Of the four first families, who remained permanent residents in this neighborhood, twelve children became married to non-residents of the same and founded twelve families, two of which settled in the lower neighborhood and were among the first settlers in it, five in the State of New Jersey, four in Rochester and its vicinity in Ulster County, and one in Orange County, east of Shawangunk mountain. The other children of those ancients were seven in number, and formed only six families. These remained in the neighborhood until about the year 1790. From this it appears that only half as many families of the first descendants remained in it as what moved out of it, or settled in other places.
Now, if the 12 families mentioned had become settled and remained in the neighborhood, together with the other six, and increased and emigrated, in the same proportion of the latter, the amount, after deducting those of DeWitt and Terwilliger numbering 16, would now be 324 emigrated, and 90 of present residents, and the whole amount 411 families.
As no accurate calculation can be made of the whole number of families descended from the first four permanent residents in this neighborhood, I have adopted a rule for obtaining the number of those now in existence as near as the same can probably be arrived at without actual enumeration, by getting a ratio of increase of the first, second, and as much of the third, generation as I can ascertain; also the whole number of these from the time of the commencement of the first to the present time, in manner following, to wit:
The first four families had an increase of 18, and these had an increase of 66 families, and 27 of the latter had an increase of 129. This enumeration is made from a knowledge I have in relation to those ancients. Of these, however, there were two families of the second generation whom I could not determine, but have estimated them at the same average rate of increase as that of the others, and the remaining 39 are estimated to have produced an equal proportion of population, according to their number, as that of the 27, which latter giving an amount of 129, the remaining 39 will give an amount of 186, and both these amount to 315 families of the third generation. The average increase of each of these per family is as follows:
| First | 4 give a ratio of | 4 1/2 |
| Second | 18 " " " | 3 3/4 |
| Third | 66 " " " | 4 3/4 |
These being compounded give an average ratio of about 4 1/2 families to one. Now a greater proportion of the fourth and fifth generations have died younger than of the three first, in consequence of which I have reduced the increase of the two former to that of a ratio of three per family, being about one-third lower than those enumerated. This is a great change for the term in which the alteration has occurred; still, the latter is about the same rate of increase as that of the United States since the year 1790 to the present time. In respect of foreign access of population the proportion which the former has acquired by intermarriages cannot differ much from that which the latter has acquired by immigration from Europe and by the importation of Africans to enslave them.
The year 1700 I contemplate to be about the medium point of time between the births of the oldest and the youngest children of the first four families, from which to the present time is 161 years and reaches on an average about the beginning of the sixth generation and leaves two unascertained whose increase on a ratio of 3 is as follows, to wit: 315 X 3—945 X 3 = 2835 families of the present fifth generation; and exclusive of these there must now be a great proportion of the fourth generation in existence, and that the whole of the present families of descendants mentioned cannot be less than 3200 now on the stage of action. The greatest part of these are now widely dispersed into different parts of our country.
The five generations have had their growth within a term of 161 years, which gives an average of 32 years for each.