One Staats family mystery was resolved in 2009. The issue revolved around the fact that there were two men named Staats in New Netherland: Abram Staes, who arrived at Fort Orange in 1642, and Jan Janse Staats. Jan Janse Staats was born in about June 1643 in Brooklyn, Long Island, a son of Jan Pieterszen van Huysen (1605– 1687) from Schleswig, Denmark (in present-day Germany), who died in Brooklyn about 1687. How Jan Janse acquired the name Staats rather than Pieterszen is unknown, but this fact has resulted in conflicting information in both Staats family trees for 350 years. As the two Staats family histories became untangled, it seems that no matter where one looks in genealogical and historical records, the two families are confused. Or are they?

  Previously, no attempt was made to determine if there is a genetic relation between the Abram Staats and the Pieterszen Staats families. In 2008, a member of the Pieterszen Staats (P-Staats) family became involved in the New Netherland Foundation DNA Project. Sean Staats, representing the P-Staats family, has a direct descent from Jan Pieterszen. Sean contacted Henry Newman Staats IV, a member of the Abram Staes (A-Staats) family, to encourage him to take a DNA test to determine if there is any relationship between the two families. Henry’s family lineage had been certified by the Society of the Cincinnati of New York as well as The Holland Society of New York. Sean, meanwhile, had carefully traced his family tree back to the Pieterszen-Staats family.

  DNA samples were taken of both men, using cheek swabbing. The tests were at first inconclusive. Additional, more powerful DNA tests were thus conducted. Two possible results could have been found: the Abram Staes family-line and Pieterszen-Staats family-line Staats men are related as one Staats family or they are not.

  Following is an abbreviated look at the two Staats family trees.

  The Abram Staes family line: Henry Staats IV, born 1945, the son of Henry N. Staats III, born 1919, the son of Henry N. Staats II, born 1888, the son of Henry N. Staats I, born 1840, the son of Henry Staats, born 1801, the son of Jacob Staats, born 1756, the son of Gerrit Staats, born 1720, the son of Barent Staats, born 1680, the son of Joachem Staats, born 1654, the son of Abram Staes, who came to Fort Orange in 1642.⁵⁷

  The Pieterszen-Staats family line: Sean Edward Staats, born 1971, the son of Ray Eldon Staats, born 1940, the son of Perry Benton Staats, born 1912, the son of Floyd Abram Staats, born 1887, the son of Abraham Staats, born 1857, the son of James Voorhees Staats, born 1822, the son of Peter Staats, born 1783, the son of Peter Staats, born 1738, the son of John Staats, born 1713, the son of Peter Staats, born 1690, the son of Jan Janse Staats, born 1643, the son of Jan Pieterson Van Husum (Van Huysen) from Schleswig, Denmark.⁵⁸

  In the Henry N. Staats family, the DNA is predicted by the “Y” chromosome haplogroup in R1B1b2. (The parent haplogroup is R.) In the Sean Staats family, the haplogroup is I1. (The parent haplogroup is I.) The ancestry of the haplogroup R is R<P<-NOP<K<IJK (Abram Staats). The Haplogroup I ancestry is I>IJ<-IJK (Abraham Pietersensze Staats). In other words, the most recent common male ancestor on the paternal side would have been Haplogroup IJK in Henry Staats, which originated some 40,000 to 50,000 years ago. The prediction of the outcome of these tests was refined by using an FTDNA testing procedure. The probability of there being a nonpaternal event (NPE) is accepted as a 1.5 percent chance. What the results of these DNA tests mean for Henry N. Staats IV (Abram Staats family) and Sean Edward Staats (Abraham Pietersensze Staats family) is definitive: there is zero percent probability that Abram Staes and Jan Pieterszen were related.

57 Application records of Henry N. Staats IV, The Holland Society of New York.
58 Application of Sean Staats, 2009, The Holland Society of New York.