Internet Reading List

The Largest Dutch Family in America

Abend, Firth Haring. A Dutch Family in the Middle Colonies, 1660-1800. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1991.

This is the story of the Haring family, whose progenitor arrived in New Netherland during the 1630's, and how the family evolved with the changing culture in the Dutch colony and during the succeeding years until the 19^th century. While not mentioned by the author, the Voorhees family surely evolved in a similar way.

Bachman, Van Cleaf, Peltries and Plantations; the economic policies of the Dutch West India Company in New Netherland, 1623-1639. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1969.

Bailey, Rosalie Fellows. Pre-Revolutionary Dutch Houses and Families in Northern New Jersey and Southern New York. New York, William Morrow for the Holland Society of New York, 1936 (reprint, New York, Dover, 1968).

This book is also available on CD. It is one of five works on the CD, which is entitled Five Early Dutch Long Island History Texts. When the web site opening page appears, click New York CD’s.

Order from the NGS. Use the author’s full name for the publication search, not the title. The Dutch followed a complicated system for naming their children. Interestingly, genealogists today benefit from this system because it often suggests the names of grandparents and other family members.

Balmer, Randall Herbert. A Perfect Babel of Confusion : Dutch religion and English culture in the middle colonies. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Most of our New Netherland ancestors were members of the Dutch Reformed Church (“DRC”), which influenced their lives to a great degree. This influence, however, presented difficult and changing situations. The DRC evolved into today’s Reformed Church in America.

Bergen, Teunis G. Register in Alphabetical Order, of the Early Settlers of Kings County, Long Island, N. Y., from its First Settlement by Europeans to 1700; with Contributions to their Biographies and Genealogies, Compiled from Various Sources. New York: S. W. Green's Son, 1881 (reprint, Salem, Massachusetts: Higginson, n.d.).

Billington, Ray Allen. Westward Expansion, A History of the American Frontier. New York: Macmillan, 1949.

This book attempts to follow the pattern that Frederick Jackson Turner might have used had he ever compressed his voluminous researches on the American frontier within one volume. Frederick Jackson Turner (1861-1932) is widely regarded as one of the most influential American historians of the early 20th century. He is best known for his essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” With this volume and subsequent editions (see 5th edition,1982) Billington clearly established himself as Turner's successor on this subject.

Brodhead, John Romeyn. History of the State of New York; 2 v. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1871 (revised ed., 1872).

Burghers of New Amsterdam and the Freemen of New York, 1675-1866. Vol. 18 of Collections, New-York Historical Society, 1886.

DeJong, Gerald F. The Dutch in America, 1609-1974. Boston: Twayne Publishers/G. K. Hall & Co., 1975.

This study of the Dutch-American follows primarily a chronological approach by noting why Hollanders left their native land at various times in history, describing where each wave of immigrants settled.

Jameson, J. Franklin, ed. Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664. New York, C. Scribner's Sons, 1909 (reprint, New York, Barnes and Noble, 1967).

Travel accounts and descriptions of the colony. This book is also available on CD. It is one of five works on the CD, which is entitled Five Early Dutch Long Island History Texts. When the web site opening page appears, click New York CD’s.

Kenney, Alice P. Stubborn for Liberty: The Dutch in New York. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1975.

Maika, Dennis J. Commerce and Community: Manhattan Merchants in the Seventeenth Century. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Dissertation Services, 2003.

This set draws from several documentary sources. Documentary History of the State of New York, vol. 3, has "Rev. Gideon Hawley's Journey to Oghquaga, Broome Co., 1753" and "Journal of Rev. John Taylor's Missionary Tour through the Mohawk and Black River Countries, in 1802." Vol. 2 has "A Description of the Genesee Country," 1804, and "Description of the Country between Albany and Niagara in 1792."

The four volumes are available on CD. entitled Documentary History of New York, (4,500-plus pages and maps). Click New York CD’s on the opening page.

O'Callaghan, E.B. History of New Netherland; 2 v. New York, Appleton, 1848.

Pointer, Richard W. Protestant Pluralism and the New York Experience; A Study of Eighteenth-Century Religious Diversity. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988.

