Gertrude Van Cleef of Bergen Avenue, wife of Abraham Britton of Communipaw

Portrait of Gertrude Van Cleef. The format of the caption shows how the Dutch custom of women keeping their birth names persisted well into the 19th century, and also that their marriage connected the Dutch settlements at Bergen and Communipaw, now both part of Jersey City. She and her husband were the first names listed in the register of the Lafayette Reformed Church, where he served as the first Elder when it was established in 1863. She died on December 2, 1867; the photographer's name suggests that this item was created, or at least mounted for framing, in that year.