The Bertholf family is originally from Aix-la-Chapelle (now called Aachen, Germany, on the border with Belgium). In fact, records indicate that a Werner Bertolff was one of the schepens (town leaders) of this city until his death in 1391. And tradition has it that the family name is connected to Saint Bertulf (649-705).

The Bertholf family in America is descended from the Reverend Guilliam Bertholf, who emigrated to Bergen, New Netherlands, from Sluis, Zeeland, Holland, in 1684.

Reverend Bertholf, as a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, was the first minister of many of the early churches in what is now Northern New Jersey and Westchester, and was probably the founder of seven of the first nine churches in New Netherlands, including those at Tappan, Raritan, and Sleepy Hollow (a National Historic Landmark, it also plays a major role in Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."). He is believed to be buried under the pulpit of the Hackensack Dutch Reformed Church.

The Old Dutch Church Sleepy Hollow

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