Margaret Wynkoop (née Covenhoven) (1714-12-05 – 1775), the surname sometimes spelled Cowenhoven, van Couwenhoven, Conover, and other variations, was my 7th-great-grandmother, being the mother of my ancestor Margaret (née Wynkoop) Titus (c.1745 – 1777-03-10) by her husband Philip Wynkoop (1709-09-11 – 1771-07-14), and grandmother of Elizabeth Titus. She was born in Freehold, New Jersey, part of the Dutch-American community, and later moved to Pennsylvania.
I have assembled evidence that provides a different version of her origins than other genealogists, which leads me to attribute the above birthdate.
Cornelius Willemsen van Couwenhoven (β 1672-11-20 – ⊥ 1736-05-16) and Margaret Roelofse Schenck (β 1678-01-16 – 1751-12-06) had a daughter Margaret. The general belief in the genealogical community is that this Margaret married Derick Sutphen, while the parents of my Margaret, the topic of this article, are unknown.
I believe this is wrong and that this daughter Margaret is my Margaret, and Derick Sutphen married someone else, probably a Mary Cowenhoven. I believe the claim originates with an error by Lincoln Coucheu in his series of articles on these families, first published in 1950 and copied by others many times since.
I wrote a draft article summarizing my arguments.
This suggestion is not entirely original with me. In the late 1990s, participants on the Dutch origins mailing list also noted problems with Coucheu’s claims.
Margaret and Philip had approximately nine children:ref Sarah, Mary, Elizabeth (uncertain), Eleanor, Margaret (my ancestor), Garret, Cornelius, Henry, and Philip.
This assumes my conclusion about her parents is correct.