Hans Kierstede and his brother, Jochem, were refugees from city of Magdenburg, Germany. This was the city that was sacked by Tilly in 1630. What occurred there or was allowed to happen by General Tserclaes Von Tilly, who was by birth a Dutchman, was typical of the horror men can inflict on their brothers when the thin veneer of civilization is wiped away and evilness is loosed upon the land. It is a wonder that anyone at all survived. Within a period of 12 hours the city was reduced to rubble and smoking ashes. No one was spared whether young or old including the women who were raped, then murdered. Even the children were slain by the sword and the entire number of people killed was not less than 30,000 with some chroniclers claiming the number was as high as 50,000 dead. Somehow Hans and Jochem did escape and eight years later were able to find their way to America. How they survived and where they were in the intervening years is unkown to this writer. Seventeen years after their arrival, Jochem, on a trip back to Holland with Everardus Bogardus, on that same, now famous fateful ship, perished. And, thus it is, that Jochem never married or left any issue, but his brother, Hans, a physician and surgeon employed by the Dutch West India Company, met and married Sara Roelofs. Hans and Sara raised a family of ten children, six sons and four daughters. It is known that Hans died prior to 17 July 1667 as on that day his name is mentioned in a deed that describes him as dead. His youngest child, Rachel, baptized 13 September 1665, must have been only a little over one year old when he passed away. The name of Hans Kierstede first shows up in the Dutch records on May 1, 1638. He left the service of the West India Company before 28 August 1648 because on that day a power of attorney is given to Willem Turck to collect money due him from the Company for his late services. After he detached himself from the West India Company he remained in New Amsterdam working in a private capacity as a surgeon and physician. Four of his sons lived to promulgate the Kierstede line: Hans, Roelof, Lucas and Jacobus. Three daughters matured, married, and raised their families.
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The Dutch In New Amsterdam
Developed Feb 15, 1998