Friday, July 1, 2016

Staten Island Adventures

My Prall and Billiou ancestors settled on Staten Island. The Billiou House still stands, although it has undergone several remodeling and restoration projects over the centuries.

I have made a few trips to the Staten Island Historical Society at Historic Richmondtown. Historic Richmondtown is a collection of historic residences and buildings that have been relocated there and restored. The Historical Society houses books and research material that focus on Staten Island and the families that settled there. Material on other NY/NJ families can be found there as well.

Historian/genealogist Kenn Stryker-Rodda spent years compiling data on the SI families dating back to the mid-1600s. His research became invaluable to my family history. Stryker-Rodda put together a series of short articles on each family.

I made copies of each family that I had documented at the time. [My last trip was late 90s or early 00s.] Prall, Billiou, Christopher, Blom, DuBois and Blanchan were the primary families. The research was done during the mid-20th century,  so errors were bound to appear. Most were errors based on then current research. Stryker=Rodda did an exceptional job with the resources available at the time.

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