The Vanderslices are among the oldest Dutch-American families in Pennsylvania — settled at Germantown around 1701, and naturalized as citizens of the colony in 1709. It’s likely that nearly every Vanderslice in America today descends from one man, Reynier van der Sluijs.
Documented — every generation now linked by record
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Before America · Dordrecht, Holland
Reynier was the first of the family in America. The Dutch records reach two generations further back, to his parents and grandparents on the Vriesestraat in Dordrecht.
Reynier's grandparents
Jan Gillisz. van der Sluijs & Ariaentje Adriaens
Dordrecht · Jan died March 17, 1640; Ariaentje died a widow on May 20, 1670
Named in the 1671 division of their estate, which lists their children as Adriaen, a grocer and burgher of the city (a full citizen, with the right to keep a shop and join a guild); Anneken and Maeijken, unmarried; Elijsabeth, wife of the tailor Tielman van Terneij; and Jan, still a minor. They were Mennonites: very probably they are the “Jan Gillisz., koordewercker, en Ariaentge, zyn huysvrou” baptized as adults in Dordrecht's Mennonite congregation on Easter Sunday 1628, which would make Jan a cord-maker. The same register records the death of “Jan Gillisz., passementwercker” (braid-maker) on March 17, 1640.
Documented
↓
Reynier's parents
Adriaen Jansz. van der Sluijs & Lijntgen Pieters Daremans
married in Dordrecht, March 17, 1652 · he was buried January 27, 1687; she was alive in 1702
A grocer on the Vriesestraat and his wife, who married before the magistrates, outside the Reformed church. Their son Pieter, a baker, is named as Adriaen's son in 1678, and Reynier acted for Pieter's family when Pieter died. Lijntgen stood beside Reynier at his banns in 1685. Adriaen was baptized a Mennonite at Rotterdam on December 31, 1651, as “Adrijaen Jansen vander Sluis, koordewercker”, a cord-maker like his father, before he turned grocer, and three weeks after the civil ceremony the couple married again in the Mennonite congregation, on April 7, 1652.
Almost certain
↓their son Reynier sailed for Pennsylvania about 1701
Want the whole family, not just the direct line? The branching family tree shows every generation's siblings and spouses — and you can download it all as a GEDCOM file.
In 2026 the Dutch registers gave up far more about the immigrant than anyone had known. Reynier was a grutter, a groat-miller of Dordrecht, from a family of grocers on the Vriesestraat. His parents were Adriaen Jansz. van der Sluijs and Lijntgen Pieters, married in 1652, and his grandparents Jan Gillisz. van der Sluijs and Ariaentje Adriaens. His wife Anna Spruijt, baptized at Woerden in 1664, came from a Leiden family, and it was her mother who lent them the 550 guilders for the voyage.
In 1686 he bought a corner house on the Donkere Steiger, on Dordrecht's main street; by 1696 he was bankrupt and the house was sold. It is still standing, very likely today's Voorstraat 267, and its owners can be followed from Reynier to the present day. Around 1701 the family sailed for Pennsylvania.
Reynier and Anna's banns, Leiden, July 11, 1685, each accompanied by their mother. Erfgoed Leiden, archive 1004, inv. 23, fol. 249v.
His family and Anna's, their life in Dordrecht, the house and everyone who owned it after him, what the money meant, and the crossing to Germantown, with the register pages and photographs from a visit to the house in September 2026.
This is a living document. Sources are given for each generation, with honest notes on what is proven and what is not. Corrections and additions are welcome through the contact page.
