The Wyckoff family starts with Pieter Claesen who took on the surname of Wyckoff.

My line follows as:

Pieter Claesen Wyckoff (1624-1694) m. Grietje VanNess (b. 1624)
    Nicholas Wyckoff (1646-1714) m. Sarah Monfoort (d. 1704)
        Pieter Wyckoff (1675-1759) m. Willemtje Jansen Schenck
            Pieter Wyckoff (1704-1776) m. Sarah Ammerman (1705-1792)
                Peter A. Wyckoff (1737-1823) m. Heyltie Remsen (1747-1830)
                    Abraham Wyckoff (1772-1846) m. Ida Williamson (1782-1879) (2nd wife)
                        Williamson Wyckoff (1821-1883) m. Catalina Lott VanSinderen (1825-1916)
                            Abraham A. Wyckoff (1851-1917) m. Elizabeth Elmira DeBevoise (1854-1942)

This is Abe Wyckoff    who married Lizzie DBV.  (Granny)                                             

My favorite character here is Abe's father, Williamson Wyckoff who married Catalina Lott VanSinderen in 1851.
In the mid 1840's he belonged to the Brooklyn Horse Guards.  (I have several orders for him to appear at the Parade Grounds for parades or drills)  Apparently he rose to the rank of Sergeant.
In 1846 he was in Upper Canada visiting Rapalje relatives and other friends.  (I have a couple of letters written by his Mother, to him in Canada)  Despite an anonymous letter written to Catalina, warning her against him, she married him anyway.  They had a son, Abraham, and about 7 years later, Williamson deserted his wife and child.   It seems that he owned a horse and carriage stable in Brooklyn and owed someone about $1,000, so he took off for parts unknown.  A while later he wrote to her explaining this, and that he went to Buffalo, NY, then up to Canada to work on the railroad.  When that was done he ended up in Cuba running the machinery on a sugar plantation.  He even had his own 'nigger to do his cooking and wash' for him.   He learned to speak Spanish and also decided to stay there until 'the current difficulties between the states are over with'.  Meaning he wanted to avoid getting involved in the Civil War.  I have many letters he wrote to her from Cuba.   (Unfortunately I don't have the ones she wrote to him)  He always sends his love to his son Abe, and often asks her to send him money.  He often also complains about her hard-hearted father (Hotso VanSinderen) who would not let him see her.   Apparently he occasionally made trips from Cuba to Brooklyn and got very upset when she failed to meet him.

I have no idea when he came back to the States or what he was doing the last 20 years of his life.  I have found no indication they ever got back together again.  Yet in the 1890's she bought a family plot in Maple Grove Cemetery in Queens where he had been buried in a pauper's grave, had him disinterred and reburied in this family plot to be next to her.  Interesting...

Her father's will specifically puts her inheritance in a trust NOT to be used toward the support of any husband of hers.

Click here to read more about Williamson Wyckoff.

I really hope to eventually find out more details about his life.

  This is Abe on the left, I presume the other gent is a friend.

Well anyway, Abraham A. Wyckoff and Elizabeth Elmira DeBevoise were married on October 17, 1877. For some reason I have two marriage certificates.

Here are their respective lists of wedding guests.

They had a daughter born October 25, 1882, Caroline VanSinderen Wyckoff, my grandmother. 

After a two year engagement, she married John Lott Bergen in 1910.

Here are just a few of my MANY pictures of her.        

She grew up in Queens, and was raised as a proper young lady, taking music, drawing and painting lessons.  She graduated from the Jamaica Normal School and attended Packer Institute.  Like her mother, she was very active in the Dutch Reformed Church and for many years led a Christian Endeavor youth group.  As attendees to various conventions, she and her daughter Anna (my mother), got to do some extensive traveling in the 1920's & 30's.  They traveled cross-country by train to San Francisco then by ship to Hawaii.  Also a trip to Europe for a convention in Berlin with at least one side trip to Venice, Italy.  At some point they managed a trip to Bermuda.  I have several travel brochures and itineraries from these trips.

I will be adding much more to this page as I get more of this information organized in my head.  When it comes to Grandma, I am suffering from a severe case of information overload.  Now this might sound strange, but I have come to the conclusion that she had an actual mental aberration about writing.  On her honeymoon in 1910, she and John took a steamship down the east coast to Florida.  She sent at least one letter and one postcard to her mother every single day plus several to other relatives and friends.  I know because I have most of these letters and postcards.  She even kept a list of which postcards she sent to whom.  I have a notebook where she wrote a full copy of every thank-you note she sent for her wedding gifts.  It truly gets mind-boggling.

At the age of 82, Caroline VanSinderen Wyckoff Bergen was struck and instantly killed by an automobile while walking home from a visit to the doctor on November 12, 1964.