In "Wynkoop Genealogy in the United States of America" by Richard Wynkoop (Knickerbocker Press, New York 1904)

is listed as number #1. He is the ancestor of virtually all Wynkoops that lived and still live in North America. Including all his next of kin that lost the family name (e.g. through marriage), there are really thousands of 'real' Wynkoops living in the USA today. With very few exceptions, all of them are directly related to Cornelius Wynkoop in a straight line. My father was the first who managed to find this missing link to the Dutch roots of the American Wynkoops in the late 1950's - but I don't know if he fully he realized whát he had found there, that day in the municipal archives of Amsterdam. Even though I had already heared about Cornelius, I didn't even realize it myself when I first saw my father's old notes on Cornelius. He might have suspected something: I do know he exchanged some letters with US genealogists back then. But to little success - things went much slower, these days ..

Recent investigation in old American and Dutch files, as well as - thanks to the internet - transatlantic cooperation finally made it possible to prove the above information, and what's more, to find out details about Cornelius' roots in the Netherlands. In the 1886 / 2nd edition of his book (referred to as: RWG2), Richard Wynkoop still assumed that Peter Wynkoop was the first Wynkoop in North America, and that he was Cornelius' father. In the 1904 / 3rd edition (RWG3) this was corrected.

But Peter Wynkoop, who's correct name is Pieter Pietersz. Wijncoop, seems to be the first Wynkoop to travel to and even work in the new world. Presently it is getting clearer (though not proven, yet) that he never really settled there, but officially lived in Amsterdam, the Netherlands with his family. Like Cornelius Wynkoop, Pieter Wynkoop worked for Jan Van Rensselaer, Patron of Rensselaerswijck in Nieuw Nederland. And both Cornelius and Pieter were born in the Netherlands, where basically two main branches of the Wynkoop tree can be found:
 
• the oldest, the Veluwe branch, is named after the area between Amersfoort, Apeldoorn & Arnhem in the province of Gelderland;
• the other, the Holland branch, is named after the province North Holland, with a.o. the cities of Amsterdam and Hoorn, that where both involved in the Dutch West-Indies Company (WIC).


Though there are many indications, it has not been possible to connect these two branches so far. But as there has been relatively little research on the several promising available sources, it seems there are reasons to be optimistic.

But: it is not correct. Cornelius Wynkoop was born as Cornelis Evertsz. Wijnkoop in the hamlet Wekerom, Gelderland, the Netherlands. Thanks to the above mentioned cooperation with Chris, I followed my father's forty years old foorsteps and found the oldest known source of Cornelius Wynkoop's existance in the municipal archives of Amsterdam (GAA, Gemeente Archief Amsterdam), in the Notarial Archives (GAA, Not.Arch. 1096/286-287v). Filed under this address is an original 4-page notarial act from the Amsterdam notary Mr. J. van de Ven, dated March 20, 1651. The original act cannot be viewed [ so far, that is, but I am working on it  .. ]. It is damaged and may not be photocopied or photographed. But a microfilm copy is available to the public. Parts of a photocopy of that film are shown here. A concept GAA summary quotes the document as follows:

Dutch:  Cornelis Everss Wijnkoop, oud 24 jaar / uit de buurtschap Wijckerom (Wekerom) land van Ede / voor 3 jaar tegen honderdvijfen / twintig gulden per jaar, voorschot 15 gulden / zonder korten ontvangen.

English: Cornelis Everss Wijnkoop, age 24 years / from the hamlet Wijckerom (now: Wekerom) land van Ede / for 3 years for hundredand/twentyfive guilders per year, advance 15 guilders / received without deduction.