Jan 01
Schooner

Schooner sailing to New World

It is not known exactly when or why Jellis and family immigrated to America, other than the obvious desire for freedom and opportunity. There is no known record of the family on published ship passenger lists. A best guess, based on available information indicates they probably sailed on either the BONTE KOE or the PRINS WILLEM, each arriving in New Amsterdam in June-September 1651.

Fort Orange (Albany) Settlement

Albany, New York

According to “A Career Woman in 17th Century New York,” when Jellis arrived in Fort Orange (now Albany) in 1651, “he was accompanied by his wife, Hester Jans, and three children, a son Douwe, aged about eleven years, and daughters Geertien and Sara, aged about nine and seven years, respectively.”

The Fonda Family was one of eighty-two distinct family groups representing the settler population of Albany at the end of the so-called Dutch period (1624-1686). Already, these urban dwellers were beginning to distinguish themselves from the farmers and husbandmen of the surrounding countryside. These families represented the largest number of New Netherlands family names in the city during its first two centuries of life. From this core group, a number of families left the Albany community, establishing new settlements at Schenectady, Kinderhook, Catskill, Schaghticoke, Hoosick, Saratoga, and beyond. Some became tenants of the Rensselaerwyck Patroon (cooperative). Others left the region entirely. Still others literally “died out” in the Albany setting. Those who remained formed the core population of what became the city of Albany in 1686.

fondafarm_1859

Fonda Farm House, 1859

Fonda, New York

Before the American Revolution, a Dutch village named Fonda had succeeded the Indian hamlet of Caughnawaga, along the Mohawk River, about 30 miles west of Albany. It extended from the rambling hills which comprise the Mohawk Valley, at the foot of which stood the church and parsonage, down to the river. Douw Jellis Fonda (1700-1780), father of the branch of the Fonda family so prominent in this neighborhood from the mid-1700’s to the present, is considered the founder of this village, which now bears his name.

Douw lived a long and prosperous life as a farmer and merchant. He was killed during a raid by the British Army, aided by the Mohawk Indians, on May 22, 1780; he was 79 yrs. old. His house was plundered and burned; and his sons, John and Adam, were taken as prisoners to Canada. Douw had been a close personal friend of the British constable, Sir William Johnson, and had always been on good terms with the Indians, but his life was taken as “heartlessly” as though he were an active enemy. His legacy remained through his abundant offspring, which included 6 children and 30 grandchildren.

After the war Adam returned and built a house which is still standing in the village of Fonda. Older brother Jellis became a judge in Tryon County and was serving in the Legislature when he died. Adam’s son Henry who served as a captain in the War of 1812 had twin sons called Henry Douw and Douw Henry. Douw Henry, the father of Albert Fonda whose son is the present owner, built the farm home between 1842-50. Now on this farm is the ninth generation of the family in America; the seventh on these historic acres. (Century Farms of New York State – 1947).

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Jan 01

This is a duplicate of the listing on the fonda.org website.

  1. Alexander Glen Fonda; Physician; born 17-Aug-1785, died 4-Mar-1869 at 83 years of age; b. and d. Schenectady, New York; 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Schenectady, Schenectady Ward 1; Alexander Glen Fonda, born August 17th, 1785, was a graduate of Union College in Schenectady in 1806, and for many years a physician in Schenectady. He died March 4th, 1869, aged nearly eighty-four years.
  2. David Bartholomew Fonda; Teacher, Civil War Surgeon, Railroad Agent, Physician, Hospital Administrator; born 6-Nov-1834, died Jun-20-1903 at 68 years of age; b. Watervliet, Albany Co., New York; 1880 United States Census, Jefferson, Cook, Illinois; d. Chicago Cook, Illinois; was proprietor of Dr. Fonda’s medicines, and a gifted speaker and writer; “Early Chicago, and the Northwest” by Albert D. Hager, page 756; see Stories for more…
  3. John Isaac Fondey; Physician; born 22-Dec-1815; b. First Dutch Reformed Church, Albany, Albany, New York; 1880 United States Census, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Directory of Deceased American Physicians, 1804-1929: type of practice: Allopath; state/year of licenses: Pennsylvania, 1881; University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, 1837, (G); died Dec 31, 1929.

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Jan 01

This is a duplicate of the listing on the fonda.org website.

