Swaentje Jans
1603 - 1686 (83 years)-
Name Swaentje Jans Birth 1603 Germany 
Christening Abt 1605 Emden, Germany Gender Female FSID KF5Z-CJV [1] Death 1686 Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, United States Burial Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, United States
Flatbush Reformed Dutch Church Cemetery- Flatbush Reformed Dutch Church Cemetery
Person ID I45512 footsteps | Bunker Last Modified 30 Jul 2025
Father Jan Daniel Jans Puten, b. 1580, Ruinen, De Wolden, Drenthe, Netherlands d. Aft 1605, Ruinen, De Wolden, Drenthe, Netherlands (Age > 26 years) Relationship natural Mother Theodora Maria Van Essen, b. 1580, Ruinen, De Wolden, Drenthre, Netherlands d. 1603, Emden, Niedersachsan, Lower Savony, Germany (Age 23 years) Relationship natural Family ID F25288 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Cornelis Adriaens Bleijck, b. 1603, Delft, South Holland, Netherlands d. May 1638, Jawa, Indonesia (Age 35 years) Marriage Bef 1626 Jawa, Indonesia Children + 1. Adriantje Cornelisse Bleljck, b. 1637, Jakarta, 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 30 Jul 2025
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Notes - Swantje Jans was 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. Left Indonesia some time after October 1648, were in Amsterdam by 18 March 1651, and in New Netherlands (USA) by 9 July 1651. The two children she had with Cornelius DePotter had died by the time the couple moved to New Netherland in 1651, but they took 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.
- Swantje Jans was 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.
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Photos __Imigrated
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Sources - [S342] 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.
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-897M-79MQ-Y
- [S342] 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.