great grandpa Wyckoff

Wyckoff is one of the good old Dutch family names that I associate with New York City, especially Brooklyn. A second cousin of mine broke the interesting news a few days ago that we were seventh cousins, at two or three removes, from Georgia O'Keeffe. That was pretty exciting and then he sent a flowchart, aka family tree, with the link between our family and Georgia O'Keeffe. We both go back to Pieter Claesen Wyckoff (1620/1625-1694). According to Wikipedia, "most persons surnamed Wyckoff in North America, including many variations in spelling, can be traced to his family."

Pieter Claesen Wyckoff's granddaughter Margaret Grietje Wyckoff married Samuel Poling Sr and that's the line from which I descend. The Poling became Polan four generations later and my maternal grandfather was Herbert Lewis Polan. His mother had a great name: Frances Agzilla "Aggie" Hoult. Georgia O'Keeffe comes down through another son of Pieter Claesen Wyckoff.

I wouldn't say that I've been bitten by the genealogy bug though I was really intrigued by the connection to the Clarke House in Chicago. And now I'm enjoying this connection to Wyckoff. There's a Wyckoff Street that runs across central Brooklyn through Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill. I wonder if I could drop 9-great grandpa's name and get a discount on an apartment. More likely, they'd figure I was rich and they'd up the rent. One of the members of my bookclub when I lived in New York City lived on Wyckoff Street.

The Wikipedia article on Pieter Claesen Wyckoff also describes a fraudulent bit of genealogy that would have Wyckoff be the son of Claes Cornelissen van Schouw and Margaret van der Goes. Ah. Now we're back in familiar territory. Hermione van der Goes was the little known (you could say unknown) painter to whom my grad school chum Nancy Stowell and I credited any early Netherlandish painting of disputed attribution. Hermione was the sister or daughter of Hugo van der Goes, a painter of whom we were both fond. To the fraudulent bit of genealogy, you can add our fraudulent but innocent bit of attribution. Truth be known, we just liked saying "Hermione van der Goes."