Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Get to know our ancestors! Ann Hassell

The 1st newsletter brought some wonderful reactions.

One of them was from mr. Daniel Smothergill, a retired professor of Psychology at the Syracuse University ( www.syr.edu)
who lives in the U.S. Mr. Daniel Smothergill's connection to the VR is through Alice Eliza Smothergill ( 1854-1900) who was married to Jan Adolphus van Romondt (1831-1897) son of the 1st son of Diederick Johannes van Romondt ( 1781-1849) & Ann Hassell (1784/1792-1845), Johannes Willem van Romondt (1805-1849 & Judith Tielenius Kruythoff Rink (1808-1878).

Daniel thought of way to tap into the VR-database, share information and increase what we know by suggesting to focus on an individual in our sources of information.

An example: What do we know and what we don't know about Ann Hassell?

Please inform on any individual that you know of the van Romondt of the West Indian Branch.

Thank you for your support!

The van Romondt West Indian Family Tree Research Project

What do we know about Ann Hassell?

There are several literature that mention the Hassell's of Saba, N.A.

In the book "the Windward Island, by Jan Hartog" the Hassell family name is mention several times. Ann was born 1784/1792 and died 1845 and described as a colonist daugher of John Hassell & Sarah Westerband.

( Through one of our great contacts Jennifer van der Greft ( Israel) we got some additional information on the mother of Ann which we are currently checking out).

In 1804 Ann Hassell married our fore father Diederik Johannes van Romondt born in 1781 Amsterdam, The Netherlands and died 1849 in Philipsburg, Sint Maarten N.A..

Diederik arrived in Sint Maarten in 1800 and in 1820 -1840 he was governor of Sint Maarten, N.A.

Since 1677 the Hassell's were a well known family in Saba, N.A. In 1699-1700 an James Hassell fulfilled the function of vice-commander. On the 26th September 1839 Henry Hassell sr and Henry Johnson Hassell were appointed as members of the court of law. Pieter Hassell was deputy captain in Statia (1736-1737) who died in 1869. Johan W Hassell was deputy in Saba during 1880-1882.

In the book: " Saban Lore by Wil Johnson", Will describes a complete history of the Hassell family.

Little by little we are gathering information on the Hassell family to find to direct family line of Ann Hassell, her parents, grandparents and any connection to other Hassell such as mentioned above.

We have located several Hassell families connected to the Hassel's of Saba , N.A.

A special thanks go out to them for providing us with information and supporting our research project.

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