Rink, Oliver A. Holland on the Hudson, an economic and social history of Dutch New York. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.
An excellent formal history of New Netherland.

Ritchie, Robert C. The Duke's Province; a Study of New York Politics and Society, 1664-1691. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977.

Rosenzweig, Lee A. Brooklyn’s Flatlands, beyond the fields. Brooklyn: Israelowitz Publishing, 2002.

This book is mainly black and white photographs made from the late 1800's to the early 1970's. It includes a sixteen page reprint of History of the Town of Flatlands by Dr. Anson DuBois; fifty copies were originally published in 1884.
Brooklyn’s Flatlands also includes two Flatlands maps of 1873.

Shorto, Russell. The Island at the Center of the World. New York: Doubleday, 2004.

This is the story of a forgotten colony and the Dutch, and how they shaped the world – written in a very easy manner. A must-read if one does not plan on reading further.

Smith, Richard. A Tour of Four Great Rivers: The Hudson, Mohawk, Susquehanna and Delaware in 1769, Being the Journal of Richard Smith of Burlington, New Jersey, ed. by Francis W. Halsey. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1906.

Republished as A Tour of the Hudson, the Mohawk, the Susquehanna, and the Delaware in 1769. Fleischmans, NY: Purple Mountain Press, 1989 (paper, reprint).

Smith, William. The History of the Province of New-York, first printed in 1757.

Smolenyak, Megan Smolenyak and Ann Taylor. Trace Your Roots with DNA. Royale, 2004.

While this book does not discuss Dutch and early Colonial life in America, it provides an excellent discussion about the new genetic testing that genealogists and family historians are widely embracing to verify traditional genealogical conclusions and, in some cases, to show the way through genealogical brick walls.

Spier, Peter. The Legend of New Amsterdam. Garden City: Doubleday, 1979.

A children’s book in full color on every page, it includes a map of New Amsterdam in 1660. This is the year that Steven Coerts van Voorhees arrived. New Amsterdam had some 300 buildings and nearly 1,500 residents in 1660.

Dr. van der Donck wrote the definitive description of the natural wonders of New Netherland in 1655. This is the 1841 translation edition.  The author is a key personality in Mr. Shorto’s book, listed above.

Van Voorhees Association. Through a Dutch Door, 17^th century origins of the Van Voorhees Family. Baltimore, Gateway Press, 1992.

To order, see our Publications page.

Dutch Door contains the results of original research into the Family during the 16^th and 17^th Centuries in the Netherlands plus essays on related topics. A feature of the volume is the Van Voorhees Letters. These are the translated text of eleven letters sent from our relatives who remained home to their cousins in New Netherland over the period 1684 to 1714.

Also available on CD. (947 pages with maps and illustrations). Click New York CD’s on the opening page.

Keskachauge, which was spelled in slightly different ways, was the Indian name for Nieuw Amersfoort, which became Flatlands, where Steven Coerts van Voorhees and many other settlers from the Netherlands lived, farmed and transacted their affairs. There are many references to the Voorhees Family and other Dutch families of interest to researchers of family history. If you obtain the CD, when using the search function at first enter Voorhees or Voorhies and omit given and patronymic names; these latter names were not spelled in a consistent manner by our ancestors. The CD includes a detailed map of the Three Flats of Amersfoort, noting a relatively large plat labeled “Voorhees” and another “Voorhees” house, along with other Dutch-named spots of the era.

Webb, Stephen Saunders. 1676: The End of American Independence. New York: Knopf, 1984 (paper, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985).

Wilcoxen, Charlotte. Dutch Trade and Ceramics in America in the Seventeenth Century. Albany: Albany Institute of History and Art, 1987.

Reprinted with an introduction and notes by Edward Gaylord Bourne (Cleveland: Burrows Brothers, 1902, reprinted Harrison, New York: Harbor Hill Books, 1973).

Zwierlein, Frederick James. Religion in New Netherland, 1623-1664; a history of the development of the religious conditions in the province of New Netherland 1623-1664. Rochester: J. P. Smith, 1910.

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