Wyckoff, William Forman, 1858-1930

William F. Wyckoff is a descendant of Pieter Claesen Wyckoff, the common ancestor of the Wyckoff family, and one of the most influential leaders during 17th century settlement in New Amsterdam. Claesen-Wyckoff and his wife, Greitje van Ness, eventually settled in Flatlands, Brooklyn, in what is now the historic Wyckoff Homestead. Claesen-Wyckoff and his wife had a total of eleven children, who married into several different families, creating a vast and complex genealogy spanning the entire country.

William F. Wyckoff (1858-1930) is the son of Sarah Hays Forman (1823-1901) and Reverend Jacob S. Wyckoff. The common ancestor on the Forman side is John Forman, one of many Scotch passengers that came to the United States in 1685 via the "Henry and Francis," led by George Scot. Scot had originally planned to sell the passengers as servants once they reached the new world, but he died on board, so the survivors appealed to the courts for their freedom; upon which, John Forman settled at Woodbridge in Middlesex County, N.J. William F. Wyckoff's grandfather, William P. Forman, was in the Navy in the Civil War, and was paymaster of the fleet at Pensacola, Florida, and died there of yellow fever in 1863. William F. Wyckoff's father, Jacob S. Wyckoff, was the first minister of the Reformed Dutch Church of Colts Neck in New Jersey from 1856 until 1864.

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