Ditmas, Charles A., 1887-1938.

Genealogist, founder and president of the Kings County Historical Society.

From the description of Papers, 1687-1935, 1883-1935 (bulk) (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 155450014

Flatbush, located in central Brooklyn, was one of the original six towns of Brooklyn. First settled by the Dutch in the 1630s, Flatbush was granted a patent of township by Director-General Peter Stuyvesant in 1652. Flatbush then came under British rule when the British invaded New Amsterdam (now New York City) in 1664. During the 1670s, Flatbush fell back under Dutch control for a short time before returning again to British rule. The Town of Flatbush was annexed by the City of Brooklyn in 1894 and the City of Brooklyn was then incorporated into New York City in 1898. For most of its history, Flatbush was a rural community, populated with farms. Today, Flatbush is a neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn and is comprised of numerous smaller neighborhoods including Midwood, Ditmas Park, Fiske Terrace, Beverly Square (East and West), Prospect Park South, Caton Park, and Albemarle-Kenmore Terraces.

Viewbooks, also called souvenir albums or view albums, are books that contain commercially published groups of photographs depicting a place, activity, or event.

Charles A. Ditmas (1887-1938) was a descendent of the Lott family, one of the early Dutch families that settled in Brooklyn in the mid-1600s. Ditmas was a local historian and genealogist who, in these capacities, was a founder and president of the Kings County Historical Society, served as assistant librarian at the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, and wrote and published numerous genealogies of Brooklyn families and histories of local places and events. Ditmas focused his work primarily on the present-day adjoining neighborhoods of Flatlands and Flatbush, which previously had been two of the original six towns of Brooklyn. Today, the Brooklyn neighborhood of Ditmas Park, as well as Ditmas Avenue, denote the influence the Ditmas family had on shaping Brooklyn.

From the guide to the Brooklyn's Garden: Views of Picturesque Flatbush, viewbook, 1908, (Brooklyn Historical Society)

Charles Andrew Ditmas (1887-1938) was a descendant of the Lott family of Brooklyn, whose common ancestor was Pieter Lot, who emigrated from the Netherlands in 1652 and settled in Flatlands, Kings County. Charles Ditmas was the son of Andrew Ditmas, the son of Bergen Lott (1819-1873) and Charles Burr Ditmas (1813-1852). Ditmas was a serious historian and genealogist, and was the founder and president of the Kings County Historical Society, which served as the central historical society for Kings County from 1911 until sometime in the early to mid-twentieth century; at that time many of the Kings County Historical Society's collections were transferred to the Long Island Historical Society (now the Brooklyn Historical Society). Ditmas also served as Assistant Librarian of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, and was editor of the society's publication, the "New York Genealogical and Biographical Record" during the early 1900s.

Ditmas published numerous genealogies and histories of families and important places in Brooklyn, especially Flatlands. Among his many publications are: Auto trip Through Historic Brooklyn: Many Points of Revolutionary Interest may be Visited in Afternoon Journey: Monuments and Tablets tell of Battle of Long Island (1926), Historic Homesteads of Kings County, Brooklyn, N.Y. (1909), The life and service of Major-General William Alexander also called the Earl of Stirling (1920), The Small Beginnings of Literature in Kings County (1922), History of Amersfort Place (Flatlands, Kings County, N.Y.) (1963, with Harriet Stryker-Rodda), and Genealogical Memoranda, Mainly from Church and Family Records: The Antonides Genealogy (1919, with Teunis G. Bergen). In addition to his devoted career as a historian and genealogist, Charles A. Ditmas was deeply involved in social, academic, and political endeavors in the Brooklyn, New York, and surrounding area communities.

From the guide to the Charles A. Ditmas collection, Bulk, 1908-1945, 1687 to circa 1935, (Brooklyn Historical Society)