The most amazing thing about the Irish - Dutch relationship (which is indeed exellent), is the fact that they still want to party with us after 150 defeats in a row 
Oh, and Larrigan? Spot-on about the Orangemen issue. Traditions that harm others should be abolished.
Thanks all (especially Coldfire) for clearing this up! Consider this one more piece of ignorance erradicated from the Earth (but there is still a lot left…).
Incidently, the reason that I asked is that my grandfather was born in The Netherlands, and I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t doing him a dishonor by saying I’m of Dutch ancestry. Now I know. 
Thanks again.
BTW- isnt the Irish dutch match on at the same time that you’ll be over here?
No sir! It is an honour to be able to say that 
Where’s your grandfather from?
Larrigan: unfortunately, that game is September 2nd. That would have been supercool though!
I’m always somewhat embarrassed visiting the Netherlands because it seems that the Dutch speak English better than a native English speaker like I.
Then again, I tried to learn some Dutch off of some instructional tapes and decided to forget about it. Since I wasn’t going way into the countryside, it wasn’t a problem. The Dutch also seem to have one of the most efficient rail services in all of Europe.
I assume the size of the country helps in that.
> a somewhat derogatory fashion, as in “Dutch treat”,
How is that derogatory? It just means each person pays for his own stuff.
Dutch wasn’t a racist, he just terrorized everybody …
An excellent example.
Tampa Flyer asked:
Like Scotsmen, the Dutch had a negative sterotype of being incredibly cheap. When FDR began looking very haggard in 1944, one of his advisors said, “He looks so bad because he’s lost so much weight, and the damned Dutchman in him won’t let him go out and buy new shirts.”
When you are treated, you are invited to dinner and have it paid for you.
When you are Dutch treated, you are invited to dinner and then expected to pay for your share. It’s not much of a treat.
John Corrado
(Half Italian, Half Welsh. I get really depressed, and really loud about it.)
Ok, so where is Orange that these Williams were of? I did try looking that up myself on the net, but due to the apparent linguistic coincidence (unless Orange is very orange, or full of oranges, in which case it isn’t a coincidence, I suppose) there are a lot of entries for ‘Orange’. When it comes to geographic place names, the only entries I noticed (ignoring entries like Orange County, CA) was a river in South Africa named the Orange River (forming one of the borders, appropriately enough, of the Orange Free State) and a city called Orange in the south of France. Given the timeline I assume the river (and Free State) in Africa were named after the original Orange by Dutch settlers, and not the other way around, but I couldn’t determine if the city in France is William of Orange’s Orange.
Isn’t Rik Smit’s nickname “Dutch Treat”?
“Dutch” was used as a derogatory adjective ascribed by the English settlers, and referred to things that were not specifically “Dutch.” (Remember they weren’t the best of friends in New Amsterdam.)
Dutch treat: not a “treat” at all. Each pays his own.
Dutch uncle: one who admonishes sternly and bluntly
Dutch oven: rather primitive contraption
Dutch courage: “courage” born of inebriation
And there are probably more.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Coldfire *
I asked my mom. Here’s what she said (Forsten was his surname):
If you know any Forstens, my mom would love to talk to them.
Forsten is a VERY unusual name! Strating, however, is more common. Groningen is a beautiful city. Tell your mom I would be more than happy to help her out with translating stuff.
Yup, Orange in the South of France is where our Royal Family is originally from. Oh, and we’re STILL considered cheapskates by some. The Belgians, mostly - Belgium is to us what Canada is to the US
All I know about William of Orange was from “The First Salute” by Barbara Tuchman. You can see how tough it can be to win a revolution, compared to the wimpy one we had hear in America.
I have nothing but respect for the Dutch after reading how they threw off the Spanish.
(The book is actually about the American Revolution, the “First Salute” was given by a small Dutch Colony in the Carribean who first officially recognized a ship sailing under the American Flag. It connects to William because the Dutch were sympathetic to our revolution because of theirs…)
I believe William of Orange landed at Lyme Regis in the south of England. There is a citric motif about him.
D’oh! I was being too careful and I ended up getting hoisted by my own petard.
If you’re serious, I’m sure she’ll take you up on this. I have asked her to scan the pages she has and I will forward them to you. She absolutely loves geneology and any help she can get will be appreciated.
You rock, Coldfire. You friggin’ rock. (I hope that translates well. :))
No problem Joey. As long as it isn’t 50 pages of translating, that is