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David R. Van Valkenburg "Dear Cousins, I was pleased to see my note on my father's life and pioneer ancestry published in the Winter 1998 issue of the NAVVF News Notes. I enclose a news item from The Wall Street Journal* to explain my departure from Mexico, where I lived when I wrote that note in 1997. Since then I have lived in New England and Central America. At present I serve as Counselor of Embassy for Political Affair in Guatemala City. I have long suspected that my family belongs to Branch Five of the Van Valkenburgs in America, but I doubt we are descendants of Peter VV (556,A1) as suggested in your edited version of my note. Oral tradition, supplemented by some spotty records, indicates that our last New York ancestor was Peter VV (U), born in Schagiticoke, NY, on April 12, 1812 (not elsewhere on January 6, 1818) after his uncle and grandfather (both Peter VV, U) Closer to home, I wish to report my own marriage on November 26, 1998, in Guatemala City, to Chin Yao Kuan, a citizen of Mexico, born in Guangzhou, China on October 6, 1969. David R. Van Valkenburg" *The news article from The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, June 17, 1998, p. A12, is headlined "Former U.S. Consul in Mexico Left After Alleged Death Threat." U.S. Consul David Van Valkenburg had been pressing for a Mexican investigation into the accidental deaths of several U.S. citizens in the resort of Cancun… According to unclassified dispatches cabled by Mr. Van Valkenburg, Mr. Gutenkauf was killed by a speeding police car, reportedly without headlights, as he crossed Cancun's main street shortly after midnight… In the end, one policeman was convicted of involuntary manslaughter" |