  1. Avery Hunt Fonda; Financial Executive; born 1921, died June-1-2003 at 82 years of age; b. North Carolina; 1930 Census, North Carolina, Buncombe, Asheville, District 5; d. Weaverville, North Carolina; Fonda, Avery Hunt 1921-; Standard & Poor’s Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives. 1975, 1984, 1987 editions; Who’s Who in America. 38th-41st editions, 1974-1981; Who’s Who in Finance and Industry. 18th edition, 1974-1975; see Biographies for more…
  2. Douglas Cadwallader Fonda; Banker, Sportsman, Manufacturing Executive; born 7-Jan-1896, died Nov-3-1977 at 81 years of age; b. Poughkeepsie, Dutchess, New York; 1910 US Census, Orange, Essex Co., New Jersey; SSDI Fort Lauderdale, Broward Co., Florida. Founded the Fonda Gage Company, manufacturer of oil well equipment; see Stories for more…
  3. Douw Henry Fonda; Advertising Company Executive, Mayor; born 6-Dec-1877, died Jul-15-1941 at 63 years of age; b. Gloversville, Fulton Co., New York; 1930 Census, New York, Nassau, Plandome, District 154; Columbia University graduate, founded the Fonda-Haupt Company, served on Plandome Board of Trustees for 12 years and then Mayor for 4 years.
  4. Harry B. Fonda; Banker; born Sep-1866, died May-27-1941 at 74 years of age; b. Poughkeepsie, Dutchess, New York; 1880 U.S. Census, New York, Dutchess, Poughkeepsie; 1910 US Census, Orange, Essex Co., New Jersey; d. Orange, Essex Co., New Jersey; worked his way up from clerk in Merchants National Bank of Poughkeepsie in 1885 to Treasurer of the Trust Company of America in New York City in 1902.
  5. Howard Breese Fonda; Senior Vice President; born 3-Feb-1896, died Mar-1-1964 at 68 years of age; b. New Rochelle, New York; 1910 Census, New York, Westchester, New Rochelle, 4th Ward; 1930 Census, New York, Westchester, New Rochelle, District 271; SSDI Barnstable Co., Massachusetts; retired in 1958 as Sr. V.P. of Burroughs-Wellcome & Co., Inc.; former president of the American Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association and the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education; held directorships in the Health Information Foundation, the World Medical Association and the American Foundation for Tropical Medicine.
  6. Jere Williams Fonda; Manufacturing Executive; born 1929; res. Omaha, Nebraska; CEO of the John Day Company, Omaha, Nebraska, Farm Equipment and Supplies; Fonda, Jere Williams 1929-, Who’s Wealthy in America. A prospecting list and directory of more than 110,000 affluent Americans. Standard & Poor’s Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives. 1984-2002 editions. Volume 2; see Biographies for more…
  7. John A. Fonda; Vice President of Mutual Life Insurance Company; born 7-Aug-1843, died 1914 at 71 years of age; b. Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York; Episcopal Register of Baptisms, 1766-1916: the Records of Christ Church; 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Dutchess, Poughkeepsie; 1880 US Census, Brooklyn, Kings (Brooklyn), New York City-Greater, New York; d. Brooklyn, New York.
  8. John Day Fonda; Manufacturing Executive; born 1956; res. Omaha, Nebraska; company officer for the John Day Company with father Jere; Fonda, John Day 1956-; Standard & Poor’s Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives. 1991-2002 editions; see Biographies for more…

