On Saturday, April 29, 2023 at 10:30 a.m., I will be speaking on Dutch Genealogy as the second of our workshop series this year.
I became interested in Dutch genealogical research because of my own ancestry, in particular, my surname—Kolstee. My great-great grandparents settled in Clymer, New York, where there was a cluster of families from Winterswijk, in what is referred to the Achterhoek region in the eastern part of the Netherlands. My family can be traced back to the early 1500s (including those born in the 1400s) thanks to civil, church, and other registers, including records of serfs.
The Dutch kept very good records and there are many resources online. One major site I will discuss in the workshop is WieWasWie, which has indexed numerous Dutch records. Ancestry.com and FamilySearch have also began indexing these records, but Dutch language based websites (and WieWasWie has an English version) can be easier to find exactly what you are searching.
A couple of things I will want to highlight about Dutch history, which I will cover at the beginning of my presentation. The modern Dutch state emerged in the 1500s and was known under numerous names. Many people refer to the Netherlands as “Holland,” however, Holland is actually a region in the western coast made up of the provinces of North Holland (Noord-Holland) and South Holland (Zuid-Holland). The history of this region covers the Roman period through influence of the Franks, to the Dutch revolt (Hundred Years’ War), as well as conquest by the Napoleonic Empire.
The cost of the workshop is $10 for members or $20 for non-members. For all six-workshops this year, it is $50 for members and $100 for non-members. It will be recorded and available for those who have paid but are unable to attend in-person.
