Post here to join us in the New Netherland Settlers Project

+49 votes
10.6k views

WikiTree's New Netherland Settlers Project is our collaborative effort to develop and maintain high-quality genealogy information for the people of New Netherland and their descendants.

New Netherland was the 17th-century Dutch colony in eastern North America (mostly in the modern states of New York and New Jersey) controlled by the Dutch West India Company.  Many New Netherland settlers were Dutch, but quite a few of them came from other European places such as Germany, Scandinavia, France, England, Scotland, and the Mediterranean region; some were enslaved Africans; and indigenous Native Americans were part of their community. The scope of the New Netherland Settlers Project currently includes New Netherland descendants born as late as 1776, if they were part of a community where the Dutch culture of New Netherland was prevalent.

If you are interested in participating with this project, please answer this post to join us. In your answer, please tell us about why you are interested in New Netherland (include names of any specific ancestors or New Netherland surnames you are interested in) and tell us how you expect to contribute to the project.

Project members will receive the New Netherland Settlers Project badge on their profiles.

This project is only for WikiTree members. If you are not yet a member of WikiTree, please join the WikiTree community before requesting membership here. See Help:How to Use WikiTree to get started.

Also, we ask project members to:

  1. Add new_netherland to your followed tags.
  2. After you have been accepted into the project, request to join our Google Group, and include your name and Wikitree ID in your request.
  3. Add the category [[Category:New_Netherland_Settlers_Project]] including the brackets, to your biography.

If you have questions about New Netherland or the project, you may find answers on the FAQ page or the New Netherland Settlers Project page. See our advice on reliable sources on the New Netherland Settlers Reliable Sources page and see additional project resources and sourcing advice on our New Netherland Genealogy Resources category. You may even find your ancestors on our Progenitors and Immigrants of the New Netherlands Settlers (though it is quite incomplete!)

PS - Please ANSWER in this G2G thread.

in Requests for Project Volunteers by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
edited by Ellen Smith
I am interested in joining the New Netherlands project. I am Landsman-55. My Grandmother was Edna Jane Van Benschoten. I found a lot of my Dutch ancestors back to the Vignes due to the efforts of many of you who traced the Van Benschoten (Bunschoten) line and the first boy born in New Netherlands. I would love to learn more and be part of this project. — L Landsman (Landsman-55)
Hello! I would like to join. My New Netherland family that I am researching currently are: Burghardt, Van Hoesen, Van Wie, Van Valkenburg, Klauw, Slingerland, Santvoord, Middaugh, Bergen, and Rapalje. I would like to contribute in helping research not only my families but others as well. I love tying things together and digging into things to solve mysteries and make connections. I am a mom, so I research in bits here and there, but I do love focusing on chunks at a time and am working hard to go back through my chart and document and re-verify everything that I have found or have been given by the previous generation of researchers in my family. I also recently found a New Netherlands connection in my husband's family. ~Sharman Rice (Lutz-3115)
Hello!  I am so excited to see this group and would love to join.  I have only recently found out that our family history reaches back this far, and I have become obsessed learning as much as I can about our roots.  My name is Julena Johnson Doudt, and my ancestors include the Crankheyte, Syboutzen, Ryder, deLint, Pieters, etc.  I have even found out that one of them was included in the 60 or so people who managed to escape the Massacre at Naarden.  (I am humbled by knowing that I would not exist if he hadn't escaped!)
Me please if you don't mind ,
Hello! I’m Laurie Cable Olsson, Cable-115. I was fascinated to discover my Dutch ancestors while researching several years ago. Some of them include Romeyn, Van Dyke, Wyckoff, Haegen, Dirckse, Janse.

I would love to collaborate with others on improving our ancestors profiles.

I am working on processing the backlog of requests that were posted as comments. [Folks: Please post your request by using the Answer this post button.]

A hearty welcome to the New Netherland Settlers project to John Diefenbach, Nathaniel Eaton, Kristin Robinson, Mitchell Wilcox.

