Michael Mekeel

1722 - 1822  (~ 100 years)

• Name	Michael Mekeel  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
  Birth	Abt. 28 Aug 1722	Philipsburg Manor, Westchester, New York   [1, 2, 4, 5, 6]
  Baptism	28 Aug 1722	Dutch Reformed Church, Sleepy Hollow, Westchester, New York, USA   [1, 2]
  Gender	Male
  Also Known As	Michael McKiel  [4]
  Also Known As	Michiel Mekeel  [3]
  Also Known As	Michiel Michiels  [3]
  Also Known As	Michiel Ryerse  [1, 2]
  Census	2 Aug 1790	Greenburgh, Westchester, New York, USA   [4]
  Death	28 Dec 1822	Somers, Westchester, New York, USA   [5, 6]
  Burial	Amawalk Hill Cemetery, Amawalk, Westchester, New York, USA   [6]
  Person ID	I1038	Ryer Genealogy
  Last Modified	9 Feb 2025

  
  

  Father	Michael Michaelson,   b. Abt. 1687, Fordham Manor, Westchester, New York, USA d. Aft. 31 Aug 1722, Philipsburg Manor, Westchester, New York (Age ~ 35 years)
  Mother	Margery Dobbs,   b. Abt. 1687, New York, USA
  Marriage	Abt. 1709
  Family ID	F344	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Judith Griffin,   b. 4 Jun 1739, White Plains, Westchester, New York, USA d. 29 Jul 1795, Tarrytown, Westchester, New York, USA (Age 56 years)
  Family ID	F359	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	9 Feb 2025

  
  

• Notes

  28 Aug 1722 - Reyer Michielse and Abigal Dobbs were witnesses to his baptism source: Dutch Reformed Church of Sleepy Hollow. Michiel Ryerse, Baptismal Record, 28 Aug 1722, Dutch Reformed Church, Sleepy Hollow, Westchester County, New York. LETTER FROM CHARLES HAVILAND MEKEEL OF ST. LOUIS, MO. Reyer Michielsen Van Cortright was born in Holland in 1653, came as a child to America with his father, Michiel Bastiaensen Van Cortright, in 1663; married, April 15, 1686, Jacomyntie Tiebout, daughter of Jan Tiebout and Sarah Vander Vlucht, and settled in Fordham, N. Y. “Reyer died in 1733 aged 80 years, having had eight children, to wit: Michiel; Reyer; Hendrick; Teunis; Hanah; who Leonard Vincent; Mary who married Benjamin Haviland; who married Joseph Haviland; and Jane who married Corson.” – From Page 297, “History of Harlem,” by Riker. The surname I bear “Mekeel” is simply the phonetic spelling of the Holland pronunciation of the given name Michiel and originated from the early Dutch custom of neglecting the family name (which in our case was Van Cortright), and using only a patronymic, formed by adding to the child's given name that of the father's, with the addition when written of an “s,” or the affix “sen” for son. Thus – as I am descended from the oldest son of Reyer, whose given name was Michiel, his name was Michiel Reyersen – and though his son Michiel, who was then according to the same rule known as Michiel Michiels, which name was later corrupted into the phonetic spelling Michiel Mekeel, and was thus written on his Lieutenant's commission in 1776, which we now have, and is the earliest record of the present spelling of the name. Relationship makes Reyer Michielsen Van Cortright my great great-great-great-grand father on both my father and mother's side of the family. In as much as two of his daughters married Havilands at that early date, the Van Cortright blood must flow in the veins of many of those whose ancestry you are now tracing, and I have therefore been led to give you so much of what might otherwise seem foreign to your subject. source: Frost, Josephine C. The Haviland Genealogy: Ancestors and Descendants of William Haviland of Newport, Rhode Island, and Flushing, Long Island, 1653-1688, with Special Records of the Allied Families of Field, Hull, Torrey, Willett-Willis. New York, NY: The Lyons Genealogical Company, 1914.

  
  

• Sources

  [S306] Dutch Reformed Church of Sleepy Hollow, Michiel Ryerse, Baptismal Record, 28 Aug 1722, Dutch Reformed Church, Sleepy Hollow, Westchester County, New York. [S11] Holland Society of New York, U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-1989 [database on-line]., (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014). [S302] Josephine C. Frost, The Haviland Genealogy: Ancestors and Descendants of William Haviland of Newport, Rhode Island, and Flushing, Long Island, 1653-1688, with Special Records of the Allied Families of Field, Hull, Torrey, Willett-Willis, (New York, NY: The Lyons Genealogical Company, 1914). [S165] National Archives and Records Administration, 1790 United States Federal Census, Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, National Archives Microfilm Roll M637_6; 1790 United States Federal Census [database on-line], (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010). [S101] Ancestry.com, U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930 [database on-line], (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014). [S44] Find a Grave, U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]., (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012).