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Welcome to the Belyea family page of my family history website. This family represents one of my wife's many Loyalist ancestral branches. For our family research purposes, the Belyea family represent a maternal ancestral branch of the Bridgman family. William Bridgman married Mary Belyea in New Brunswick and moved to Lincoln, County, Ontario about 1799. This page presents the ancestors of Mary Belyea. As the Bulyea family is enormous, I am not presently tracking all descendant lines.
The Belyea family is descended from Louis Boulier, a French Huguenot mariner who was born in Santoigne, France in 1670 and came to New York in the late 17th century. His descendants remained in New York until the outbreak of the American Revolution when they fled to New Brunswick, Canada. A further description is provided below.
Please Note: This page is intended only as a narrative historical overview of this family. There is additional detailed information available for almost ever person presented on this page. To avoid the unnecessary work of double-entering such things as vital statistics, the additional information can be found in the accompanying GEDCOM database. Please make sure you click on the INDEX button at the bottom of the page so you don't miss out on potentially valuable additional information.
The information presented here is not my work alone. It represents the combined research efforts of all those who are listed as Fellow Researchers at the bottom of this page. I have also used material researched by others, whose references can be found in the Links section below.
If you are just arriving here for the first time then you may wish to start here.
The surname Belyea is a multi-generation corruption of the French surname, Boulier, which means "abacus". As an abacus was used by book-keepers as an ancient form of calculator or adding machine, it may be that the Boulier surname originates from an ancestor who was an accountant or clerk. The evolution of this surname is described in detail below as it morphed from the French Boulier to the Dutch influenced Beljee to the Anglo/Franco/Acadian Bulyea and Belyea.
Click here to learn more about surnames.
This page can be read as a stand alone page, but is intended to continue a narrative begun on The Bridgman Family Page where Mary Belyea had just married William Bridgman. Mary Belyea is descended from a French Huguenot mariner, named Louis Boulier. The Boulier family descendants are known more fully than is presented here. Because this is such an enormous family, I have only included the branches most closely related to the later Mary Belyea. More information on the Boulier descendants can be found on Cleadie Barnett's Belyea website.
The earliest verifiable ancestor of this family is a French Huguenot mariner named Louis Boulier who born in 1670 in Santoigne, France. As a Protestant Huguenot he fled the religious persecutions of his homeland, going first to England, and then to the English colony of New York where he would have been one of the earlier European settlers. He settled in the Dutch community of Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, Westchester County, where his family would remain for three generations. Yes, this is the same Sleepy Hollow made famous by the legend of the Headless Horseman. Louis Boulier married on 23 MAY 1697 in the Old Dutch Church, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, New York Colony, British North America to Annetje KONINCK. She was born 1672 in Der Groede, Netherlands. Around the time of the marriage the Boulier surname changed to Beljee, reflecting the Dutch influence (the French, Boulier, pronounced "bool-yay" morphing into the Dutch spelling, Beljee, pronounced "bell-yee"). They had the following known children:
Jan Beljee b: 1698 in Long Island, New York Colony, British North America, served in the church as a deacon in 1733-36 and in 1746. He was listed as an elder in the church in 1751. He married on 29 NOV 1719 in the Old Dutch Church, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, New York Colony, British North America to Helena WILLEMSE. She was born 1698 in Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, Westchester Co., New York Colony, British North America as the daughter of Robert WILLEMSE and Greesje CERVENT. Jan and Helena had the following children:
Hendrick Bulyea, U.E., (also known by his English name, "Henry", whose last name was also rendered Beljee and Belyea) was born 20 APR 1720 in the Dutch community of Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County, New York, when New York was still a British colony. He married first on 24 NOV 1739 in New York Colony, British North America to Deborah Carpenter. She was born 1715 in Phillips Manor, Philipsburg, Westchester County, New York Colony, British North America. It has been suggested elsewhere that she was the daughter of Nathaniel CARPENTER and Abigail FOWLER, however this is disputed. It is believed that she was descended from earlier English immigrants, though her ancestry is uncertain and her birth family cannot be identified with confidence.
Henry and Deborah had four children before Deborah died (probably during childbirth).
After the death of Deborah Carpenter, Hendrick married secondly on MAR 1755 in Tarrytown, Westchester County, New York to Engeltje ("Angelica" in English) Storm. She was born ABT 20 JUN 1730 in Tarrytown, Westchester County, New York Colony, British North America as the daughter of Jan STORM and Rachael DE REVIER. Hendrick and Engeltje had a further nine children who are believed to have been born in Tarrytown. Many of these children had descendants, who are beyond the scope of my present research, but can be found presented in detail on Cleadie Barnett's Belyea website.
At the time of the American Revolution the Boulier/Beljee/Belyea family fled to Canada. They settled in the area of New Brunswick, Canada that now bears their name, Bulyea Point -- the name now taking on a Franco-English spelling appropriate to that area of New Brunswick. At the time of their settlement the area was considered part of the colony of Nova Scotia, which was not subdivided into separate provinces until later. Henry Bulyea and his very large family are recorded as Loyalists and were given land grants on which to settle. They are recorded in one Nova Scotia history as one of the largest Loyalist families to have fled New York for Nova Scotia.
Joseph Bulyea, or Belyea, U.E., was one of the sons of Henry Bulyea and Deborah Carpenter who fled to Canada. He was already married at the time to Sarah Van Sniffen from an unknown Dutch family of Sleepy Hollow. They were married about 1765 in Phillips Manor, Phillipsburg, Tarrytown, Westchester County, New York Colony, British North America. They had twelve children, one of whom was Mary Belyea who married William Bridgman which returns us to our narrative of the Bridgman line.
Description | Location | ||
Descendants of Hendrick Belyea
|
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~nbpast/myfam/belyea/ | ||
Queens County, New Brunswick research | https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nbqueens/ |
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nbqueens/gageangbapt-ab.htm
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~nbpast/myfam/belyea/pafg01.htm#8751C
http://www.jedh.com/src/genealogy/hpkr/d0003/g0000083.html#I814
People researching this family include the following. If you wish your name added to the fellow researchers' list, please contact me.
From | Researching | |
Hamilton, Ontario | Ancestors and descendants of Mary Belyea, wife of William Bridgman | |
Ken Christie | Oakville, Ontario | All branches |
For more information on
any individual person featured on this page,
please:
1. click on the INDEX button below,
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The index button will take you to my searchable GEDCOM database hosted by RootsWeb's World Connect Project. This allows you to download my GEDCOM in 10-generation chunks. Then you can import my data directly into your own genealogy program without having to retype it.
= This person has known descendants.
ABT = "about" and is used in three ways:
Where it precedes a precise date of birth, such as "ABT 3 DEC 1855", then it means that the person was baptized on 3 DEC 1795, but his/her exact date of birth is unknown.
Where it precedes a semi-precise date of birth with the month only given, such as "ABT DEC 1855", then that means that the birth is recorded in the civil birth registrations for the quarter ending with that month. Thus the person's birth was registered sometime between the beginning of October 1855 and the end of December 1855, but no baptism record has been found nor any more precise birth record.
Where it precedes a year only, such as "ABT 1855", then it means that there is no information on the person's birth date at all and an educated guess has been made that he/she was probably born sometime around 1855.
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This page was last updated on November 05, 2008