The Holland Society of New York Fifteenth Annual Dinner 1900

The Holland Society of New York was founded in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1885 to collect information respecting the settlement and history of

New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva P ...

. Its main objective is to find and preserve documentation about the inhabitants' lives and times so as to elucidate the political, social, and religious patterns in the Dutch colony. The society sponsors historical publications, and provides resources for family studies and genealogy. Many of its members are especially active in genealogical research and publication. The Holland Society originated the New Netherland Project, which is translating and publishing the 17th-century records held by the

New York State Archives The New York State Archives is a unit of the Office of Cultural Education within the New York State Education Department, with its main facility located in the Cultural Education Center on Madison Avenue in Albany, New York, United States. The Ne ...

. Among other current sponsorships are The Papers of

Jacob Leisler Jacob Leisler ( – May 16, 1691) was a German-born colonist who served as a politician in the Province of New York. He gained wealth in New Amsterdam (later New York City) in the fur trade and tobacco business. In what became known as Leisler ...

Project and Records of the Translations of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Flatbush, Kings County, New York. Membership consists of male and female descendants in the direct male line of an ancestor who lived in New Netherland before or during 1675. Notable members include

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

, Humphrey Bogart,

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

, and

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, who also served as a Trustee of the Society during his tenure as Governor of New York. The Holland Society hosts an Annual Banquet in order to honor contributions made by an individual of Dutch descent. Past honorees include

Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor. He had a career that spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. He cultivated an everyman screen image in several films considered to be classics. Born and ra ...

, Gloria Vanderbilt, astronaut Jerry L. Ross, and

, among others. The Holland Society's library is an invaluable resource for those pursuing New Netherland studies, especially genealogy and family history. There are about 7,000 books of which 3,000 volumes deal with local history; 3,000 are family histories and genealogies, and 1,000 are reference books. There is also an extensive vertical file collection which includes letters, photographs, genealogies and press clippings, and a

finding aid A finding aid, in the context of archival science, is an organization tool, a document containing detailed, indexed, and processed metadata and other information about a specific collection of records within an archive. Finding aids often consist o ...

describing the collection is available on the Holland Society website.HSNY Online Catalog: Finding Aids and Inventories
with a link to
The Vertical Files of the Holland Society of New York
(PDF). The Holland Society of New York. Retrieved 2017-06-15. All Holland Society publications are included in the library collection. Copies of early church records provide information on births, marriages and deaths in New Netherland. These records number 109 volumes and are becoming computer accessible. The library subscribes to historical and genealogical society publications, collecting newsletters of family organizations with ancestry in New Netherland. While the collection focuses primarily on New Amsterdam and

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

settlements, it also follows early Dutch and allied migrations in North America. This collection has a large amount of information on the history and culture of the families of the Dutch colonies in America. The library is in the New York State Library in Albany, and may be used by the public by making an appointment with the office.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Lineage societies Dutch-American culture in New York City New Netherland Pre-statehood history of New York (state) 1885 establishments in New York (state) Organizations established in 1885