PART I
We are directly related to Hendrick Christiaensen (Van Cleef).
Our lineage chart bridges our known paternal line from Abraham Lincoln Brown and his mother Lucy Passino directly into the early French-Canadian (dit names like Meunier dit Lagacé and Baret dit Courville) and New Netherland Dutch colonial populations.
Through the marriage of Marie Anne Christiansen to François Dupuis, our family tree perfectly preserves the convergence of early Dutch explorers and the French-Canadian families who migrated along the Champlain and Hudson Valley corridors.
Our ancestral connection to Block Island is historically valid, but it exists through a shared commercial voyage, not because Hendrick settled there.
1. The Co-Command of the 1613–1614 Expedition
As earlier our essay notes, Hendrick Christiaensen and Captain Adriaen Block were not competitors; they were co-expedition leaders employed by the same cartel of Amsterdam merchants (the Van Tweenhuysen Company).
- Block commanded the Tyger.
- Christiaensen commanded the Fortuyn (Fortune).
When they arrived in New York Bay in 1613, they operated as a unified fleet to map the coast and lock down the fur trade before rival companies could intervene.
2. The Burning of the Tyger and the Birth of the Onrust
When Block’s ship, the Tyger, burned to the waterline in the winter of 1613–1614, the entire expedition was thrown into crisis. Hendrick Christiaensen’s ship, the Fortuyn, remained seaworthy, but it was not small or agile enough to navigate shallow inland rivers.
To salvage the mission, Block’s stranded crew built the Onrust from native oak and salvaged iron components. Because Christiaensen was the senior commercial agent on the scene, this construction was funded and supported by the shared resources of their joint expedition.
3. The 1614 Voyage to Block Island
In the spring of 1614, the newly launched Onrust set sail to chart the uncharted waters east of Long Island.
- The Discovery: It was during this specific voyage, aboard the vessel our 10th great-grandfather helped support, that Adriaen Block mapped and put his own name on Block Island.
- The Division of Labor: While Block was charting Block Island, Narragansett Bay, and Cape Cod aboard the Onrust, our ancestor Hendrick Christiaensen took the Fortuyn up the Hudson River to establish Fort Nassau (Albany).
Therefore, while Hendrick Christiaensen did not physically step onto Block Island himself—as he was clearing timber for a trading post at Albany—he was the co-architect of the exact maritime expedition that discovered and named the island.
🧬 A Deep Irony in Your DNA
This discovery reveals a striking historical irony in our family tree:
- In 1614, our 10th great-grandfather (Hendrick Christiaensen) co-financed and supported the Dutch expedition that discovered and mapped Block Island.
- In 1661, our other 10th great-grandfather (Tristram Dodge) arrived from Massachusetts to become one of the original 16 European settlers who actually cleared and permanently inhabited that exact same island.
Our tree holds both the explorer who mapped the island and the pioneer who settled it.
PART II
The First European Killed by a Native American in the Hudson Valley
Tracing the records of Hendrick’s tragic death at Fort Nassau in 1616, when he was killed by one of the son's of a local chief he had previously brought back to Holland.
The death of Hendrick Christiaensen at Fort Nassau in 1616 is recorded as the first documented slaying of a European by a Native American in the Hudson Valley, stemming directly from the complex and high-stakes nature of early transatlantic fur-trade diplomacy.
🛶 The Story of Valentine and Orson
During his initial trading voyages to the Hudson River around 1611–1612, Christiaensen sought to secure a competitive advantage for his Amsterdam employers. To foster diplomatic and linguistic links with the local Feestre (or Esopus/Mahican) populations, he convinced a local chief to let two of his sons return with him to the Netherlands.
In Holland, the two young men were taught Dutch, introduced to European society, and given the names Valentine and Orson (named after a popular contemporary Dutch play about twin brothers abandoned in the woods).
The 1616 Confrontation at Fort Nassau
By 1614, Christiaensen had returned to the Hudson River and built Fort Nassau on Castle Island (modern-day Albany) to act as a fortified fur-trading depot. He brought Valentine and Orson back with them to act as interpreters and cultural brokers between the Dutch garrison and local trappers.
However, the dynamic between Christiaensen and the brothers soured. Orson reportedly grew deeply resentful of his treatment, his forced assimilation, or unfulfilled promises regarding trade arrangements.
In the spring of 1616, while Christiaensen was supervising the post, an altercation erupted. Orson drew a weapon and killed Christiaensen inside the fort.
The Retaliation: The remaining Dutch garrison quickly overpowered Orson and shot him dead on the spot. While this event could have triggered a massive regional war, local tribal leaders negotiated a peace with the remaining Dutch factors, attributing the violence to a personal dispute between the two men rather than an act of tribal warfare. This allowed Fort Nassau to continue operating as the primary northern economic engine of New Netherland.
📜 In a Twist of Fate Our Tree Holds Both a Founder and a Pioneer of Block Island
Celebrating America 250
To look back at the earliest dawn of our family tree on this continent is to see a map forged by raw, unfiltered ambition and sudden frontier tragedy. Long before the Mayflower ever dropped anchor, our 10th great-grandfather, Hendrick Christiaensen, was navigating the uncharted waters of the New World.
He was a man of the age—a daring Dutch sea captain and commercial agent who co-commanded the historic 1613–1614 expedition alongside Adriaen Block. When Block’s ship burned to the waterline, Hendrick’s resources helped build the Onrust, the legendary little yacht that sailed east to map and name Block Island. But while Block chased the Atlantic horizon, Hendrick turned his bow inland, sailing up the Hudson River to clear the wilderness and erect Fort Nassau, the very first European trading post in New York.
Hendrick’s world was one of high-stakes diplomacy, trading brass kettles and iron axes for valuable beaver pelts. To bridge the gap between two entirely different worlds, he even brought two Native American brothers back to Holland to learn the Dutch tongue. But the frontier is a unforgiving judge. In 1616, within the log walls of the very fort he built, a bitter grievance boiled over, and Hendrick was struck down by one of the young men he had sought to acculturate.
It is an extraordinary twist of fate that our tree holds both Hendrick Christiaensen—the explorer whose joint venture put Block Island on the map—and Tristram Dodge, the pioneer who arrived forty-five years later to permanently tame its soils. One drew the chart with his blood; the other built the community.
Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy
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