Swaentje Jans

1603 - 1686  (83 years)

• Name	Swaentje Jans  [1]
  Birth	1603	Netherlands
  Gender	Female
  FSID	KF5Z-CJV  [1, 2, 3, 4]
  Death	1686	Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States
  Burial	Kingston, Ulster, New York, United States
  	Flatbush Reformed Dutch Church Cemetery
  Person ID	I45512	footsteps
  Last Modified	1 Jul 2025

  
  

  Family	Cornelis Adriaens Bleijck,   b. 1603, Netherlands d. May 1638 (Age 35 years)
  Children	+ 1. Adriantje Cornelisse Bleljck,   b. 1637, Indonesia d. 1689, New York, New York, United States (Age 52 years)  [Father: unknown]  [Mother: unknown]
  Family ID	F25073	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	1 Jul 2025

  
  

• Notes

  SWANTJE JANS, born in Germany, moved with her parents in the early 1620s to newly-settled "Batavia" (Djakarta, Indonesia, which would remain a Dutch East Indies colony for more than 300 years). It was probably there that she married the first of her five husbands, Cornelis Adriaens Bleyck, a mason from the Netherlands who was building fortifications. They had six children, all of whom died young, except their hardy daughter, Ariaentje. Cornelis died, too, about 1638. Swantje then lost two successive husbands, both Dutch East India Company skippers, within three years. Life in the area was obviously precarious and threatened male adventurers with additional hazards. In 1643 thrice-widowed Swantje married Cornelius DePotter, a widower employed by the same Company, by whom she had two children who died by the time the couple moved to New Netherland in 1651, taking their two surviving children, Ariaentje and Elizabeth - DePotter's daughter from his previous marriage, who would become an ancestor of Eleanor Roosevelt. After DePotter died nine years later, Swantje remained a widow for nearly twenty years, well into her seventies. She saw both daughters married and re-married, before her own final marriage to widower Jan Strycker, who managed to survive her to wed again.

  
  

• Sources

  [S273] FamilySearch.org, FamilySearch FamilyTree, "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 07 March 2025, 19:56), entry for John Smith V (PID https://ark.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:G72P-5H4 ); contributed by various users. https://ark.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:G72P-5H4 [S273] FamilySearch.org, FamilySearch FamilyTree, “U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-1989 for Swantje Jans.” https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/6961/42037_2421401696_0511-00164?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 12 Mar. 2019. Source created by RecordSeek.com [S273] FamilySearch.org, FamilySearch FamilyTree, NYGBR, Vol. 129, No. 3, July 1998, pg 162. Between 1640 and 1643 Swaentje Jans married three different men. The fact that Tobias Clouck and Joris Felten each died within eighteen months of marriage, give some idea of the hazards of the work of skipper and the treachery of the climage. She likely lost most of her children also. [S342] FamilySearch.org, Family Group Records Collection, Archives Section, 1942-1969, "Family Group Records Collection, Archives Section, 1942-1969," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-897M-79MQ-Y?cc=2060211&wc=WWJR-VHX%3A352088301%2C354272601 : 20 May 2014), S > Strut, Heinrich (1691) - Stuart, Murdoch (1741) > image 736 of 1420; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, compiler, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah. Jan Stryker married Jan Swantje 30 Apr 1679 according to previous research.