Tulips

Dutch tulips

Tulips here in Holland are already past their prime (high season is mid to late April), but in the other Holland tulip time starts now: The annual Tulip Time Festival starts tomorrow in Holland, Michigan. With tulips, klompen dances, krakelingen, and parades, Holland celebrates its Dutch roots between tomorrow and 10 May.

Meanwhile, Ottawa's Tulip Festival started today and will last until 19 May. The origins of the festival is a gift of princess Juliana of The Netherlands. In 1945, she presented Canada with a gift of 100,000 tulip bulbs, as a thank-you for providing a safe haven to the Dutch royal family during the war and for the role the Canadian army played in the liberation of The Netherlands. Now, more than three million tulips bloom, and an estimated 600,000 people from all over the world will visit the festival.

Links:

• Tulip Time official website
• Tulip Time brochure [PDF]
• Tulip Festival official website

Symbol of Home stands tall

"Anyone new to Oak Harbor has likely noticed some pretty strange looking names while combing through the phonebook — Beeksma, Zylstra, Nienhuis, VanderHoek, Vanderlinder, Vande Werfhorst, and every Vander in between.

But in Oak Harbor, where Dutch immigrants were among the pioneers making early claim, these surnames are as common as Smith and Jones. That’s why windmills make appearances at pocket parks around town and on postcards sent to friends."

Symbol of home stands tall, an article in the Whidbey News Time, talks about the Dutch community of Oak Harbor (Island County, WA), the history of their Dutch windmill in Windjammer Park, and the annual Holland Happening Festival, a festival celebrating their Dutch roots that took place this weekend:

"Holland Happening, that is when the food of the homeland is enjoyed, tulips are in bloom, klompen are stompin’ and the Oak Harbor windmill stands tall in its glory."

Another article appeared yesterday in the same newspaper: City goes Dutch for Holland Happening. This article has some details about the program.

The Whidbey News Times is a newspaper from Whidbey Island, Island County, WA.

Dutch archive news roundup: January 2008

News from the Dutch archives.

• The provinces Zeeland and Zuid-Holland have added records to Genlias. This includes for the first time records of The Hague.
• The National Archive announced several documents from its collection will be on display in New York next year, in an exhibition celebrating the 400th birthday of Henry Hudson's voyage on what is now the Hudson river. One of the documents on display will be the famous 1626 letter describing the purchase of Manhattan for 60 guilders (24 dollars). This letter is also on permanent display on the website of the National Archive
• The Groningen archive announced a new website with records from the province Groningen: Alle Groningers. We will soon have a look at this website in the series Online records.

Holland American Market brings the Netherlands to Bellflower

The Holland American Market in Bellflower brings back childhood memories to Dave Wielenga, according to an article in the District Weekly, a Long Beach weekly newspaper:

"But there is comfort, too, in the endless assortment of unabashedly sentimental cakes and cookies in all kinds of traditional shapes, along with teas and coffees to wash them down, of course in delicate cups and saucers. My grandma used to pour the tea from the cup into the saucer to let it cool, and let me drink it from there. After each sip, we’d smile and let out a long, satisfied aaahhhh. I haven’t thought about that in years."

From kitsch to cookies, Holland American Market brings the Netherlands to Bellflower. By Dave Wielenga.

Of course, the Holland American Market also has a website.

The Dutch roots of New York City

"Wulingren" of The Mandate of Heaven天命 posted an interesting review of Russell Shorto's book The Island at the Center of the World.

Shorto's book tells "the epic story of Dutch Manhattan and the forgotten colony that shaped America", and Wulingren uses the book to compare Manhattan (where he grew up) with Taiwan (where he lives now). The Dutch bought land from indigenous tribes and founded colonies in both places almost at the same time, and Wulingren draws some interesting parallels.

Both Shorto's book and Wulingren's blog post are worth reading if you're interested in 17th century Dutch history and early Dutch settlements, even though there are some factual errors in both - Shorto is more interested in telling a fascinating story than in factual correctness.

Graafschap church saves its heritage in museum

From the Grand Rapids Press:

Graafschap church saves its heritage in museum:

"The center represents a virtual timeline of how the CRC and Graafschap have grown up together since the community's founding and the 1857 secession. About 100 settlers from the provinces of Drenthe and Bentheim, the latter now part of Germany, settled here in 1847.

Numerous artifacts depict the early days of the church and community, and murals show the role of such prominent early leaders as the Rev. Albertus Van Raalte, Holland's founder, and the Rev. Douwe VanderWerp, Graafschap's first pastor and the founder of the publication that would become know as The Banner."

Should New York become Dutch again?

Found this little gem on the website of the Downtown express, a Lower Manhattan weekly newspaper:

Dutch treat, trick or takeover threat?: Are the Dutch none to happy with the way our fair city is being governed? A small group of enterprising Dutchmen have started a Web site demanding New York return to its Dutch roots and change its name back to New Amsterdam, a.k.a. the Big Orange.

