Starting with my father, Larry, and reaching back nine generations to Reynier Vander Sluyse's arrival in Germantown around 1700 — traced through wills, church registers, and a Civil War pension trail, with honest notes on what's proven and what isn't.
This line is honest about its gaps. One father-to-son link — Aaron's own parentage — is still unproven and marked in orange above. The link just below it (Aaron → William) was closed by Aaron's Civil War pension file, which names William and his three siblings as the children of Aaron and his first wife Martha.
Who was Aaron's father? The 1850 census places 16-year-old Aaron boarding in Lancaster as an apprentice to shoemaker Eugene Harkins — confirming his trade but not his father. Two candidates now stand out: Jacob Vanderslice, a shoemaker of Kensington, Philadelphia (b.~1806) — a strong lead, since a shoemaker's apprentice was usually a shoemaker's son — and Daniel Van Derslice of Chester County (m.1829), fitting Aaron's Chester County birthplace. Neither is proven yet. Read Aaron's full story →
Everything above is my father's side. My mother, Nancy Cellucci, married Larry Vanderslice — and her family's story runs back across the Atlantic to Rapino, a hill town in the Abruzzo mountains of Italy.
This is a living document. It traces two of my family's lines — my father's Vanderslice line back to Reynier in Holland, and my mother's Cellucci line back to Rapino, Italy — with sources and photos for each person. More branches and records will be added over time.
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