Walloons in New Netherland: Forgotten Settlers in a Forgotten Colony 

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Yea! Thank you! We were French Huguenots and Wallons who settled New Amsterdam and New Paltz. Love this!

As one of the ~1 million descendants of Joris and Catalina Rapalje, I greatly enjoyed hearing their story at the end.

I found your channel by chance and I'm impressed. As a Finn it would be nice to see a video about my homeland and its history. Don't get me wrong, your videos about various other things have have been superb so far!

I'm enjoying your channel. I'm actually happy that you're posting several videos about America's forgotten Dutch history. I'm American but one of my great-grandfathers was from the Netherlands, so I'm fascinated in Dutch history.

Thank you for making this video and discussing the history of Walloons and Huguenots in the establishment of New Amsterdam. I’m a direct descendant of Jesse DeForest and it’s nice to see someone discuss the history that is mostly overlooked.

Catalyntje Trico is my 12x great grandmother. I stem from the Vandervoort line. It’s so cool to discover this! They were basically the Adam and Eve of New York! 😅

I a Genealogist originally from Connecticut My wife’s English ancestors were hired by the Dutch to build a Church in lower Manhattan in the 1630 They eventually migrated to Connecticut They were real Yankees Apparently that term was a pejorative coming from a Dutch Revolutionary name Jan Keyes who was considered a crazy person .

Jesse DeForest is one of my ancestors through his daughter Rachel and her husband Jean Mousnier de la Montagne, the first physician on Manhattan Island.

Jesse DeForest is my 9X great grandfather. It was fun to watch this video, hear the stories spoken, and see the documents and monuments that I found in my genealogical research. Thank you Geography Geek!

Once again you're engaging me and this time showing me how little I know about aspects of our history. I am a descendent of the Pilgrims but never put their time-line together with the Dutch settlements. Looking forward to learning more....

Recently learned that I'm one of those Rapalje/Trico descendants. Pieter van Neste married their daughter, Judith, and here I am, 12 generations later (like a million others). Though, the name has changed to Van Ness. I've been fascinated by the history of New Netherland ever since. Thanks for making the video!

Very interesting content from a New York city tour guide! I'm sure your aware of the book The Island at the Center of the World about dutch Manhattan. It's fantastic

Ok, I did it. I've watched all of your videos. I am ready for new ones. Ps: I am going to rewatched it more times so I can memorizd more information. Thank you for your great work! I am pretty sure this channel is going to get big one day.

Good video GG

Thanks for this, really enjoyed it.

Do you eventually plan on talking about the swedish colonies in the Americas

My great grandfather Pierre Billiou (Bilyeu) came in 1661 and his home is still standing on Staten Island. He was a Walloon speaking Huguenot from Lille France in Artois region and fled with the Huguenots to Leiden before petitioning for land in the new world.

Thank you for this video. These were my direct ancestors.

This was really interesting video. Watching from the Philippines

This video is so interesting, and it is also a great job of research and edition. As a walloon myself, i learned things i diid not know. I have heard somewhere that Wall street was named after walloon workers involved in its construction. You probably know more about it. good continuation

I’m a direct descendant of one of the first Finnish immigrants to New Sweden, the settlement made possible by Minuit.

New Netherland is a big part of my genealogy, and I found out recently that it's my DNA as well! Some of my ancestors in New York had surnames like Van Lanen and De Forrest , and were from Belgium. I also had a La Montagne from Sedan France. Their actual DNA was closer to Dutch than Latin/Roman, etc. Great video!!

I love Russell Shorto’s book. I was wondering if you were familiar with it. It’s one of few books that I have read , or listened to multiple times. Your videos are excellent. I’m looking forward to this series.

Jesse DeForest was my 10th great grandfather. my mother spent the last 40 years of her life tracing our family history,i believe she made it back to the year 1007

Yes more dutch vid to fuel my dutch ego

Very interesting!

thank you! I am a descendant of Phillipe Du Trieux, a Walloon, so this is very interesting to me. Not all early settlers were English.

Love the dutch theme! You should make a video about how the danish have changed their rivers and streams.

11 generations for me to Peter Minuit, though we had to get to Upper Canada in the 1780s, after generations on Long Island, Hoosick, Kinderhook and Albany, and intermarrying with the English.

Again great video Zack, thank you! I can also recommend Russell Shorto's book Amsterdam. Basically about birth of capitalism amongst other things. Very nice read.

