In researching my lineage, I found interesting stories of why and when some of my relatives immigrated to the United States. I was more surprised to find out that many arrived in the 1600s during the earliest days of our country. The following is an account of life after tragedy—of leaving behind a destroyed homeland to travel across the ocean to a new country and the promise of greater opportunities. This is the story of my paternal ninth great-grandparents—Hans Jansen van Noordstrand (abt 1600-1690) and Rymerick (Volkert) van Noordstrand (abt 1600-1645).

The Burchardi Flood

October 11, 1634 had been a calm day along the coasts of Germany and Denmark. However, as evening progressed, strong winds from the northwest beat against the coastline of what is now North Germany and Southwest Denmark. The waters of the North Sea can be ferocious and this evening the sea was churning and sending waves over the dike system. The skies opened up with heavy rain, lightning, and hail which sent flood waters well into Germany and Denmark. Levees ruptured as people fled for higher ground. Flooding was so severe, dikes forty miles away in the city of Hamburg gave way.

The Burchardi Flood (also known as the second Grote Mandrenke) was a storm tide that struck the North Sea coast of North Frisia, Dithmarschen (in modern-day Germany) and southwest Jutland (in modern-day Denmark) causing catastrophic damage. The coastline was shattered, dikes were overrun, and much of the island of Strand washed away. It is estimated that between 8,000 and 15,000 people drowned.

On Strand alone 2/3 of the entire population of the island died. Over 1,300 farms and houses were washed away, along with thirty windmills, and six clock towers. An estimated 50,000 livestock were lost. All twenty-one churches on Strand were heavily damaged, seventeen of which were completely destroyed. In the wake of this disaster, those who survived were left with a nightmarish scene. Beaches were littered with corpses, shattered remnants of homes and crops were carried away and scattered about. It would take decades for the area to recover. Even today, farmland on the island is only a third the size of what it was before the storm.

This had already been a time of economic weakness in the region. In 1603, bubonic plague spread through the land, killing many people. The Burchardi Flood occurred during the Thirty Years’ War which also did not spare the population. 

Locals had attempted to defend themselves in the Thirty Years’ War against the attacks of Frederick III by working with the Danish navy. Ultimately unsuccessful, their military efforts distracted them from basic tasks like maintaining the dike system built to ward off the battering waves of the North Sea.

Two Survivors

Hans Jansen van Noordstrand and his wife, Rymerick (Volkert), were two of the survivors of the Burchardi Flood. They are my ninth great-grandparents on my paternal side. They were both born about 1600 on Noordstraat (Nordstrandt) Island, Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark (now Germany) and were married in about 1628. 

No doubt Hans and Rymerick had lived through very hard times. I wonder how difficult the decision was to immigrate to New Netherland. I imagine there was not anything left to keep them in their present location. Thus, they along with their three children immigrated to New Netherland (Kingston, Ulster, New York) in 1639.

They arrived in New Netherland on June 16, 1639 on a private ship possibly “de Brant von Trogen” (The Fire of Troy). The ship was owned by Jonas Bronck (after whom the Bronx in New York City is named). On the ship were tools, supplies, and cattle to launch a large-scale plantation in the colony.

New Netherland

In April 2024, the City of New York celebrated the 400^th anniversary of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. In 1624, the Dutch West India Company brought thirty, predominantly French Huguenot, families on the ship, New Netherland, to establish the first Dutch settlement in America.

New Netherland, controlled by the Dutch West India Company, was located primarily (but not exclusively) in the Hudson River Valley (modern U.S. states of New York and New Jersey). Dutch presence began with Henry Hudson’s 1609 voyage of exploration. Dutch control ended on August 27, 1664, when governor Peter Stuyvesant surrendered to invading English forces of the Duke of York (Articles of Capitulation), but the Dutch maintained significant autonomy in New Netherland until October 24, 1674, when the Treaty of Westminster stipulated all Anglo-Dutch hostilities were to end. However, the Dutch-dominated culture of New Netherland continued to characterize the region (the New York Capital District, Hudson Valley, New York City, western Long Island, and northern New Jersey) until well into the 19th century.

Details of Hans and Rymerick’s life are written in brooklynhistory.org

In New Netherland, the Jansen family lived a typical middling life. He farmed first in Nieuw Amsterdam, and then in Midwout. They grew wheat to feed the burgeoning port town back across the East River. The cows he eventually bought signaled his modest success.

As an economic strategy for managing such a large family, middling folk often hired out their children to others as apprentices. In 1644, Hans apprenticed his daughter, nine-year-old Marritje, to Philip Garritsen, a tavern keeper and landowner, for a three-year term. Marritje (1636-1671) would be a household servant to the Garritsen family. In return, she would learn sewing and cooking, and the Garritsens would take care of feeding and housing her.

Hans Jansen van Noordstrand’s 1697 will described his modest amount of property; some meadow lots in Flatlands (now Brooklyn), formerly Niew Amersfoort, a house, two horses, four cows, plows, a wagon, and 300 guilders worth of wheat. His moderate success allowed him to live a long life in New Netherland. He died in 1690, at the age of 90.

His wife, Rymerick, died in 1645 in New Amsterdam—a colony of New Netherland—at the age of 45. Marritje Hansen, daughter of Hans and Rymerick, married Jurian Westvaal in 1650. He had sailed to New Ansterdam from Texel, North Holland on the immigrant ship Den Houttyn in 1642. He is recorded on the ship manifest as Jurian Bestvaal of Leiderdrop, South Holland. 

A Legacy

Hans and Rymerick were the beginning of my father’s maternal family in America. Their decision to sail to New Netherland—a place they had never seen—was daring and courageous. They weren’t leaving much behind, but would the future prove to be better? The lives of their descendants would not always be easy—and, I will relate some of those details in a future blog. However, enough of them survive to ensure that I am here today. I am forever grateful to their bravery and fortitude. Their story illustrates that life can continue after tragedy.