Abraham Sebastian van der Graaff, Esq.

Van de Graaff, born in Surat, Gujarat, India, was a member of the Dutch East Indies Company, the world's first multi-national trading corporation. His father was a governor of the Island of Ceylon, modern Sri Lanka.

During the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War 1780-84 (which pitted Britain against the Dutch who were trading with the Americans during the Revolution) the Van de Graaffs fled the Island. Some Van de Graaffs went to Australia, Germany and Scotland, others landed in America.

In 1798, Abram Sebastian Van de Graaff stepped off a ship at Philadelphia and later moved to Kentucky. His son William moved to Alabama finding work as an attorney in Mobile, Gainesville and later Tuscaloosa. William's grandson, Adrian "Bass" Van de Graaff married Minnie Cherokee Hargrove, granddaughter of politician and industrialist Robert Jemison Jr.

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