During the first decade of trade with the East Indies, a Dutch retourschip leaving Texel bound for the East Indies followed the old route that Arab and Portuguese sailors took—south
down the west coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, northeast through the Mozambique Channel and across the Indian Ocean, sometimes via India or Ceylon.
The Dutch “purchase” of Manhattan from the Indians has been called “the deal of the millennium,” though some say it was the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, or that of Alaska in 1867, that was the most lucrative real estate deal in American history.
Royal River: Power, Pageantry, and the Thames by David Starkey is a richly illustrated companion to the 2012 National Maritime Museum exhibition of the same name. It explores the central role of the River Thames in the history of British monarchy, politics, and ceremony.
It’s a serious loss to historians that no Dutch or American archive contains any kind of
contract, receipt, or deed of transfer to serve as proof of the so-called “purchase” of Manhattan.
Apart from anything else, such a document would have put a stop to much of the endless
theorizing and half-baked legend-making associated with this event.
Several private organizations also provide valuable genealogical information. While many offer content in English, some are only in Dutch. These sites include searchable databases, surname and archive directories, and links to regional resources. Some require membership for full access, while others provide free tools and research tips. Though not all focus exclusively on genealogy, their collections—ranging from name studies to family trees and historical records—can be useful for anyone researching Dutch ancestry.
On a warm, cloudless night in February I walked into the rustling garden of my friends’ house and looked up at the sky. What I saw up there wasn’t a complete surprise, and yet it was still striking, and very strange to me. Despite the lights of the city I could see plenty of stars, and yet I was unable to link them together into any discernable pattern, as I was so used to doing at
home. The simple reason for both my awe and my confusion was that I was in Auckland, New Zealand. This was the southern sky, presenting me with an unfamiliar clutter of stars.
On April 2, 2025 Charly Gehring officially retired after 50 years of translation work. Read Paul Grondahl’s tribute to Charly in the April 9th Albany Times Union here.
Discovery, commerce, and patriotism were the fundamental driving forces that committed the Netherlands, along with other European powers, to sending fleet after fleet of ships into the many hazards of the scarcely charted maritime world of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These forces had to be undeniably powerful to convince so many men so many times to risk their fortunes and their very lives to sail the world for years on end, in extreme danger and discomfort, to bring back home the strange seeds, fruits, roots, and bark of exotic plants that grow only in hot climates. In a word: spices.
A range of free genealogical resources is available through national and local archives. These sites offer access to historical records, surname databases, and digital collections, including photos, war documents, and church records. Some are in Dutch only, while others offer English options. Whether you're tracing one ancestor or building a full family tree, these resources are a valuable starting point for exploring your Dutch roots.
With the New Netherland Institute’s dedication to Dutch matters, you may wonder what the English Captain James Cook is doing here. In many of the other Totidem Verbis articles you can witness the courage of Dutch navigators whose place in global exploration and discovery deserves attention and fair consideration.
