Join the NYG&B for a one-day seminar focused on the process for tracing residents of New Netherland, a vast and dynamic colony that encompassed parts of the present-day states of Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York . Expert researchers, John Blythe Dobson and Yvette Hoitink—key team members on the NYG&B’s New Netherland Settlers multiyear initiative—will lead sessions on topics including tracing ancestors in published sources both in the United States and the Netherlands and researching underdocumented residents such as women, free and enslaved individuals, and Indigenous people. They will also provide a behind-the-scenes view of the process for creating a sketch for the New Netherland Settlers initiative.
This is an online event only. All sessions will be recorded and made available to registrants for on-demand viewing through June 16, 2025.
Workshop Schedule
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10:00 – 10:15 a.m. |
Welcome D. Joshua Taylor, MA, MLS, FUGA |
Words of welcome |
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10:15 – 11:15 a.m. |
Discovering New Netherland Settlers in Published Sources John Blythe Dobson, FASG, FGBS |
The publication of David M. Riker's Genealogical and Biographical Directory to Persons in New Netherland from 1613 to 1674 (5 volumes, 1999–2004) documented about 2,100 settlers who arrived during that period—a major influence on the plan for the NYG&B’s New Netherland Settlers initiative. This session will survey the major published sources used to identify New Netherland immigrants. Systematic attempts to find the names of early settlers in contemporary records began with E. B. O'Callaghan in 1850 and have since been continued by hundreds of scholars. Mr. Dobson will look at a few of the best and worst examples of those efforts. |
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11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. |
Tracing New Netherland Ancestors in the Netherlands Yvette Hoitink, MLitt, CG®, QG™ |
New Netherland settlers did not just leave records in North America. Perhaps a settler was hired by the West India Company, made a last will before boarding the ship, or signed a petition to the Dutch government. Ms. Hoitink will demonstrate how to use records in the Netherlands to solve difficult New Netherland research problems and document the settlers' lives. |
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12:30 – 1:45 p.m. |
Lunch Break |
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1:45 – 2:45 p.m. |
Documenting the Underdocumented: Researching Enslaved and Native People in and Around New Netherland Yvette Hoitink, MLitt, CG®, QG™ |
Jaques, a Native American man captured by the Dutch, and Anna van Angola, one of the first Black women to own land in North America, are just two of the Indigenous and enslaved people whose stories were preserved in fragmentary records of the New Netherland colony. Ms. Hoitink explains how she reconstructs these lives and navigates gaps and biases in historical sources. |
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3 – 4 p.m. |
Developing a Sketch for the New Netherland Settlers Initiative John Blythe Dobson, FASG, FGBS |
This presentation will provide a brief overview of the steps typically used to prepare a sketch for New Netherland Settlers, which covers the period 1613 to 1664. A sketch often begins with a name encountered in a compiled source, in which case the name must be confirmed in original records. A literature review is performed to avoid unnecessary replication of previous investigations, and additional research is undertaken as needed to fill gaps or repair mistakes detected in earlier work. Throughout the process, researchers watch for signs that the subject has either been confused with another person of similar name or has been mistakenly treated as more than one person. Each sketch goes through rigorous peer review before being sent for editing. |
Pricing
- NYG&B Member Early Registration: $129 (ends March 31, 2025; after that registration rate is $149)
- General Registration: $149
About the Presenters
Yvette Hoitink, MLitt, CG®, QG™ is a professional genealogist, writer, and lecturer from the Netherlands. She has a master's degree in family and local history and specializes in research in the Netherlands and New Netherland. A researcher for the New Netherland Settlers initiative, she received a fellowship from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation to research underrepresented and underexamined populations in the colony.
John Blythe Dobson, FASG, FGBS is engaged as a consultant on the NYG&B’s New Netherland Settlers initiative, specifically in preparing the initial sample sketches, advising on the preparation of additional sketches by others, and working on adding further sources to the database. Mr. Dobson has been a contributing editor to the NYG&B Record since 2010 and is an expert at identifying the origins of early immigrants to New Netherland. He is also a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists, bringing a large network of interested researchers to the project.
