Teunis G. Bergen (1806-1881) of New Utrecht (Kings County, N.Y.), now part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, was a historian and genealogist. He was connected to the Van Brunts by marriage, and in 1867 he published a genealogy of the family. According to Bergen, Rutger Joesten Van Brunt was the common ancestor of Van Brunts in what became the United States. Van Brunt emigrated from the Netherlands and settled in New Utrecht in 1657. The name Rutgert was common in the family's succeeding generations so it is unknown which Rutgert Van Brunt drew the map in this collection. It seems likely that it was one of Rutger Joesten's grandsons, either Rutgert (died 1758) or Rutgert (died 1760), both of New Utrecht. (See Teunis G. Bergen, Genealogy of the Van Brunt Family, 1653-1867, page 10-11, 13-14)
From the guide to the Rutgert Van Brunt survey map of Brooklyn lot at ferry, 1716, (Brooklyn Historical Society)
