Neltje Blanchan De Graff

Notes:

From the National Cyclopedia of American Biography (citation details below):

"The De Graffs and Blanchans, the latter originating in French Flanders, were among the first settlers of the Dutch-Huguenot colony at Esopus, N.Y. (1660). [Neltje Blanchan De Graff's] mother came of Scotch-Irish stock. One of her ancestors was Governor De Graff of St. Eustatius, Dutch West Indies, who was the first foreigner to salute the American flag (Nov. 16, 1776). Three years later a salute was given to the flag of Paul Jones' Ranger by the commander of a French squadron, but according to the historian Griffis, 'De Graff's was personally a nobler and bolder act, since he believed and acted on his own faith without orders.'" [The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, citation details below.]

Neltje married Frank Nelson Doubleday on 9 Jun 1886 in Plainfield, Somerset, New Jersey. Frank (son of William Edwards Doubleday and Ellen Maria Dickinson) was born on 8 Jan 1862 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York; died on 30 Jan 1934. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Ellen George McCarter. Ellen (daughter of Thomas Nesbitt McCarter and Madeleine G. Barker) was born on 9 May 1898; died on 2 Apr 1978 in New York, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In recent decades, she changed her name, by court order, to simply "Neltje." In 2016 her autobiography North of Crazy was published by St. Martin's Press. A profile of her can be found here, and her Wikipedia page is here.

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Neltje Doubleday and John Turner Sargent Sr. are 8th cousins, both being 7XG-grandchildren of the Rev. John Ward (1606-1693) and his wife Alice (1612-1680).

Neltje married John Turner Sargent, Sr. on 16 May 1953 in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, and was divorced in Sep 1965. John (son of Charles Sprague Sargent and Dagmar Wetmore) was born on 26 Jun 1924; died on 5 Feb 2012 in New York, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

CEO of Macmillan Publishers.

His philanthropic activities include longtime service on the board of directors of Graham Windham, more recently called simply Graham, a nonprofit foster care agency providing services to needy children and families in the New York metropolitan area. Founded in 1806, Graham, the oldest non-sectarian childcare agency in the United States, was originally the Orphan Asylum Society of the City of New York, co-founded by Eliza Hamilton after her husband Alexander Hamilton, himself an orphan, was killed in the famous duel with Aaron Burr — a grandson of John Sargent's 6X-grandfather the Rev. Jonathan Edwards. Thus Aaron Burr's first cousin six times removed has served for years on the board of Eliza Hamilton's orphanage.

He is also the author, under the anagrammatic pen name "S. T. Garne," of two children's books, One White Sail: A Caribbean Counting Book (1992) and By a Blazing Blue Sea (1999).

John married Constance Lane Murray on 21 Sep 1985. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]