Van Curen Family History & Genealogy

Mathijs van Ceulen, immigrant ancestor of the Van Curen family, at the age of 20 signed the Dutch West India charter on 3 June, 1621, as a Principal Partner, Lord-Director. Under the Charter Agreement, the Principal Partners were "empowered with the Armorial Bearing of an Earl". He was payed on commission, 1% of trade and 1/2% of new gold/silver.

When we read of the Dutch West India Company in school, it is generally portrayed as a trading company, securing raw materials from the New World for Dutch Manufaturing. In reality, 75% of the company's profit in the first 10 years was from the pirating of Spanish and Portugese cargo ships. One such, the capture of the Spanish Plate Fleet in September of 1628, yielded a 'take' of some $5,000,000 worth of gold, silver, and trade goods. The "trading" fleet of the West Indies company in 1631 consisted of 14 new warships(32 cannon each) and 7 fully armed Yachts(17 cannon each).

In 1632, as war raged with Spain and Portugal, Mathijs van Ceulen was sent to take command of the Dutch forces in Brazil. Upon his arrival in December of 1632, he immediately began a more offensive campaign against the Portugese. Dutch raiding parties and 'flying columns'(Germans called it "Blitkreig") fell upon the Portugese outposts with repeated success. In less than one year, Mathijs Van Ceulen had taken the entire Brazillian coastline from the Portugese. Following the final victory in December of 1633, the last Portugese stronghold, Fort Tre Reyes at Reis Magos, (at the mouth of the Rio Grande River) was renamed vanKeulensFoort, in his honor. It is known as "Keulen's Castle today, a Brazilian tourist stop.

Mathijs was a co-patroon of the Zawaanendael Colony which was awarded in 1631. Unfortunately, the colony was destroyed by Indians in 1632, just as Mathijs was sailing to Brazil. Following a 2 year command in Brazil, he returned to his Directors Chair in Amsterdam. In 1636 he was appointed to the Hooghen Secreten Raad(High and Secret Council) and became a co-Governor of the Dutch South American Holdings, under a 5 year contract. He departed Holland on 20 Nov, 1636 headed for Recife.

The first account of Mathijs in North America is on Manhattan Island in 1639, and later at Fort Orange(Albany). He returned to Recife to complete business there, then returned to New York, where he permanently settled at Fort Orange. In August of 1646, he secured a land Patens for 50 morgens of land on Manhattan Island, which became known as vanKeulens Bouwerie. On that land today is Columbia Universities Bakers Field, near Route 9 in North Manhattan. His brother, Conraet, also owned a large parcel on Manhattan, van Keulens Hook, in the heart of what is now Harlem. He never had a chance to develop the lands, as he died at Fort Orange, 16 Oct, 1648

In the 1500s, Spain was engaged in a "spiritual cleansing" known as the "Inquisition". To non-Catholics, this usually meant Imprisonment, torture, and/or execution. As the Spanish began conquering Western Europe, many were forced to flee to the safety of the Dutch States. Such is the case of Cologne, which fell to Spain in 1559. As a matter of identification, wealthy classes from Cologne often attached the suffix "van Ceulen"(aka van Keulen) to their names, which literally means "of Cologne". Eventually, "van" names became recognized as surnames, and thus, the van Keulen/van Ceulen family was created.


Mathijs Jansen Van Ceulen, 1602-1648,
first arrived in North America(New York) in November, 1632, stopping in either New Amsterdam(New York) or his own colony, Zawaanendael(Lewes, Delaware) for resupply enroute to Brazil. In June, 1639 he arrived in New Amsterdam aboard the West India Raven from Recife, Brazil. He was found in New Amsterdam(Manhattan)in until Aug, 1639, then back in Recife until 1641. By late 1641 he had made Fort Orange(aka Albany, NY) his permanent home.

He was one of the 19 Lord-Directors of the Dutch West India Trading Company, empowered with the Armorial Bearings of an Earl, and known as one of the co-Patroons of Zawaanendal (Tenant-farm Colony-Swan Valley, Delaware River, near Lewes). The Dutch colonies at New Netherlandt proved to be a dismal failure and were eventually taken over by the British in 1664, at which time it was renamed New York. Mathijs' land and estate were confirmed to his heirs in 1667, including a parcel of 50 Morgens of land in the Pappermemmins (Manhats - Manhattan) known as Van Keulen's Bouwerie. His son, Matthys Matthyssen, is the progenitor of the Van Keuren/ Van Curen family in America.


Old Dutch surnames are different from surnames as we know them. "Van" names were simply suffixes identifying the families point of origin. Surnames were derived from the first name of the father (Father Matthys, children were Matthyssen), and so changed with each generation. (see Patronymics link below). Actual family surnames, as we know them today, starting gaining popularity in the 16th century. By the 18th century, the practice of patronymics was nearly nonexistent, being replaced with the modern day surname method of naming.

The English didn't care much for the Dutch way of surname changing, as it made record keeping very difficult. Estates, especially, were difficult to establish heirs for. As a result of British influence, American Dutch began abandoning Patronymic practice in the late 1600s and adopting the British surname method, creating true surnames and passing them on to their children. From the children of Mathijs Van Keulen, we get the surnames of Matthyssen, Jansen, Peersen, Van Steenberghen, and Van Keuren, along with variations for all of those.

There are many theories as to the 'why' of the name variations(spelling changes), but the most logicical is a combination of illiteracy (couldn't spell his own name) and unknowing record keepers making an educated guess, based on sound.


Several Van Keuren families began using the Van Curen surname around 1800, as they began emmigrating into the wilderness. As to family history, many word of mouth errors were passed down, as written histories were virtually non-existent. Example:

From an article on the Van Curen Family in the Northern Indianan Republican, dtd 9 Sep, 1909, the parents of Henry Van Curen (b. Hendricus Van Keuren, Hurley, NY, 1783) were born in Holland, came to America, and raised a large family. That article has proven to be false, as Dutch Reformed Church Records show that his father was born in Shawagunk, N Y, a descendant of Mathijs.(see Mathij(s) link below) His parents used the Van Keuren spelling, and that has almost exclusively been tied to Matthys, as it was a corrupution of the origanal name, Keulen, or Ceulen(as it often appears).

Sometime before 1830, Henry established himself as Van Curen, as he is listed in the 1830 NY census under that name. It was noted in the 1850 Indiana census that Henry could neither read nor write. That, with the fact that many Van Keurens were mistakenly identified as 'Van Curen' (including Henry's Father) in the 1790 N Y Census, possibly explains the name change.