Helena Beekman was born in January 1689. She was the daughter of Johannes Martense Beekman and his first wife, Machtelt Schermerhorn Beekman. Her mother died when Helena was a year old and her father soon re-married. She grew up in a large Albany family that included more than a dozen children from her father's two marriages.

In 1715, she married Tobias Ryckman at the Albany Dutch church. The marriage produced at least three daughters who were christened in Albany.

These Ryckmans lived in the first ward where Tobias was a prominent brewer and Albany official. Without sons, her daughter's husband, Barent H. Ten Eyck, played a more active role in this family's enterprises.

Helena Beekman Ryckman died in September 1744 and was buried from the Albany church. Consequently, she was not named in the will filed by her husband in 1765.

Sources: The life of Helena Beekman Ryckman is CAP biography number 3887. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.