Heritage Lecture Series Continues This Thursday
Hear how travel literature spark a mass migration of German settlers to Dutchess County in the early eighteenth century

Poughkeepsie...Join us for the second presentation of the 2014 Dutchess Heritage Speaker Series this Thursday at 7:00 pm at the Historic Elmendorph Inn in Red Hook.   Professor Philip Otterness, author of Becoming German:  The 1709 Palatine Migration to New York, will trace the Palatine migration from the German Rhineland in 1709 through London and into the Hudson Valley between 1710 and 1712.

Beginning with the “Golden Book” of 1709, Otterness will trace the Palatines’ path from the Rhineland to London, on board British Army transports. After plumbing the impact of their squalid stay in England, his presentation will examine their rough crossing to America, their mixed reception in New York City, and their arrival and settlement in Dutchess County. Otterness will conclude by tracing the subsequent Palatine Migration up to the Mohawk Valley and the Palatines’ long-term impact on New York and America.

Tickets are on sale through the Dutchess County Historical Society, 845-471-1630 or dchistorical@verizon.net, $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Tickets for the final two lectures in the series are available for $15. Donors wishing to support the lecture series may purchase the Heritage Patron Package, which includes two tickets, dinner with the speaker, and a limited-edition print of the 1804 Dutchess Turnpike map for $120.

This lecture series is part of the Dutchess Heritage Days celebration of 300 years of Democracy in Dutchess, sponsored by the Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation, and the Dutchess County Historical Society.