Are You Brave Enough to Eat Like a Dutch Settler in New York?

This is kind of cool. A local restaurant in Brooklyn New York is offering food items that our early Dutch settlers in New Netherland (present day New York) might have eaten.

Read the full story at Brooklyn Brewery Dares Diners To Eat Like Dutch Settlers

Credits: Image from Brooklyn Brewery

Fascinating Video About New Amsterdam and New Netherland (New York)

Do you have ancestors who settled in New Netherland (present day New York State)? 

If yes, you will want to watch this very interesting 15 minute video called Het Klokhuis: Nieuw Amsterdam about New Amsterdam (present day New York City) and New Netherland (present day New York state). 

The video is in Dutch but it doesn't really matter if you understand Dutch or not. I don't speak Dutch but the video is fascinating and easily understood without knowing what the actors are saying. 

The description of the video reads:
  
Nieuw Amsterdam. Het Klokhuis in Amerika. New York heeft Nederlandse roots! Brooklyn, Harlem, Wallstreet en Broadway; allemaal namen met een Nederlandse voorgeschiedenis. Bart duikt in het verleden van New York dat toen nog Nieuw Amsterdam heette 

Google Translation: Nieuw Amsterdam. The Klokhuis in America. New York has Dutch roots! Brooklyn, Harlem, Wall Street and Broadway, all names with a Dutch history. Bart delves into the history of New York that was then called New Amsterdam

If you can read a few Dutch words, you may want to turn on the subtitles. That is what I did and it helped add a bit more understanding as every so often there would be a word I recognized. 

To turn on the subtitles (ondertiteling), just run your cursor over the bottom of the video screen. A horizontal menu bar displays. You want click on the "T" icon found between the gear icon and the volume icon.  Then untick the radio button "off" and tick the button beside TT888

Enjoy!

NEW WEB SITE EXPLORING AMERICA’S DUTCH HERITAGE

NEW WEB SITE EXPLORING AMERICA’S DUTCH HERITAGE

The New Netherland Institute in collaboration with the New Netherland Research Center has launched a new web site exploring America’s Dutch heritage at www.newnetherlandinstitute.org.
	In History & Heritage, explore Dutch America through documents, artifacts, people and places.  Currently featuring two new exhibits:  “Arent van Curler & the Flatts: How History, Archaeology & Art Illuminate a Life on the Hudson” and “Charting New Netherland: 1597 – 1684.”
	In Research, discover original documents through which scholars study the New Netherland era and its ongoing legacy.  Just published online:  A new translation of the memorandum book of Antony de Hooges, business manager of Rensselaerswijck, and an introductory essay by Dirk Mouw.
	In Education, find tools for teachers and fun ways for students to explore on their own.  Now introducing lessons plans from the 2012 Summer Institute for teachers held at the New York State Museum – first in the series is “The Fur Trade: Contact and Commerce between Indians and Dutch Settlers.”
	In the new Shop, explore, celebrate, educate or just have fun with a basket of products related to New Netherland.  Newest Book: New Netherland in a Nutshell: A Concise History of the Dutch Colony in North America by Firth Haring Fabend.  (The Shop now accepts Mastercard, Visa and American Express.)

Amsterdam Burial Registers Online

This just in from Amsterdam Archives! What great news for those searching their Dutch roots.

Amsterdam, March 4, 2010

History at the click of a mouse

Amsterdam City Archives presents its award-winning Archives Database: a wealth of digitized archival material, directly available online. The easy-to-use website provides quick access to Amsterdam’s historical documents. Find your Dutch ancestors with just the click of a mouse, with the help of a straightforward search system and instructions in English. Now, the Amsterdam burial registers, another indispensable source for genealogical research, have been added to the Archives Database, bringing the total number of scans to more than seven million.

Easy to use

Finding the document you need is easy. Simply enter a name in the indexes that give access to the genealogical sources, and the documents will appear on your screen. Or search the Amsterdam City Archives’ inventories, accessible in full on the website. These contain treasures such as letters written by Charles Darwin; an eighteenth-century trade agreement with the newly founded United States of America; the archives of the Portuguese-Israelite Synagogue, containing the excommunication of seventeenth-century philosopher Spinoza; and the archives of institutions such as the Heineken brewery and the renowned Concertgebouw.

