Person:Sara Rapelje (3)

New Netherland Institute

[[Sarah Rapalje was the first white female child born in New Netherland.

She was born in Albany on July 9, 1625, and died in New Amsterdam, then New York, in 1685.

During her life time, she had two husbands and bore 15 children.

The first child, Anneken Hansen Bergen, was baptized on July 20, 1640, eleven days after Sarah had turned 15.]]

[[Sarah bore her fifteenth child, Gysbert Teunissen Bogaert, in 1668, when Sarah was 43 years old. Probably about a year after Sarah’s husband, Hans Hansen Bergen, passed away, Sarah married Teunis Gysbertsen Bogaert. Sarah and Teunis would have seven children, six of whom survived into adulthood, again an amazing number for that time period. The couple’s children were: Aertje Teunisen Bogaert, baptized on December 19, 1655; Catalyntje Teunisen Bogaert, baptized on December 16, 1657; Neeltje Teunisen Bogaert, baptized on February 22, 1660; Neeltje died at a young age; Aaltje Teunisen Bogaert, baptized on November 13, 1661; Annetje Teunisen Bogaert, baptized on August 23, 1665; Neeltje Teunisen Bogaert, also baptized on August 23, 1665; Neeltje and Annetje were twins; and finally number 15, Gysbert Teunisen Bogaert, baptized on December 5, 1668. So during a period of 28 years Sarah bore 15 children. Since there were two sets of twins, she had a birth on average every two years during the 28 year period.]]