In 1634 the catastrophic storm tide of the Terrible Water Flood hit Nordstrand Island off the North Sea coast of Denmark and Germany and set the stage for the marriage of Volkje Jurians and Jan Fransse in 1639 in Amsterdam. They set sail for the New World shortly thereafter and settle in Albany, New York as one of the first forty families there. This book brings to life their adventures in colonial New York as well as the lives of their descendants as they move into Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and finally southern Illinois. Follow this great American family as they experience the ever widening frontiers of America during the Revolution, their push into Appalachia, the Civil War era and early modern America.