Sunday Serendipity #3-Brought to You By the Letter C

When I did research in college, I was forever getting distracted in the stacks.  I'd come across an intriguing book, completely unrelated to my research topic, and next thing I'd know I would be immersed in the book. So, it's no surprise that the same thing can happen to me in genealogical research.  As I follow through a Google search result, it's not uncommon for me to spot something that has nothing to do with my research, but has everything to do with amusing or intriguing me.  So, occasionally I will be sharing these unexpected discoveries here.

From the FIRST RECORD BOOK OF THE "Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow

AN ORIGINAL TRANSLATION OF ITS BRIEF HISTORICAL MATTER,

AND A COPY, FAITHFUL TO THE LETTER, OF EVERY PERSONAL

AND LOCAL NAME, OF ITS FOUR REGISTERS OF

MEMBERS, CONSISTORYMEN, BAPTISMS, AND MARRIAGES,

FROM ITS ORGANIZATION TO 1791,

BY REV. DAVID COLE, D.D

C

This letter is not native to the Holland language. In pure Holland writing it appears in foreign words only. When, however, with and from 1664, English speaking people came into and grew up with the country, the English and Holland languages became very much mixed, and the K in Holland names gave way rapidly to C. Such baptismal names as Jakobus, Karel, Kornelis, etc., and such family names as Krank, Krom, Kuyper, etc, soon came to be written Jacobus, Card, Cornelis, Crank, Crom, Cuyper, etc. The struggle between the K and the C was going on at a lively rate between 1697 and I790 when these Tarrytown records were being made. In them we find the names Kanckelie (otherwise also variously spelled), Kenniff, Kemmel, Klaasen, Koks, Korsen, Kouenhoven, Kool, Kranckheyt, Krom, and Kuyper, setting

to Canckelie, Cenniff, Cammel (or Camble), Claasen, Cocks, Corsen, Couenhoven, Cool (later Cole), Cranckheyt, Crom, and Cuyper.