The first generation of Van Burens to settle in America enjoyed modest success in a territory plagued by corruption, incompetence, quarrels, and rivalries—some petty, some deadly. That success was sadly cut short when, in the spring of 1648, Cornelis Maessen and his wife, Catelijntje, died, apparently on the same day (we know for sure they were buried on the same day). The primary source material from the time doesn’t explain the cause of their deaths, but the fact that they were both young—mid-thirties—and died simultaneously certainly suggests that they were the victims of a terrible accident or possibly even killed.

Some evidence indicates they could have drowned in a flood. For starters, their farm on Papscanee Island was vulnerable to flooding, which often occurred during the spring. Moreover, Governor Peter Stuyvesant once wrote about “the high water” that “nearly entirely washed away” Fort Orange in 1648. Archeologists later studied the site and found the remnants of an old Dutch farm “sealed beneath 2.5 feet of alluvium” and concluded that the Maessen farm “could have been easily washed away by a powerful flood. …” Based on this material, many historians have concluded that Cornelis Maessen and his wife likely perished this way.

But not everyone buys the flood theory. Rudy VanVeghten, a Van Buren descendent who has written extensively about his forebears, is skeptical. He points out that Stuyvesant’s statement was part of a legal battle over control of Fort Orange; the governor was in a bitter feud with Rensselaerwyck director Brant Van Slichtenhorst over the site and may have exaggerated the extent of the “high waters,” as all sides exaggerate their claims in lawsuit. VanVeghten also found little in the historical record of a flood that year, as opposed to 1639, 1646, and 1666, where there was ample evidence of flooding. Moreover, he wonders how their five young children—the youngest was 1—could have survived a natural disaster of this magnitude and not their parents. “In all likelihood,” VanVeghten concludes, the flood “never happened.”

So what could have happened, then? A fire and an Indian attack have been cited as possibilities—they also could have simply died from illness—but this is all pure speculation. The details of their deaths will forever remain a mystery. Still, of all the possibilities, I find the flood explanation most plausible, but even that, as VanVeghten has showed us, has major holes in it.