Ancestral Photographs of Upstate New York

Tangled Roots and Twisted Branches

MINKLER / MINKLAAR

The following information is taken from my grandmother's book, "Tangled Roots and Twisted Branches" (published 1987), with some minor reformatting for the web. This book is known to contain some errors. If you have any corrections or additions, please contact me.

The first record I have of this family is Killian Minkler under various spellings. He was born 1663 in Germany - married by 1697 in Germany to Anna Margretha (last name unknown) about 1709. They migrated from their home in the Palatine area, probably because of religious difficulties - went to Rotterdam, Holland. In May 1709 they went by ship to England, lived in huts on the beaches of England until January 1710. They were then loaded aboard ships and listed as Palatine Germans. Their ships did not sail until March 1710, arriving in New York 13 June 1710.
On the second sailing list from England, the list from London shows:

MINKELER, KILLIAN, age 36 years, wife, son age 9 years, daughters age 15 years, 7 years, 11 years, and 7 years. I find them listed later with a total of 13 children. This line comes down through the eleventh child.

HERMANUS Minkler / Minkelaer born in New York State and died after 1790 in Ulster County, New York. He married 18 November 1747 Margreittha Hoff baptized 12 March 1721 Kingston (daughter of Andries Hoff / Hoef and Catherine Arensteil).
In the fall of 1777, when Vaughn came up the Hudson River with his troops on shipboard, they burned the barn on the Whitaker Farm, near what is now Saugerties, New York. It stood on the brow of the hill north of the house of HERMANUS MINKLER. Minkler talked Vaughn out of burning the house, saying it would only make bad feelings, and too much damage had been done already. He had, at their request, butchered a young bull to afford them fresh meat, and Mrs. Minkler cooked the meat for them in a large pot outdoors. Thus the Whitaker house was saved as well as the MINKLER buildings.

JOSIAH / Esiah MINKLER born 10 September 1748 at Germantown, NY (son of Harmanus Minkler and Margreitha) married September 1770 to Rachel Whitaker.

Catherine Minkler married 22 December 1769 to Abraham OSTERHOUDT (1748 - 1817), the son of Hendrick Osterhoudt and Annatje DeWitt.

This will continue on the BURHANS line. It may be very confusing, because the BURHANS and other of our lines inter-married.

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