The Egbert lineage traces back to Staten Island, New York and nearby places in New Jersey. This was earlier part of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. In 2018 DNA evidence led to the conclusion that John Egbert, a cobbler in the sixth generation could not have been born into the family of John Egbert in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. However, in 2019-2020 Ancestry.com reassigned the DNA segments and the present author could be shown to share DNA material with descendants of William Egbert, who was this John's brother. Indeed, the cobbler's own record has his birth in 1778 and on attaining majority in 1799 he had completed his training as a harnessmaker. In that year he was associated with his uncle William, when they lived near each other in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The DNA evidence is reviewed in the report listed under "Bruce Davis Despain," whose father had DNA from both of his parents. The Egbert immigrant to America was a Dutchman, whose origin we may safely assume was in the Netherlands. His use of a patronymic suggests that Egbert Sanders belonged to the rural laboring class, many of whom participated in the settlement of the Dutch West Indies and New Amsterdam. However, the records of old Amsterdam have failed to yield any traces of him.
