Since everything about Dennis and John Fox's biographical sketches in Bates' work checks out we can most likely say that our Germanic Foxes were of Dutch heritage.
Going back to the US Census of 1850 we find our immediate family, in part, sticking close together. In the 1850 Greene County landscape Dennis, his brother John, and their father and mother--Henry and Susan are in between the Shultz and Whitlatch families in Whiteley Township.
Denes Fox is 23 years old. He's already married to Elizabeth (Betsey John) who is the same age. With them is a one year old Henry Fox and Meriah Delana (she's twelve and in school). These are dwelling #25, family #25 on the visitation list of the enumerator.
In 26/26 is Henry Fox (age 47) and Susannah Fox who is five years older than Henry. With them are Sarah Fox and Barbary Fox (ages 17 and fifteen respectively).
And then 27/27 gives us John Fox, only twenty, and his wife Dorotha (19). With them are Jackson Rose and Colbern Whitlatch (ages 13, 9). This is not surprising since the Whitlach families are right nearby--Joseph Whitlach Senior is in 28/28 and Junior in 29/29. When we get to 30/30 we've got John family (Betsey's maiden name).
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Over in Perry Township, we have a Census record of interest as well.
We have a household with a Catharine Fox (age 49) and John Fox (age 29).
With them are Henry Fox (18), Eti Fox (16),
James Fox (14), Luerettia Fox (12),
Mary Ann Fox (10),
Malissa Fox (6),
Mary Fox (age 22).
The Catharine Fox with a purported age of 49 would indicate that she was born +/- 1801.
This would put her not in the birth times of Dennis and John Fox, but in the time period of the births of the children ascribed to Mary Thomas and Peter Fox. These births seem to range from 1789-1803.
The biographical sketch of Dennis Fox tells us that Mary Thomas and Peter Fox were Dennis' GRANDparents. And it was this Peter Fox who planted the willow sprout on the farmstead.
It was these GRANDparents who came from New Jersey and established the family in
Greene County, Pennsylvania.
An interesting thing happens when we virtually hop over to some History of New Jersey.
We've been reading History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey by James P. Snell (Philadelphia" Everts & Peck, 1881).
We went to Sussex County history because we'd heard that a man named John Pieter Fox died there in March of 1783. And because Snell boldly tells of other historians not being as complete as possible in their historic tellings, thereby obscuring a good chunk of history which demonstrates that the Dutch were a formidable root source in the what became valuable area of the upper mid-Atlantic.
It's not uncommon to find retro-history written to support later ownership both in geographic histories and in genealogy.
Sometimes in genealogy whole familyscapes are re-written based on financial details rather than biological information.
And it's not uncommon to find mistakes and erroneous information in family lore, such as someone declaring a family surname was Fox and they were "german" therefore the match of surname is FUCHS.
Perhaps not. If, for example, the "germans" in question were Dutch, the surname might very well have been...____________________. Hard to pronounce to the strictly English-speaking tongue, hard to transliterate, and hard to translate. There are millions of records in the world which have yet to be translated. And this can lead to stumbling blocks and dead ends when it comes to research.
It is difficult and slow-going work to match variations to America's records.
One way to get going on getting closer is to learn all about emigration patterns, church records, geographical areas, and realistic possibilities like trends in employment and family ways regarding farm work and inheritance, marriage and moving around. Then in our historical minds we can glean a more complete picture of these distant past people.
For mama's Quilt purposes we need to first gather and broadly brushstroke and then embroider details.
When we go over to the "ancient valley of the minisink" we find a lot of commotion between all the industry and immigration.
We also see that most of the Thomas people were Welsh. What these had in common with many "germanic" emigres and pushing further westward pioneers and settlers was IRONWORKS.
From the old Mine Road forged through the wilderness still keeping Philadelphia as a log cabin or two at this time, we can travel through the Pahaquarry area. We come across river settlements, fertile soil, and a mixture of clucking and vowel-ing that constitutes the language of the day. The roots of the trees here are taking hold before the Huguenots were scrambling and far-flung because of the Edict of Nantes (1685). And the roots of these trees were accustomed to a more free-flowing sense of travel and establishment than colon-izing per King. This was way before Skull and Lukens' survey tour in 1730 when they raved about the tasty apples on grown trees in already-old orchards. Back before the "upper neighborhood" formed around Port Jervis and the "lower neighborhood" on both sides of the Neversink was becoming thickly settled. Back before the proverbial forks were proverbially flooded (due in part to old world recrutiment and writing back to fetch--following; and in part to famine and being too far down on the food chain from father to inherit the old world farms); back before Penn penned Pennsylvania; back even before Peenpack and tracing the path that followed the Mamakating to the Pahaqualin. Even pre-Esopus being filled up to capacity forcing a furthering to the Delaware Flats.
This company of "miners" from Holland were digging and firing, flattening and forging.
And they were planting and growing fruit so that extended family and "friends"--neighbors to come and passers through--might travel lightly but eat well. Their sense of sustainability was part and parcel with their survival.
This sustainability and collective ability to work and live with each other empowered these people to semblence themselves into enough of a population considered a "voting precinct" by an Act of the Provincial Assembly of New York in October of 1701. By that time the old mining road had been abandoned due to the English King's takeover and conflicting jurisdiction to the locals'. But from 1701 to about 1709 there were a considerable amount of voters who needed to be concerned with "the more regular proceedings in the Election of Representatives"...these were the "inhabitants of Wagachemick (Neversink) and Great and Little Minisink (islands)" and they were assigned to give their votes in the County of Ulster, New York. Another Act passed in the November of 1709 moved their votes to "Orange County," precinct of Minisink.
Snell recommends we read an article by B.A. Westbrook, Esq of Montague called "Old Minisink."
But it's not until we get over to Morris County (Munsell's History) New Jersey in our readings that we come across the Welsh Thomas family deep into ironworks and a family Faesch.
No Fuchs. There is one Fox and he is a Reverend. Reverend Daniel Fox, I believe.
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