My Family Tree

Moved from the Dutch area of New York and Northern New Jersey to what is now Hampshire County, West Virginia (then Virginia), in 1743. Moved about 1767 to Yohogania County, Virginia (which became part of Pennsylvania about 1780) and left there in 1784 to go to Knox County, Indiana.
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Letter to Pamela J. Bennett from Smith: The lineage claim of Mrs. Frank A. Schmidt (born Mary Elizabeth Manes) to the DAR shows Jan to have been a Revolutionary Veteran - however the DAR has refuted that claim. Something happened about 1940 to cause the DAR to discredit the claim.

Also;

The research of L. W. Jackman was proven so fraught with errors (and seemingly fraudulent entries), that much of the former, accepted lineage of Jan Decker, Sr., was called into serious question. Particularly, with regard to sons John and Issac.

From David Decker - http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=dldecker&id=I04388
"After Jan had Barbara baptised in 1743, the family moved to Romney, Hamshire Co., VA., then to Washington Co., PA. Three additonal children were listed in the records of the KUYKENDALL store in Romney, VA. Jan leased 400 acres of land from Lord Fairfax in 1749, but moved in 1759 to Decker's Creek, now near Morgantown, WV. He, with his family, survived the Decker's Creek massacre. From there he moved to Vincennes, Knox Co., IN.

FAMILIES OF AMERICA, v.2, pp.44-50.
Before 1777, there were families of DECKERS, VANETTEN, INNES, WESTFALL, KUYKENDALL, DePUE, DeWITT, COX and others who had emigrated from the forks of the Delaware in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the District of West Augusta, Yohogania County, Virginia.

They probably settled on part of the 40,000 acre "Vanmeter Land Grant" which John VANMETER had obtained from Governor GOOCH and sold in 1732 to Joist HITE. See: Boyd Crumrine, VIRGINIA COURT RECORDS IN SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA, (1974 Reprint), passim; John Walter Wayland's "The Germans of the Valley," THE VIRGINIA MAGAZINE (April 1902), v.X, pp.35-36.

Jan Garretse DECKER, bapt. 1688, son of Gerrit Jans and Margrietje DECKER, married first, ca. 1711, to Barbara DeWITT, who was baptized in Kingston in 1692. They moved to near Romney, Hampshire County, Western Virginia and had a son John DECKER, baptized, 1719, in Hampshire Co., Va, married, ca.1739, Blandina KUYKENDALL. Elinor Randlemon, OURS - THEN AND NOW,
pp.62-64. Bill DeCoursey

John Decker, Father of Luke, moved from VA prior to July 30, 1787 to the northwest of the Ohio River where the law protected his right to own a number slaves while resident of Vincennes. In his will he left these two slaves "Bob and Anthony" to his son Luke. The slaves deserted."

Jan Decker's will here - http://graves.inssar.org/D/deckerjan.html

Owned slaves -
"The Decker family was part of this early migration from the South, and, like many other settlers from the southern states, the Deckers had owned slaves before coming to what is now Indiana. John and Dinah (Kuykendall) Decker, Luke Decker's parents, had migrated with other Dutch families from New York in the mideighteenth century and settled in Hampshire County, Virginia (now West Virginia), where Luke was born about 1760. The family farmed and bought land near the upper reaches of the Potomac River. They also bought slaves. One was a woman named Rachel, whom the family called "Rach."6

After the Revolution the Decker clan moved west, settling first in Kentucky, then near Vincennes, Indiana, about 1784. Claiming land near the Duchis River, they began farming in what is now known as Decker Township.7 They brought their slaves with them and may have purchased more along the way. When John Decker died in 1790, he bequeathed four female slaves to his wife and children. Luke Decker inherited all of his father's lands and tenements and, after the death of his mother, the slave "Rach."8" [ except from much longer story ]
http://josotl.indiana.edu/index.php/imh/article/view/10939/15587