The Andress Family Register, a work in progress, documents the descendants of Jacob Andress of Beattystown, NJ. The AFR is found in the Archive 18 June - 02 Aug. 2007. The AFR has also been added to rootsweb.com.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Aylia Wortman was the wife of Jacob Andress of Beattystown

Thanks to a tip from Maryann of Boston I was led to the following publication and to a nice clue on the trail of Jacob Andress of Beattystown. I’ve suspected, without hard evidence that Mrs. Woertman was the second wife of Jacob. It also appears that Mrs. Woertman was previously married. I still don’t know who her parents were, but her first name is now revealed.

From A Genealogy of the Van Voorhees Family in America of the Descendants of Steven Coerte Van Voorhees of Holland, and Flatlands, L. I. by Elias W. Van Voorhis, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, in 1888, on page 391 is the following information:

Johannes, the son of Lucas Voorhees and Hilletje Vanderbilt, was “bap. Feb. 6, 1763, d. . . . . . ; m. Aylia Wortman, b. . . . . . ; d. Jan. 20, 1822 (she m. 2nd . . . Andress). He removed about 1786 from New Brunswick, N.J,. and settled near Wilkesbarre, Pa., where he died ; after his death his widow settled at Beattystown, N.J., where she married her second husband.” Johannes Voorhees and Aylia Wortman had the following two children: John, bap. Mar. 5, 1786, and Albert, b. Dec. 28, 1786.

There’s no doubt that Aylia Wortman was the wife of Jacob Andress of Beattystown and the mother of Elizabeth, Peter, Joseph and Hampton Andress. For more information on Jacob Andress please read Who Was Jacob Andress of Beattystown?
UPDATED: 12 Oct. 2008

A few days after I posted the above information Maryann sent me a copy of page 762 from Florence A. Christoph’s The First Eight Generations of the Van Voorhees Family. The page contains a little bit of information about Alyia Wortman the mother of Albert Voorhees: There is a photocopy of a page of a family bible held by the Van Voorhees Association. There is an entry in the bible that reads “Allie Anders his mother” died 20 Jan. 1822. 1982 correspondence with Claire Swanson of Hackettstown, NJ, indicates that Claire’s mother remembered visiting the Andress family in Penwell, NJ (near Beattystown) and that Albert’s mother’s name was Olivia Andress. Also mentioned is the 1939 membership application to the Van Voorhees Association by a great-grandson of Albert by the name of Charles Voorhees Hults. Charles wrote that Albert was the son of Johannes Voorhees and Aylia Wortman.