DIVISION II: SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ

Progenitor Jan Corszen came from Recife, Brazil to New Amsterdam and married Metje Theunis Cray according to the marriage record. His origins are suspected to be Dutch or Walloon, but no solid proof of this has been established. Orville Corson, in Three Hundred Years with the Corson Families in America, offered some explanation, describing that Jan's nine children were all baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam.

A Loyalist branch of this family, using the surname Cursa, Curser and eventually Courser, emigrated around 1783 at the end of the Revolutionary War to the English colony of Nova Scotia. Captain Isaac Curser or Cursa and his son John settled by 1787 in that part of the colony which later became the Province of New Brunswick. John and his descendants consistently used Courser as their surname.

Two children and a stepchild of Teunis Corsa (1702-aft 1763), grandson of Jan Corszen, used the DeCoursey surname, while descendants of another son took the DeCorsaw surname. Yet another son of his, Benjamin, moved to Marietta, Ohio and left many Racer descendants.

Variant spellings: CORSEN, CORSSEN, COURSEN, CORSZEN, CORSA, COURSER, CURSER, CURSA, CORSAW, DeCOURSEY, DeCOURCY, RESEER, RACER

Division Coordinator: Bob Brindley (M-199)

Lists/Charts:

Maps:

Birthplaces of Division II descendants born with Corson/Coursen surname (data incomplete). (Contact to report a missing birthplace!):

Photos:

George W. Corson (1826-1898) and family, Montana (courtesy of G.A. Howard)
The Coursen House, Fredon, NJ
Grave markers, Jacob and Elizabeth (Taylor) Corson family members, Springfield, Lucas County, Ohio

Documents:

"The Sussex County, New Jersey, Corson Family", Ch. III from Three Hundred Years with the Corson Families in America, by Orville Corson, 1939, Vol. I, pp. 8-16. (available to CCFHA members in the members-only section)
Marriage record of Joseph Lanning and Mary Corson, Hardwick, NJ, 4 July 1805

DNA Results:

Ancestral genetic signature of Jan Corszen (haplogroup I1a) estimated by the Corson Surname DNA Project

Division-specific Links:

Charles Corson (b. 1880, Montana)
History of the Coursen House, Fredon, NJ

Site maintained by Michael Corson (CCFHA Member M-297). Please report any errors, comments, or suggestions to

The CCFHA web site originally created by Jeff Owens (CCFHA Member M-260).

This page updated 03 Dec 2011