Elizabeth Hendrix (by Stefan Bielinski, first posted: 12/30/03)
Elizabeth Hendrix was the matriarch of the Lansing family - the largest family group to live in early Albany. She was born in the Netherlands between 1610 and 1620. By 1640, she had married Gerrit Frederickse Lansing. With their six children, these Lansings emigrated to New Netherland and settled in what became Beverwyck where Lansing was known as baker. Following the death of Gerrit Frederickse - perhaps during the mid-1650s, Elizabeth Hendrix married another baker, widower Wouter Albertse Van Den Uythoff. They became Albany mainstays in a second marriage that lasted more than four decades. In 1678, Wouter and Elizabeth filed a joint will. She was characterized by the notary as "virtuous" but "sickly." The will noted that their marriage produced no children but that she had six children from her first marriage living at the time. She was accounted for within the household of Wouter Albertse on the Albany census of 1697. In 1699, Wouter was dead and she was identified as his widow!
