Elizabeth Claese Harris Kerr

Elizabeth Claesen was born during the second half of the seventeenth century. We seek information on her origins and are aware of a number of possible senarios.

Her first husband was Albany trader John Harris. Children were born to their marriage in 1686 and 1691. An older daughter may have been born in New York City as early as 1676.

After that, Harris became an Albany property holder and appears to have lived in Albany into the 1680s. However, John Harris was dead by July 12, 1694 when Elizabeth married thirty-one-year-old John Carr (Kerr) - a would-be Irish trader. Beginning during the 1680s, she was a member of the Albany Dutch church.

Elizabeth Claese Harris Kerr died sometime after her second marriage. She probably was the adult woman accounted for in Carr's household on the Albany census taken in 1697. We seek information on her passing.

Sources: The life of Elizabeth Claese Harris Kerr is CAP biography number 7616. This preliminary sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.