It all began with Abraham Van Deursen

It only seems logical to start with Abraham Van Deursen since he begins much of the history of our family name.  There is a direct male line through my husband of 11 generations.  Much has been written about Abraham.  He even has a Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Pietersen_van_Deusen .  Over time, the name evolved from Van Deursen to a variety of spellings...some quite different from the original.  Anyone who has been researching their family tree for any amount of time will notice the changes in almost any name.  Sometimes the census taker made a mistake, people misread someone's handwriting, or illiteracy...so many reasons.

Here's our line from Abraham ~

Abraham Van Deursen                 1607 - 1678
Teuwis Van Deursen                    1631 - 1700
Abraham Van Deursen                 1676 - 1746
Robert Van Deusen                      1724 - 1807
Abraham Van Dusen                    1755 - 1836
Robert Van Dusen                        1783 - 1868
Daniel Van Dusen                        1808 - 1894
A. Eli Van Dusen                         1830 - 1917
Francis Marion Van Dusen          1858 - 1945
Marion Van Dusen                       1887 - 1967
William Harvey Van Dusen, Sr    1922 - 2005
David Charles Van Dusen            1957 -
Kathryn Van Dusen                       2002 -

More on these generations next time....