Subject: Re: [DUTCH-COLONIES] Van Horne-DNA and the origin of MatthysCornelissen > I seem to recall a couple of times running across the assertion, unsourced > and time period not specified, that only about 40 percent of the inhabitants > of New Amsterdam were actually Dutch. > > --pete Probably quite true, Pete. I have a "Dutch" line which is actually Italian {Burtis} and my wife has at least one French Huguenot line - all ended up as part of the "Dutch" settlers of western Long Island {old Queens County - now Queens & Nassau.} A friend had a line which came from Estonia to New Netherland. I suppose by the time you added up all the Germans, English, Scots, Danes, Norwegians, French & threw in the odd Croat, Italian, or Estonian - the Dutch would end up as a minority. Then you have the Africans to figure into the mix - since in New Netherland/New York slavery was stronger than in any place north of the Chesapeake. It would be interesting to find out the "real" % of the population - say ca. 1700 or a couple of decades earlier. David