Genealogy Story – The VanDeCar Family

It appears that the name VanDeCar (and its many alternate spellings/capitalizations) had its origins in America. Prior to the 1600s in New Netherlands (the Dutch settlement along the Hudson River in what is now New York), the Dutch used a Patronymic naming system where the names of the children were based on the father’s first name. This system of naming still existed alongside of the English surname system for a while, but when the British took over that area and renamed it New York they outlawed the prior Dutch practice. Thus it is quite possible that the “original” VanDeCar was not born with that name, but adopted it around 1664 when the British took over.

Here is the lineage from the first recorded individual with that name through my wife’s father – a rather short ten generations. Note that there were alternate forms of the last name used over this timeframe.

Dirk Van der Karre (1637-1727), m. Patricia Bikle Anderson, Ulster NY (New Netherlands)

Dirk Dirksz Van der Karre (1663-1743), m. Feytje Claesz Van Schaack

Note that he is using a combination naming system with Dirk being his first name, Dirksz being the patronymic meaning “son of Dirk”, and then the English surname convention.

Salomon Van Der Kerr (1696-1766), m. Helena Albertson

Ruloffe VanDerKar (1745-1830), m. Sarah Reynolds, moved to Ontario in 1787

Ruloffe was a British sympathizer in the Revolutionary War. He was apparently a member of “Jessup’s Rangers” who were Tory spies, hence the move to Canada when the war ended. A book about the Torys notes that “Ruloff Van Der Karre escaped up the river to Canada on a riverboat.”

John Vandecar (1788-1878), m. Nancy Ann Terry, born in Canada after his father’s move

Annanias VanDeCar (1830-1899), m. Lucinda Sherman, moved to Washtenaw, MI

Dennis Oliver Vandecar (1854-1925), m. Cordelia Huntley

Dennis Birley Vandecar (1877-1924), m. Alta Larrow, moved to Wayne County, MI

Archibald Earl VanDeCar (1897-1963), m. Gertrude Duba

Charles David VanDeCar (1923-2006), m. Mary Ellen Wright, moved to Charlevoix County, MI

The first recorded information with this name is the marriage (First banns) of Dirk Van der Karre to Feytje Clausz on August 7, 1687. Feytje is noted as being from Kinderhook. These records are from the church records of the Dutch Reformed Church in NY.

The next recorded information is a baptismal record for Ariantje by her father Dirk Van der Karre on January 8, 1690.

The baptism of Salomon is recorded on June 28, 1696.  A witness was Feytje’s father, Antoni Van Schayk

When my wife and I got married, she used to chide me how she had to give up such a nice last name (with three capital letters) for the rather common name of Russell. But she knew little of her ancestry except that they came from Canada.

But as you can see from the above, her VDC relatives have been in America just as long as my Russell and Pierpont relatives who emigrated from England in the same timeframe. So she has nothing to be ashamed of.

This is still a relatively uncommon name. As of the most recent records (see http://forebears.co.uk/surnames/vandecar), there are fewer than 600 individuals with this last name in the world. Nearly all of them are in the US, with 5 in Canada, 22 in England, and one each in Brazil and South Africa. There are none in the Netherlands.

Current variant spellings include Vandekar, Vandecarr, van Decar, van de Car, and others.