What about Hoboken? I read a lot of the origin of the name. But isn’t it interesting that there is an twelfth century settlement and thirteenth village near Antwerp that is called Hoboken, (from the Medieval Dutch ‘hooge boeken’ or ‘high beeches’). It was destroyed during the siege of Antwerp, Antwerp was then a Protestant city and the centre of the resurrection against the Spanish regime of The Netherlands. After the capture of Antwerp in 1585, Protestant got a four year period to settle their businesses and depart. The northern part of the Netherlands became independent the southern part, inclusive the France speaking ‘Walonië’ stayed katholicisme under Spanish rule. Isn’t it possible that some of the Antwerp refuses direct or indirect through Holland and Nieuw Amsterdam, settled in what became Hoboken and gave it its name, some of the first European settlers were Dutch farmers, had a lease of the WIC and were due to bring in more farmers to start a community.

Great video my guy 😂😁

Thanks for your interesting video's! Im from the Netherlands myself, and I am curius where your interest about the Netherlands comes from?

Funny, rapalje is actually an oldfashioned derogatory term used to describe 'deplorables' or scoundrels

Thank you for this video! I just found out today that Catalina and Joris are my 9th Great Grandparents. I never knew about this story until now!

Small correction, Walloon is not a French dialect, it is a distinct language, it split from very early French more than a 1000 years ago.

I would not be surprised if "de Forest" was a translated surname. Might have been "de Horst" originally, but Google doesn't really lend itself to finding this out.

A cool video would be about how Philadelphia is originally a Swedish colony which is why our municipal flag still has the Swedish colors.

Can you do a video on the origins of the first Manhattan map, the Castello Plan by Jacques Cortelyou? He was a teacher and a geographer.

Great 🙂

Thanks for your Video. Too bad they didn't keep the area around the Fort - including the Fort.

I believe I'm a descendant of de Forest so this was nice to see.

there is some recently translated info on minuet or whatever minWhee

Your concluding story was inspiring. Can you imaged Joris saying to Katerina, "Let's take a three months honeymoon across the Atlantic on cramped ship and live in the wilderness for the rest of our lives." How many other immigrants have a similar family story?

I can trace my lineage to Jesse Deforest a French religious refugee

'Flemish' (as used in this video) is not a Dutch dialect, but the Dutch standard language as spoken in Belgium. Calling 'Flemish' a Dutch dialect would be the same as calling 'American' a dialect of English. Dutch and Flemings use exactly the same spelling, contrary to Americans who use a slightly different spelling from the one used by the British.

Min-way. Nevah heard it said that way. If you cross the bridge to Brooklyn I'll bet, Those in the know will say Min-you-ette.

It says Nieu Nederland / Novum Belgium, and you are surprised by Walloons? During the eighty years war, the front line shifted constantly, in the north west Holland was relatively safe and in the south east Luxemburg. In between the battle to control the Netherlands (entirely) went in all directions. Many went to Holland or Namur/Luxemburg to be safe against plunder and massacre. Those with sympathy for protestants went north west, those with sympathy for catholics went south east. Though the Netherlands and Belgium are now two countries, their names BOTH cover the entire BeNeLux. Even nowadays coins minted in the north can contain the latin text: Gold coin of the Belgian Provincial Confederation, Mo Au Conf Prov Belg

My 6 great grandfather

👌🏼👍🏻✌🏼

Are they truly forgotten if they have their surnames everywhere?

Not forgotten but wiped out of history by the Brits.

My ancestors were dutch

only the American dream has failed total !!!

Don't confuse the French speaking peoples of the Netherlands as Wallons since due the fact that French was a spoken language in the whole educated people Southern of the 3 mayor Rivers in The Netherlands. The Catholic mayority of the South of educated they where more French spoken than Dutch spoken. This was practiced due to the fact that with a different religion in the South Latin or French was more spoken than Dutch which was the language of the lower classes until 1920. So please recheck your facts again and again. Even in the Belgium Revolution French was the language used to support the Freedom fights and rebellion against the repression of the Protestant Dutch Government which let to a Apartheid in the Dutch society from 1585 until 1918 with some practices even reaching the 1975. Even until to day the Western population finds itself more superior to the people in the North, East and South. Hopefully things will change to the better after the latest General Election of 2024.