New Netherland Genealogy

== History ==

New Netherland (Dutch: Nieuw-Nederland) was the former Dutch colony on the east coast of North America founded in 1614 or 1615. It included significant settlements in, or claims to, parts of what are now the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maryland.

One of the important legacies of the New Netherland colony was religious tolerance. The Dutch Reformed Church, a Calvinist denomination, predominated. However, both the mother country, and from the beginning her colony were also havens for religious minorities such as Huguenots (French Protestants), and Jews.

Because of repeated wars between the Dutch and the British empires, the New Netherland colony was ceded to the British Empire in 1664. In August 1673 the Dutch recaptured her colony, but had to give it up to the British again in November 1674.