Tradition provides us an immigration date of 1642 for our American family patriarch,
Jellis Douw
Fonda and his family. However,
Amsterdam records
http://www.fonda.org/stories.htm#Hester indicate birth dates of 1641, 1643, 1645 and 1647 for their children, in Holland. So we know that 1642 was not correct, unless Douw was traveling back and forth with the
Dutch West India Company, for which there is no evidence. . . .
Although we don't have a ship manifest or land grant with a
Fonda surname confirming, there is a good likelihood
http://www.fonda.org/stories.htm#Voyage that
Jellis arrived on the "Valckenier" in June 1650 at New
Amsterdam. . . .
This corresponds to the end of The Eighty Years' War (1566–1648)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighty_Years%27_War, or '
Dutch Revolt of the Seventeen Provinces' in the Netherlands against the
Spanish (
Habsburg) empire. The end of the fighting could have provided for safe passage and increasing commerce with the New World. . . .
The first tangible record of
Jellis (
Gillis) in
America was established as that found in
Fort Orange on October 19, 1651 when he received permission from the court to distill liquor in
Greenbush, a small village near Albany. However... a new record has been found in the book "Early
Irish in Old Albany"
http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=BookList&dbid... which places him there a couple of months earlier. Not a big difference, but nonetheless, this is now the earliest tangible record of a
Fonda in the New World: . . .
Early
Irish in Old Albany, N.Y.: with special mention of Jan
Andriessen, "De Iersman
Van Dublingh",
Danaher, Franklin M., Boston,
MA, American-Irish Historical Society, 1903, p. 17: ...the court records show that on August 18, 1651, "Thomas Konnig abused the court as an unlawful court, taking materials from the sayings of
Dyckman, who sang the 82nd Psalm and called the high council rogues and tale bearers in presence of
Evert Pels, Art Jacobse and
Gillis Fonda." . . .
Evert
Pels was also listed in the October 19 court record as the owner of the house where
Gillis would produce liquor. It is odd that the men were in court, merely observing, two months prior to their court date. Perhaps they were preparing for their upcoming petition. They apparently got more than an earful from this ruckus Irishman. . . .
Jellis had been an innkeeper and blacksmith in
Amsterdam. Brandy was a product of high value in New
Amsterdam. The skills and knowledge needed may have been similar. Although none of the early Fonda's were known as anything but pious in nature, the making of spirits was a worthwhile commercial venture in the fur trading environs of early Albany. . . .
Yours
Truly,
Albert 'Mark'
Fonda . . .
Webmaster
http://www.fonda.org