In the introduction to the 1916 Ryerson Genealogy, Albert Winslow Ryerson suggested that the earliest origin of the family was in Norway and that those sturdy Norsemen in their conquests to the south left representatives who eventually settled in Holland. When one discovers the large numbers of Reijers and Reijersen descendants still living in Norway in 1994. it is easy to agree with him. Many of these contemporary cousin even carry familiar given names of Reijer, Martin and Joris.

The earliest record of a Dutchman in Holland to carry the name appears to be Wilhelmus Reijerszen who was the Burgomaster, or Mayor of the small village of Amsterdam in 1390. Claes Symon Reijersz held the same office in 1418. The name appears several more times in lists of city officials up through the year 1600. Jacobus Reijers was a member of the prestigious and highly successful Dutch West India Company in the 1660's. From other collections of Dutch history we find that Jan Reijerszen was the organist at the church at Leiden in 1565 and Cornelis Reijersz was a captain with the Dutch West India Co. and sailed such ships as the Guilded Otter and the Roseboom carrying many of the early settlers to New Amsterdam. There was also Aert Reijersse, the smith, who stabbed his neighbor Hendricks to death in 1618. A business deal gone bad? A Jealous husband? History does not say.

Two things become clear REIJER was a common name and - considering the Dutch use of patronymics - not everyone who had the name was necceearily related. This became abundantly clear as we researched Gerret Ryerse, a lawyer who lived in Albany,NY in the late 1600's. He led an eventful life and we felt sure he was a "cousin" - but instead, we discovered that he was the son of Ryer Elbertson... of no relation to us at all. We are still unsure of any famitial connection to Jan Reijersz who came from near Utrecht, Holland to Beverwyck (Albany,NY) in 1637 and took over the lease of an island in the Hudson River near Bethelhem which came to be known as Jan Ryersons Island...or to Pieter Ryerson, a skipper of a Dutch yacht carrying goods and sailing between Beverwyck and New Amsterdam during the years 1650-70. Walburg Ryerse and Jacob Reyerson are two other men who made an appearance in New Amsterdam and then disappeared, Their ancestry, unknown.