Opening up 20 miles of archives
The number of scans available for direct download is growing day by day. Cannot download the document you are looking for yet? The Amsterdam City Archives will scan it at your request, and it will be online within three weeks. Together, the Amsterdam City Archives and its visitors are opening up all 20 miles of Amsterdam’s archives online, making research easy, no matter where you are.

Quality scans, low costs
The quality of the scans is perfect for research. Every original detail is legible. Yet the standard is such that the costs are low. What’s more: to celebrate the addition of the burial registers to the Database, the Amsterdam City Archives now offers five scans free of charge to every newly registered user of the Archives Database. Just send your login name to fifescansforfree@gaa.nl

Best Archives on the Web
After first attaining a national award, the Archives Database has now found international acclaim, securing the Best Archives on the Web Award 2009.

About the Amsterdam City Archives
The Amsterdam City Archives (Stadsarchief Amsterdam) is the largest municipal archives in the world. It preserves documents pertaining to the history of Amsterdam and provides information about the city and its inhabitants, now and in the past. The Amsterdam City Archives is a pioneer in the field of digitizing archival material. Apart from the Archives Database, the website of the Amsterdam City Archives features an Image Bank, containing more than 260.000 photos, drawings, and prints related to the city.

Letters as Loot - Fascinating Project of Leiden University!

Thanks to the subscribers of the New-Netherland mailing list discussing the New Netherland Institute online, I found Letters as Loot, an absolutely wonderful project by the University of Leiden.

Quoting from the Leiden University website:

The National Archives in Kew, UK hold a treasure that causes real excitement among scholars: the recently rediscovered collection of Dutch documents from the second half of the 17th to the early 19th centuries, comprising over 38,000, both commercial and private, letters. These so-called sailing letters were confiscated during the wars fought between The Netherlands and England.

The research programme Letters as loot: Towards a non-standard view on the history of Dutch aims at exploring this extraordinary and highly valuable source for a new history of Dutch.

The project comprises three sub-projects. Two cross-sections are made in the source material at a chronological distance of about hundred years: the first of the period 1665-1674 (2nd and 3rd Anglo-Dutch Wars) and the second of the period 1776-1784 (4th Anglo-Dutch War and American War of Independence).

Every month, a new letter is translated and posted online. In the Monthly Letter posted in May/June 2009 was a fascinating letter written in 1664 by my ancestor Hendrick Meesen Vrooman to his brother Jacob. Hendrick had recently arrived in New Netherland (present day New York) and wrote to tell his brother Jacob in Leiden all about the new land he had settled in.

What an insight into both my ancestor and the time period when the English took New Netherland and it became New York.

Hendrick says in his letter "Furthermore I let you know that there have arrived three English ships at the Manhattans with soldiers and they have claimed the land and they say that it belongs to their king. And Stuyvesant [the governor of the New-Netherlands] has given it to them without one shot, with an agreement."

I spent an enjoyable hour browsing the other letters held at University of Leiden website. Just choose English from the main page if you do not read Dutch.

Reading 17th Century Dutch Handwriting - Part Five

Reading Dutch Script: Figuring out even more letter formations

Reading 17th Century Dutch Handwriting - Part Four

Reading Dutch Script: More Letter Formations



Using this same page of church records we can learn other letter shapes and names

Reading 17th Century Dutch Handwriting - Part Three

Reading Dutch Script: Steps to take when you find an entry of interest



Step 1: Trace the entry as it displays on the microfilm reader

Step 2: Copy the entry

Step 3: Study the letter formations. Figure out what the entry says

Reading 17th Century Dutch Handwriting - Part Two

Reading Dutch Script: Studying the letter formations on a page of records



If you need help with Dutch names, you might find my section on New Netherland (present day New York) of some help. Anyone with ancestors from New York in the 1600s may find themselves with Dutch ancestry (which is what got me started on all this!)