You all have the badge now. smiley

More welcomes to new project members Jan Wink, Jared Crayk, Julena Doudt, and Laurie (Cable) Olsson. heart We look forward to your contributions.

Thank you very much, Ellen! Looking forward to participating in this project!
Hello, my name is Dawn Stansell (Harrold)  I'm very curious about this group as I have relatives who were in New York area in the time of this period.  My 9th removed Great grandmother was Elizabeth De Graff, born in 1697, who married my Great grandfather Nicholas Stansell ,born in 1669, in 1710 in New York. Her parents were Claas De Graff and Elisabeth Brouwer.If eligible I would love to join.
Welcome to Dawn.

405 Answers

+11 votes
Hi Folks,

I am interested in working on the family of Philip Kilian Van Rensselaer, [Van_Rensselaer-105].  My wife worked at Historic Cherry Hill for many years, and I am well acquainted with the family, through her work. My wiki ID is Weinheimer-29.

Thank you,

Mark
by Mark Weinheimer G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)

Thank you for joining us and volunteering to work on this important family, Mark. Your familiarity with the family history -- and the places they lived -- should help you create some interesting biographies. And maybe your knowledge of the family can help to illuminate the lives of our ancestors who were merely tenants on Rensselaerswyck.

PS - I see that you and I both have enjoyed the serendipitous discovery that our New Netherland ancestor Blandina Deschalets was a Filles du Roi!

Thank you, Ellen, I look forward to participating.
+13 votes
I'd be willing to participate.  My family tree includes many New Netherlands settlers, including Capt John Seaman who emigrated with the Winthrop Fleet to Massachusetts, but eventually moved down the coast to settle near Hempstead, Long Island when it was still under Dutch control.  He was a well-known local figure during that period.  I also have the Rev Francis Doughty, a presbyterian minister, who was given a land grant at Maspeth by Director of the Dutch West India Company, Willem Kieft.
by James Seaman G2G2 (2.7k points)

Hi, James. I'm happy to welcome you to this project. smiley

Your ancestor John Seaman, and probably also some of your other New Netherland ancestors, falls in an overlap area between the English colonization of New England (where John Seaman first settled) and Dutch colonization of New Netherland (where he relocated). John Seaman was part of the "Puritan Great Migration" wave of settlement, and his profile currently has the Puritan Great Migration Project as profile manager -- because the New England resources for him are vastly better than what exists for him from the New Netherland end. The overlap of our two WikiTree projects can result in richer opportunities for discussion and research support, but I warn you that we might confuse you at times.

+15 votes
I am descended from the Huguenot family of Jacques Cossart and wife Lea (Lydia) Willems/Villems (various other spellings for both).  They are Cossart-2 and Willems-2.  I descend through their son Anthony (Cossart-9) and his wife, Lysbeth Tymensen Valentine (Valentine-45), whose father, Jan Tymensen Valentine (Valentine-44) was probably born 1649 near present-day Schenectady, NY, and his wife, Catherine Tamanizer (Tamanizer-1), born about 1653 in Brooklyn.

My main contribution will be entering children and  descendants of Jacob Cossart (Cossart-156) whose children mostly used the name Cozad, and his wife Anna Cox (Cox-258).  I have a mimeographed copy of an old book, compiled by William Pearl Cozad, printed in 1900, giving the families of most of the descendants of Jacob and Anna (Cox) Cozad, with supplements from the 1970s and 1980s by Truman Jenks and Robert Merrill of Chillicothe, Ohio.  This may help other descendants connect to this ancient familly.
by Margaret Kerns G2G6 Mach 1 (18.1k points)
edited by Margaret Kerns

Thanks for joining us, Margaret, and thanks for volunteering to help with the Cossart family.  smiley

When you say you expect to add children and descendants for Jacob Cossart, I think you must mean that you will be adding some new profiles, and adding information (and high-quality sources) to many other existing profiles. A good many of these profiles already exist: WIkiTree's Family List shows that Jacob Cossart and his descendants have 1,661 profiles here! This is a very large family, so I imaging there are still myriad descendants needing to be added here.

