Dutch Colonial History at Your Fingertips: Ulster County Launches Online Archive. Essential primary sources for early New York history—now online and open to all.

 

The Ulster County Clerk's Office is pleased to announce that the earliest colonial records of Ulster County are now freely available online in their entirety for the first time. Kingston's "Dutch Records" have long been known to scholars, and were previously accessible through a published English translation known as The Kingston Papers or by visiting the Clerk's Office to view copies of the handwritten translations prepared in the 1890s. With the recent upload of high-resolution scans of the original documents, the Ulster County Clerk’s Office aims to expand access and encourage greater scholarly engagement with these foundational records, both nationally and internationally.

The original materials, written in an archaic form of Dutch by colonial secretaries not known for their gifted penmanship, have resided in the care of the county since 1686 when the last secretary of the old colonial court turned the records over to the newly formed office of the Ulster County Clerk. The records commence in 1658 with the establishment of a fortified community and local court at Wiltwyck, today’s Kingston, on the orders of Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. They broadly cover the period up to 1683 when the original Dutch colonial system was finally replaced with the creation of the original twelve counties of the Province of New York.

The documents fall broadly into two categories: the minutes of the Court of Schout and Schepens, and the Secretary's Papers. The court minutes contain an almost daily accounting of arbitration and governance over a community that was rapidly evolving into a seat of regional power. The secretary's papers contain record copies of deeds, agreements, wills, and other varieties of contract among the inhabitants offering a vivid glimpse into the material lives, social relations, and civic structure of the settlement. Together, they provide an unparalleled window into daily life in 17th-century Ulster County.

The Dutch Records also have a fascinating custodial history of their own. As the number of local residents who could speak and read Dutch dwindled in the mid-19th century, an unnamed individual apparently took it upon themselves to seek  a translator for these ancient papers. No officials were notified, and the records mysteriously disappeared from the Clerk's Office in Kingston sometime around 1855. The papers were thought tragically lost until a package arrived in Kingston from Long Island in 1895, containing all the missing records with no explanation given as to their whereabouts for the last forty years. Realizing their luck, the Ulster County Board of Supervisors retained Dingman Versteeg, translator for the Holland Society, to prepare an English translation of the documents in 1896 so that the originals would be better preserved and more accessible in the future. It was this translation that became the nucleus of the further translations, revisions, and publications of the Kingston Papers in the 20th century.

"The ancient Dutch records of Kingston are easily some of the most precious documents held by any municipality in the Hudson Valley" stated Acting Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck. "When I served as County Archivist, the Dutch records were one of the most frequently consulted and cited collections in our care. Publishing them online represents the culmination of a long-standing effort spanning multiple administrations. In that way the Dutch records in many respects symbolize one of the most important functions of the County Clerk - initiating and maintaining preservation efforts that ensure the people of Ulster County will always have access to the priceless treasure of our shared documentary heritage."

Bruck stated further "I'm especially pleased that these records can now be accessed by colleagues in the Netherlands and researchers around the world without the need to travel. The more people who can access the records, the better the evidentiary process of historical research becomes."

The Ulster County Clerk's Office is grateful for their partners in the Southeastern New York Library Resource Council for their efforts to administer and maintain the New York Heritage digital library, of which the Ulster County Clerk's Office is a proud contributing member.

Members of the public interested in exploring the Dutch records and other historical collections digitized by the Clerk's Office can visit:

For further information on this or other initiatives of the Ulster County Clerk’s Office, please visit https://clerk.ulstercountyny.gov/archives, follow us on Facebook, or contact the Archives at (845) 340-3415 or archives[at]co.ulster.ny[dot]us.

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