A Family Genealogy Overview

In Monmouth County, NJ, there stands the ancestral home of Jan Covenhoven. I believe this Jan would have been a cousin to me. Names get used over and over and sometimes it gets a bit confusing. This homestead, listed in the National Register of Historic Buildings was taken? over and used by the British as General Clinton's headquarters during the Revolutionary War. The Covenhoven House is maintained by the MCHA. Click on the blue link and it'll take you to the historical association.  I hope to visit there soon. There is so much to see and do there if you're into geneology or early American history or Dutch history.

A brief synopsis of one my direct lineages and the DAR, SAR eligibility.

Founding Fathers...and Mothers

Click on any blue word for a link out to the site.

The Van Kouwenhoven family arrived in America (New Amsterdam aka NY) with the Dutch East India Company in 1625! If your name is Conover (the final spelling) or any derivation of Van Kouwenhoven, we are related. And because we can track our ancestory back that far - and actually back decades more to Holland, any girl in America with this pedigree may be elegible to join the Daughters of the American Revolution organization (DAR) and boys can join the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR). Soon, my brother, Chuck aka Charlie, will have the final one or two pieces of documentation needed to finish our submission so that we can officially join. I think it will be wonderful. So, contemporaries of mine--if you are a direct descendant of (my grandfather) William Clinton Conover of Minneapolis, who had five children, Clinton, Mildred (married name, Rose), Elmer, Wiley or William, Jr, you can join with just your parental documentation when Chuck is finished. Any other Conover relation can also join if you can prove that the ancestor you directly descend from helped the RW effort. Our "patriot" ancestor is Abraham Couwenhoven.   There are others that we could use also on at least one other side of our family too! I think it was a Woodard. However, someone on our Secor side fought with the British to keep us from grabbing Canada!  Eventually they all made up, intermingled and here we are.   Referring to the statement about name confusion (above)...they weren't a very creative bunch in those days. And as so many families intermarried, it gets crazy further down the lines.  So, naming rituals are important to understand when studying genealogy.

I am also aware that there may still be an active Van Kowenhoven/Conover Family Association out East. I have in my possession a copy of a Minneapolis Star Tribune article, announcing the travels of some of the MN Conovers to the yearly reunion in, I think, 1955.  The date was scribbled in in pencil. Included was a little history of the family, too. If I can figure out how to get scans to show up in the blog, I'll post it if anyone is interested in reading it. Maybe I just have to save them as JPG's? Anyone know? Hello former computer management son of mine! Otherwise, I can email you a copy.

Here are but a few of the better links to our ancestry. Much work has been done by many family members and others. Just follow the directions, usually you'll insert a family name or location or other searches. You'll probably find many of your other families-good luck Andersen's :-) - on some of these.

If you have questions or want to correct me or add to this, contact me either on Facebook or my  email address.  You can also leave comments here.

A great source is The U.S. Genweb Project. It's free too. You'll find much information here posted by my brother, Charles Rose.

A terrific source for the Secor, (sometimes spelled Secord or Sicard) family (that's Grandma Ella M. Secor Conover) can be found on Mr Francois Marchi's wonderful website out of Quebec, Canada. (insert the link)There is a translate button at the top of the page to read everything in English. Just to inspire you, remember when I asked if you might be a princess, or a prince? Brooke Shields has nothing on us! (From the new show "Who Am I " Check out how far we can go back on the Secor family here. Once there click the first bullet point for this crazy, cool family history of the Sicard de Carufels and hold on to your seat! Go enjoy! More later.