Hendricks Web Site

My name is Randal Arlan Hendricks and I am the Site manager of this site.This site was created using MyHeritage.com. This is a great system that allows one to create a site for his family tree and to publish the family tree on the Internet.If you have any comments or feedback about this site, please click here to contact me.Our family tree is posted online on this site! There are 22674 names in our family site.The site was last updated on Apr 6 2024, and it currently has 105 registered member(s). If you wish to become a member too, please click here.    I (Randal Arlan Hendricks) was born in Kansas City, Missouri on November 18, 1945, and am now living in Houston, Texas.  My great great grandfather was Jacob Clymer/Clemmer/Cremer Hendricks, born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1822, and married in Snyder County, Pennsylvania to Sarah Matilda Krebs.  They moved with their family to Miller County, Missouri in 1866. Cousins James Evers of Missouri and Peggy Eck of Washington and I worked for well over a decade to find out exactly which Abraham Hendricks was the father of our great great grandfather, Jacob C.  Peggy is a second cousin and James is a third cousin, and the three of us share Jacob C. Hendicks as a great great grandfather.Through DNA testing through http://www.familytreedna.com/,  we were brought together with Rich Kurlich of Ohio and Barbara Wright of Maryland, both related through DNA testing to our Hendricks line, but further back in time.  Rich and Barbara grew up in Ohio, and their forefathers moved there from Pennsylvania.Our mutual question has been which Hendricks is our  common ancestor, and where and when did this ancestor live. DNA testing has suggested he most likely lived during the late 1600's or early 1700's.   Dave Collins of Texas is another of several DNA Hendricks relatives also in search of answering this particular Hendricks question, as well as filling in missing pieces of the family tree.We hired a professional researcher, Frances Waite of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and the results of her research, plus our own  clear knowledge of our respective family lines (for example, I am the great grandson of Charles Albert Hendricks, son of Jacob C Hendricks, and his wife, Catherine "Cassie" Horton), serve as the basis of this family tree.  The common ancestor is Willem (later, in America, William) Hendricks, who settled in Germantown, Pennsylvania in the late 1600's. We are hoping, through the Smart Match program of My Heritage, to find other Hendricks relatives and then use DNA testing to confirm the results.Our research indicates that Willem Hendricks is not the son of original Germantown, Pennsylvania settler Gerhard Hendricks, whose will left everything to his sole heir, his daughter.  Cousin Dennis Hendricks of Delaware believes that Willem and Gerhard were brothers, and it is clear that Willem settled in Germantown shortly after Gerhard,  Willem was one of several Hendricks to immigrate to Germantown from Kriegsheim, near Worms in modern day Germany on the Rhine (Rhein) River.  The Hendricks were Brethren, or Quakers, who had been visited by William Penn and offered land in Pennsylvania in America.  According to a published story furnished to me by Dennis Hendricks, the Hendricks had moved up the Rhine River near Worms after religious persecution in the area of their prior home near the Rhine River near modern day Arnhem (which in modern times is near the border between Germany and the Netherlands).  Information obtained by Dennis Hendricks indicates that the parents of Willem Hendricks were Hendrick Willemsz and Jannetjen Aerents.  For centuries, a son was known by his given first name with his father's first name as a surname, often with an "s" or "son" attached; thus Willem Hendricks was the son of Hendrick Willemsz. Around this point in time in much of Europe, the last name was continued as a family name instead of the flip flopping of father/son names; thus, we have the Hendricks name continued as a surname from Willem Hendricks to the present.  In contrast, this continuation of a family surname did not occur in Sweden until well into the 1800's.  It is worth noting that the name Aerents is a derivative of a more ancient word for modern day Arnhem (Arnhem in Dutch; Arnheim in German).Hendrick Willemsz and Jannetjen Aerents and their forefathers resided in modern day Netherlands.  However, the family moved up the Rhine River Valley, earning a living and seeking to live in religious freedom.  Many members of their community lived in Crefeld or Krefeld, along the Rhine (Rhein) River in modern day Germany. Records indicate that members of the Aerents family also immigrated to Germantown, Pennsylvania.  It is noteworthy, insofar as the long time debate is concerned of "were they German or were they Dutch", that after coming to America they wrote and kept records in German, and married many German immigrants.  One needs to keep in mind that there was no modern day Germany at that point in time, and that the boundaries of the Netherlands expanded and contracted.  Additionally, there was the Spanish presence in the lower Netherlands area from 1579 to 1713.Thus, it appears that our Hendricks family line came from the Rhine River Valley in the German Palatinate.  Our common family Y DNA haplotype is "I2c1a1a1a2a."  I2c1a1a1a2a (Z102, my specific haplotype) DNA is a subset of I DNA.  I2c Y DNA is found in modern times in northern Europe. Very recent Y DNA tests and the latest research suggest that we are from an early branch that was in the Rhine River Valley in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and eastern France.  I am a member of the National Geographic Genome project which is trying to map the migratory history of mankind, and my Y DNA is very uniqure and at the leading edge for our particular family.  Thus, I believe at this point the best evidence is that we were in Rhine River Valley over 6,000 years ago.This is reinforced by more recent Y DNA tests, which developed more subsets of the I2 Y DNA. My I2c1a1a1a2a Y DNA (now CTS8693) is particularly found in Germany, where it is a minority Y DNA; this DNA existed alongside the "R" Y DNA which predominated Germany and the Rhine River area, having likely moved into Germany from the east, marching westward across Europe into the British Isles.I expanded my DNA testing to include autosomal DNA testing, which covers all of my ancestors, not just my direct Hendricks ancestors.  