Hollanders in America

I have been researching and writing about Dutch immigration to the United States for over thirty years now. And I have had a number of articles about this topic published during that time. While I intend to keep doing that, I’d also like to send along shorter posts about these people whose presence is often lost in the wider immigration story. Though few in number, the Hollanders still made a significant impact in those places where they congregated in larger numbers.

Northern New Jersey was one of those places, and that’s where I intend to center these postings. These were my ancestors, and I grew up in the community they helped build (literally) in the area around Paterson. Starting in late 1846, for the next one hundred years or so, they came, stayed for a while, and made a new life for themselves in their new homeland.

Some of their stories are happy; others are sad. Some of these people were heroes, others of them heals. To some of their neighbors they were model citizens; others regarded them as snobs and scabs. My goal is tell their stories honestly.

I hope you will enjoy the vignettes that will follow in the coming months.

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Welcome to WordPress! This is a sample post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey. To add more content here, click the small plus icon at the top left corner. There, you will find an existing selection of WordPress blocks and patterns, something to suit your every need for content creation. And don’t forget to check out the List View: click the icon a few spots to the right of the plus icon and you’ll get a tidy, easy-to-view list of the blocks and patterns in your post.