I'm not familiar with the William Cozad book. I do recall that there have been a couple of conflicts about the genealogy of parts of the very large Cossart-Cozad family. In order to smooth these situations out, note that we need to seek out the original records, rather than relying on secondary sources like the William Cozad book. See https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:New_Netherland_Settlers_Project_Reliable_Sources for our project's advice on sources.

+14 votes
Hi Ellen,

I'll try again.  I am interested in the Cherry Hill Van Rensselears, in additon to my own Ostrom ancestors.

Warm regards and many thanks for your effeots.

Mark
by Mark Weinheimer G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
You have the badge now, Mark. I don't do badge-awarding every day...
+15 votes

We've long known that my late mother-in-law Carolyn (Riggs) Spencer had Dutch descents from New Netherlands -- including such families as Sooy and Conover/Covenover/Van Couwenhoven. In the last few months we also learned that Carolyn's Steelman ancestors were a Swedish family, "gateway" ancestors to several other New Sweden colonial families.  I've been publishing her Dutch and Swedish ancestry on my freepages website, here (with links to additional families' pages):

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~fesschequy/genealogy/Sooy.html

I'd be happy to help with this project where I can.

by Jared Olar G2G6 (7.2k points)
edited by Jared Olar

Welcome to this project, Jared! I'm pleased to see that you have also discovered the New Sweden Project, and you will be interacting with the two projects in tandem.

Thanks for sharing your Sooy webpage. I like the thoughtful way you describe the information and the uncertainty. Seeing your work, I think you will appreciate the WikiTree New Netherland Settlers Project convention on names -- we document all known name variants (and try to make them searchable), but we focus on the names that appear in actual records. I think this practice sometimes helps save us from genealogical errors that can result from bad assumptions about a person's "correct" name.

Your website was my first introduction to the Sooy family, but I've now also discovered the WikiTree profiles for Joost Sooy and other family members. I was surprised by the indication that Joost was born in the Netherlands in about 1685 and went to America about 1705 in the employ of the Dutch West India Trading Company. In my [admittedly limited] experience with New Netherland history, I've seen very few Dutch people who immigrated to New Netherland anywhere near that late. After the British took permanent control of the New Netherland colony in 1674, there doesn't seem to have been much interaction with the Netherlands. The Dutch settlers I'm aware of who arrived later were clergymen who came to serve the Dutch churches. I wonder if Joost Sooy was born in America to parents who had arrived before 1674. What's the evidence that he was born in the Netherlands?

Anyway, I welcome you to this project and look forward to seeing your additions. Also, your research may benefit from our good relations with Dutch WikiTreers who sometimes can find records on the other side of the ocean that answer important questions for New Netherland.

+14 votes

 think I am, part of the new Netherlands project??  i am not positive,, I do not have a badge, i think this is why I am having so much troubleAttaching the tag. i would like to enter my new Netherlands ancestors. My new Netherlands family relatives are the van Gelders,  Forbes, Wolfe, van Cortland, bishop, Hoffman, Roosevelt, and Bruce families

thank you
by Wendy Browne G2G6 Mach 1 (16.9k points)
You have the badge now.
+14 votes
Hi, I am a descendant of Hendrick Janszen Oosteroom of Schalckwyck, Netherlands and Trijntje Lubbertse Van Blarcom, who were married in New Amsterdam in 1625.  I have a few other unrelated Dutch ancestors as well, but not sure they came through New Netherlands. I am interested in joining the New Netherlands project.
by Stephen Wall G2G1 (1.4k points)

Welcome, cousin! I also have "Ostrom" ancestry. smiley

The first settlers in that family have Wikitree profiles at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Janszen-27 and https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lubberts-64 (both of them have a patronymic name for their LNAB). As with many profiles in this project, those two profiles would benefit from some intelligent and loving care, to improve stye of text and citations, replace (or supplement) unreliable sources with reliable sources suitable for pre-1700 profiles (see this page for more information), add a biographical narrative, etc.