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Jan 01

  1. [R001a] Early Irish in Old Albany, N.Y.: with special mention of Jan Andriessen, “De Iersman Van Dublingh”, Danaher, Franklin M., Boston, MA, American-Irish Historical Society, 1903, p. 17
  2. [R002] Contributions for the Genealogies of the First Settlers of the Ancient County of Albany from 1630 to 1800; Pearson, Jonathan; J. Munsell Co.; Albany, NY; 1872
  3. [R003] Collections on the History of Albany: from its Discovery to the Present Time, with Notices of its Public Institutions, and Biographical Sketches of Citizens Deceased; Anonymous; J. Munsell Co.; Albany, NY; 1871; Vol. I-IV
  4. [R003a] Noted Living Albanians and State Officials: A series of biographical sketches (1891); Harsha, D. A. (David Addison); Weed, Parsons and Co.; Albany, NY; 1891; 524 pgs.
  5. [R004b] American Ancestry: giving the Name and Descent, in the Male Line, of Americans whose Ancestors Settled in the United States previous to the Declaration of Independence; Hughes, Thomas P.; J. Munsell Co.; Albany, NY; 1887; Vol. I, p.28
  6. [R006] Biography and Genealogy Master Index: Gale Research Co.; Detroit, MI; 2003
  7. [R022] Lineage Books of the Charter Members: National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution; Washington, DC; 1938; Vol. I-CLII
  8. [R023] Daughters of the American Revolution: Patriot Index, Centennial Edition; Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution; Washington, DC; 1990
  9. [R023a] Founders and Patriots of America Index; National Society of Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America; Mrs. Herman E. Weston, National President; Geneological Publishing Co., Inc.; Washington, DC; 1909
  10. [R032] Early American Families: the Williams, Moore, McKitrick, Fonda, VanAlen, Lanning, King, Justice, Cunningham, Longacre, Swanson and Cox families: with numerous related families embracing the ancestors of perhaps 100,000 or more, covering over 330 years, from 1580 to 1916; Williams, Rev. W. A.; W.A. Williams; Philadelphia, PA; 1916; 65 pgs
  11. [R033a] Illustrated History of Arkansas Valley, Colorado: History of Lake County, O. L. Baskin, Chicago, 1881.
  12. [R034] The Compendium of American Genealogy: The Standard Genealogical Encyclopedia of the First Families of America (1600s-1800s); Virkus, Frederick Adam; Genealogical Publishing Co.; Baltimore, MD; 1968
  13. [R060] The Yearbook of the Holland Society of New York; F.A. Bassette Co.; Bergen Book; New York, NY; Vol. 1906, 1922-1923
  14. [R060b] Biographical Cyclopedia of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, John M. Gresham Co., Chicago and Philadelphia, 1896.
  15. [R063] Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs; Reynolds, Cuyler; Lewis Historical Pub. Co; New York, NY; 1911
  16. [R074a] The Mayflower Descendant; Quarterly Publication; General Society of Mayflower Descendants; Plymouth, MA; 1897; Vol. 1-46
  17. [R077] Compendium of Early Mohawk Valley Families; Penrose, Maryly B.; Genealogical Publishing Co.; Baltimore, MD; 1990; Vol. I, p.263-265
  18. [R084] The New England Historical and Genealogical Register; New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, MA; 1968; Vol. 122 (1968), pp.190-191, Vol. 100 (1946), p.228
  19. [R086] Genealogical Notes of New York and New England Families; Visscher, Sebastian; Talcott, Weed, Parsons and Co.; Albany, NY; 1883
  20. [R086a] History of the New Netherlands: Province of New York and State of New York, to the Adoption of the Federal Constitution; Dunlap, William; Carter & Thorp Exchange Place; New York, NY; 1840; Vol. II
  21. [R087b] New York State Men: Biographic Studies and Character Portraits; Hills, Frederick S.; The Argus Company; Albany, NY; 1910
  22. [R087a] Genealogical and Family History of Western New York: a Record of the Achievements of her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation; Cutter, William Richard; Lewis Historical Pub. Co; New York, NY; 1912
  23. [R089] Palatine Families of New York: a Study of the German Immigrants Who Arrived in Colonial New York in 1710; Jones, Henry Z. Jr.; Picton Press; Universal City, CA; 1985
  24. [R099] Contributions for the Genealogies of the Descendants of the First Settlers of the Patent and City of Schenectady from 1662 to 1800; Pearson, Jonathan; J. Munsell Co.; Albany, NY; 1873
  25. [R102] Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley; Reynolds, Cuyler; Clearfield Co.; Baltimore, MD; 1914
  26. [R109] VanRensselaer Bowier Manuscripts: being the Letters of Kiliaen VanRensselaer, 1630-1643, and other documents relating to The Colony of Rensselaerwyck; VanLaer, A.J.F. (translated by); New York State Library; Albany, NY; 1908; pp. 842-843
  27. [RR] New York Genealogical & Biographical Record; New York Genealogical & Biographical Society; New York, NY

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Jan 01

Genoa, Italy

Extract from “Early American Families“, Rev. W.A. Williams; Philadelphia, PA; 1916:
“The Rensselaer-Bowier Papers say that Douw Fonda was a Frisian, and Tacitus says that the Frisians dwelt along the coast of the North sea. They were converted to Christianity before A.D. 800. The family of Fonda was originally from the Republic of Genoa, Italy. The Marquis de Fonda was one of the leaders of a revolution in Genoa, having for its object the overturning of the aristocratic government, and putting the election of the Doge and Senate, into the hands of the people at large. The Doge (=duke) was the duke, or chief magistrate. Our ancestor was an early republican, and must have lived there, between 1339, when the first Doge was elected, and 1528 when the Dogate ceased. Baron de Fonda was unsuccessful in his attempt, and fled from the country, taking refuge in Amsterdam, Holland, whence his descendant, Jellis Douwese Fonda, emigrated to America in 1642 (1650), and had grants of land from the Dutch government, settling in or near the present city of Albany, N. Y.”

