Georgia O'Keeffe and Me

No words could explain my delight when I found out about a year ago that Georgia O'Keeffe and I are related.  Fourth cousin once removed.  The discovery came about in a rather haphazard way.  I had already completed my grandmother's line, that being Ten Eyck, spelled several ways, like Ten Eyk, Ten Eick, TenEyck and so forth.  But I believe all of us who share this name are related.  Last year I was breaking down a "Brick Wall," and in the process discovered that one of my ancestor's had married a Ten Eyck.  That isn't such a big deal to some, but it really was for me, because it meant that my mother and father were related before their marriage.  This new Ten Eyck line was now on my father's side.  It was a matter of minutes before I discovered that Georgia was of that line.  Andries Ten Eyck was the 5th great-grandfather to my mother, my father and Georgia!


For those of you who want to read about this famous American artist, two sites are:  PBS show on American Masters and Georgia's information on wikipedia.



Georgia's father was Francis Calyxtus O'Keeffe and her mother was Ida Ten Eyck Totto. The Ten Eyck surname in her line belongs to her 2nd great-grandmother, Ida Ten Eyck. Ida and my direct ancestor, Violetta Ten Eyck were sisters, children of Jeremiah Field Ten Eyck and Jane Van Arsdalen.  My mother's line was in Canada for four generations, and my father's was in New Jersey.