Sara Schepmoes De Wandelaer

According to traditional sources, Sara Schepmoes was christened in New Amsterdam in April 1654. She was the daughter of New Netherland pioneers Johannes and Sara Pieters Schepmoes. Her father died shortly after her birth and her mother remarried. Perhaps the youngest of her mother's children, she seems to have grown up in New York City where she was among the siblings granted letters of administration on her late father's estate about 1690.

In March 1672, young Sara married Johannes De Wandelaer in the Dutch church of New York. By 1695, the marriage had produced nine children who were christened in the Dutch churches on Manhattan and later in Albany where they both were members and baptism sponsors. However, after 1700, more than one same-named woman is at-risk in the church records.

By 1679, these De Wandelaers had settled in Albany where Johannes found success in the fur trade. Perhaps they had followed her sister who had moved to Albany following her marriage a decade earlier. After about twenty years on upper State Street in Albany, Johannes and Sara seem to have resided more in New York where he also owned a house.

Unlike her eight living children, Sara Schepmoes De Wandelaer was not named in the will filed by her husband in June 1705.

Sources: The life of Sara Schepmoes De Wandelaer has not been assigned a CAP biography number. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.