Marten 3. (2.Reijer. 1 Reijer) was baptised as Marten Reijersz on 23 Nov 1637, in the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam, Holland. He nearly always used the name Reijersen after he came to New Amsterdam. The Dutch did not have a letter for y in their alphabet but instead used ij . Record keepers in New Amsterdam, however, often failed to add the dots over those letters, an over sight which soon caused this Dutch name to look and be spelled as Reyersen.

Dutch west India ships coming from Holland had a 7 or 8 week journey in those early days. Unfortunately, the earliest passenger lists have either been destroyed by fire or remain undiscovered, Marten might have come across on the Groote Gerit, part of the fleet that carried Pieter Stuyvesant to New Amsterdam or perhaps the Witte Doffer which also solicited passengers in that year.

Sometime during 1646, however, one of the company ships from Amsterdam lay anchored in the New York harbor close by Fort Amsterdam while its cargo of supplies and people were unloaded into small boats and rowed to the rough wooden pier. What is now a bewildering mass of towers, skyscrapers and traffic jams was then a village of small farm houses, a windmill and a church inside the fort.

The Reijersz boys, Martin and Adriaen, did not remain in New Amsterdam but soon ferried over the East River to Breuckelen (or Brooklyn, NY). Named for a town in Holland, its few houses stood mostly near the ferry and along the Indian trail that headed southeast towards Jamaica Bay, now Flatbush Avenue. Where did they settle? Probably in Flatbush probably with relatives whose identities we have not yet discovered, but who taught them much that they would need to know in order to prosper in the little settlement. here they grew to young manhood. By November of 1662, Marten was traveling the rough trail north to the church at Breuckelen every Tuesday afternoon where he attended confirmation class taught by Dominie Henricus (later Selyns). On the following Easter Sunday, March 25, 1663, we find in the old Dutch record:

Six weeks later we find another entry in the church records, this time from the old"Trouw Boek" or Marriage Book: May 14, 1663 were united in marriage Marten Reijerszen from Amsterdam and Annetie Joris, from Nieuw Nederlandt.

The bride was Annetie Joris (Rapalje). the couple was Married by Dominie Seljins, the witness at this event being Catalina Jeronimus, the brides mother. Dominie Seljins' careful accounting of the "wedding money' shows that Marten gave him 6 guilders for preforming the ceremony. At the time of their marriage the congregation was meeting temporarily in a barn. The first building, an Octagonal shaped building with a thatched roof, was erected for this congregation in 1666 right in the middle of the road which then passed it by either side.- now Fulton Street, Brooklyn,NY. Marten was Active in the Breuckelen Dutch Reformed Church all of his life and served as Deacon there for many Years.

Marten married Annetje Joris De Rapelje (Rapalje) j.d. (a young Maiden of Brooklyn), One Catalina Jeronymus was a witness to the ceremony. Dominie Selyns came from Amsterdam in 1660 and took charge of the "Breuckelen" Church. Annetje was the daughter of Joris (George) De Rapelje and Catalina Trico or Tricot.