Handwritten
Letterhead: Springfield Insurance Co., H.J. Aten Agent
March 22, 1906
My dear Dr. Thompson-
I have yours of the 20th also a previous letter answering my inquiry of the 15th. I think your suggestion a good one & will write the Editor of “The Ancestor” whose address you have given me.
As we believe Hendrick Aten father of Adrian of Readington, m. Maria De Motte, and as she appears to have been bap at Kingston or Esopus, NY Dec 22, 1678, I believe these ch records should be examined further. We have never found any record of their marriage, or the birth [bap] of their two eldest children. It seems to me likely they were married at Kingston, and these two children may have been born [bap] there. The earliest record we have of Hendrick at Jamaica L.I. is in 1707 when he was a witness to the bap. of a child of Johannes De Motte. So if the ch records at Kingston or Esopus were examined,-- say from 1698 to 1707, something might be found relating to Hendrick Aten & Maria De Motte. The present day De Mottes think that Johannes settled on Long Island about 1700, but are not certain about the date. That Adrian of Readington, NJ was the son of Hendrick Aten and Maria De Motte, I have not the least doubt, but we have been unable to prove it so far.