I am by no means an expert. I believe many of our ancestors who arrived in the 1700's actually came from the Netherlands - that is where the ship departed, not where they actually lived. Where they actually lived was in that particular part of Europe. As I understand there was no Germany at that time. A number of my ancestors were from the Rheinland Pfalz (Rhineland Palatinate) area of what is now Germany. The confusion of origin is not unusual. In other lines (not PA-Dutch) I have ancestors who were thought to have come from Great Britian. Further research revealed that they came from mainland Europe with a stop in Britain. Larry Noah - larmil-1@att.net Listowner for Rootswebs lists: NCOrange-L, BrickChurchNC-L, BEARSE-L, NOAH-L and BELK-L ----- Original Message ----- From: <REDSKI9136@aol.com> To: <PADUTCHgenONLY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2000 12:56 PM Subject: Re: [PaDgo] NEWCOMER SURNAME > In a message dated 5/25/00 8:30:52 AM Eastern Daylight Time, > o2bab@bedford.net writes: > > << Can't resist replying! PADutch are those Germans who came early into PA > and > spoke German (Deusch). My Berger ancestors came in 1744 and my grandmother, > b 1870 still spoke German, or rather PA Dutch, which is a form of German > understood somewhat in Germany (as we somewhat understand those from Alabama > and Boston!) >> > > Hi Cathy, I have been researching the Dutch for a long time. My research > says that the Dutch are from the Netherlands. Most did have some type of > German dialect, but they did not speak German per say. The Dutch also did not > come to PA., as PA-DUTCH. They were simply Dutch. The Pa. was added on after > they came to Pennslyvania. If you feel I am wrong, please correct me. > > Mary Jane