Grandma's Granny's Family Album

I assumed my great-grandparents Gertrude and Theodore Zoeller were partners.  His life was remarkably successful.  Arriving in 1845 as a teenage farmer responsible for 2 younger siblings shell-shocked by the recent death of their mother onboard ship, he became a prosperous business owner and politician.  From at least 1857 to 1859, he rented a store for his cabinet-making.  It appears he specialized in elaborate furniture of mahogany carved with deer and fruit, representing the plenty that newly rich immigrants could afford.  Theodore owned a $100 watch ($2000 in today's money) and a $200 piano - during the Civil War when the government needed money, they got $3 by taxing both. $3 could pay for a far sadder thing than piano taxes - an infant's grave at Calvary Catholic Cemetery. In Queens, Calvary was an easy ferry ride away from the 17th Ward of Manhattan, where most immigrants lived.  A contemporary wrote that funeral processions were constantly going up ...

 Since we now know that Esther and John Acker were from Philipsburgh, and their oldest 2 children were born in New York, we turn our attention to the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, then Philipsburgh Manor, in Westchester County, just north of New York City. (see Acker Pedigree Chart, see Parts 1, 2, 3 of Acker Series) Old Dutch Church, when we visited, June 2024 Their son Henry was 90 when he died on 8 November 1869, so that means he was born between November 1778 and November 1779.  He was born in New York.  Their daughter Catherine was 84 when she died April 10, 1867, so that means she was born between April 1782 and April 1783.  Her death record says she was born in the US.  Since the evacuations to Shelburne all came by ship from New York City, I am going to assume she was born in New York too.  The obvious record to look for would be for a baptism for Catherine in 1782/83.  I decided, in the interests of not missing anything, to start in Old D...