When the Catholic party, headed by Catherine di Medici, culminated years of cruel persecution with the massacre of the French Protestants on St. Bartholomew’s Day, 24th August, 1572, a number of the surviving Huguenots fled for safety to the Netherlands and England. In many cases the name of illustrious families disappear forever from the records of France only to reappear in and flourish under the protection and religious toleration of the Dutch and English nations. Between the years 1572 and 1620 the names of many of the French refugees underwent a change suitable to the environment and in some cases became so Dutch in character that it is extremely difficult to trace them back to the original French. The curious custom so prevalent in the Netherlands of using no surname and designating as “Laurence, the son of John,” (Laurens Jansen) if such was the father’s Christian name, renders the task of the genealogist still more complicated, and when added to the fact that localities and towns of the same derivative designation exist both in France and Holland (as the hamlet of “Camps” in France and the villages of “Campen” in the Netherlands and Denmark), it is small wonder that the greatest confusion prevails as to the ancestral source of many early New Amsterdam families. As early as 1650 the names of “De Camp,” “Van Kamp” and “Van Campen” appear on the church and State records of New Amsterdam and the surrounding towns. It was long supposed that these three families were closely related, if not identical, but a critical examination of the records not only of the parents and children, but also of the baptismal sponsors, carries the conviction that the “De Camp” and the “Van Campen” families were of different origin and nationality. Almost all the original “De Camp” settlers who can positively be identified and traced as such were recorded in the Dutch church records of New Amsterdam, Brooklyn, Flatbush, New Utrecht, and Staten Island, under the names “Van Kamp” and “Van Campen” by the clerks of the above several parishes. It is only after the year 1710 that the name begins to be written correctly as “De Camp” or “D’Camp” on the church records.