Person in this family
Elcey Stryker
1788 – 1833
Elcey Stryker, 1788 to 1833, married **Daniel Stilwell** and had four children — Henry, Elizabeth, Leah and Peter. She was buried at **Hillsborough Reformed Church Cemetery** in Somerset County, which is a plain mark of the Dutch Reformed world this family belonged to. Her son **Henry** married Cornelia Brokaw and is a direct ancestor of Gina Cacace. Note that both Henry's mother and his wife's mother were Strykers — unremarkable in a county settled by a few Dutch families, and worth noticing anyway.
Proved by a record
Elcey Stryker, 1788 to 1833, married **Daniel Stilwell** and had four children — Henry, Elizabeth, Leah and Peter. She was buried at **Hillsborough Reformed Church Cemetery** in Somerset County, which is a plain mark of the Dutch Reformed world this family belonged to. Her son **Henry** married Cornelia Brokaw and is a direct ancestor of Gina Cacace. Note that both Henry's mother and his wife's mother were Strykers — unremarkable in a county settled by a few Dutch families, and worth noticing anyway.
Born at New Jersey
Recorded as: Stilwell
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 3 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
Find a Grave memorial for Elcey Stryker Stilwell (1788–1833), Hillsborough Reformed Church Cemetery
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
Stillwell genealogy (1931), volumes 2 and 3 — searched, and this family is not in them
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
- Her parents, and whether she is any relation to **Mariah Stryker**, her son's mother-in-law. Nothing beyond the surname suggests it.
- **The arithmetic.** Born 1788, she would have been about eighteen when Henry was born in 1806. Possible, and worth checking rather than assuming.
- Whether her grave at Hillsborough carries a stone, and whether Daniel lies beside her.
- **Where this family sits among the American Stillwells is not established.** The standard published genealogy traces most of them from **Lieutenant Nicholas Stillwell**, who settled at Gravesend on Long Island in the seventeenth century, and follows that line into Hunterdon, Sussex and Monmouth counties. **Our people are in Somerset County** — Bedminster and Franklin Township — and the 1931 volumes were read in full and do not contain them. So this branch either descends from Nicholas by a path the book does not trace, or it does not descend from him at all. The book cited on Jeremiah's memorial, *The History of Lieutenant Nicholas Stillwell*, is a different work and is not online; it is the obvious next place to look.
- [CONTROLLED NEGATIVE — THIS LINE IS AT THE LIMIT OF WHAT IS INDEXED] Three searches on 8 August 2026 all returned nothing: **no marriage of a Daniel Stilwell to an Elcey** anywhere; **no baptism or birth for a Henry Stilwell in Somerset County 1804–1809**; and Henry's own indexed records are only the four this archive already holds — the 1850 census, the 1830 marriage, the 1855 state census and his daughter Alice's death. The Dutch Reformed registers of Somerset County are not indexed, and everything further back on this line is behind them.
References
- [1] Biography on the Find a Grave memorial for Cornelia Stryker Brokaw Stilwell (memorial 295247056)Back to citation 1
- [2] Find a Grave memorial for Elcey Stryker Stilwell (1788–1833), Hillsborough Reformed Church CemeteryBack to citation 2
- [3] Stillwell genealogy (1931), volumes 2 and 3 — searched, and this family is not in themBack to citation 3