Bill received his Loyalist Certificate during a meeting of the Gov. Simcoe Branch on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 in
Toronto. To conclude the ceremony, he made these comments.
I would like first to thank you all for this honour, and it is an honour, to be recognized in this manner. I will wear the UE following my name with great pride. Thank you all.
And if is appropriate, I would like to give a special thanks to J0 Anne Tuskin for all her encouragement and help along the way to this goal.
Isaac Van Valkenburg, United Empire Loyalist.
Born in the state of New York in 1732
And later in life brought his family from N Y to Montréal where he fought for the British cause
My 4 th
great grandfather
It took me some time to find Isaac
Like most of us, the real search began after I retired and could spare the time.
But my interest in family history was sparked many years earlier when we would have great family reunions. In one reunion alone we had 150 descendants of the Van Valkenburg line. They all had, however, the surname Follick.
It was from my mother’s sister that I learned that we, the Follicks, were actually descendants of a family called Van Valkenburg. When and why did the name change?
I was curious, and so my sojourn into Genealogy began.
Initially this was a tedious job, searching through microfilm at a local library, flipping pages in dusty old books, and seeking out knowledgeable family members. Google, Ancestry and the like were still in the future.
Again my Aunt came to my rescue and introduced me to a society centered in the USA and Canada, dedicated to the Van Valkenburg family and to this society I scrambled. After joining the society and paying my annual dues I received my membership card but with a “Pasty Note” attached: “ There is a member of the Society living in your town of Midland who has not yet paid her dues this year. Could you please contact her?”
This I did and to my surprise found a living relative right here in my home town of Midland. She too was a descendent of Isaac Van Valkenburg but on a different line. She did, however, have the Van Valkenburg family traced back to about 1560 in the Netherlands and all on the internet on a site called “Olive tree”.
Some of you may be familiar with the site. What a find.
The Van Valkenburg family originated in the Netherlands and in the mid 17 th
century one of their members, Lambert Jochemse Van Valkenburg and his wife Annatje, immigrated to “New Amsterdam” in
America.
It is interesting to note, I found out later, that Lambert did well and was able later to purchase a home and
50 acres in the centre of what is now known as Manhattan Island.
But back to research.
My Van Valkenburg contact in Midland next helped me to understand the progression of changes to the
Van Valkenburg surname through the generations.

It appears that the English speaking peoples of America had difficulty with the Van Valkenburg name and over a period of time it was abbreviated t0 Vollick, with a “V”. But the Dutch, in speaking, sounded the V like a F and pronounced the name as Follick with an “F”. My mother was a Follick.
Then one day I retired and Ancestry came into my life and combining that with Olive Tree I was able to work back from my grandfather William Follick, through 4 generations to Isaac Follick.
Isaac Van Valkenburg was born in Scholarie NY in 1732. He married Anna Marie Warner there and a son, Storm, was born.
But Isaac’s life was to change. He apparently was arrested a number of times in New York for his British sympathies and when the war came he moved his family to Upper Canada. Here he joined Sir John
Johnson’s Brigade as Isaac Van Valkenburg, and served in the “Butler’s Rangers”
It was during this period that the name Vollick, in different forms, came into being for Isaac and his son
Storm.
Up to this point I had been able to locate official documents to verify the family relationships. except for the final link, Storm Vollick to his father Isaac. Here a gracious member of this organization stepped in to produce the last necessary document and here I am today. Thank you very much.
Bill & Joyce Oxford