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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;smallaxe, post: 2137658, member: 13430&quot;]It is complicated, but historically there is&nbsp; a definite connection to Netherlands. You can see this in the names of some of the original 13 Quaker and Mennonite families that founded Germantown. These early immigrants who came from Krefeld were from religious sects not tolerated by the Catholic church. Some were purely German, from the Palatinate, others from Luxembourg and France, but some were from the Netherlands/Germany border area, such as the Op Den Graeff families. These people came to Krefeld because it was ruled by the religiously tolerant Prince of Orange of the Netherlands. Although many of these early Pennsylvania families spoke German, others spoke Dutch. The term Pennsylvania Dutch may have come into use to distinguish descendants of these early Krefeld families from the purely German influx of the 1800&#039;s. My grandmother&#039;s family traces back to the Krefeld immigrants, and there&#039;s a mix of both German and Dutch names.</p><p><br /></p><p>There were also the Dutch from Orange County New York that migrated to the bordering areas of Pennsylvania in the 1700&#039;s, but I don&#039;t know if they attached the Pennsylvania Dutch label to themselves.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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