Rebecca Hooghkerk Van Zandt

Rebecca Hooghkerk was born in July 1768. She was the daughter of Abraham and Anna Hilton Hooghkerk. She grew up in the Beaver Street home of a mainstay brickmaker.

In February 1792, she married Albany native and Southside neighbor Thomas Van Zandt at the Albany Dutch church. By 1804, four children had been christened in Albany.

These Van Zandts lived on South Pearl Street in a home within sight of if not with both of their families.

Thomas Van Zandt died in 1818 and widow Rebecca lived for a time in their modest home at what became 43 South Pearl Street. In 1820, she was identifed as the head of an Albany household. She later moved in with the family of one of her neighboring children but, over the next decade, occasionally was listed in the city directory as "Widow Van Zant" at 43 South Pearl.

Rebecca Hooghkerk Van Zandt died in July 1855 as she was approaching the age of eighty-seven. She was buried along with her husband - finally at the Albany Rural Cemetery.

Sources: The life of Rebecca Hooghkerk Van Zandt is CAP biography number 3613. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.