All Things Holland

( There was a picture of a orange shirt here but now it doesn't seem to be working ) Have you ever wondered why the Dutch National Soccer team wears the color orange when the colors on their flag are red, white, and blue? The simple answer is that orange is the color of the Dutch Royal Family which hails from the House of Orange. The original orange (William I of Orange also know as William the Silent) organized the Dutch revolt from Spain. Unlike other Royal houses that were eliminated or viewed with contempt by the populace; The Dutch Royal House are still very popular in the Netherlands. The color orange has come to signify the country and therefore a national pride. On royal birthdays the tricolor flag is flown with an orange pennant above. Each year on April 30th, Amsterdam and the entire country turn orange. Revelers sing "Oranje boven, orangje boven. Leve the koningin!" (Orange on top, Orange on top. Long live the Queen!) The Soccer team's nickname is Oranje wh

September 27, 1778 After 4 days of assisting the local militia in driving cattle out of reach of British foragers, Colonel george Baylor moved his troops north and located quarters for them throughout barns and homesteads in what is now River Vale, NJ near Tappan. To keep their position secure in such proximity to the enemy, Colonel Baylor positioned 12 men on the only bridge across the river, so as to provide sufficient alarm of an approaching enemy. According to Blauvelt tradition, this guard near the bridge was stationed at the Cornelius Blauvelt farm just above the bridge with the officers stationed in the house itself. The Blauvelts recalled later that the men positioned on the bridge left their positions early on the evening of the massacre to rejoin their companions in the barn saying that it was useless for them to keep watch as the night was so dark that the enemy could never find their way about. The captain upon hearing this ordered them back to their posts only to have them

Dutch influence is all around us. Some we even use everyday. I recently read a book ( The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto ) and it included a couple of English words that have Dutch origins. Which got me thinking...there must be others. And yes, there are many others. Here are some of my favorites or ones that we use commonly in English. For obvious reasons most are nautical terms. Ahoy - from hoi (hello, hi) Coleslaw - koolsla (literally cabbage salad) Cookie - koekje or koekie (biscuit, little cake) Gherkin - gurk (cucumber) Hooky - hoekje (corner, like to go around the corner) Iceberg - ijsberg (literally ice mountain) Leak - lekken (to drip, to leak) Maelstrom - maalstroom (grinding current, stirring current) Buoy - boei (buoy, shackle) Deck - dek (covering) Brandy - brandewijn (burnt wine) And there are many more. My favorite is koekje. I've found a neat website about etymology here where I found most of this. I included only the neatest ones. Maybe I'

I've never blogged before so bear with me folks. I can count on one hand how many people would read this regularly so, why am I doing this? I think that writing whenever I feel like it will help me in writing my book. Said book uses my family history as the main idea that drives the plot. In so researching my family there are just too many neat things to make people wait to read about when I finally finish my book. I am attempting to learn Dutch. And lastly, I find the country of the Netherlands to be a very interesting place and I would love to visit. So, what kind of things are going to be shown here? 1. Interesting things about the county of the Netherlands. 2. Info about my family that has relevance to history. 3. Anything Dutch related. For starters I'm planning a trip to a village that has my surname as it's name October 8-12 and will be posting then. Americans in general don't think much about where they came from or question where names or areas or customs have