Book recommendation for New Netherlands researchers

Question

I hope I don't get scolded for posting this here as it's not a question. It is highly relevant to genealogy research for early settlers in New York though and this seemed like a great place to spread the word, so I hope I'll be forgiven. :-)

For those of you doing any work on Dutch ancestors who were in the US before the English takeover in 1664, Russell Shorto's "Island at the Center of the World" is a MUST read! Not only is it a very thorough and well-researched history, it is a very enjoyable read as it is written as a historical narrative. Shorto tells some interesting stories along the way about quite a few of the settlers who have wikitree entries as well.

The research is so well done, in fact, that before I returned it to the library I copied the entire bibliography as a list of quality references on the period that have already proved useful in my genealogy research.

Here's a link to the book on Amazon. Hope you enjoy!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400078679/ref=s9_wish_co_d18_g14_i2?ie=UTF8&colid=2HI1JOL7J42P7&coliid=IA5BAWYO6MVQS&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=left-1&pf_rd_r=04XGWGX3B405BV7H7A5J&pf_rd_t=3201&pf_rd_p=1774864282&pf_rd_i=typ01

Comments

I completely agree; have read it twice and am reading it again, making notes with post-its and all ... It is also very entertaining ...

Answer 1

Thanks for the heads up, Jeremy! I am sure plenty of us Dutch descedents love getting tips on other sources.

Answer 2

You don't need to be forgiven. Thank you for the great resource for the project. Have you considered posting the bibliography to the New Netherlands Project page?

Comments

This would be very helpful, but it's probably under copyright.  Fortunately, it sounds like the book is new.  You can probably get permission from the author to post the bibliography as long as you cite the source in a way that supports his book sales.

Answer 3

Thanks Jeremy! I added the Amazon link to the "Useful Pages" section of the project page. Cheers, Liz (http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:New_Netherland_Settlers#Useful_Pages)

Answer 4

I picked up a book from the library that has a fairly good history of New York City, with a nice coverage of the New Amsterdam period for about the first 80-ish pages or so. The book is titled, "Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898." by Edwin G. Burrows & Mike Wallace, Oxford University Press, 1999. I'm finding a fairly decent amount of "clues" throughout the beginning of this over 1300 page book that are helping in my research.