Nico Akkerman started Give Us Back New York after he heard Bill O‘Rielly say his worst fear was that America would become like Holland. Akkerman, a 34-year-old advertising executive, decided New York needed to get closely reacquainted with its history.

"After remaining silent for centuries of injustice, that was just a bit too much to take, even for tolerant people like the Dutch," Akkerman wrote in an e-mail to Downtown Express. "We felt we had to take a stand and demanding back The Big Orange, which is rightfully ours to begin with, seemed like the logical thing to do."

The website this article refers to is Give us back New York:

For over 200 years, we’ve watched our proud city evolve the wrong way. But the bell has chimed! The time has come for New York to be returned to its righteous owner: The Netherlands!

Highs and Loew's of Flatbush history

Flatbush, Brooklyn, was once a Dutch settlement, and for a long time had a sizeable Dutch-American community. The New York Daily News ran an article yesterday about a new book about the history of Flatbush, Brooklyn's Flatbush: Battlefield to Ebbets Field:

New York Daily News - Boroughs - Denis Hamill: Highs and Loew's of Flatbush history: "just page through this marvelous new book and before your eyes a city is born, learns to creep, toddle, run and then explode to life. Flatbush was one of the original six Dutch towns and this special book provides all the glossy maps, drawings, lithographs and photos with a fine condensed history that traces this neighborhood from its first settlers, to the first farmhouses, mansions, modest homes, legendary schools like Erasmus Hall and Brooklyn College, churches, grand boulevards, railroads and iconic theaters like the Albemarle, Kenmore, Flatbush, Rialto and the Loew's Kings - sadly sealed these days, and not even showing the words, never mind any pictures."

"Brenda from Brooklyn" wrote about the same book on Crazy Stable, but from quite a different angle:

Crazy Stable - Journal - My little town: "My Flatbush is Trinidadians, Yuppies, Haitians, Bangladeshis, and the occasional Hasidim on a long stroll from Borough Park. It's roti and Jamaican meat pies and soca music and soccer players. Head east a few blocks, and it's also liquor stores with Lexan shields, African hair-braiding parlors, 99-cent stores, a police 'Impact Zone,' and once-grand Gothic-turreted apartment buildings with prison-style grey steel entry gates and busted mailboxes and buzzers. The Loew's Kings movie palace, where Barbra Streisand was an usherette, is shuttered and rotting; Erasmus Hall, the historic high school with its long list of illustrious alumni, sunk into such dysfunction that the Board of Ed broke it up into 'smaller schools' (which are, I hear, still no great shakes). An aging housing project sits atop the site of Ebbetts Field."

Brooklyn's Flatbush: Battlefield to Ebbets Field, by Brian Merlis and Lee A. Rosenzweig, is available from Brooklyn Collectibles.

Appleton Post-Crescent: Your Fox Cities News Source - Dutch consulate recognizes Little Chute's windmill project

Found in The Post-Crescent, a newspaper from Appleton, Wisconsin:

Appleton Dutch consulate recognizes Little Chute's windmill project: "Dutch consulate recognizes Little Chute's windmill project The Post-Crescent LITTLE CHUTE — The Dutch consulate in Chicago recognized the village's windmill project Wednesday, as part of Dutch-American Heritage Day festivities. Little Chute Windmill Inc. Executive Director Robin Dekker said Dutch Consulate General Dirk Willem Schiff's recognition of the project's importance for underlining the village's Dutch roots. The organization has a $2.3 million goal to build a working 100-foot high Dutch windmill in downtown Little Chute. Since 2003, an estimated $1.5 million has been raised. "

Little Chute, a village where many have Dutch roots, embarked on an ambitious project: The building of a 100 feet high, fully functioning, Dutch windmill, "as a monument of Dutch- American heritage and of friendship between the countries of the Netherlands and the United States". Read more on the Little Chute Windmill website.

I'm not sure what this recognition means. The website of the Dutch consulate in Chicago does not mention anything about the project (yet?).

Dyckman Farmhouse

In my previous post I mentioned the Dyckman Farmhouse. Their website states:

dyckman farmhouse: "The Dyckman Farmhouse Museum is a visual treat for everyone who looks up and sees it perched above Broadway at 204th Street. The Dutch Colonial style farmhouse was built on this site by William Dyckman c. 1784 and was originally part of several hundred acres of farmland owned by the family. Today, nestled in a small park, the farmhouse is an extraordinary reminder of early Manhattan and an important part of its diverse Inwood neighborhood."

It was build in 1784, well after the Dutch colonial time, so the Dyckman Farmhouse is not really a "Dutch Colonial farmhouse", as the Charlotte Observer states, but a Dutch Colonial style farmhouse.

William Dyckman's grandfather Jan Dyckman came from Westphalia (now Germany) a century earlier. The Dyckman family tree is also on the website.

Judging from their website, it seems well worth a visit if you have Dutch colonial roots.

