The McKans family intermarried with the New York Dutch family the Ostranders in Albany, New York. Beyond their brief appearance in the records of the Dutch Reform Church in Albany, the family has not been clearly identified or traced beyond 18th century Albany. The name "McKans" is found written in several different ways and because of the use of the name "Patrick" in this family, it is possible that these are people of Scotish or English origins whose surname became altered to appear more Dutch.
Abstracts of early church and county records of Albany, NY identifies the earliest inhabitants of that area by the McKans name. Though this family appears in Pearson's seminal work on old Dutch New York records, there seems to be very little genealogical work done on this family and what work does exist is done in association with the Ostrander family.
Elizabeth Mackansch married Ysaak Ostrander. Pearson identifies Elizabeth's parents as Andries and Hagar (Pyckert) McKans who themselves were marry at the Dutch Reform Church in Albany on the 18th of August 1725 [ref: Pearson, J., Genealogies of the First Settlers of the Ancient County of Albany (1872), pg. 77]. Church records indicate that Andries & Hagar (Pychert) Mackansch' children are identified as:
Beyond the above information little else has been found in the Albany records to tell us much about Andries and Hagar, though I have not personally reviewed the extant records systematically.
Pyckert FamilyHagar Pyckert Mackansch's origins are equally obscure, as that of her husband. Her maiden name may also be some Dutch styled spelling for an English surname, most likely "Pickard". John and Nicholas Pickard are found among the deeds of Albany the first in the late 1760s and the latter in 1734, but these records do not establish any clear family connections with Hagar or the Mackansch/McKans family. Early records in Albany do show a Bartholomeus Pikkart who is noted as a "jong man Van Lester schier in out Englandt". Pikkart married Aagje Claase on the 12th of November 1698 and had at least one child, a daughter, Rachel baptized on the 29th of January 1709. Deeds indicate that Bartholomeus Pikkart purchased a parcel of ground at the Verreberg on the north side of the highway to Schenectady near the house of Isaac Valkenburgh in 1716 [ref: Pearson, ibid, pg. 87].
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