by

Myrtle Amott (Br 1)

I am the daughter of Paul I. Van Valkenburg who compiled the books The Van Valkenburg Family in America. Growing up as a Van Valkenburg has been very interesting. Grandfather Iretus Monroe was very proud of family and his Dutch lineage. He installed that interest in his son Paul Iretus. We were taught early the "Van" was Dutch for the word " of "--and not to be confused with the German word "Von". We were carefully taught that the ending of the name "burg" was Dutch and not "berg" which was Jewish. Grandpa Van made sure we knew that we were important to the ruling families of the Netherlands, the name meaning "Keeper of the Falcons". Grandpa spent much time collecting records of the family (which were passed on to son Paul).

Our vacations were spent mostly in the Catskills while Papa went to cemeteries and record offices looking for other Vans. Many times we met and visited with families with names not at all similar to Van Valkenburg. I later found out that the females in those contacts had been Vans and I don’t remember meeting many with our own name. He was partial to hunting down the females, which were subsequently dropped in importance in the publication of the family history. One had to draw the line somewhere. Going to the cemeteries with our parents, I became aware that other family members spelled the name differently than we did. When I questioned this, Papa said that they were a different class of person who were superstitious. We had 13 letters in our last name and he made sure every

family member was made aware of that fact and that those with an "H" on the end had just added the letter so there would not be 13 letters. I feel that graduating from Cornell made him feel superior to that superstitious lot.

After my grandfather passed away the family bible and family records were turned over to the oldest, Paul. Paul I. started to get more deeply involved in tracing the family connections and upon retirement was able to devote much of his time to that pursuit. When he moved to Florida he left some papers and the bible in the attic of the house given to me. His wife’s sister wanted proof to become a member of the Daughters of the Revolution. I remembered the Bible and thought there might be proof there for her. Imagine my surprise when I found that most of the records had the spelling of the last name with an " H" at the end. Evidently Paul had not looked in the bible, thinking that the overwhelming amount of records given to him was sufficient. He never saw the bible after getting that information, and sometimes I feel he thought I was making it all up.

I gave all the bibles to my daughter, who lives in the Catskills. My daughter tells me she has the Van Valkenburg bible. The other one is the bible belonging to Iretus's wife's family. There was much intermarriage in the Catskills but I don't think grandma's family were distant or near relatives. She was Grace Hastings. I live in Florida in the area in which my father and Flora lived. My sister lives down the block in their house.

In order to close the estate of George Benjamin Van Valkenburg of Monticello NY who died on October 13, 2000 at age 74, the law firm handling his affairs needs information on his two sons. George B. born 7/13/1947 the son of George B and first wife Dorothy, and Anthony the adopted son of George and his second wife Rita.

I think Anthony's birthdate is 3/21/75. Any information will be appreciated.

Please call me Collect at 212-983-2553 or write me. Thanks.

Arlene Van Valkenburg

310 Lexington Avenue

New York, NY 10016-3104 From: Angreen@aol.com