The Entire History of Dutch Migration Into America

There was a country here before America — and if your family has been in New York or New Jersey since before the Revolution, you may descend from it without knowing. New Netherland ran from Delaware Bay to Albany, with its capital on the tip of Manhattan. It lasted forty years, was handed over without a shot fired in 1664, and was written out of the story so thoroughly that most Americans have never heard of it. The people never left. Their names just came apart — Roosevelt was van Rosevelt, Vanderbilt was van der Bilt, Conover was Van Kouwenhoven. This is the complete history of Dutch immigration to America, covering both migrations: the colonial New Netherland settlement and the entirely separate 19th-century Dutch Reformed migration to Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin. Plus every county they settled, the surnames and what they were before, and the research traps that stop most Dutch American genealogy cold. In this video: Henry Hudson and the fur trade. Why the first settlers of New Netherland were mostly Walloon, not Dutch. The truth about the purchase of Manhattan and where the "24 dollars" figure actually came from. Kiliaen van Rensselaer and the patroon estates. Slavery in New Netherland and the eleven men granted half-freedom in 1644. Kieft's War and the Pavonia massacre. Peter Stuyvesant and the surrender of 1664. The Dutch language that survived in New Jersey and the Mohawk Valley into the twentieth century. The rights Dutch women held that English law took away. The six Dutch towns of Brooklyn. The Schenectady massacre of 1690. The Afscheiding of 1834 and the founding of Holland, Michigan and Pella, Iowa. The 1857 church split and why it decides which archive holds your family's records. The Dutch Indonesian refugees who came to California in the 1950s. Dutch patronymics, the van and de prefixes, and the surnames that are not actually Dutch at all. Chapters 0:00 The country that was here first 2:30 Two migrations, three hundred years apart 5:00 Why Pennsylvania Dutch are not Dutch 6:30 Henry Hudson and the beaver trade 9:00 The Walloons who founded New Netherland 12:00 What really happened on Manhattan in 1626 16:00 The patroons and Rensselaerswyck 19:00 Slavery in New Netherland 23:00 Kieft's War and Stuyvesant 26:30 The surrender of 1664 29:00 The Dutch that outlived Dutch rule 32:00 Find your county — Manhattan and Brooklyn 35:00 The Hudson Valley and New Jersey 38:00 Schenectady, 1690 39:30 The second migration — Michigan and Iowa 44:00 The church split that decides your records 47:00 The Dutch Indonesians 49:30 Where the descendants are today 52:00 How Dutch surnames worked 55:00 The names and what they were before 59:00 The names that are not Dutch 62:00 The two traps that stop researchers 65:00 Which records survive 69:00 What DNA can and cannot tell you 72:00 The Santa Claus that Washington Irving invented Tell me in the comments: what is your Dutch surname, and do you know what it was before? Which county did they settle in — Kings, Ulster, Bergen, Ottawa, Sioux? And is your family from New Netherland or from the 1840s? #Dutch #NewNetherland #Genealogy #AmericanHistory