Ruth Piwonkar ???.piwonka@berk.com Kinderhook, New York Copyright 1999 Ruth sent me this via E-Mail [Robin F.]. I have a copy of a curious piece of family history and genealogical research that I will transcribe that pertains to James Livingston. He was a grand-nephew of Robert Livingston, First Lord of Livingston manor -- and likely the nephew of 'Robert Livingston the Nephew' so-called (to keep him distinguished from his uncle) who also came to Albany, New York. Robert the Nephew (i.e., a nephew to Robert the First Lord / a son of Robert's brother) married Margareta Schuyler, while Robert First Lord had married Alida Schuyler. The document was sent to me at Columbia County Historical Society as 'Christmas Greeting 1978' by one Evelyn P. Meyers, who had evidently done the research. I gather that she sent copies to family and other researchers as well. There was no other information with it. However, it does seem to give some significant information -- so I copy it out for what it is worth. (Mrs. Meyers seemed to think that they lived in Kinderhook, too -- but I would question that ... ?? But it could be right.) BEGIN LONG QUOTE (autobiography): ================================ In Light of the present meagre document it may have been something like this with our first ancestor in America: JAMES LIVINGSTON. They tell me I was born in the far reaching farming country around Rotterdam in the Low Country at the turn of the year [Jan.] 1703. My parents had married here and made their modest living. I was the first child of this union to live. My father, a Scottish bookbinder, took us to Edinburgh in March 1703 for sentimental reasons: he wanted his namesake baptized in the old kirk of the Covenant in Midlothian Parish of Edinburgh where he himself had been churched. Generations of Livingstons had trod these streets, brought forth fruit after their kind and died. One had gone to fame and fortune in the new world. My great-grandfather, Domine John Livingston, the eminent Scottish Divine, had preached in that church until the religious troubles made a fugitive of him to Ireland, England and Holland. Twice he had even tried to get to America. My grandfather, William Livingston [would be an older brother of Robert First Lord], lived his long life as a merchant in Edinburgh and latterly was Clerk to the Sessions. He was good on the family history, as somebody every now and then is. He sent a summary of it to his youngest brother in America somewhat before my time [yes, this letter survives in the Livingston-Redmond Manuscripts], for William died in 1700. Of his children were two sons: Andrew and my father, James, who were both involved in that awful Darien Disaster [which was key to Scots immigration to New York about 1702/1703]. My father was lucky enough to get a desk job but Uncle Andrew was a doctor and had some of the disaster to his own person, dying long years after in a Spanish prison in Caracas. My father stayed on Scottish soil through all five years of this bubble which absorbed so much of the risk of capital of our country. When I was a young boy, however, my father received a cash indemniy of no great proportion but he put it by and it stood me in good stead much later. After this fiasco he went into bookbinding and took his chances in Rotterdam, where so many of our kin operated. James Livingston, my father, was just nicely launched on his business when a little country damsel name Maria Roos came on his scene. Her folks lived just out in the vast hinterland about Rotterdam growing the city's food. The Roos fell so strangely on the old domine's ear at my baptism that it all but unnerved him -- and that and the whiskey that kept his old bones moving in the icy kirk. He wrote down something like Ruis or Ross, less heathenish. We stayed a few weeks in Scotland visiting my father's people and business connections. The dour land did for my mother. A short time after our return to Rotterdam she died leaving my father with a two month old bairn. Mother's relatives took me back to their farm for a few years until father married Sarah. He had known her casually but when she came over to our colony [i.e, the Scots colony at Rotterdam] the relationship deepened. She was that jewel of a woman who adored both her husband and his wee bairn and I grew into the age of reason knowing no other as mother. She was a bit older than father but comely and not penniless. All through my childhood my visits to the farm were bright spots that seemed to enhance that was born in me from my mother's side. God knows the Livingstons had been merchants and ministers and anything else but farmers. They looked upon my penchant as something regrettable. To say the least it was a way of life they could not teach me a thing about; but I picked up all I need, as it turned out. Other means of livelihood had been tried out on me to no avail. In my father's shop I hated the smell of textile and glue and hated just being indoors. The farms I had loved had been taken over by a new generation of eldest sons. I had a lot of thinking to do about what was to become of me. There were always tales of America, my father and my stepmother having relatives who were doing well there. I would not have to go cold turkey. One day at the kirk were some Palatines who were waiting passage America. By merest fluke I got to visit with one Catharina Coans [Kuhn] and my fate was sealed. It was suddenly clear to me that I had best to go to New York on the ship with these people. Some of them had relatives there too, and not so far from mine. Catharina was of good farm stock and that suited me to a tee. We had plenty to talk about. Her Plattdeutsch was not too different in the spoken form from Dutch. Suffice it to say that we understood each other. I pried loose my funds and got passage to New York on the --------- [ship name not given]. The trip was a penance to most but I was a veteran of the English Channel, the roughest sail in the world, so I had sea legs. The Palatines were headed for countrymen and relatives up the Hudson River short of Albany. I had written to my great uncle Robert [no letter survives in Livingston Redmond manuscripts...] but had no time to wait for a rely; so I had no assurances, really. I stuck with the German people and Catharina. Most of them went to Germantown, but the Kuhns and a few others knew of some opportunities in Kinderhook, so that is where we started life in the new world. The first news I had upon arrival was bad; my old uncle had died [Robert Livingston (First Lord) died in 1728]. I called at the great house but they all seemed distracted. Anyway, I was not a charity case but able to manage in a modest way; so I did not often shadow their doorstep, especially after I learned of all the animosity between my relatives and the Germans. In one part of the Kinderhook District was a parcel of lands that people just went ahead and settled upon and farmed because no one had ever been able to say for sure where its boundaries were. Something was always brewing about getting a better title; but mean- while it served us to make a living. Seeing that hog raising was good enough for my well-off uncle and that it was something I had some experience in, I latch onto some wettish land between two creeks. Nobody else challenged me; but I did speak to some Indians about it. This particular land was on or off the farthest edge of my uncles tract [Livingston Manor ... ??] and there had been long dispute over it with the patron Van Rensselaer. However, it turned out that both were only too glad to claim me for a settler while I raised my pigs and wheat after marrying my little Palatine, that is. We had posted our banns soon after arriving here and married that same year. I saw little of my relatives. They were plenty busy, as was I with immediate concerns. Also they were not about to cozy up to any Palatine. They went their way and I went mine without really bad blood between us. In fact, they needed me, more than I needed them. Meanwhile our first baby, a girl, lived but a year and died. With the rest we had better luck. I was still hoping to get a proper title to the land we had become attached to. We were good friends with all our neighbors, sharing their trials and tribuations. We were all in the same predicament and always trying to figure out ways out of it. I had more education than most them and they looked up to me for that as well as for my independence of my lordly relatives. END OF LONG QUOTE (autobiography). This is Ruth P. talking: I have a few observations about this. Mrs. Meyers did some good research into the background. The land title and disputes in Kinderhook are accurately characterized, but not known in documentation until the 1760s-90s. They are not known to have been going on in the 1720s, 30s, and 40s. James Livingston does not appear on the 1744 tax list for Kinderhook. -- It is possible, but I have no idea whether his coming in 1728 is a fact or a surmise. -- You may know more about this from the Kuhn family angle. ** I hope this is some new information for you Robin -- although it lacks documentation, I think Mrs. Meyer's 'article' probably does some solid research -- although there must be some 'fictionalizing' that has gone on as well. All for now. Ruth P.