Which Harmanus?

Scholefield Family Tree

It behooves the serious researcher to remember that not all search engines have indexed every part of the web. In this case, a search on Dogpile for
“harmanus degraff” turns up the following result from Ask and Bing:

Simon, son of Daniel, born April 6th, 1753, married December 6th, 1779, first, Annatie, daughter of Simon Schermerhorn. She died September 21st, 1783, leaving one child, Gezina, who died young. He secondly married, April 12th, 1787, Jannete, daughter of Harmanus Bradt. Their children were:

Daniel, born August 12th, 1788, who married a daughter of the old surveyor, Josias Swart; also a son named Harmanus, born January 8th, 1791; also a daughter named Annatje, born August 23d, 1794, and now the widow of Alexander Van Eps, and residing in Schenectady.

Simon DeGraff’s first wife, Jannete, was a sister of Maus and John Schermerhorn, deceased, aged citizens so long and favorably known in this community.¹

Searching for “De Graff” turns up the following which contains an iteration of the data about Simon’s family as well as another possibility:

ISAAC, son of Johannes, m. Sarah, dau. of Johannes Toll, Jan. 16, 1791. She was b. May 18, 1773, and d. Dec. 3, 1814, in Glenville. Ch. b: Johannes, July 11, 1791; Simon, Oct. 30, 1793; Harmanus, June 9, 1796; Arent, March 5, 1799; Catharina, Dec. 20, 1801, d. Feb. 8, 1802; Annatje, Jan, 31, 1803, d. June 15, 1806; Daniel Toll, Oct. 17, 1805; Isaac, Sept. 12, 1808, d. at West Glenville, Dec. 2, 1854; Abraham, May 15, 1812.²

Searching for “harmonus degraff” turns up a message board post that states that Alonzo’s father Harmonus was born in 1796 and died in 1892.³ Since the death date is so far off, was this person correct? How does this person know that the Harmanus born in 1796 is the one we want instead of the one born in 1791?

I’ll have to see if I can answer these questions!

1. Austin A. Yates, Schenectady County, New York: Its History to the Close of the Nineteenth Century (1902), 250-255; transcription, The Schenectady Digital History Archive (http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/resources/yates/index.html : downloaded 2 Nov 2009).
2. Johnathan Pearson, Contributions for the Genealogies of the Descendants of the First Settlers of the Patent and City of Schenectady, from 1662 to 1800 (1873); transcription, The Schenectady Digital History Archive (http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/families/firstsettlers/index.html : downloaded 2 Nov 2009).
3. Robb DeGraff, “Re: Isaac Degraaf father of Eva-early1700’s,” DeGraff Family Genealogy Forum, message board, 4 Apr 2001 (http://genforum.genealogy.com/degraff : accessed 2 Nov 2009).