I look forward to seeing you around!

+14 votes
I wrote in the comments but thought that I'd follow instructs and hit the answers.  I am interested in joining this group.  In term of relevant ancestors, my grandfather was Van Wyck Ferris, my great-grandmother was Mary Lanman Douw Ferris who descended from the Douws of Albany.  She wrote several books about early Dutch settlers.  Her husband was Morris Patterson Ferris who was the son of Letitia Storm who descended from Dirck Storm of Sleepy Hollow fame.  I also have Van Rensselaers, Gansevoorts, Brinckerhoffs, DePeysters, and Adriances in my line as well.
by Bob Ferris G2G Crew (620 points)
Glad to have you in this project, Bob!
Hi, I am interested in joining the New Amsterdam Settlers Project.  Eighth and 9th great grandparents on my maternal side were New Amsterdam settlers.  These 9th great grandparents were: Reverend Johannes Theodorus Polhemius II (Polhemius-3) and Catherine "Catharina" Van Der Werven, aka Van Werven (Van Der Werven-1).  The 8th great grandparents were: Jan Roeloffsen Seubring, aka Sueberingh, Sebring (Seubring-14), and Adrianna Polhemius (Polhemius-1).  I then descend from Marietje Sebring (Sebring-91), their daughter, and John Dhu Mordecai McKinney (McKinney-201).  They had a descendant, John Meyers McKinney, Sr. (McKinney-370)  who migrated with his family to Texas from Arkansas in a covered wagon in 1846.  I was born in Texas near where they settled.
+14 votes
Hi, I am interested in joining the New Amsterdam Settlers Project.  Eight and 9th great grandparents on my maternal side were New Amsterdam settlers.  These 9th great grandparents were: Reverend Johannes Theodorus Polhemius II (Polhemius-3) and Catherine "Catharina" Van Der Werven, aka Van Werven (Van Der Werven-1).  These 8th great grandparents were: Jan Roeloffsen Seubring, aka Sueberingh, Sebring (Seubring-14) and Adrianna Polhemius (Polhemius-1).  I then descend from Marietje Sebring (Sebring-91), their daughter, and John Dhu McKinney (201).  John Meyers McKinney, Sr., a descendant of theirs, migrated with his family to Texas from Arkansas in a covered wagon in 1846.  I was born in Texas near where they settled.
by David Alexander G2G Crew (620 points)

Welcome to the New Netherland Settlers Project, David. For many of us, collaborative work to document our New Netherland ancestors has been a great learning experience, as most Americans know very little about New Netherland and its history.

Lesson 1 is geographic terminology: The Dutch colony was Nieuw Nederland -- in English that is New Netherland (not New Netherlands). New Amsterdam was just one location in New Netherland -- roughly described as lower Manhattan Island. As it happens, most of your New Netherland ancestors did live in New Amsterdam, but not exclusively so -- for example, Jan Roeloffsen Seubering died in Bergen, New Jersey (also part of New Netherland).

To continue your lessons, please peruse our project pages, including https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:New_Netherland_Settlers and https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:New_Netherland_Settlers_Project_Reliable_Sources -- and do not hesitate to ask questions here in G2G.

Thank you!  Sorry, my mistake in reading New Netherland but thinking I was seeing New Amsterdam.  I will certainly look at the Project pages you mentioned.  I'm sure you are familiar with the 2004 book The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan & The Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto?  It's been several years since I read this book and have forgotten some of its terminology.

It is remarkably easy to get confused about New Netherland nomenclature, David. smiley

I have not actually read the Shorto book yet, but I have read passages from it, and know that it is a great resource that has caused quite a few people to become deeply interested in New Netherland.