“There is a perhaps less credible tradition also, that the Fondas were Huguenots. and fled from France to Holland after the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s night, Aug. 25, 1572. There is another tradition that they fled from Spain on account of persecution or followed the Duke of Alva to Holland. It is also said that they belonged to the royal house of Spain, fled to Italy, because of religious persecution, and came later to Holland. Possibly they fled from Italy to France, and from France to Holland. The form of the family name is Latin and therefore similar in French, Italian, and Spanish, indicating the Latin origin of the family, probably In Italy. The Fondas were Dutch Reformed Protestants when they emigrated to America, and must have been among the first converts of the Reformation. Their descendants are widely scattered throughout the Union, though many are still living near the old home in Eastern N.Y.”

“The family name is taken from a deep valley in the Apennines, about 12 mi. from the city of Genoa, called Fonda, a name which means bottom, deep, foundation, etc. It is said that, in the early part of the last century, the estate was still in the possession of a branch of the family, the Count de Fonda, and there are many of the name, in the various parts of the Genoese territories.” Some of the family may have known Columbus in Genoa.”

Note: the above is disputed in “Old Dutch Families: Fonda Family” (De Halve Maen Quarterly, 1945):
“The Fondas were important in up-state New York during the Colonial period and in the early development of the State. Presumably the family is of Frisian origin and one genealogist has outlined European background for the Fondas giving them a really illustrious descent. However, these stories apparently come from tradition rather than substance.”

Trieste, Italy

Today, most native Fonda families live in Trieste, Italy and nearby Piran, Slovenia.  There is a wonderful website by Robert Fonda regarding Slovenian Fonda Genealogy which provides a rich family history within that area.  This tends to support the above statement about the Genoa connection being less credible.

quoting Robert Fonda:
“Although there is no written evidence to prove that surname FONDA really came into existence in Piran, there is some statistic research which more than obviously shows that. Here I will mention three: the first was done by means of a telephone book and internet (Labo.net) for the year 2002; the second was done by the historian Darja Mihelič, Ph.D. in the book “Piran, mesto in ljudje pred sto leti” (Piran, the town and the people a hundred years ago) and deals with the years between 1889 and 1892; the third one represents the number of families FONDA in the area of Italy in 1945.”

“The research of the FONDA families today shows that it is quite centrally dispersed from the area of Piran (according to the migration of population in Piran after WW2) with the emphasized direction to the Italian speaking territory the “Italian line” – Piran belonged to Italy till WW2, most of the time to the Venetian republic. It is interesting that some other old Piran surnames of the Roman origin show the same way of dispersion. As the surname FONDA is only one branch that developed from the family tree of FUNDANI’s, I was interested to to know which surname nowadays would correspond to the main branch of the genealogy.”

“By means of the the same help I found an even more frequent surname FONDI which shows exactly the same dispersion as expected. With this one namely the Rome and its vicinity is emphasized as the main centre (the town FONDI is only a hundred kilometres to the south). This surname has two somewhat smaller and less important centres with denser population in the vicinity of Florence and Milan. Beside these two surnames I also found another: FONDACARO, which probably belongs to the same family tree, the dispersion of which in the area of Italy today is different. I broadened this statistical research based on the FONDA families in phone books to the whole of Europe. The results showed the existence of the “French-Spanish line” which frequently appears in the eastern Pyrenne (Pyrennees Orientales), the “American line” in the USA and the “Slovene line” with two centres, the first in Lokev (the Slovenian Karst), and the second in Latkova vas (the Savinja valley) and its surroundings. Later on I will focus on the branch from Lokev in detail as it is the one my family derives from.”

“The historian Darja Mihelič researched the weddings in Piran from 1 January 1889 till 31 December 1892 and within this period gathered enough data according to which one can make a valid statistical pattern. The results showed that surname FONDA was statistically most frequently mentioned in the wedding certificates (2,7% ).This surname was also most frequent in connection with the house numbers – it appears in 25 addresses (the processed data was one third of all the houses in Piran). Following the data from 1945 there lived in Piran as many as 67 FONDA families which means that it was the second just after the surname Ruzzier (70 families). In this time it was estimated that in Trieste there lived 40 and in other parts of Italy another 60 to 70 FONDA families. After the cancellation of the “Zone B” in 1954, most of the Piran families emigrated to Trieste. There are now more than 20% of all FONDA families living in Trieste.”

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