In a message dated 10/5/00 7:04:46 PM Pacific Daylight Time, xanman@postnet.com writes: >I have been learning more about my Hendricks line and though my >Hendricks family came to America straight to Illinois, it is apparent >that they were from Ostfriesland in Germany alongside the Netherlands. >Scott Hendrickse Scott, you may already know this, but since you didn't say it I thought I might point it out just in case: "Ostfriesland" means East Friesland, and this means that this family came from the Friesian Islands. These mostly long, thin, low, sandy islands lie along the North Sea coast of Europe and stretch from the Netherlands eastwards, right the way across northern Germany to the southwestern coast of Denmark. Because there is no country that is called "Friesland", the people who live on these islands carry Dutch or German or Danish passports. But even today, they can still speak their lovely and precious Friesian language, and it might interest some Anglophones besides myself to know that of all the living languages in the world, the one which is the closest "cousin" to the English language is Friesian! In the Netherlands, there is a Friesland province on the mainland as well; its chief city is Leeuwarden, and if you go there you can still hear people speaking Friesian, as well as Dutch. Since many of you on this list know you have Dutch ancestors, you might have read that your emigrant forbear went to America on a ship that "sailed with the tide from Texel", as many did. Well, Texel is one of the Friesian islands, too. Lin Van Buren Saint Leonard's on Sea, England (just across the Channel from there and down a bit!)