Was RudolphBuys our Immigrant Ancestor?
Recent informationthat was passed along to me by another direct Boice family descendant,leads to this possibility.

An important piece of information passed along to me from Cynthia Jane Boice-Stoltz, in the form of a note that was passed down to her now deceased father, Leigh Van Tassel Boice, reveals an important clue that may explain many mysteries surrounding the lack of information regarding our ancestor, Rudolph Buys.

The note passed down to Cynthia states the following:
" I found one note from my dad that says that some of the family immigrated from the Duchy in Holland to work for the Duke of Livingston in Livingston, NY."

I have traced the families of Cynthia Boice's line and have uncovered the following:

Cynthia's father, refering to his ancestry, would have only four other family surnames besides the Boice/Buys surname, to trace back to immigration at the time of his statement. We will of course be examining and eliminating the surnames of all females that married into the Boice line in Leigh Van Tassel's direct family tree back to the common ancestor.

Leigh Van Tassel Boice's mothers maiden name was MILLER. Maude Ada Miller was born in Connecticut, and according to census records, her father was born in Connecticut and her mother, born in England.

Leigh Van Tassel Boice's grandmother's maiden name was VAN TASSEL. The Van Tassel families immigrated in the late 17th and early 18th centuries from the island of Texel in Holland. The Island of Texel is in the north of Holland, and part of the seven Duchy of Holland.

Leigh Van Tassel Boice's great-grandmother's maiden name was BLASS. I verified that the Plass/Blass families were immigrants from Germany according to the following confirmation I received on 04-01-2002:

Michael,

Johannes Blass was my great grand father some 15 times extant. He came to the Hudson Valley in 1710 along with some 1200 other Palatines from Germany, to work in New York for the british making pitch for the royal navy. The original settlement was in "West Camp" later called Germantown. "East Camp" was as it indicates, on the East side of the hudson and later was named Claverack.

Sincerely,
Ed Blass

Leigh Van Tassel Boice's great-great-grandmother's maiden name was KUHNS/KUNTZ/COONS, and the wife of our common ancestor, Jacob BOICE, son of Rudolph Buys of Claverack. The Kuhns families are well documented, and the Columbia County branches of the tree can all be traced to Palatines from Germany in 1709-1710.

Let us further examine the statement of the above "immigrant ancestors" note.

I eliminate the possibility of Rudolph Buys immigrating to Livingston County NY., as it was formed in 1821. The Lord of the Livingston Manor at the time Rudolph Buys was working for, and paying rents and taxes was Robert Livingston, the third and final lord of Livingston Manor. I have found no reference to Robert Livingston being referred to as a Duke however. On the 30th of April, 1789, Robert Livingston administered the presidential oath of office to George Washington. In 1801, President Jefferson appointed Robert Livingston resident minister at the court of Napoleon. It was he who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase from the French. He was also a patron of Robert Fulton, who refined the steam engine. Chancellor Livingston died on the 26th of February, 1813, at the age of sixty six. This is the only location called Livingston NY., at the time Rudolph Buys was at Livingston Manor. There are many entries for several years that appear on the Livingston account books for Rudolph. (Click here for a chronological list of these records.)

Other mysteries that are to date, unresolved, surround the Rudolph Buys family, and may be explained if in fact, he was the immigrant ancestor.

I have researched the "Primary source Information" on family tree's of the various well documented Buy's families who immigrated to America in the late 17th and early 18th century, and find no other direct "Rudolph" name sake amongst these families, as to support the common Dutch patronomic naming system. There is however, an indirect "Roelof" which appears twice in the family tree of (Adriean) Pietersen Buys.

I have found a Rut (Rudolph) Cornelisz Buys who was documented as being a ship captain for the famous admiral, Maarten Harpertsz Tromp in 1652. Tromp was born in an area just west of the Duchy of Brabant in Holland. Perhaps our Rudolph was a descendant of this family tree. Also, I have found a Jan Roelof Buijs who had a son, Roelof Jans Buijs, who was born at Cuinre, Duchy of Gelders ca. 1766. Another possible line of Buijs/Buys families who share the namesake of Roelof or Rudolph.

No record of Rudolph's first two childrens births or baptisms can be found. Only the record of Jacob Boice's baptism has been located. We do know that Rudolph Buys was in Claverack, 1 year, 7 months, and 24 days before Jacob Boice of Taghkanic was born. Another mystery surrounds the gap of time missing for Rudolph between 1769 and 1780:

This is a very peculiar place in the time line of Rudolph Buys. We have him on the Livingston account books for 1767-1769 and then no records of taxes paid, rents received, or baptism records until baptism records beginning in 1781. Where did he go? A "William Link" (See Current Research on William Link) is noted as paying rent on his farm between at least 1770-1781. That's nearly 11 years of no information recorded. Also, I have poured over the Revolutionary War records for this area on microfilm, also checked pension records and find no reference to him during this time period.

Did Rudolph Buys go back to Holland for the period during the revolutionary war as to avoid conflict and danger to his family?

Rudolph Buys as noted above, appears again in 1781, and is located in various records up to 1790 and another mystery surfaces. In 1790, the first US census takes place and Rudolph Buys is listed as having another son and daughter. No birth or baptism records have been located for these children either, and their given ages suggest that they were possibly born during the period of the above stated missing reference of time between 1769 to 1780. If Rudolph went back to Holland during this time frame, that would explain the missing records for these children also.

Another possibility exists however. Rudolph may be the undocumented descendant of Aert (Adriean) Pietersen Buys, who according to the ship manifest, left his home in Beest, North Brabant Holland with his wife and son, on the ship THE BEAVER, as it sailed from Amsterdam 9 May 1661, and arrived 29 July 1661 in New Amsterdam, now Manhatten Island in NY. Aert (Adriean) Pietersen Buys descendants can be traced directly to the locations of Greene and Columbia County, NY., Living there at the same time as Rudolph Buys, and paying rents and taxes to the Lord of Livingston Manor. (See Current Research on This connection) Also, two years later, on the ship Rosetree from Holland, came Jan Pietersen Buys Van Beest (of Beest), son of Peter Buys Van Beest and the brother of Aert Pietersen Buys. Jan Pietersen Buys settled in Brooklyn where he was a freeholder in 1698.

Aert (Adriean) Pietersen Buys, landed at New Netherlands as stated above, and his descendants slowly migrated northward through Ulster, Dutchess, and eventually Greene and Columbia Counties to the time period when Rudolph Buys resided there.

Given the above eliminative research of surnames, and family tree's, and the note left by Leigh Van Tassel Boice which states that "some" of the family immigrated from the Duchy of Holland to work at Livingston Manor, There is always the possibility that Rudolph Buys may have been our immigrant ancestor.

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