Notes by Peter Bush - 6/D/4924 in the New York Genalogical and Biographical Library:

The first member of the deVeaux or de Vos family who emigrated to America was found in New Amsterdam (New York) as early as the year 1653, named “Matheus DeVos (as it was then spelled), and his wife.

He appeared to be a man of considerable intelligence, as he was early engaged exercising the office of public notary, and frequently appeared in the court of Burgomasters and Schepens as the attorney for litigant parties.

His wife died soon after his arrival, and in 1656 he married the widow of Philip Geraerdz, whose maiden name was Maria Pollet, and who was in possession of considerable property in Stone Street, where they resided.

Some two years later Henry DeVos, with a young sister named Anna, were also found here. Henry soon after married, and had a daughter named Mary, born in 1659; afterwards had another named Catalina, who married, in 1686 [Celia’s note: must be 1656], Nicholas Depuy. The sister Anna had previously married (1665) to Christian Lyerson.

These early settlers, when pronouncing their original name—if it was deVeaux—no doubt called and wrote it De Vos; afterwards the name was found differently spelled both in the records and the press.197, pg 17