Rappleye Family History
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Rapalje Surname Resource Page at The SurnameWeb

    There are various and sometimes contradictory versions of the Rapalje lineage in Europe, but no doubt about the progenitor of the name in America. Joris Janssen Rapalje and his wife Catalyntje Tricot (or his fiancee, depending on whose version one reads) came to New Amsterdam on the Niew Nederland in 1621 (or again, depending on the storyteller, the Eeddracht or "Unity").

    Opinion, on the whole, seems to favor the Unity, a sister ship to the Niew Nederland. There is no question that both ships arrived in New Amsterdam in the early 17th century, the Niew Nederland in 1621 and the Unity perhaps in 1623. Catalyntje herself stated that she came to New Amsterdam in the Unity, which seems sufficient to me, though one determined historian insists that was an 'error due to failing years' 1. In a deposition taken at her home on Long Island on October 17, 1688 2, she states:

"Catelyn Trico doth Testify and Declare that in ye year 1623, she came into this country with a Ship called ye Unity, whereof was commander Arien Jorise belonging to ye West India Company, being ye first ship yt came here for ye sd. Company. As soon as they came to Mannatans, now called N. Yorke, they sent Two families and six men to Hartford River, and Two Families and Eight men to Delaware River, and eight men they left at N. Yorke to take Possession, and ye Rest of ye Passengers went with ye Ship as farr as Albany which they then called fort Orange.--

"Ye sd Deponent lived in Albany three years, all which time ye Indians were all as quiet as Lambs and came and Traded with all ye Freedom Imaginable; in ye year 1626, ye Deponent came from Albany and settled at N. Yorke where she lived afterwards for many years and then came to Long Island."


    Joris and Catalyntje had eleven children over a span of twenty-five years. Their eldest, Sarah, has been called the first white child born in New Amsterdam or even sometimes the first white child born in the New World. There are other contenders for that title, but Sarah was certainly one of the first, and probably the first white child born in New York. She was born in Fort Orange (later Albany) in 1625 and is undeniably the most notorious of the early Rapalje's.

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