1678 by the French Huguenots. The name of the town is said to have been suggested by Christian DEYO  in 1675. The name he gave was probably that found in the record of the first meeting of the New Paltz Reformed Church in 1683.  Deyo - and his son Pierre - were among the "Twelve Men of the Duzine "  acquired the royal patent of over 33,000 acres, which stretched all the way from the Shawangunk Mountains to the Hudson River. The other patentees were Louis DuBois and his sons Abraham and Isaac, Simon and Andries LeFevre (brothers), Jean and Abraham Hasbrouck (brothers), Antoine Crispell, Louis Bevier, and Hugo Frere The early settlers built their homes along the area now known as Huguenot Street. That area today is home to seven museums, an old cemetery, library, archives and more. The area is home to several historic houses of those "Twelve Men of the Duzine." They include: The LeFevre House, The Jean Hasbrouck House, The Deyo...