Be careful that "Dutch" does not mean "German". The Dutch are coming from Holland, a country also called The Netherlands, and those people are not German ! Now it's true that the city of New York was first named New Amsterdam, whenit was founded by Dutch immigrants, Amsterdam being a Dutch city. But it's because there were a lot of immigrants coming from Germany (not from The Netherlands) that the German language could have become the language of the United States instead of English when the new independent states along the Atlantic Coast voted to select the official language of their country. Jean-Paul Marchal > Message du 27/01/08 03:31 > De : mvicareo@aol.com > A : alsace-lorraine@rootsweb.com > Copie à : > Objet : Re: [A-L] Newspapers, Literacy and Genealogical Research > > > I was not surprised that the Declaration of Independence was printed in German. If the established language of this country was established at the time it should have been I ren=member hearing that iy would have been "German." People forget that The Dutch were early settlers to this country. > Maria > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: RAM > To: lynda@houseofwaterdancer.com; alsace-lorraine@rootsweb.com > Sent: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 10:43 pm > Subject: Re: [A-L] Newspapers, Literacy and Genealogical Research > > > > > > > > > > > Lynda, > > > On Jan 13, 2008, at 9:35 PM, Lynda L. Jones wrote: > > "...our Revolutionary forefathers required that the Declaration be > published in German..." > > I intrigued by your statement that "our Revolutionary forefathers > *required* that the Declaration be published in German..." > Do you have a source that states they specified German or was the > intent that the news be published in all newspapers in > the colonies? It's not a big deal but I'm struck by the suggestion > that German was specified given the overwhelming English --- and then > French --- influence/heritage in the colonies in the 1770's. My > understanding was that the first published notice of the Declaration > of Independence appeared in a German-language newspaper due to > happenstance and not planning. I'm not suggesting that there were > not German settlers, but only that their presence & influence was > very limited. > > "My point is that we have always taken into account the languages..." > > And, unfortunately, one of the ways in which we (the United States) > have taken languages into account is to suppress them. Japanese > language newspapers were put out business in the 1940's and the > 'Indian schools' of the the latter half of the 1800's forbade the > teaching/learning of Native American languages. Until, of course, we > needed the Navajo code talkers of WW II. > > > Richard > > > > -- > Resources for Alsace-Lorraine list members: > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~valorie/Alsace-Lorraine-L.htm > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ALSACE-LORRAINE-request@rootsweb.com > with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of > the message > > > > > > > ________________________________________________________________________ > More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com > -- > Resources for Alsace-Lorraine list members: > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~valorie/Alsace-Lorraine-L.htm > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ALSACE-LORRAINE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Orange vous informe que cet e-mail a ete controle par l'anti-virus mail. > Aucun virus connu a ce jour par nos services n'a ete detecte. > > >