Person in this family
Abraham Caleb Brokaw
1773 – 1826
Abraham Caleb Brokaw married **Mariah Stryker** in a Dutch Reformed church in Somerset County, New Jersey, on 8 January 1792, and they had a large family of whom **Cornelia**, born 15 March 1809, is a direct ancestor of Gina Cacace. The family moved to Warren Township in Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1823, taking seven children and leaving three behind in New Jersey, and Abraham died there in 1826. **Two independent secondary sources — a Find a Grave biography and a Geni chart built by other people for another purpose — agree on him, on the 1826 death and on his daughter Cornelia.** Neither is a record, and his middle name Caleb comes only from the chart.
Uncertain
Abraham Caleb Brokaw married **Mariah Stryker** in a Dutch Reformed church in Somerset County, New Jersey, on 8 January 1792, and they had a large family of whom **Cornelia**, born 15 March 1809, is a direct ancestor of Gina Cacace. The family moved to Warren Township in Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1823, taking seven children and leaving three behind in New Jersey, and Abraham died there in 1826. **Two independent secondary sources — a Find a Grave biography and a Geni chart built by other people for another purpose — agree on him, on the 1826 death and on his daughter Cornelia.** Neither is a record, and his middle name Caleb comes only from the chart.
Born at New Jersey
Recorded as: Abraham C. Brokaw
Birth: From our family tree - no record found yet
Death: From our family tree - no record found yet
How is this person related?
Andrew John Leahey’s spouse's great-great-great-great-great-grandparent (by marriage)
Gina D. Cacace’s great-great-great-great-great-grandparent
Abigail Ann Leahey’s great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent
Marie C. Fitzgerald’s no single word covers it — connected through Andrew John Leahey, who is a child
Kevin Leahey’s no single word covers it — connected through Andrew John Leahey, who is a child
Worked out from the recorded parents and marriages. No sex is recorded for anyone in this archive, so the wording stays neutral.
Life
A written life story has not been added for this person yet.
Family
Spouse
Children
See this family in the family treeWhere they lived
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Places listed on this page
- New Jersey
- Somerset, Somerset County, New Jersey
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The pins show approximate places. The line only joins them in time order; it does not prove the route travelled. 1 of the places listed above are recorded only as a county or country, so they are not pinned. Cemetery and burial places have red pins.
What the records say
0 of 2 records transcribed.
Record exhibit
Biography on the Find a Grave memorial for Cornelia Stryker Brokaw Stilwell (memorial 295247056)
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
The exact words from this record have not been typed out yet.
Record exhibit
Geni relationship chart: Gina D. Leahey and Monica Potter, fifth cousins once removed (created 3 March 2025)
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
The exact words from this record have not been typed out yet.
Historical context
These background articles explain the places, work, and events in this entry.
What we still don't know
- [A CURIOSITY, AND A USEFUL ONE] A Geni chart makes Gina Cacace and the actress **Monica Potter** **fifth cousins once removed**, through **Abraham Caleb Brokaw** and his wife Maria. The arithmetic checks: Gina is seven generations below Abraham and Monica six, which is fifth cousins with one remove. The connection rests on a user-built tree and is not evidence of anything. **What is worth having is the corroboration.** That chart was built by strangers, for another purpose, and independently of the Find a Grave biography this archive used — and the two agree on Abraham Brokaw, on his death in 1826, on Cornelia's dates of 1809 to 1907, and on a son named **John**. Two independent secondary sources agreeing is not proof, but it is a great deal better than one.
- **His marriage of 8 January 1792**, which is the record that would put this whole generation on evidence rather than on a volunteer's account. Dutch Reformed registers for Somerset County are the place to look.
- His death in Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1826.
- His own parents, and what the C stands for.
- **This is a New Netherland Dutch family, and the surnames say so on their own.** Brokaw is the anglicised Bourgeois of a Huguenot family long settled among the Dutch of Somerset County; Stryker is Strycker; and the names standing around this household in the records — **Polhemus, Vroom, Van Dyck, Van Deventer, Ditmars** — are all New Netherland families. The marriage of Cornelia's parents in 1792 was in a **Dutch Reformed church**. Franklin Township in Somerset County was one of the densest Dutch settlements in New Jersey. That is worth stating plainly, because it is the only non-British, non-Irish, non-Italian, non-German strand anywhere in this side of the family, and it is easy to miss behind a name as English-looking as Stilwell.