In my family, too, there was a vague memory of "Dutch" ancestry, which turned out to be "Deutsch" (German word for "German") upon closer inspection. Obviously, one way in which this could happen was that later generations, speaking only English, might remember that Great-Grandpa always said he was "Deutsch", which they misunderstood as meaning "Dutch". I think many people may not realize, however, that the meaning of the term "Dutch" has varied somewhat over the centuries in the English-speaking world. It didn't always refer precisely to what we call "The Netherlands" today. So, it wasn't always just a matter of mistranslating "Deutsch" as "Dutch". Since modern Germany didn't come into existence as a nation until 1871, the geographical area to which the English term "Germany" referred varied as well. Also, there is a real Dutch connection in my Palatine line, and probably in many other families as well. Many of the Palatine Germans who came to America were driven out of the Palatinate in the early 18th century by the armies of Louis XIV of France, apparently because they were Protestants. The obvious direction in which to flee was north. Northern Germany and the Netherlands were Protestant, southern Germany was Catholic. Many of these people travelled down the Rhine to the Netherlands, and waited there for help. Although the English resettled many of them in America, in Ireland, and in other places, this didn't necessarily happen immediately. In some cases families stayed there for a generation or longer. In my family, this resulted in one generation having a Dutch name. My gggggg-grandfather was named "Johann Simon Strader", perfectly German-looking, but his son was "Hendrick" rather than "Heinrich". My guess is that he was born in the Netherlands, or at least in a nearby Platt-speaking area, during this transitional period. I hope this helps. I'm far from being an expert on this subject, but this is what I've figured out so far, based on my own family's history. Charles Jones Cambridge, MA