Some Interesting DeLong Relations

I have previously written that our DeLong family came to America as early as 1659 from the Netherlands and probably France, perhaps due to religious persecution. They were contemporaries of the Mayflower Pilgrims. The history concerning this family is very interesting. Families were enormous and many were Royalists who fled to Canada. If you look at a map, the area that was the first established home of the DeLongs, includes Dutchess and Ulster Counties, just above New York City and then west toward the Catskill Mountains. I need to research this area.

I found the most interesting article about my 1st cousin 6X removed, named Catherine DeLong. There are over 16 Catherine DeLongs or DeLangs, including our dear "Libby" DeLong Daugherty. This Catherine was born in 1787 in Dutchess County, NY. She one of the nine children of Johannes DeLong (brother of our ancestor, Area) and Anna Maria Brill. Catherine had three illegitimate sons all by different men.

Her second son has an interesting story. Catherine was said to have been so angry at her son's father, Peter Vanderburg, (with whom she filed a bastardy suit against), that she refused to name him "Peter" as was the tradition. So she made up the name "Cliamon." Supposedly Peter had left her stranded and then was lost at sea. I have him dying in 1844 in New York. Another mystery.

After Cliamon's (or Clyamon) birth, Catherine had a third son by Henry Hulit. There is no evidence that she married him either. Later, about 1803, Catherine had an affair with Peter Lossing, which caused him to be censured by the Society of Friends. Peter was a Quaker. Ultimately Lossing married Catherine and they had a daughter, Ethalinda, born in 1806. Most of the family then embraced the Quaker faith.

They left Dutchess County, with Catherine's brother Peter DeLong, and migrated to Ontario where they settled in the Norwich area. Catherine died in 1832 and is buried in the Canada Pioneer Cemetery, Norwich, Ontario Canada. Clyamon is buried in Prairie Creek Township, Dubuque County, IA. I'm wondering why he left Canada. Many in the DeLong family seemed to go back and forth from America to Canada.

I'd like to find more about this Catherine and the geography of New York and Canada.