Jan Gerretse Dorlandt settled first near the ferry on Fulton Street (Manhatten or Brooklyn?), and then moved to the village of Bedford (Brooklyn) by 1654. He and his son, Gerret Gerretse, are both mentioned in a number of land transactions in New Amsterdam (sources: Kings County Deeds and NY Genealogical and Historical Register). His name is on the list of those who signed the oath of allegiance to the English government in 1687, and he was elected a town commissioner of Brooklyn that year, a position which he filled till 1701 or later. He was a member of the Reformed Dutch church in Brooklyn 1677 and was an elder there in 1711. Children baptised in this church include Gerret Gerretse, Elias, Samuel, Christina, Gertrude, Rem, Mary, Anna, Elsie, and Jan. The Dorland family can be traced in Kortenhoef until at least 1500. Before then, one Dutch researcher has traced the family back to Ghijsbrecht van Nijenrode "named Dorlant" & assistant of the "famous Jan van Egmond at Eastern 1419". His father was Gerrit Splinter van Ruwiel, shield-bearer, who m. Maria Persijn van Velsen and d. abt. 1397. Ghijsbrecht was a knight, "Master of Nijenrode, Velzen, Poel, etc." and m. 1) Belia van Leijenburg and 2) a daughter of Otto van der Poel. Ghijsbrecht d. between Aug 3 - Nov. 3 1396. One of Ghijsbrecht's four known children (not necessarily legitimate) was Jan Ghijsberts Dorlant, who is probably the grandfather of Jan Dorland of Kortenhoef. This ancestry certainly accounts for two of the common names encountered in the family: Gerrit & Jan. Our line of Dorlandts moved first to Long Island (near Oyster Bay) and then to Orange County, NY, where Charles Dorland arrived about the time of the French & Indian War (1756). The family remained in Orange County, NY untill the end of the 19th century, when one brance moved back to the NYC area.