Marriages in the Hopewell Reformed Church 1766 through 1882, Introduction

The Hopewell Reformed Church was founded in 1757 but did not have an assigned Minister Or " Dominie " as the Dutch would say, until 1765. Dr. Isaac Rysdyck preached his first sermon in "Hoopwel" on September 8, 1765. On that same day he baptized several children. Other Baptisms had taken place earlier by visiting ministers and were recorded in the church record.

The record of marriages in the church started in Dr. Rysdycks’ pastorate with the acknowledgement of a 1765 marriage on January 1, 1766. The early original announces or "Register" to be married on a given date with the actual confirmation or marriages taking place after the third of fourth proclamation before the church body. The date indicated in the early records is the "Register Date" as that is the only specific date stated in these early records.

There are no marriage records from 1782 through mid 1805. These records were reported to be non-existent in a church history compiled in 1857 so it is not likely that they will appear after another 137 years have elapsed. The dates stated from 1805 forward appear to be the actual date of the marriage.

The penmanship of the recorders is very difficult to decipher at times. It is particularly difficult to distinguish between capital G, I, J, L, and T. in many instances. This should be kept in mind when searching for a particular name involving these letters an error in transcription could have occurred. Also there are missing data in the original records, sometimes dates, occasionally

A female first name and a few pages are damaged so the end of the female name is obliterated.

It is intended that this compilation will further minimize the handling of these old records and will assist in preserving them for posterity.

Edward S. Sutton

Source Data

1. Original " DOOP - Register of HOOPWEL " by Dr. Isaac Rysdyck in 1765. Contains baptismal records from 1758
2. Church Register of 1812. Contains records from 1812 thru 1857
3. Church Register of Oliver E. Cobb ministry, 1857 to 1872
4. Church Register 1873 to 1929.
5. Prior compilation by an anonymous person of marriages from 1830 to 1949.
6. Records of Births, Baptisms, and Marriages compiled by Hattie Pelaquin for the Mahwenawasign Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
7. Church Register 1963 to present (1994). This is the current active register, at the time of this compilation, and is located in the church office

Abbreviations:

1. wi. indicates a widow.
2. sl. indicates a slave.
3. -- Indicates missing data. On pages 3 and 4 it indicates illegible data for female last names.
4.? Indicates spelling is Questionable.
5. Jun. was an early abbreviation for Junior later changed to Jr.
6. B indicates a black person. The original record indicated Colored; the B was chosen to indicate black, which seems to be a more preferred reference today. The last such indication was in 1916. The information is included here to assist in searching for family history.

Transcribed by Bob Martins

HTML by Debbie

January 2, 2000

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