One of my sampler groups is starting a challenge. We have to sew at least one stitch on January 1 and report our progress. Some are starting more than one sampler. What shall I start?
The first is simple. I want to start the Dutch sampler I designed for my ancestors, Elizabeth Gelderner and Adam Staats who were married August 28, 1744 in New York. They started the States family in America. I am not sure if they were born in Holland or in New York. Maybe I can find out by the time I finish the sampler.
I don't know anything about their lives, but I can do some more research on the early New Amsterdam/New York families to get an idea. People often think that genealogy is a dull and dry hobby, and if you are just in the business of gathering names, I guess it is, but people now are more interested in genealogy as family history and in that, it is dynamic and challenging.
I designed this sampler using a book of Dutch sampler motifs of the time by Albarta Meulenbelt-Nieuwburg. Most of the motifs were found in samplers from the era although I didn't limit them to only the narrow time period when Elizabeth would have been a young girl doing samplers. I was more interested in the balance of size and color than the right dates. I don't really know when Elizabeth was born, but it was probably between 1722 and 1730 based on the date of her marriage.
