tember 21, 1830 into a wealthy family who were part of New York City's Dutch aristocracy, descendants of the city's original settlers. Her father, Abraham Schermerhorn (1783–1850), and the extended Schermerhorn family were engaged in shipping. At the time of Lina's birth, Abraham was worth half a million dollars. Her mother was Helen Van Courtlandt (née White) Schermerhorn (1792–1881). Lina was the couple's ninth child. Her older sister Elizabeth married General James I. Jones, who owned a vast farm in upper Manhattan called Jones's Wood. Her maternal grandparents were Henry White and Anne (née Van Cortlandt) White. Her paternal grandparents were Peter Schemerhorn and Elizabeth (née Bussing) Schemerhorn. Among her extended Schermerhorn family was first cousin, William Colford Schermerhorn, the father of Annie Schermerhorn Kane, wife of John Innes Kane (a great-grandson of John Jacob Astor). At the time o
f her birth, her family lived at 1 Greenwich Street, near the Bowling Green, but the population growth and increasing urbanization of lower Manhattan in the 1830s led her family to move farther north to 36 Bond Street, near the ultra fashion
