American FULKERSON Homepage

This Site...in a Nutshell

THE FULKERSONS got their start about 1630 - in the small but riotous settlement on Manhattan Island - with the marriage of Dirck Volckertszen the Noorman ("the Norwegian") and Christina Vigne. A French Walloon, she and her family had sailed from Holland in 1624, among the first colonists bound for New Netherland (New York). Naturally, the Fulkersons and their relations did much to foment the unsettled state of affairs in the Dutch colony.
DIRCK AND HIS FAMILY twice survived the devastation of their Manhattan colony in Indian wars instigated by his brother-in-law. He farmed where Wall Street now stands, built houses where Maiden Lane now runs, stabbed at least one cheating gambler, served as the city carpenter and established one of the first farms in Brooklyn (1638). His grandchildren sold the farm after 1700 and moved to the newly-opened interior of New Jersey. The county where they chose to settle became George Washington's Sherwood Forest during the Revolution and was the scene of many battles and skirmishes with the British Redcoats.

MANY FULKERSON FAMILIES left New Jersey between 1750 and 1800 to become early settlers on the western frontiers of our original Thirteen Colonies. They went to Virginia and the Carolinas where several were killed by Indians, moved west to Kentucky and Pennsylvania and went north to upstate New York. Succeeding waves of migration brought branches of the Fulkerson family to Ohio, Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri. Some families followed in the steps of Daniel Boone, and some actually accompanied him. All of these and the following generations were the American pioneers, opening new lands across the continent.
THROUGHOUT the Colonial Days , the American Revolution, the Oregon Trail migration, the Civil War and the settling of the West, the Fulkersons led lives intertwined with American history. This site focuses on presenting those stories, bringing the past to life and hopefully proving that "genealogy is more than the begats."
FULKERSON BRANCHES have been scattering across America for the past 300 years. Some of us have lost contact with the rest of the family. Yet we share a common Fulkerson surname, traceable back to one emigrant, which makes us all cousins. Therefore, another main emphasis of the site is to assist those Unattached Branches and help them trace their way back to the New Amsterdam settlement.
AIDING OUR EFFORT to gather and share information is a feature that this site possibly pioneered on the Internet - our Cousins E-Mail Page with more than 100 cousins willing to correspond and share information.
AND BECAUSE the pursuit of "genealogy" can become a real yawner, we've got a few fun pages. These include the Tidbits, the Current Special, and of course, Buy An Ancestor Online. There may be some strait-laced genealogists who say such diversions tend to degrade the serious nature of the research. Have no fear! This Fulkerson family history site is absolutely committed to factual research and documentation. But I wouldn't trust anyone who can go a whole day without a smile or a laugh.

	Click here to return to the MAIN PAGE. Or click on the monument at left. You'll find it at the bottom of every page, waiting to take you "home."
	This site has been a continuing project since 1996, built with the assistance of Fulkerson and Vigne cousins across America. We're glad you found us .. and hope you enjoy your visit.