Fascinating for me to read. Haarlem played a significant role in my family's history. That is Nieuw Haarlem in New York. Some of my earliest ancestors (my father's family) immigrated from the Netherlands to New York when it was first settled. Eventually, some of these traveled up the Hudson River and settled in communities on the river's shores. Years later, centuries later, my mother's family immigrated from Sicily. The first place they lived was Harlem (name change I guess when the English took over). At some point my mother's sister bought a country home among the hills of a Hudson River community. My mother went there to recuperate one summer. She met my father, and here I am :)))

It's a great blog, particularly fascinating for me. I've never seen pictures of Haarlem before.