At the heart of this impressively researched story is David Des Marets, born in France (a Huguenot, not a Dutchman) about 1620.
Des Marets was a traveling man. He lived and prospered in several European countries before emigrating to America, luckily for him just before the great plague hit his then-home city of Mannheim, Germany.
Once he made it to America, evidently because economic opportunities here seemed more promising than in Europe, Des Marets adapted to life, first under Dutch rule (Peter Stuyvesant's New Amsterdam), then under the relatively mild governance of the British, who kicked the Dutch out of New York by 1664. The Majors followed David Des Marets' journey from childhood in Normandy to Holland, Germany, on to New York and then finally (as of 1677) to settle for good in what is now New Milford.
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It is the great merit of the Major brothers' work that they take us back in time, helping connect us to our roots.
Reading this book can better appreciate how conditions of life may change, but human aspiration is a constant.
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