If you have New Netherland ancestors, come join us on the New Netherland Settlers Facebook group.On September 19, 1609, the East India Company ship Halve Maen, commanded by Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for Dutch businessmen who were seeking a passage to the Orient, reached the present-day Albany New York area.
It was not until 1624 that the first colonists arrived in New Netherland (now New York) to settle at Fort Orange (present day Albany), the mouth of the Connecticut River, and High Island (Burlington Island) in the Delaware River.
English colonists were in Virginia and Plymouth, and England was claiming the northeastern Atlantic Coast. They both laid claim to Long Island, where the Dutch took hold of the western end and, later, the English settled on the eastern end.
(Source: http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/overview.shtml )