It gives examples of >Dutch names = English names = Shortened Dutch names (nicknames). It also explains the use of suffixes -je or -tje, -je, -tje, -ie and -ke

To learn the patronymic naming system and the suffixes used there, you might find >Understanding Patronymics helpful

Reading 17th Century Dutch Handwriting - Part One

Finding an entry on a page of records from 1621

Click on the image for a larger picture, or View larger image. You can also view a larger image here

This is a page of church baptismal records from 1621 in Amsterdam. The entry I was looking for was for Claesje the daughter of Teunis Dircks & Aefje Pieters.

This is a relatively easy page to read compared to some! The handwriting is neat and legible, the filmed record is not dark, and the size of the writing is not too small.

Understanding Diminuitives in 17th Century New York Dutch names

I talked about patronymics in an earlier post. Hopefully it helped clear up any confusion! But research in 17th Century New York is not easy.

You also have to be aware of the diminuitives of regular first names, because the patronymic might be formed from the normal name or its diminuitive. For example:

* Antonis=Theunis/Teunis (patronymic of Antonisz or Theunisz)
* Matthys=Thys/Tice (patronymic of Thyssen)
* Harmanus=Harman or Manus
* Jacobus=Cobus
* Nicolas=Claes (patronymic of Claessen)
* Denys=Nys (patronymic of Dennysen or Nyssen)
* Bartolomeus=Bartol or Meese/Meus (patronymic of Meesen)
* Cornelis=Krelis

There are two kinds of Dutch diminuitives: the shortened Dutch name and the endearing Dutch name.

The shortened name was used by the Dutch for both males and females.

The endearing diminuitive was used exclusively for female names. This diminuitive form attached to female names as an expression of endearment was formed by adding the suffix -je or -tje. As well, -je, -tje, -ie and -ke are also additions to a child's name.

A boy with the Dutch name "Jan" will in his childhood very often be named "Jantje". It is also used to show an age difference in place of Senior [Sr.] and Junior [Jr]. the father will be called "Jan" and the son "Jantje".

Female names are slightly different. If a grandmother is named for example "Sien" or "Sina" the girls Dutch name very often is "Sientje" meaning small or younger Sien, and this will be the name given on the Birth certificate. Thus Sientje is her registered name, not just the diminuitive.

As well, the suffixes -je and -tje, while normally used as a diminuitive, are also used to create the female form of the name (especially in Friesland). For example, "Eelke" is the male name and "Eelkje" is the female form. "Hendrik" is the full male name, "Henk" the short form and "Hendrikje" or "Hendrickje" the female form.

Browse the list of English names and their Dutch equivalents, including both shortened and diminuitive Dutch forms when known.

Rensselaerswijck Seminar of New Netherland Institute

NEW NETHERLAND NEWS CONTACT: Nancy Curran tel. 393-5905

nancycurran@prodigy.net

Trustee, New Netherland Institute

RENSSELAERSWIJCK SEMINAR SEPTEMBER 13

ABOUT THE FRENCH AND THE DUTCH IN THE NEW WORLD

31ST Annual Rensselaerswijck Seminar of New Netherland Institute Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008, New York State Museum, Empire State Plaza, Albany Registration 9:30 a.m. Reception and dinner 5 p.m. Pre-registration: $50, $30 for students. Registration at the door $60.

Theme: “Neighbors in the New World: New Netherland and New France” Register on line at http://www.nnp.org

For more information, call (518) 486-4815

Speakers and topics:

José António Brandão of Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich.: “An Unreasonable Offer: Iroquois Policy towards their Huron and Mahican Neighbors”

James Bradley of ArchLink, Boston:“In Between Worlds: New Netherland and New France at Mid Century”

Conrad Heidenreich on York University, Ontario, Canada:“The Skirmish with the Mohawk on Lake Champlain”

Willen Frijhoff of the Free University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands:“Jesuits, Calvinists and Natives: Attitudes, Agency, and Encounters in the Early Christian Missions to the North”