The New Netherland Project

This is Charly Gehring. He's the world's leading historian on Dutch language, culture and economic expansion in the New World. He's also responsible for cleaning up miles of fragile documents describing life in early Dutch America. Some of the pages have survived multiple fires, hungry rats, thieves and even water damage. But preserving precious treasures like these are what Charly does best. He better, he's been doing it for 30 years.

Next year is an important one: it's New York State's 400th or Quadricentennial anniversary. It all began in the Spring of 1609 when an experienced explorer named Henry Hudson and a crew of 20 English and Dutch seamen sailed north up the Hudson river. By September, they reached what is now the capital of New York State: Albany. At the time, the fertile ground was desirable for fishing, fur trading and farming so Hudson stayed. A Dutch settlement formed called Fort Orange (under the current 787 bypass) and as they say, the rest is history.

PilotGirl Productions, with the help of the Talented Mr. Shenise of Shenise Productions and the ever-resourceful Luzerne Productions spent all morning videotaping Charly with our dueling Panasonic HD cameras. In the process, we learned about several more historic Dutch figures like General Peter Minuit who bought Manhattan Island from the Indians in exchange for axes, knives and guns. The story is popularly repeated as a $24 exchange but that's not factually accurate, said Charly. During the break, I asked if there might be traces of Dutch colonization still present in lower Manhattan. He said, that in fact, there was. A few years back archeologists unearthed the brick foundation of a Dutch Colonial Court House later preserving it as a landmark in Battery Park for all to see. Make a note.

Let me repeat, for 30 years Charly's been instrumental in transcription and translation of burned, buried or lost Dutch documents in New York State depositories. This is obviously a labor of love as well as a project of magnanimous proportions for scholars, historians, researchers, curators, genealogists and educators. The not-for-profit project is called The New Netherland Project and more can be studied, discovered and donated on it's website.