Dirck Keyser:   
Mennonite or Menist;   1635-1714,  79 years 

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(Adapted from our 2004 Family Christmas Book entitled Heart Glimpses: Who Am I?)

On a Sunday in "Old Germantown,” our Mennonite community near Philadelphia, I, Dirck Keyser, a Menist from Amsterdam, might be heard reading a sermon from a book by Jobst Harmensen. 

My almost 80 years of life, started with my birth in 1635 in Holland and ended with my death in Germantown on November 30, 1714.  I lived a life of great change.  Our Dutch family of Keyser, descended from our Bavarian line, was first represented in Amsterdam by my grandfather, Gerrit Keyser.  I was destined to lead our family on to the new country where I became the founder of the Keyser family in America. 

My grandfather on my mother’s side was a Mennonite minister.  I too am a Menist or Mennonite

. 

Yes, I knew William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania.  Penn visited Germany and Holland to invite all to join him in his new settlement in America and to enjoy free religious thought.  My sons Dirck and Pieter Dirck and my daughter Johanna joined me and other Amsterdam Mennonites in our 1688 emigration to Germantown, Pennsylvania.

 In Holland I was a manufacturer and dealer in silks and had enjoyed being a man of some prominence.  Our strong work ethnic contributed to making our new hometown become a prosperous center of trade, a most unusual distinguishment for a rural town near Philadelphia. 

 

Who am I?     I am Dirck Keyser

 I am the:

·         7^th and 8^th Great Grandfather of John Earl Keyser, whose wife was Barbara Bernert Keyser.

Dual “grandfather” generations due to cousinship marriage of  Alva Grant and Amanda Leona Keyser, Grandparents of Roger Alva Keyser

Alva Grant Keyser 1) Dirck Keyser wed Elizabet ter Himpel 2) Pieter Dirck Keyser wed Margaret Souplis 3) Andreas (Andrew) Keyser wed Hannah 4) William Keyser w. (Unknown)  5) Andrew Keyser wed Mary Palmer 6) William Keyser II wed Margaret Workman 7) Amos W. Keyser wed Margaret White 8) John Love Keyser wed Martha Mae Hutton 9) Alva Grant Keyser wed Amanda Leona Jefferson 10) John Earl Keyser wed Barbara Rose Bernert

Amanda Leona Jefferson 1) Dirck Keyser wed Elizabet ter Himpel 2) Pieter Dirck Keyser wed Margaret Souplis 3) Andreas (Andrew) Keyser wed Hannah 4) William Keyser w. (Unknown)  5) Andrew Keyser wed Mary Palmer 6) William Keyser II wed Margaret Workman 7) Amos W. Keyser wed Margaret White 8) Elizabeth Keyser wed John H. Null 9) Mary Margaret Null wed John Hamilton Jefferson 10) Amanda Leona Jefferson wed Alva Grant Keyser 11) John Earl Keyser wed Barbara Rose Bernert

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