In the early days of the New Netherlands colony, Norwegians sometimes came across in Dutch ships and settled among the Dutch. The names of at least two such have been preserved in the Dutch colonial records. They are Hans Hansen and Claes Carstensen (possibly originally Klaus Kristenson). The former emigrated in a Dutch ship in 1633 and joined the Dutch colony in New Amsterdam. His name appears in the colonial records variously as Hans Noorman, Hans Hansen de Noorman, Hans Bergen, Hans Hansen von Bergen, and Hans Hansen von Bergen in Norwegen. Hans Bergen became the ancestor of a large American family by that name.[21] Claes Carstensen's name appears variously as Claes Noorman, Claes Carstensen Noorman and Claes Van Sant, the latter being the Norwegian name Sande in Jarlsberg, where Claes Carstenson was born, 1607. He came to America about 1640 and settled a few years later on fifty-eight acres of land on the site of the present Williamsburg. The ministerial records of the old Dutch Reformed Church in New York state that Claes Carstensen was married April 15, 1646, to Helletje Hendricks. The latter was, it seems, a sister of Annecken Hendricks, who was there married on February first, 1650, to Jan Arentzen van der Bilt, the colonial ancestor of Commodore Vanderbilt. Annecken Hendricks is further designated as being from Bergen, Norway, the names "Helletje" and "Annecken" being Dutch diminutive forms of the Norwegian Helen and Anne. Claes Carstensen died November sixth, 1679. [21] See _The Bergen Family_, by Teunis Bergen. About the year 1700 there were a number of families of Norwegian and Danish descent living in New York. In 1704 a stone church was erected by them on the corner of Broadway and Rector Streets. The property was later sold to Trinity Church, the present churchyard occupying the site of the original church.[22] Prof. R. B. Anderson, speaking of these people, says, that they were probably mostly Norwegians and not Danes, for those of their descendants with whom he has spoken have all claimed Norwegian descent. The pastor who ministered to the spiritual wants of this first Scandinavian Lutheran congregation in America was a Dane by the name of Rasmus Jensen Aarhus. He died on the southwest coast of Hudson Bay, February twentieth, 1720. [22] Our authority here is Rev. Rasmus Anderson, who has given this subject much study.