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A special year in my head for awhile has been 1646, the year my ancestor Jan Thomasz came to America.  It's a year printed on an officially stamped document from a genealogical society back in the 1920s.  It was commissioned by my great grandfather and includes evidence of lineage.  However, in my research of New Netherland for the book, I came across several references to good old Thomasz that hinted at other dates.  1644, 1642, and 1641 to be exact.

Now there is a new date: 1939.  Again, this was found by accident, this time while rummaging around for ship names.  Well, maybe it wasn't a total accident.  While I was elbow deep in old records, I decided to try a search using various spellings.  I've used other sources and websites before, but all my searches have come up empty.

In an old, hand-typed newsletter, I found the following...

23 Mar 1639 [not. H. Schaef, 1377/31]. Testament of Jan Thomasz from Amsterdam, sailing as adelborst (midshipman) on De Haring to New Netherland.

https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE8347211

I like to verify details like this, and I did, but I can't seem to locate the link to a document I found.  When I do, I'll update this post.

For the book I'm writing, I did a lot of reading and research about the Native Americans of New York, specifically the Mohawks and Mohicans.  It wasn't easy.  Not because there isn't material out there, but because of the questionable quality, lack of consistency, and only relatively recent written records.

Names, places, and dates were often in conflict, but more worrisome is that often even stories and legends contradicted themselves.  I read this is partially due to a mixing of tribes and cultures due to relocations, and also because of written records being influenced by European and Christian beliefs.  There are also things like sloppy or sometimes made up research, fictional stories or novels that become ingrained as fact, and so on.

The internet proved to be the biggest source of contradiction as if that should come as a surprise to anyone.  I used DEVONagent Pro frequently to take a deep dive when I'd run into a tight spot, only to find myself more confused.  More and more, I felt ashamed that so much history and culture now seems forever lost, since I think the proliferation of all these "facts" probably has already reached a point of no return... I hope I'm wrong.

The author part of me, the one who has to write the book, had to make decisions that were often swayed by which one fit the story the best or sounded the most probable.  It gave me a flexibility that I never felt entirely comfortable with, but I couldn't tell the story otherwise.

I sincerely tried my best to present both nations as real people, with flaws and strengths, and with many of the same struggles that the world has today.  Despite the frustrations, I'm glad I took the time to get to know the original inhabitants of the place I call home.