Epke Jacobse (b.ca.1619), son of Jacob Epkesz and Reytske Sickedr, married Sitske Dircksda about 1650, and in 1659 the family emigrated from The Netherlands to Vlissingen (later Flushing), Long Island, New York. Descendants (most used the surname Banta after the late 1600s) lived in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Kentucky (a few of the Kentucky Banta family became members of the two Shaker colonies in Kentucky), Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington, California, Minnesota, Wyoming, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arizona and elsewhere.

Publishes refereed scholarship in history and related disciplines from initial Old World-New World contacts to the early nineteenth century and beyond. Its articles, notes and documents, and reviews range from British North America and the United States to Europe, West Africa, the Caribbean, and the Spanish American borderlands. Forums and topical issues address topics of active interest in the field.