+14 votes

Actively researching ancestry related to new_netherland. Thomas Hood (1782-1825) 6th ggp found using Ancestry.com Thrulines. Son of  Andrew Allen Hood Sr. and Massa (Sudduth), son of Luykas Hood, Son of Jasper Jans Hood. I have completed my family tree (DNA verified) from myself to Thomas Hood. 

by Angela Nix G2G Crew (950 points)

Hi, Angela. A person born in 1782 is not in the scope of this project, and anyway Thrulines is not by itself valid evidence for genealogy. (It is, however, a wonderful source of clues that is likely to help lead you to the sources that will help you document your ancestry.)

Once you have established a firmer basis for your New Netherland ancestry and know who you are researching in the New Netherland scope, please come back and request the project badge.  smiley

That is most unfortunate as I not only have a sourced family tree that links myself to Thomas Hood, son of Andrew Allen Hood, son of Jasper Jans Hood (1652), but also DNA proof of ancestry to my 6th ggp Thomas Hood. Dankje
Ah, that is a horse of a different color. Thanks for revising your answer to clarify!

I guess the ancestor you are talking about is https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hoed-4

Yes, I believe this is my ancestor as learned through a great deal of research. However, I cannot genetically link us as the DNA is sketch and/or not applicable past 6th ggp. Dankje

+14 votes
I request acceptance into this group.  My ancestors were Wijnant Gerritsz (b. 1617, Meppel, Drenthe) and Trijntie Melgers (b. 1619, Amsterdam), who were married in Amsterdam in Oct 1640, and arrived at Beverwijck before May 1654, when Wijnant first appears in court records there.  He was a carpenter, who also owned a sawmill, and Trijntie was licensed as a midwife.  Wijnant later began using the surname "van der Poel".  His sawmill was located on the east side of the Hudson on a creek ("kill") known to this day as "Wynantskill".
by David Vanderpool G2G6 (7.3k points)

Thanks for joining us, David. You have been adding some excellent content to your ancestors' profiles. heart

+14 votes
Hello. My name is Gerrit Heikamp. My wife's ancestors including a number of the Harris family were New Netherland Settlers. I on the other hand am from the Netherlands. Thank you.
by Gerrit Heikamp G2G1 (1.6k points)

Hi, Gerrit. I am very glad you have joined this project.

I am embarrassed to say that when I saw your post some weeks ago I was not familiar with the Harris family of New Netherland, so I looked to find out who you were talking about, and I fell down a proverbial rabbithole. There were conflicting theories on the identity of the first Harrises in New Netherland territory, and I could not stop until I understood the situation. I ended up confident that Willem Harris was baptized in Albany in 1691, and not a man from Connecticut.

+13 votes
I'm interested in joining the New Netherland Settlers Project. My interest is primarily in the Van Esseltyne, Van Deusen and related families...
by William Wallace Tooke G2G2 (2.0k points)
Thank you for joining this project, William.

I also have the Van Esselsteyn name in my ancestry. It is an unusual time that seems to be recognizable across all of its diverse spelling variations.
+13 votes
I would like to participate in the New Netherland Settlers Project.  I am a direct Male descendant of Casper Jacobse [Hallenbeck], b. 1624.
by

Welcome to this project, Mark Hallenbeck.

Thank you for the good content you have been adding to WikiTree, and thank you for agreeably merging profiles after it became clear that some of your numerous cousins had already created profiles for some of your ancestors.  (Many of us are astonished to discover how many living descendants our seemingly obscure ancestors have.) I expect that you will look around WikiTree carefully before creating additional profiles. smiley

+14 votes
Hello!

I would like to join this project because I am still working on the settler Hendrick Hendricksen Obe, on whom I did much research. New leads might emerge from what project members ask and say!

