Putnam/Ritrosky Family Tree Home Page

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This site last updated January 14, 2001

I am Dennis Putnam and the purpose of this web page is to provide information I have collected about the Putman family tree. Credit for all the research of the ancestors of Hiram Putman goes to Warren T. Putman who spent 25 years researching the Dutch branch of the Pootman/Putman/Putnam family. You may have noticed the different spellings of the family name. According to records of the earliest ancestor, the German name was Putmanus. What documentation is available is pretty consistant with the Putman spelling. The death certificate of Hiram Putman ,as signed by his son John, are consistant. It is believed that the change was made by my great-uncle George, although I am still researching that. The reason, from other family members, is because he wanted to "be different."

The Putman family has been in the US since the middle of the 17th century. Johannes Putman left the Netherlands around 1661 at the tender age of 16. According to the genelogical records of The Holland Society of New York, as quoted in the "Memoirs" of Joseph Wendell Putman, Johannes arrived in New Amsterdam, a cabin boy on a Dutch ship. He jumped ship and to avoid being arrested and returned to Holland, he made his way to the outpost stockade of Schedectady. He was apprentised by Jan Hendrickse Van Bael for three years to Philip Hendrickse Brouwer for his food and clothes. There he met and fell in love with Cornelia Bradt (or Bratt) and were later married. Again according to "Memoirs," they lived in cabin in the southeast part of the stockade. Today this is the corner of Union and Ferry Streets. Both were killed February 8, 1690 during the Schenectady Massacre.

There are 16 generations of Putman/Putnam represented here dating back to 1510. The earliest ancestor was from Lipstadt, Westphalia, Germany. However, I have limited the links of the ancestors of Hiram for clarity while maintaining a more complete list of his descendants. The web site of Warren Putman has the complete lineage and I did not reproduce all of it here.

Unfortunately this branch is in danger of ending, My grandmother was a victim of diabetes and had several miscarriages so only three children survived and my father was the only male (his twin brother died before the end of the first year). I did my best with two sons but my brother has just a daughter. One of my sons is married and so far also has just a daughter while the other is not yet married.

The Ritrosky(Ritter) Family

This is the maternal side of the family and I know this is the only branch of this tree on the web because this is the only branch of the tree. The Ritrosky and Procak families emmigrated from the towns/villages of the foothills of the Carpathian Moutains in Galicia (ga lee' see ah). Galicia was part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. (also called the Hapsburgh Empire) prior to WW I partitioning (1918). However, Galicia was ethnically Ukrainian as are the Ritroksy and Procak families and is now within the borders of Ukraine. Anna Procak was born in Pennsylvania (1889) and her family is believed to be from the town of Smylouck while Josephat Ritrosky is believed to have immigrated from the town of Zowadka (the 'w' is pronounced like 'v'). Credit for this information goes to my cousin Johnathan Salo (son of Sophie Ritrosky).

Josephat and Anna were married, settled in Hudson , N.Y. and proceeded to have 8children. Thus my mother was a first generation American on her paternal side. My maternal grandfather died fairly young leaving my grandmother with the 8 children and a farm. Widows did not survive well in those pre-welfare days. Fortunately my grandmother met widower Harry Bazakio who had one daughter. They were married and soon the 10th child was born. The Ritrosky farm was the livelyhood for a family of 12 through the depression. Although money was non-existant, everyone worked hard and the farm provided all the needed food. In later years the name Ritter was introduced. The two youngest brothers were fortunate enough to graduate from college (a teacher/principal and a vetrinarian) plus the second eldest was a successful merchant. These three brothers decided to change their surnames to Ritter in order facilitate their careers.

Since I am just starting this effort I am trying out GED2HTML to convert GEDCOM to HTML. There are two ways to view the family tree:

Surnames

Persons

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