Walter, that's THE Bronte sisters in Brussels. >In 1842 Charlotte Bronte and her sister Emily travelled to Brussels to enroll in a boarding school run by Constantin Heger (1809�96) and his wife Claire Zo� Parent Heger (1814�91). In return for board and tuition, Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. Their time at the boarding school was cut short when Elizabeth Branwell, their aunt who joined the family after the death of their mother to look after the children, died of internal obstruction in October 1842. Charlotte returned alone to Brussels in January 1843 to take up a teaching post at the boarding school. Her second stay at the boarding school was not a happy one; she became lonely, homesick and deeply attached to Constantin Heger. She finally returned to Haworth in January 1844 and later used her time at the boarding school as the inspiration for some of The Professor and Villette.< Wikapedia Villette is a much underread novel. Will you attend any lectures by the Dutch Historian? I have often wondered why my ancestor, Jacob Wilkins of NYC, named one of his sons States or Staats Wilkins. Have found no connection as yet. The boy's mother was a Rapalje. Elizabeth > Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:54:24 -0400 (EDT) > From: Soyamaven@aol.com > Subject: [NYC-ROOTS] Dutch Historian available for public lectures > Fall/Winter 2011/12 > > > The following (follows my name/address) was picked up from the > _NYHIST-L@listserv.nysed.gov_ (mailto:NYHIST-L@listserv.nysed.gov) list. > > > > I hope this information is useful or, at least, interesting. > > Regards, > > Walter Greenspan > Great Falls, MT & Jericho, NY > > > > Historian Eric Ruijssenaars is available for public lectures Fall and > Winter > 2011/2012. > > Dr. Ruijssenaars, the New Netherland Research Center?s first Senior Scholar > in Residence, is the founder of Dutch Archives, a historical research firm > in Leiden, the Netherlands. Although a specialist in the history of Russia > and the Netherlands, he is also a scholar of the Bront? sisters in Brussels > and has published two books on the subject. Currently he is researching the > life of Abraham Staats. > > In 1642, Abraham Staats arrived in the Dutch colony of New Netherland to > serve as a surgeon on patroon Kiliaen van Rensselaer?s vast estate, > Rensselaerswijck, now part of Albany and Rensselaer counties. Over the > course of his life, Staats became a magistrate of the court, a captain of > the burgher guard, the owner of a sloop that made regular trips to New > Amsterdam (New York City), and an Indian language translator. Something of > an oddity in rough-and-tumble New Netherland, he remained a very > respectable > man and was, for that reason, regularly called on to mediate disputes > between his less respectable and more litigious neighbors. > > The New Netherland Research Center is a partnership of the New Netherland > Institute and the New York State Office of Cultural Education, which is > comprised of the State Library, the State Archives, the State Museum, and > the Office of Educational Television and Public Broadcasting. The NNRC > promotes and supports both New Netherland scholarship and educational > opportunities for teachers, students, and the public. It continues and > extends the work of the New York State Library's New Netherland Project, > which since 1974 has preserved, transcribed, translated, and published 17th > century documents in order to make the history of the Dutch colonial > presence in North America more broadly accessible for study. > > For more information or to schedule a presentation, contact Ann Pfau, > _apfau@mail.nysed.gov_ (mailto:apfau@mail.nysed.gov) >