The Fulkerson Family Pages
The New Amsterdam colony spent a considerable amount of effort at record keeping. They took great care to write deeds, contracts and other agreements. They also kept detailed court records: New Amsterdammers were frequently found offending the law or suing one another. Many details of Dirck's life are known to us from the legal documents of that era, translations of which appeared in the "New York Historical Manuscripts" series and similar works.
Dirck married Christina Vigne in 1630/31, daughter of Guillaume Vigne and Adrienne Cuvelier. The Vignes were among the first 30 French Walloon families the Dutch West India Company imported to establish the New Netherlands colony in 1624. [Peter Minuit was not Dutch...he was a French Walloon like the Vignes.] The name "William" is found throughout the generations in abundance in the Fulkerson family. It is very likely that this name traces back to an Anglicization of our grandfather Guillame.
Dirck and Christina lived on her parents' farm, at the south end of Broadway, until 1638. Christina's father died in 1632, and Dirck and his mother-in-law Adrienne were named executors of the will.
Dirck and Christina initially lived in her mother's household, but they did not get along well with Jan Jansen DAMEN. Perhaps it was for that reason Dirck obtained a loan, possibly to buy his own house, in May of 1638.
Dirck Volckertszen De Noorman
The First American Fulkerson, In Old New Amsterdam
If Dirck were among Minuit's invited ship's carpenters, it would indicate an arrival for him in New Amsterdam (which would later become New York) between 1626 and 1628.
Another possibility is that Dirck came over in 1625, when the Dutch West India Company imported builders to put up houses in the colony. (In 1624, the first year of the New Netherlands settlement, most of the colonists lived "underground" in log-lined, sod-roofed dugouts.)
Perhaps the meeting between our grandparents Dirck and Christine occurred when he set about building the Vigne's house on the East River....making his acquaintance then with Christina Vigne, who was in her early teens in that year.
The Virtual New Amsterdam Project offers a video tour of what New Amsterdam might have looked like after the colony became built up and was solidly established.
[Interesting side note: John Follesdal's book "Ancestors from Norway: An introduction to Norwegian genealogy research" tells us that a Norwegian sailor named Sand acted as interpreter for Peter Minuit when he bought Manhattan island.]
The Shipbuilder and his Wife, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1633, British Royal Collection
Last Will and Testament
We the undersigned, Willem Weyman, smith and Jan Tomasen Groen, as referees, do by this instrument attest and certify for the real truth that Dirck Volgersen Noorman and Ariaentje Cevelyn, his wife’s mother, came before us in order to enter into an agreement with her her children whom she has borne by her lawful husband [Willem Vienje], settling on Maria Vienje and Christina [Vienje], both married persons, on each the sum of two hundred guilders as their portion of their father’s estate, and on Resel Vienje and [Jan] Vienje, both minor children, also as their portion of their father’s estate,
on each the sum of three hundred guilders; with this provision that she and her future lawful husband, Jan Jansen Damen, shall out of the remainder of the property be bound to bring up the above named two children until they attain their majority, without using more than the interest, and be bound to clothe and rear the aforesaid children as children ought to be [clothed and reared], to keep them at school and to give them a good trade, as parents ought to do. Thus is done in New Netherland on the island of Manhattan and in Fort Amsterdam, the last of April 1632. In confirmation of which this was signed by Jacob Planck, the writer of this instrument; also with this sort of mark X, after which was written: This is the mark of Dirck Volckertsen Noorman; Jan Tomasen Groen, and This is the X mark of Willem Weyman. "The preceding agreement is recorded here with a view that if lost an authentic copy may again be obtained here, [the record] having been found by me, Cornelis van Tienhoven, secretary, to agree with the original. Done this 7th of May 1638, at Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland.
