Person:Jacob Boomhower (1)

This Jacob is generally recognized as Jacob the immigrant's first son by Sarah Kimmel. There is some conjecture that he was the last son of Jacob and Eleanora. Some time in the 1790's, after the death of Jacob the immigrant, this Jacob and his brother Johannes left Center Brunswick for Quebec. Although Jacob the immigrant's name does not appear on the list of Loyalists it is thought that he favored G. Britain and this may be one reason for his two sons to immigrate to Canada. Or it just may have been the lure of cheap or free land. However, there is evidence that two of his sons by Eleanora Weegar, Andreas and George, fought for independence in the Revolutionary War(Index to Revolutonary War Services Records, pp.110,251,255). There is controversy over the date and place of Jacob's birth. Francine Hart's Tree shows 8 Jan 1766 in Claverack, NY. This is a year before Jacob the immigrant married Sara Kimmel. At this juncture we do not have a record of his birth; it has been calculated from his age on his tombstone of 75yrs, 7days in 1841. This tombstone was replaced at one time and is supposedly an exact copy of the original. It's possible that the family was wrong about his age or the first stonecutter misunderstood the age or made an error on the stone. If Jacob's age were actually 73yr.7days, that would make his birthdate 8 Jan 1768. His brother John's birth year is shown as 1769 according to the following from Herman Witthoft: "A Jacob Boomhouwer and Sara had: (1) Johannes, bpt. 19 Jul 1769 - sp: George Bregh, Margar. Bergh, Michael Vanhuman, and Eliz. Vanhuman (St. Peter's Episcopal Chbk, Albany)." This would be logical in view of son #3, Michael's birthdate being shown as 1771. An additional wrinkle has been thrown into the cloth by Reverend James Derevage who claims that Jacob is the son of Eleanora Weegar, not Sara Kimmel. Rev. Derevage claims Jacob was born in Claverack, although he has no documentation. It is just conjecture on Rev. Derevage's part. With respect to the spelling of Jacob's last name, there is a document (date unclear) bearing his signature as Jacob Boomhower. This could make him the first to use this Dutch version, which of course in both languages means tree cutter.

From David Ellis" Posted: 8 Aug 2011 6:30PM

There's a baptismal record for Johannes that proves Sarah was his mother. Jacob's marriage to Sarah is on record also (3-Aug-1767). The working assumption is that Eleanor died bet. 1763 - 1767.

More from David: Jacob Jr.'s baptism is not recorded. His age at death projects a birth date of Jan 8th, 1766. Age at death is often incorrect in the year. (People remember birthdays but ages get "adjusted".) I think he was probably age 73 at death, not 75, which would give a birth date of Jan 8th, 1768 - Sarah was 4 months pregnant when she married. (Sarah's death record does make it clear that Jacob was her son and not Eleanor's son.)

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 David J. Ellis 'dr.ellis@physics.org. Genealogical Data (David Ellis). (Created May 30, 2003 (2 CD's)).