Title: Tracing your Dutch Immigrant Ancestor from Home to Here

Session: W152

Time and Date: Wednesday, 02 May 2018, 4:00 p.m.

Tracing your Dutch Ancestor from Home to Here will cover time periods of major Dutch immigration waves and reasons for these exoduses. It will provide sources available in the Netherlands, and list some differences in Dutch genealogical indexing, naming, etc. The emigrant will be followed on passenger lists and points of arrival in the United States to the main Dutch colonies in the United States in the 1800s, before relocating to newer Dutch colonies in the 1900s. The session will cover overcoming difficulties in finding Dutch names in Dutch records as well as in the United States Federal Censuses, concluding with case studies. People beginning research on their Dutch roots will benefit from the information, along with those stymied by finding ancestors in Dutch and American records. The session may provide that one bit of information they’ve been looking for.

Title: Single Dutch Woman Immigrating to America: Where She Came from and Where She Settled

Session Number: F352

Time and Date: 4:00 p.m., 4 May 2018

Single Dutch Woman Immigrating to America: Where She Came from and Where She Settled will provide information on the single Dutch woman emigrant. Who was this woman, e.g., what was her social position in the Netherlands, what work did she engage in before emigrating? What do the various occupational terms describing an unmarried woman’s work in the Netherlands mean? What was the role of a single woman in the 1800s and early 1900s in the Netherlands? What was her educational level? What was her work and social position after she arrived in the United States? Did she improve her lot in America, or did her lack of English, education, or social position keep her from fully integrating into American culture and society? Also discussed is the huge disparity between the Dutch girl images in American art and advertising and the reality of her life in Holland.  The lecture is especially beneficial for those who have a Dutch female ancestor and would like to know more about her.

ABOUT: Janet Sjaarda Sheeres is an independent scholar, genealogist, and author who researches and writes about Dutch emigration/immigration history. She has published over seventy-five articles in national and international historical and genealogical journals, and published four books. Sheeres speaks fluent Dutch, and has visited the major genealogical libraries and archives in the Netherlands. She has taught genealogy courses for the Calvin College Lifelong Learning program at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.