Yvette Hoitink is an accomplished speaker with over thirty years of experience presenting about genealogical and technical subjects. Known for her accessible presentation style, she has taught at several conferences, including the Nederlandse Genealogische Vereniging and MyHeritage Live, (Netherlands), National Genealogical Society and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (United States), and The Genealogy Show (United Kingdom). Several of her webinars are available via Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
If you want to engage Yvette as a speaker for your virtual event, please contact her to request a proposal.
Available Virtual Presentations
These presentations are 45-50 minutes, with 10-15 minutes for questions, and are presented in English, virtual only.
Dutch Genealogy
Dutch Genealogy 101: Finding Your Ancestors from the Netherlands
Many Dutch vital records are available online and indexed. Learn how to use these records to find your ancestors from the Netherlands.
Lesser Used Records for Research in the Netherlands
The Netherlands has excellent records. Records of births, marriages, and deaths were kept by the civil registration since 1811 and by churches since the early 1600s. Genealogists who don’t look beyond these records may create trees that go back ten generations, but they can be bare or have mistakes. By expanding the research to lesser used sources, we can learn more about our ancestors’ lives and find evidence of family relationships to build reliable conclusions. Using examples from her own research, Yvette will demonstrate how to find and use court, notarial, military, and cadastral records, and other records you may not have used before. Find out if your Dutch ancestors owned property, what their occupations were, or even what they looked like. See them in the context of their families and associates, and understand their roles in the communities where they lived.
For Family, Faith, and Fortune: Emigration from the Netherlands in the 1800s
Thousands of Dutch immigrants settled in the Midwest area of the United States in the 1800s. Learn about their struggles in the Netherlands and the stories about their emigration.
New Netherland Research
Tracing New Netherland Ancestors in the Netherlands
New Netherland settlers did not just leave records in North America. Perhaps a settler was hired by the West India Company, made a last will before boarding the ship, or signed a petition to the Dutch government. Yvette will demonstrate how to use records in the Netherlands to solve difficult New Netherland research problems and document the settlers’ lives.
Documenting the Underdocumented: Researching Enslaved and Native People in and around New Netherland
Jaques, a Native American man captured by the Dutch, and Anna van Angola, one of the first Black women to own land in North America, are just two of the Indigenous and enslaved people whose stories were preserved in fragmentary records of the New Netherland colony. Yvette explains how she reconstructs these lives and navigates gaps and biases in historical sources.
Methodology
Dear Me: Writing Research Reports to Yourself
Research reports are not just for professionals, but are a great tool for anyone who wants to answer their research questions. Write a research report to yourself to organize your thoughts, analyze the evidence, document your findings, and solve your puzzles. Using an example from the Netherlands, this presentation demonstrates how you can organize a research report to spot more clues in records, discover and resolve discrepancies, and build reliable conclusions.
Four Farms, Four Names: From Research Report to Award-Winning NGSQ Article
Research reports helped solve a question of identity and parentage in the Netherlands. Yvette shares her process for researching and writing her award-winning case study in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.
Was Eleanor of Aquitaine My Ancestor? Applying the GPS Across 30 Generations
When Yvette found a line to Eleanor of Aquitaine (1124-1204), Queen of France and England, in online trees, she quickly realized the existing research did not meet standards. She set about verifying the line one generation at a time, to meet the Genealogical Proof Standard. In this presentation, she will take you on her journey, sharing the skills, methods, and documents she used to verify her royal line back to the 1100s.
Technology
Hand-written Text Recognition: Harnessing the Power of Artificial Intelligence to Transcribe and Search
Hand-written text recognition software can turn manuscripts into searchable transcriptions. Learn how to use these tools and what they can (and cannot) do for you. The presentation includes a demonstration of Transkribus.
