by Stefan Bielinski Alida Groesbeck was born in February 1741. She was the daughter of Jacobus and Sarah Van Vechten Groesbeck. In July 1764, she married frontier gunsmith Jacob Harsen at the Albany Dutch church where her first child was baptized in May 1765. Over the next decades, six more children were christened in places beyond Albany. These Harsens took their growing family west - ultimately settling on "Harsen's Island" in what became the state of Michigan. These pioneers were still alive in the 1790s! notes Sources: The life of Alida Groesbeck Harsen is CAP biography number 3258. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. first posted: 3/30/05 |