The Dutch West India Company established New Netherland’s legal system according to the statutes of the Dutch states of Holland and Zeeland. These laws reflected Germanic customary law, the Roman code of Justinian (corpus juris), canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, and special corporate privileges granted by various overlords.
The English conditions for New Netherland’s capitulation guaranteed the Dutch their customary rights of property, inheritance, and religious practice and confirmed established Dutch political units.
With so many possible spellings, a genealogical researcher must deal with many difficulties when seeking seventeenth-century Dutch surnames.
One need not be fluent in Dutch to glean information from Dutch-language documents. This page lists resources to help in interpreting some relevant terms.
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.
An unmatched expert in the language of New Netherland, Gehring is retiring after 50 year interpreting colonial Dutch to explain the lives of New York’s earliest European settlers.
Dutch Albany in History & Art, a joint conference with the Albany Institute of History & Art and the New York State Museum, was held...
Dutch Albany in History & Art, a joint conference with the Albany Institute of History & Art and the New York State Museum, was held on Saturday September 21, 2024.
This volume continues the legal record, capturing court proceedings and common disputes—property, debt, slander—similar to those in the Fort Orange and Beverwijck minutes, under a newly named court.
The records in this volume represent the next to the oldest surviving archival papers of the Dutch community that eventually became Albany, the capital of...
