You'll find that Bergen County, NJ is the hot bed of the des Marets decended families. My wife was born and raised in Bergenfield, NJ and I am planning a trip to search out all the "family related" sites that are still historically protected by the Bergen County Historical Society. Their web-site shows David and Maries first house, the old French burial grounds, the 1693 (?) church and other sites.

My father was the second of five boys. There was one girl who died very yound. All have passed away with the exception of my Uncle Tom in tragic transportation related accidents. My Dad had hinted at our families history, but never had a chance to relay it as I was only 12 when he passed away. Most of my direct family (cousins etc...) still live in the Schenectady, NY area where Petrus and Sara (both of the Demarest family) settled during the Revolutionary War. Petrus was of David Jrs line and Sara of Samuels, so I have a strong line from two 11th des Marets GGFathers. Samuels line eventually took on the Demaree/Demeree variation of the name while David's line took on Demarest/Demerest/Demorest (depending on location) and I believe a lot of the Canadian Demaray/Demeray are of David's line also. With the size of the family, it's truely hard to tell unless you map it out. The Demarest Society web-site has the documentation from the 1964 book. I am 12-379 and using the generation files mapped every GGFather back to David and Marie with two distinct alternate lines through inter-family marrages.

Sad as it is, we don't have reunions either. With the exception of my brothers and sisters. We have all settled around our Mother in Rome, NY at the far end of the Mohawk Valley from Schenectady. Nice thing is, the internet has made my catch-up period very fast on our families history. Somewhere down the line (9, 10 generations), we are cousins...Kind of a neat thing to look up. The families military past is fun to look up too. I'm a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer (77-99) and my Father was military (killed in a plane crash leaving Viet Nam).

Have fun doing your research. The shear size of the family will blow you away.

Bob