Conover Genealogy

People always like to know who the famous people are in their family. I have been working on my inlaws family trees. I was trying to go back at least 5 generations for each of them so that my nieces and nephews would have more info than just the Mullins/Bentley side of the family. I did pretty well and only have a few brick walls.

When I come to a woman in the family and only her first name is known, I first try to identify her maiden name. Then I try to expand her family.

For the Schenck family, I have a Mary Gregg and a Phebe (probabley Phoebe) who I was researching. I have a guess that I am still working on for Mary, but Phebe is just a dead end. Then there is Sarah Couwenhoven who married William Janse Schenck. I had found her parents and grandparents. When I tried to document them, I found other researches who had different grandparents for Sarah, so I started over on her.

I found a website that took the Couwenhovens back several generations to the Netherlands.

You Schencks should take a look. It is www.conovergenealogy.com , it has a lot of your family history.

You connect like this:

My brother in law
Generation 2: Lowel David Schenck & Virginia A Gibson
Generation 3: Paul David Schenck & Rachel Luella Loy
Generation 4: John David Schenck & Susan Anna Wombold
Generation 5: Obediah Schenck & Sarah Eleanor Scharff
Generation 6: John David Schenck & Mary Ann Gregg
Generation 7: David Schenck & Phebe
Generation 8: William Janse Schenck & Sarah Couwenhoven
Generation 9: Jan "John" Schenck & Neeltje Eleanor "Nellie: Bennett
Generation 10: Jan Roelofse Schenck & Sarah Willemse Van Kouwenhoven
Generation 11: Roelof Martense Schenck & Neeltje Garretse Couwenhoven

Honing in on Generation 8 Sarah Couwenhoven
Generation 9: David Couwenhoven & Ida Garrett Wyckoff
Generation 10: Willem Albertse Couwenhoven & Lysbeth Benjamin Van Cleef
Generation 11: Albert Van Couwenhoven & Neeltje Roelofse "Eleanor" Schenck
Generation 12: Williem Gerretse Van Kouwenhoven & Jannetije Pieterse Monfoort

You'll notice there are Van Kouwenhovens in both lines. One of the marriages was of cousins.
The family came from the Netherlands in the early 1600's. I have the names of the ships and dates they immigrated.

But, going back to what I said, since folks are always interested in who they are related to who are famous, the website I referred you to had these folks as famous relatives of the Kouwenhoven family. Some could be the author's maternal line, but I will leave that for you to figure out if you are interested.


Dr. Virginia Apgar
Commodore Elsworth Bertholf
Norma Jean Baker (Marilyn Monroe)
Elizabeth Andrew Borden (Lizzie Borden)
Mary Stevenson Cassatt (Painter)
Humphry DeForest Bogart
President George Herbert Walker Bush
President George Walker Bush
John Wilson Carson
Vice President Richard Cheney
Sir Winston Leonard Churchill
Edward Montgomery Clift
DeWitt Clinton
Willis Clark Conover, Jr (Broadcaster)
Governor Howard Brush Dean
Michael Kirk Douglas (Actor)
Thomas Alva Edison (Inventor)
President Millard Fillmore
Henry Jaynes Fonda
Jane Seymour Fonda
President James Abram Garfield
Richard Tiffany Gere
President Ulysses Simpson Grant
Major General Nathaniel Greene
Governor William Averell Harriman (Politician-Diplomat)
President Rutherford Birchard Hayes
Gordon Bitner Hinckley (President LDS Church)
Vice President Garret Augustus Hobart
Webb Parmalee Hollenbeck (Clifton Webb Actor)
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (Physician, Writer and Poet)
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (Supreme Court Justice)
Capt. John Kendrick
Harmen Knickerbocker
President Abraham Lincoln
General James Longstreet
General Douglas MacArthur
Willie Hugh Nelson
President Richard Milhous Nixon
Senator Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.
Molly Kathleen Ringwald
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
President Theodore Roosevelt
Rear Admiral Alan Bartlett Shepard. Jr.
General Joseph Warren Stillwell
Taylor Alison Swift (Country Singer)
Lowell Jackson Thomas (Writer-Broadcaster)
Julia Jean MildredTurner (Lana Turner)
President Martin Van Buren
Willis Van Daventer (Associate Justice Supreme Court)
General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright
George Orson Wells
Thomas Lanier Williams (Tennessee Wiliams)
Major General Johh Ellis Wool
Orville Wright
Wilbur Wright


The nieces and nephews can figure out who is who. For some of the names I draw a total blank for their celebrity.