Charlotte Observer | 10/22/2006 | West Virginia: 100 miles of fishing, paddling

Found in the online edition of the Charlotte Observer, a Chatlotte, North Carolina, based newspaper:

Charlotte Observer | 10/22/2006 | West Virginia: 100 miles of fishing, paddling: "New York: See New Amsterdam in Manhattan Manhattan's only remaining Dutch Colonial farmhouse is eight miles and a world apart from Times Square and costs just $1 to visit. The Dyckman Farmhouse Museum at 4881 Broadway at 204th Street lets visitors see the parlor, dining room and farm office; the Relic Room features photos and artifacts of Inwood from the past two centuries. Many of the objects date from the Revolutionary War period, when the Hessians -- German soldiers serving with the British -- camped there.Details: 212-304-9422; www.dyckmanfarmhouse.org. -- boston globe"

Caucus Aims to Preserve and Enhance Appreciation for America’s Dutch Roots

Hoekstra, Van Hollen to Announce Founding of Congressional Caucus on the Netherlands: Caucus Aims to Preserve and Enhance Appreciation for America’s Dutch Roots

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., is set to announce the founding of the Congressional Caucus on the Netherlands at the annual Netherland-America Foundation (NAF) Awards Dinner at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 12, 2006 in Washington, D.C.

The Caucus will seek to preserve and enhance the existing relationship between the United States and the Netherlands by educating members of Congress and their staffs on the importance of the relationship between the two countries. The group will also provide a medium for discussion on issues affecting the relationship and highlight Dutch contributions to the United States and the global community.

Hoekstra was born in Groningen, the Netherlands, and immigrated to Holland, Mich. with his family at 3 years old. He is the only active member of Congress who was born in the Netherlands.

"I am deeply proud of my Dutch roots and feel privileged to represent in Congress the region with the largest concentration of Dutch-Americans in the country," Hoekstra said. "The Caucus will help to ensure that my fellow colleagues remain appreciative of America's Dutch heritage and the importance of the strategic relationship that exists between the two nations."

Read the full story on the website of the Royal Netherlands Embassy.

Courier News Online - Preservation group gives past homes a future

From the Courier News, a newspaper from New Jersey (U.S.A.):

Courier News Online - Preservation group gives past homes a future: "Preservation group gives past homes a future By PAMELA SROKA Staff Writer FRANKLIN (SOMERSET) -- It all started with the Van Wickle House, which might have become a strip mall if a nonprofit organization had not stepped in to save the structure 30 years ago. It was the vision of the Somerset-based Meadows Foundation founders who started the nonprofit organization in 1976 to give the past a future by preserving and restoring historic sites with an emphasis on early Dutch and American heritage, said Mark Else, executive director of the foundation. The Van Wickle House, a Dutch house on Easton Avenue, could have fallen into the hands of developers looking to build a strip mall after out-of-state owners offered it for sale in 1976. The property was known as 'Bogan Meadows,' and Simon Van Wickle built the house in 1722."

Read the full story.

Book review: Ellis Island, by Loretto Dennis Szucs

The first chapters of the book describe the history of Ellis Island, and its role in American history. After reading the first two sentences of the book, we have already learned that Ellis Island is a "treshold of liberty" and "the symbolic shrine to freedom and opportunity". The first half of the book is filled with similar platitudes.

The author seems to be more interested in reinforcing romantic prejudices than in factual correctness. An example is name changes at Ellis Island. "Names were often a problem", writes Mr. Szucs. "Not all immigrants could spell their names, and baffled officials jotted down names as they sounded." Those officials handled thousands of immigrants, and it would take more than a foreign-sounding name to "baffle" them. Dick Eastman discussed the improbability of name changes at Ellis Island in his article Name Changes at Ellis Island: Fact or Fiction? (May 2001). His main arguments were the translators and interpreters employed by Ellis Island, the documents immigrants had to hand over, and the ships' passenger lists that would list their names. Mr. Szucs should have known better.

Another myth that the author reinforces but should have debunked is the "ocean journey that could last several months". The era of Ellis Island was also the era of steam ships. It took the ships of the Holland America Line ten days to get from Rotterdam to Ellis Island. Maybe the ocean journey "could last several months", in practice less than a couple of weeks was more likely. (Actually, it took the Mayflower two months and five days to get from Plymouth to Cape Cod in 1620, 272 years before Ellis Island opened.)

Later chapters are more down to earth, giving practical, useful (albeit terse) information on tracing immigrant ancestors (not limited to Ellis Island).

North American Dutch Genealogy

Last week a new mailing list started, called North American Dutch Genealogy. There are already over 100 subscribers (including myself), and I've discovered several experts on the list of subscribers. According to the group description:

This group is mostly for people living in North America who are searching for either ancestors or descendants of persons with Dutch origin. Also welcome are people living in the Netherlands who are looking for relatives in North America.

I expect this group is going to be very useful for North Americans (but probably also for people from other parts of the world) looking for their Dutch ancestors.