Geertruy Lansing Wendell

Geertruy Lansing was born in September 1758. She was the youngest daughter born to Albany mainstays Peter and Elizabeth Wendell Lansing. She was named for her grandmother and grew up in a comfortable merchant's home in Albany's first ward.

About 1785, she married Jacob H. Wendell. By 1800, the marriage had produced three children - although Geertruy was in her forties at the birth of their last child.

These Wendells lived on Columbia Street in the third ward where Jacob was a skipper and businessman. Their family was small but, in 1790, was attended by three slaves

Geertruy lost her husband in 1826. The city directory for 1827 identified her as "Widow Gertrude Wendell" with her residence at 31 Columbia Street. Geertruy Lansing Wendell died in May 1827 at the age of sixty-eight and was buried from the Albany Dutch church.

Sources: The life of Geertruy Lansing Wendell is CAP biography number 3317. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.