Much discussion surrounds the individual "Geertje," who married Jan Michiel Sperlingh, Dec 10, 1709 in Hackensack, NJ. The issue is her surname and/or patronymic. Suffice it to say, she is known by a variety of name forms, Geertje Pieters, as on her marriage record, or Geertje Pauluse Jacobs or she may be the individual, Geertje Pieters Hartje. It's a matter of not knowing which name her father signed on any particular record at the time Dutch names were in flux in the colonies in conjunction with uncertainty concerning Geertje's preference or need when identifying herself.
We do know, however, this individual when she is mentioned along with Jan Michiel Sperlingh as in this baptismal record I found a few days ago. What is interesting about this latest bit of information is that the suffix of the child's name suggests it was a girl, whereas, I previously only had records indicating the couple's two sons, Daniel and Peter.
This record is from the Somerset County Historical Quarterly, by Somerset Co. Historical Society (N.J.) Somerset Co, ed. Honeyman, A. Van Doren, Plainfield, NJ, 1919. It's taken from the list of baptisms for the Six Mile Run Church from 1743-1805, p.125.
1750, July 1, parents: Sperling, Jan and Geertje; child: ----rtje (?)
The only disturbing aspect of this record is the late date. If this is the same Geertje identified as the daughter of Pieter Pouluse and Treyntje Hans Jacobs, her baptismal is dated 1691 at Bergen, NJ, and that makes her age 59 at this child's baptism. Alternately, if we make a guess that she was between 15 and 18 (a typical marriage age for girls) when she married Jan Sperling in 1709, then she is again between age 56 and 59. It's also possible the child baptized in 1750 is not an infant.
This record is also helpful in verifying the identity of Jan Sperling as he was listed as a member of the Six Mile Run church during the time of John Frelinghuysen. Those lists and their source are provided in my post Forty Years at Raritan.
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