Wanted: descendants of De Leyser

Street De Lysers in Egypt, Wayne County, NY

 This morning, I received an e-mail from Peter de Lijser from Breskens, who is, with a couple of far cousins, organizing a De Lijser reunion in Cadzand around June 14th, 2011. It is then exactly three centuries ago that ‘a young man from the canton of Bern in Switzerland married in Cadzand a huguenot from Mark-Calis in France’: Isaac (de) Liser en Anna Aluyck. They are planning on replaying the wedding of them two. According to Peter, ALL families with the last names De Lijser, De Leijser, De Lijzer, De Leijzer and in the USA DeLyser, DeLyzer, DeLeyser and DeLeyzer derive from them.

The DeLijsers spread out over the whole world and are now to be found in the USA, Canada, Australia and Europe. Peter asked me whether I could help him finding living DeLysers for this big family-happening and I think the best I can do is to put it om my blog, so that readers can react. Of course, I will also contact some American people in my network, but I am pretty sure they will be reading this entry, too.

Peter’s great-great-grandfather, Isaac de Lijster (photo, with probably grandson Peter), had eight children, of whom

Isaac de Lijser and (probably) grandson Peter

all but one and himself would emigrate from the island of Cadzand to America. Only Peter’s great-grandfather  Hubrecht de Lijser stayed in Zuidzande, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. One daughter had already emigrated before the others came.  They departed on 11 March 1892. Upon arrival, on 26 March 1892 on Castle Gardens, the youngest son Peter wasn’t allowed to enter the country. He was too skinny and too small for a boy aged seventeen, so he was being sent back on his own. After a couple of years, he tried again and was reunited with his father. Isaac passed away in 1913 and was buried on the cemetery of East Palmyra (Wayne County, NY).