Geertruy Hilton Daniels Dawson

Geertruy Hilton was born in June 1734. She was the daughter of Ryckert (Richard) and Maria Bennewe Hilton. She grew up as a middle child in the first ward home of a mainline carpenter.

In June 1752, she married one John Daniels at the Albany Dutch church. At that time both partners were identified as single people of Albany. The marriage produced a daughter - born in April 1753 and a son christened in February 1755. However, Daniels had died at the end of 1754. In February 1761, the then 27-year-old widow married Volkert Dawson also at the Albany church. By 1778, that marriage produced five children christened at the Dutch church - one of whom was named "Rykert."

These Dawsons lived on the Southside near the homes of her long-lived father and of other Hilton kin as well. Volkert was an Albany jailer and otherwise a marginal character living in the first ward. He appears to have died in 1808. We are less certain about Geertruy's lifespan.

After "Geertruy Dawson" witnessed a baptism in February 1780, we have not encountered her name again in the community-based record. However, she may have been accounted for in Dawson's household as configured on the first ward census in 1790.

Past diminishing returns, we move on for now from the life of Albany native and mother Geertruy Hilton Daniels Dawson.

Sources: The life of Geertruy Hilton Daniels Dawson is CAP biography number 7793. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.