The family, Dutch in origin, traces its roots to Aalst, in what is now Flanders in Belgium, and to Joris Stevenson Van Alst, who emigrated to New Amsterdam, where he married in 1652. He settled in Dutch Kills, a hamlet in what became Long Island City.

According to James Riker Jr.'s “The Annals of Newtown,” published in 1852, while it appeared several Van Alsts had opposed a rupture with England before independence was declared, once the Revolution began a Bergoon Van Alst achieved local fame, and redeemed the family name, by driving off loyalist raiders who attacked his pigpen.

In the 19th century, John L. Van Alst became a commissioner of common schools.

Another member of the family, Peter G. Van Alst, was so renowned as a surveyor that any stake he set was considered “the symbol of accuracy.” As a member of the First Ward Improvement Commission in 1874, he was responsible for raising the grade of Jackson Avenue in what is now Long Island City to eight feet from three, which, according to one account, “profoundly affected the daily life of the city.”

The Van Alsts spread out to East Elmhurst and Woodside, and were memorialized in a street name (later changed to 21st Street, though the subway stop on the G line is still also called 21st Street-Van Alst) and also in the name of a playground in Astoria. Other relatives associated with the Van Alsts in the late 19th century, and possibly interred in the cemetery, came from families named Hunter, Parsalls, Bragaw and Paynter.

As part of the proposed rezoning of the development site in Long Island City by the City Planning Commission, an archaeological consulting firm, Historical Perspectives, was hired in 2000 to research the environmental impact.