The source of this story is the National Museum of the Pacific War Digital Archive. ORAL HISTORY PROJECT BY BRAD WEBER FOR INTERVIEW WITH AL QUACKENBUSH, U.S.S. Tangier October 10, 1999 Al Quackenbush was a First Class Ships Cook on the USS Tangier at the time of Pearl Harbor. Today he resides in Minnesota and is very involved with the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.
BW: Can you give me your full name, rate, and length of service on the Tangier.
AQ: My name is Al Quackenbush. At the time we put the Tangier in commission I was Ships Cook first class. Bill Fletcher and I were watch officers in our galley. I entered the Navy as a swimmer when right out of high school in a swimming program the Navy had in those days. In 1931 you couldn’t get into the Navy in those days unless you was an athlete. So it was quite an honor for me to be accepted into the Navy when they was turning so many people. In 1931 there wasn’t much action. So I was real fortunate. All I did for the first few years was swept for the Navy. I almost made the 1932 Olympic team. I tried out for it and the Navy was good enough to send me all over to Panama along with everybody. I had a great time with alot of great people. I had this picture taken with Buster Crabbe at a swimming race. I later met him in Hawaii. We had a good times. It was a wonderful life.
When you hear the name Quackenbush, you’re hearing the distant echo of marshlands and wild woods in the old Netherlands.
Long before the name appeared on mailboxes in New York, Michigan, Oregon, or anywhere else in North America, it belonged to a single family living near a Dutch woodland known as Quackenbosch — literally “the woods of the night heron.” The “kwak,” a bird known for its distinct call, lived in the “bosch,” the scrubby, untamed forestland of Holland.
And from that ancient landscape came a surname that would cross oceans, settle new continents, fracture into dozens of spellings, and ultimately become a distinctly American family line.
From Quackenbosch to Quackenbush
Most surname researchers and genealogists agree:
1. The name originated in the Netherlands
“Quackenbosch” was originally a Dutch toponymic surname meaning:
kwak → night heron
bosch → woods or forest
Quackenbosch → “the woods where the night heron calls”
Over time, as Dutch settlers arrived in North America during the 1600s, the name began to shift — first into Quackenbosch, then Quackenbos, and eventually into the now-dominant spelling Quackenbush.
2. The family’s North American story begins in the 1600s
The earliest widely accepted ancestor is Pieter (or Pieter van) Quackenbosch, who arrived in New Netherland (later New York) during the mid-17th century.
His descendants adopted English spellings, intermarried with other colonial families, and spread outward from the Hudson Valley into the Midwest and beyond.
3. A surname that multiplies by variation
Because colonial record-keeping was inconsistent, the name splintered into numerous variants:
Quackenbosch, Quackenbos, Quackinbush, Quackenboss, Quackanbush, Quackenboom, Quackenbol, Kwakkenbos, Kwackenbosch, Quackenboer, Quackenburgh, and more.
Each spelling reflects a moment in time — a clerk’s handwriting, a census taker’s guess, an immigrant’s adaptation, or a family’s personal choice.
How Many People Have the Name?
Thanks to modern genealogy and surname statistics, we can now estimate the global footprint of the Quackenbush name.
A. U.S. Census Count (Most Reliable Official Number)
According to the 2010 U.S. Census:
4,164 people in the United States have the surname Quackenbush
Making it the 7,947th most common surname in the U.S.
Frequency: about 1.41 per 100,000 people
Roughly 95–96% of bearers are recorded as White/European-descent
Why the difference?
Different projects count different things — census records, phone directories, genealogy submissions, or variant spellings. So the “real” number is somewhere within the full range.
Where in the World Are the Quackenbushes Today?
United States
The surname is most concentrated in:
New York (especially the Hudson Valley)
Michigan
Ohio
Indiana
Illinois & Wisconsin
Iowa & Minnesota
Oregon, Washington, and North Carolina
Earlier global data also suggested:
About 5,402 Quackenbushes in the U.S.
Roughly 21% in New York alone
Followed by clusters in California, Florida, Indiana, and Oregon
From a marshy Dutch woodland in the 1600s to thousands of households across North America today, the name Quackenbush has traveled continents, survived wars, crossed oceans, and adapted to more than a dozen spellings.
Whether you meet a Quackenbush in:
New York
Ontario
Florida
Oregon
Adelaide
or a small town in the Midwest
…you are looking at the living continuation of a name that should have vanished centuries ago — but didn’t.