The tests show my composition to be: Scandinavian  41%; this is most concentrated in western Sweden and eastern Norway; my Swedish ancestors immigrated from western Sweden.Western and Central Europe 39%; this is most concentrated in eastern France, Switzerland and western Germany.British Isles 11%; this is most concentrated in England.Finland and its northern parts near Sibera 9%; I found maternal DNA matches in Finland, and research suggests a Swedish ancestor (Finland was once part of Sweden) married a bride from northern Finland.  As indicated, our known forefathers were Quakers and Mennonites, and came to Pennsylvania and America for religious freedom.  Over time, they "anglicized" names; hence, Willem Hendricks became William Hendricks, Hendrick Hendricks became Henry Hendricks, and Lorentz Hendricks became Lawrence Hendricks.  Names were often mispelled due to language barriers and phonetic pronunciations.If you are fascinated by history, read about the Spanish Netherlands, the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), the battles (spiritually and physically) between Protestants and Catholics, the constant realignments between Spain, France, England and the Netherlands, during the 1500-1700 period.  This was a time of much warfare, moving political boundaries, and religious persecution.  Catholic Spain was intent upon installing Catholicism as the only religion in the low lands of Europe, much of which it controlled as the Spanish Netherlands.  It is worth noting that William III of Orange (actually, "Willem"), a Protestant king who defeated the Catholic Spanish and contolled northern Holland (including modern day Amsterdam), had married into English royalty.  In 1688 William III and his wife, Mary II, became king and queen of England, and replaced unpopular  Catholic King James II (formerly the Duke of York) as rulers of England.  In 1681 William Penn received his land grant in America for what is modern day Pennsylvania from King Charles II of England, in conjunction with the then Duke of York (the future King James II) who owned the land in America.  At that time, Quakers were not accepted by Anglicans in England, let alone Catholics on the Continent.  Quakers believed they needed no intercessors to God, and that all men and women are created equal.  Thus, in many ways, they helped sow the seeds for democracy in America.  William Penn was very well educated, and his father was an English Admiral and his mother was the daughter of a Rotterdam merchant. He had been a missionary for the Quakers in Holland and Germany.   A major impetus for the granting to Penn of this vast amount of land (45,000 square miles) was the desire by the rulers in England and Europe to be free of the Quakers, who they did not accept.  Through shrewd and tireless promotion, Penn convinced many Quakers in England, Holland and Germany to buy land from him in the New World and live in religious freedom, which he promised.  Sick of all religious warfare, many Quakers, Mennonites and other religious minorities were all too willing to accept Penn's proposal.  And so, forces were aligned for a healthy migration through Rotterdam and English ports into the new American colonies.   These forces set in motion the migration of our Hendricks family to America.This Hendricks family web site contains detailed information on other families who have married into the Hendricks family, and I will be pleased to fill out those branches.  I welcome all well intended input.I have expanded my maternal line on this web site.  My mother was Edith Teresia Anderson, daughter of Karl John Anderson (Karl Johan Andersson in Sweden) and Charlotte Matilda Larson.  Karl John Anderson, born in Orebro, Sweden in 1874, immigrated to America in 1892.  It appears that Karl (later known in America by the nickname Charlie) came to America to work for his brother-in-law, Andrew Gustaf Belinder, a successful entrepreneur in Kansas City.  Andrew Gustaf Belinder was born in Sweden as Andrew Gustaf Johnson (perhaps Johansson or Jonsson), but changed his name in America to Belinder in honor of the school he attended in Stockholm, which he believed gave him the education he needed to graduate from college in Kansas.  Andrew Gustaf married Johanna Lovisa Andersson (Karl John's sister), who became known in America as Hannah Louisa Anderson Belinder.  Andrew Gustaf and his brother bought the Savoy Hotel and started the Svea Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, and Karl John Anderson apparently came to America to become the maitre 'd of the hotels. Andrew Gustaf Belinder and his brother bought large amounts of land, especially in Johnson County, Kansas.  My family home was on Belinder Avenue in Westwood, a small city in Johnson County, the southwest quadrant of greater Kansas City (which consists of land in two states - Kansas and Missouri). The stories of the Hendricks family and the Anderson family demonstrate the strong desire in all people to better themselves, to have freedom and to own property.Charlotte Matilda Larson, my maternal grandmother, was a first generation American born in 1884 in Carthage, Missouri of Swedish immigrant parents from Olmstad, near Jonkopping, Sweden.  I have had my maternal DNA (mtDNA) tested and my mother was from mtDNA haplogroup H1g, a very prevalent haplotype in Sweden.  Her maternal line was Larson (also Johnson/Jaensson), Lonn, Nilsdotter, Andersdotter, Gunnarsdotter, Nilsdotter and Hansdotter.  Rolf Berlin, co-administrator of the Swedish project at http://www.familytreedna.com/, who lives in Sweden, has been most helpful in helping me expand my maternal line back into Sweden.  Marianne Nordin Tivenius, a third cousin from Orebro, Sweden, has helped immensely on my mother's father's line, and Christopher Edward Anderson of Massachusetts, a sixth cousin, has helped on my mother's mother's line.  There are now a large number of Swedish relatives on the family tree.  Rolf Berlin led me to both Marianne and Christopher.It was the tradition in Sweden to use the father's first name as the first part of the last name for the children (hence, the son of Anders was Andersson and the daughter of Anders was Andersdotter). I hope you enjoy our family tree, and if you have any corrections or new information, please be sure to email it to me.Thanks and kind regards,Randal Arlan Hendricks