Albany's New Netherland Families
This list of eighty-two distinct family groups roughly represents
the settler population of the villiage/town of Beverwyck
at the end of the so-called New Netherland
Already, these pre-urban dwellers
were beginning to separate themselves
from the farmers and husbandmen of the surrounding countryside.
This list also represents the largest number of New Netherland
family names in the city during its first two centuries of life.
From this core group, a number of families left the Albany community
- establishing new settlements at Schenectady,
Catskill, Schaghticoke, Hoosic, Saratoga,
and beyond. Some became tenants
of the Van Rensselaers. Others left
the region entirely.
Still others literally "died out" in the Albany setting.
Those who remained formed the core population
of what became the city of Albany in
Beginning during the 1670s and 80s, the children of the New Netherland
Dutch found marriage partners and raised
American-born families of their own.
The Albany community continued to grow and to feed the growth of
the entire Hudson-Mohawk region
based on the natural increase of its New Netherland-ancestry settler
stock. Although many people came and went, Albany’s New Netherland
Dutch roots remained strong for another 200 years.
Throughout the eighteenth-century, most of the successful Albany
families from all backgrounds could call on their direct connection
to the settlers of New Netherland - particularly through the families
of the city's wives and mothers.
At the same time, it is important to note that as many of those
popularly known as the "New Netherland Dutch" traced their roots
to the German, French, and Scandanavian states surrounding the Netherlands
and even across the channel to what became Great Britain in 1707.
However, another major part of the early Albany story must be attributed
to the contributions of its newcomers.