Marie
by Marie-Pierre Lessard G2G4 (4.0k points)

Welcome to this project, Marie-Pierre. You have been busy!

I have not studied the profiles of Hendrick Obe and André Aubé, but I do think it is credible that Andre was a child who was taken captive during the Schenectady Massacre and transported to Quebec (I recently worked on another profile for a man who had that same experience). However, if he was born in 1683, I do not think it likely that he was the child of a mother born in 1634. Could he be a grandchild? This family deserves some discussion...

This birth year is only an estimate. Researching the supposed mother's family involves doing research in Europe, so it's a whole other project.

André Ôbé was too young to have been taken captive during the Schenectady Massacre. It's an assumption that people have made. He is not on the captive's list for that event. We don't know for sure when or where he was taken, at least not yet.

The Obes seem to be the most likely parents in spite of the fact that the mother must have been in her 40s. Maybe an unpublished primary source can be found one day!

It's not something that I wish to discuss at length. I have shared quite a bit of my research for free on the Internet. My ebook covers an extensive list of records about different relevant families. If people want to research this family in more depth, they should buy my ebook and see if they have ideas about how to attack the problem differently and move forward.

This was a very difficult family to research, and the second version of my ebook (soon to be published) will be about 100 pages long. It wouldn't be productive for me to "discuss" the subject with people who only read the info on Wikitree and imagine that they can just figure it out in one weekend. The managers of the profiles took foreover and actually seemed to refuse to make an obvious change, perhaps because they don't want to pay to access serious research such as the NYG&B Record. This family needs attention from more serious genealogists than that in order to tie the few loose ends.
+13 votes
Some branches of my family lead back new Amsterdam and I have an interest in helping and learning.
by Carl Dickason G2G5 (5.5k points)
Thank you for joining us, Carl. Helping and learning are what we do (continually) in this project. Most of us have had much to learn about New Netherland -- it was not covered in our school history classes.
+13 votes
Yo what's up! My name's McCants Meinders, and most of my heritage dates back to pre 1700's America. I have distant French Huguenot and Dutch roots from New Netherland. Surnames in my family's tree include Van Deventer, Du Trieux/Traux, Le Roux, Corssen, Stillwell, Lott, Smit, and probably more I am forgetting. I also might be descended from the following families: Boekhout, De Groot, Sutphen, and Langestraet. I love researching colonial American roots, and New Netherland is apart of that story,  so I am interested in joining this project. Thanks for reading.
by McCants Meinders G2G Crew (990 points)
edited by McCants Meinders

Thank you for joining us, McCants. smiley

When you get around to exploring your very early ancestry, do poke around first to see if your ancestors have profiles. Many of them do, but between the wildly varying spellings of New Netherland names and the estimated dates on many of their profiles, the WikiTree search utility often misses duplicate profiles.

+13 votes
Submitted in error
by David Vanderpool G2G6 (7.3k points)
edited by David Vanderpool
+13 votes
Hi, I [[Hallenbeck-419]] am very interested in joining the NNS Project.  I am fairly certain I am a direct descendant of Casper Jacobse [[Hallenbeck-8]].
by Mark Hallenbeck G2G1 (1.1k points)

You are in now. Sorry for my long delay in awarding badges. blush

+13 votes
I am interested in joining this group. There's Swartwouts and Quicks in my ancestry and difficulties with the DeWitts and Brincks. At present I'm interested in working out my Brinck connections and looking at the Minisink region. See my https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Benjamin_Brink_Mystery_Ancestry
for some of my work.
(Last night I though my computer was fried. If you suddenly don't hear from me for a while, suspect that it died. Buying a new one just now might be a problem, considering what country they are made in.)
by Pauline Layton G2G6 (7.0k points)
So glad you joined us, Pauline. You have been making an impact with your additions of content, sources, and sometimes new profiles for Dupuys and others. That free-space page of yours about Benjamin Brink shows that you are a dedicated researcher. Welcome!

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