OFA News & Announcements
OFA Special 2011 Celebration of the 350th
Anniversary of the Ostrander family in America - Kingston, NY (August
4 - August 8)
The Ostrander Family Association (OFA) is very
excited about celebrating the 350th year of our family in America. The
dates are tentatively August 4 - August 8, 2011 to coincide with the arrival of
the 1st generation (August 6, 1661). They settled in the Kingston, Hurley,
Rhinebeck, NY area where the celebration will be held. The Activities
page will be updated as plans are finalized.
We'd love to see as many family members for
this once in a lifetime event! Hooray for Ostranders, whether you say
Oh (like me), Oos or spell it like the Irish 0'. We have over 300 OFA
members with all different spellings from all over the US and Canada.
The OFA was founded over 25 years ago by family members that were committed
to connecting us all, to documenting our family history and to sharing
it with generations to come. Please join us (membership not required).
Roseanne Ostrander, OFA President.
Welcome Kelly Kloss - OFA Publications
Chairperson 2010. Kelly has eagerly volunteered and the OFA Board is
thrilled to have her help.
Renewal Period: Due July 1, 2009 for
OFA Membership Year - July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010. A
perforated Membership Renewal Form was included in the April 2009 Ostrander
Family Journal with prefilled membership information. If you have any
updates to this information, please provide as well to OFA Secretary,
Melva L. Taylor.
OFA BOARD
POSITION OPEN (Click to view)
The 2009 Annual Board of Directors
Meeting
Members are invited to attend.
Please RSVP to Roseanne Ostrander at President@ostrander.org.
For those that arrive on Friday, September 11th, an informal dinner
gathering will be planned.
Date: Saturday, September 12th
Time: 9:00am - 12:00pm, 3:00pm - 5:00pm.
Location: SpringHill Suites Tarrytown Greenburgh
480 White Plains Road
Tarrytown, New York 10591 USA
Phone: 1-914-366-4600
7/14/09 -
2009 Western NY & Pennsylvania
Ostrander Reunion. See Activities Page link for details.
7/1/09 -
Going Dutch: The
400th Anniversary of Henry Hudson's Discovery. Upcoming Quadricentennial
events in New York's Hudson River Valley described in a wonderful article
by Evelyn Kanter in the July 2009 edition of New York Car & Travel.
The largest quadricentennial exhibition,
at the Museum of the City of New York, includes books on loan from the
National Library of the Netherlands. One, a 1656 edition by Adriaen
van der Donck, describes the region in detail and contains a map of
the entire length of the Mar Nort - not yet renamed the Hudson River.
This exhibit is open until Sept. 27th.
Another Hudson exhibit of rare maps
and documents opens at the South Street Seaport. This includes the earliest
document mentioning the legendary $24 purchase of Manhattan. The so-called
Schaghen letter, from 1626, is on loan from Holland's National Archives.
A full-size replica of the half
Moon (the ship Henry Hudson sailed) was built in 1989 in Albany. The
sailing ship is on display at the New Netherland Museum in Albany when
it isn't visiting ports as far away as Lake Michigan and North Carolina.
The ship is an accurate replica, except for the diesel engine and modern
GPS navigational aids.
On July 25 and 26, the Half Moon
will be docked at the city of Hudson, the only municipality on the Hudson
River named for the navigator. In late August, the Half Moon will set
sail for a weekend of public tours alongside Staten island; in early
Sept., she is the star of the annual Peekskill Celebration at Charles
Point park , and then she'll take part in the NYC Harbor Day weekend
before going on to Albany. Each year on the anniversary of Henry Hudson's
arrival in the state capital on Sept. 19th, the people of Albany celebrate
with two weeks of tours and exhibits at the Hudson River Waterfront.
A flotilla of distinctive flat-bottom Dutch fishing boats and barges
will be sailing up and down the Hudson River for two weeks in Sept.,
taking part in sailing races and offering tours. These boats are the
direct descendents of the sailing ships that served the Dutch coastline
in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the first ships built in New Amsterdam.
Also of interest are exhibits looking
at Dutch influence and culture in the Hudson Valley at specific times:
The half Moon's arrival in 1609; under English rule circa 1709, Washington
Irving's stories of Dutch heritage in 1809; celebrations of a common
Dutch past in 1909, and a debate over what all these historical celebrations
mean to us in 2009. This will be going on through January 10th.
Quiz: What happened
to Henry Hudson after he claimed his namesake New York region?
Answer: Nobody
knows for sure. On his next journey, in 1611, to what is now the Hudson
Bay in Canada, his crew mutinied. They wanted to go home; he wanted
to continue exploring. Hudson, it is thought, was set adrift in a lifeboat
along with his son and eight loyal crewmen.