GIVE ME BACK MY LAND

My ancestor’s name was Anika Jans. She and her family came from Holland when she was just a child. They settled at Fort Manhattan in what is now New York. After farming the land for a while, they watched as the settlement grew. Eventually, there was a group who wanted to build a church in the settlement.

The church group needed land, so my lay-preacher ancestor, Anika’s father, gave the group a ninety-nine year lease on a parcel of land on which to build a church.

The church was built and grew profusely, as did the settlement. At the end of ninety-nine years, when the lease on the land was up, the church presumably searched for descendants of the Jans to either renew the lease or buy the land. Most of the family had moved to other areas of the state and were unaware of the legal proceedings.

Declaring that they were unable to locate any of the descendants, the church went to court in what was now New York. The judge was a member of the church, as were the lawyers. There being no opposition, since none of the descendants knew anything about it, the judge, a member of the petitioning church, ruled that the land belonged to the church.

And that, dear friend, is how the great Trinity Church in downtown New York City came into being on leased land without any regard for payment to the family from whom they took the land. Anika Jans, whose family leased the land to Trinity, is an ancestor of my mother, whose Dutch maiden name was Distelkamp.

Because I possess documentation of all that I have stated, I have just one word of admonition for Trinity Church. ‘GET OFF MY LAND OR PAY ME WHAT ITS WORTH!!!!

I don’t think I’ll hold my breath.