Provisional Regulations for the Colonists

 

Source: HathiTrust. Documents relating to New Netherland.

The page above is a transcription and translation from the Documents relating to New Netherland, 1624-1626, in the Henry E. Huntington Library, translated and edited by A. K. F. van Laer. The original provisional regulations would have been read to the colonists who embarked on the ship Nieuw Nederland on 30 March 1624. Our 10th-great-grandparents Philippe du Trieux, Susanna Du Chesne, their children, and other Walloon immigrants were on that first ship from Amsterdam to settle the New Netherland colony for the Dutch West India Company.

Source: HathiTrust. Original Dutch text, 1624.

The transcription of the original text and letters from the Dutch West India Company provide a fascinating light into the early years of the colony.

I've now joined the Association of Philippe du Trieux Descendants, and am still reading Russell Shorto's The Island at the Center of the World.

Tavern Scene

 

David Teniers the Younger. Tavern Scene. 1658.

A painting of a tavern scene by Flemish artist David Teniers the Younger. This scene and the images below depict experiences that Philippe du Trieux or Lodewyck Post may have enjoyed in Amsterdam or Dutch New Netherland. From Lorine McGinnis Schulze's book on Lodewyck and Agnietje Post, Lodewyck was granted permission to operate as a tavern keeper "to sell wine and beer by the small measure" in February 1656 in New Amsterdam.

Adriaen van Ostade. A Woman with a Beer Jug. 1670s.

Perhaps Agnietje assisted in Lodewyck's tavern, pouring beer and wine for customers in the last days of Dutch New Amsterdam and after 1664, the early days of New York.

One more note - I tried to get Ideogram to generate a scene from a tavern in Dutch New Amsterdam in 1656, but the images did not quite match up as well as paintings from the Dutch and Flemish masters of the day.

Adriaen van Ostade. Three Peasants at an Inn. 1647.

A marriage record, 1640

 

Amsterdam Archives. 11 Nov 1640.

The image above comes from the wonderful Archief Amsterdam website, showing the marriage record between my 10th-great-grandparents Lodewyck Cornelius Post and Agniet Bonen (sometimes spelled Agnietje). Lodewyck and Agniet later made their way to New Amsterdam, and their daughter Lysbeth Post married Jacob Du Trieux in 1674. I'm descended from Lysbeth and Jacob.

In 2016, genealogist and author Lorine McGinnis Schulze of Olive Tree Genealogy published a book on Lodewyck and Agniet, and a copy arrived yesterday as I was returning from LA. The book is short, but contains a lot of great detail from available Dutch records and early New Netherland records. According to Lorine's translation, Lodewyck was a chest maker from Naarden in North Holland, and Agniet was from Meurs (Moers, a German town on the west bank of the Rhine River, across from Duisburg, and not far from southern Holland).

There's more to dive into on the records for Lodewyck and Agniet, and a timely companion to read in parallel with Russell Shorto's The Island at the Center of the World. I am reading this now, updated as a 20th anniversary edition for 2025.

Happy Birthday Los Angeles

It's timely I am in Los Angeles for its official (or unofficial) birthday, 244 years ago on 4 September 1781. I've marked this date on special posts in the past (see 2019, 2017, and 2014). Strangely when I was here two years ago I didn't comment on the date.

Fireworks over LA. LACity.gov from its 2021 post.

Venice Beach, 2023

Photo by Patrick Jones. Venice Beach. 4 Sep 2023.

A photo from two years ago, and now I'm back in LA. A couple of days of meetings in my home away from home and ancestral stomping grounds. Los Angeles is a special place for me and one of my favorite cities.