Hello from Canada!!!

DWEIR

Cadet
Joined
Sep 6, 2021
Hi My name is Duane Weir, I am a Canadian Born and Bred. Yet I am married to an American. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee, but her father's paternal ancestors are from Schenectady (sp) area of New York (dutch). The last name is VandenBurgh. I was looking for from information on the New York Militia and a General Origen VandenBurgh. He developed the VandenBurgh Volley Gun in the 1860s. But I wanted to see if I could trace him back to The War of 1812 and he role if any in the conflict. I was wondering if he was related to my wife's family. Any information or assistance would be appreciated.
 
Welcome to the forum from middle Alabama, good luck on your search and there are certainly people on this site that will be able to assist you.
 
Welcome to the forums from the host of the Stonewall Jackson Forum!
 
Welcome from the Researching Civil War Records and Ancestry forum and congrats on spelling Schenectady right. It would be hard for us to link your wife to General VanDenBurgh without having you give us a lot of info you might not want to share in a public forum.

Origen VanDenBurgh was born 1819 and died in 1892 in New York City. When he applied to West Point in 1841 he gave his residence as Onondaga County - a bit west of Schenectady. He's buried in Onondaga, as are his parents so I'm thinking the family had roots there. He doesn't appear to have had any children.

Interestingly, I can't find any military records for Origen. He listed himself as a lawyer most of his life, though he called himself a civil engineer in his later years. He's called Colonel VanDenBurgh in some newspaper articles but that seems to be a courtesy title as far as I can tell. He served in various political positions. He was involved in the development of the New York City subway system.

The only reference I can find that calls him "general" is the information you have given about the volley gun - which is almost identical in wording each place it comes up.
 
There is an earlier thread on this cannon https://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-vandenburgh-volley-gun.95113/ with some great pictures. He was a general with the NYS militia. There is an interesting letter in the comment section of an Amazon book review: https://www.amazon.com/illustrated-...N85R56XGT16PJRKH&pd_rd_w=MeaQc&pd_rd_wg=2imeu (2nd comment down).

As he was born in 1819, he couldn't have been a participant in the War of 1812. I'm interested in the Scandinavians who settled in NY with the Dutch (and often are confused with them), but I have little on his family--other than the name originally was Van Den Bergh and they settled in the upper colony near Albany. According to Find a Grave he had 3 siblings--2 of them brothers. So you've got a lot of places to investigate!

You might try contacting the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society: https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/. Also the state of NY maintains good military website: https://museum.dmna.ny.gov/unit-history/conflict/us-civil-war-1861-1865 (the militia is one of the middle links).

Genealogically, it far, far easier to trace back from your wife to see if the general pops up in her lineage than it is to trace downwards from the general's family to see if your wife appears.
 
Hi My name is Duane Weir, I am a Canadian Born and Bred. Yet I am married to an American. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee, but her father's paternal ancestors are from Schenectady (sp) area of New York (dutch). The last name is VandenBurgh. I was looking for from information on the New York Militia and a General Origen VandenBurgh. He developed the VandenBurgh Volley Gun in the 1860s. But I wanted to see if I could trace him back to The War of 1812 and he role if any in the conflict. I was wondering if he was related to my wife's family. Any information or assistance would be appreciated.
Welcome to CWT and Soldiers who fought on horseback- Cavalry forum
 
Back
Top