welcome to the ancestral findings comm podcast episode number 8 were
you told you have black Dutch ancestry but don't know what it means it means a
lot of different things here is what you need to know about these people
the term black Dutch is something you may encounter in your genealogy research or
maybe you've heard it mentioned in your family as being part of your ancestry but what does it mean
exactly who were the black Dutch if you're just getting started on your genealogy adventure you
may not know this is the explanation you need I found it very interesting to learn that the
black Dutch were not one particular race that is the most important thing to remember it is
a term that is used in historical documents to refer to several different groups knowing your
ancestral origins and some of your family history will help you put the term black dutch in context
with your own family the most common designation of black Dutch refers to Dutch immigrants to New
York who had swarthy er complexions than most other Dutch the darker complexions were usually
due to intermarriage or out of wedlock births with Spanish soldiers during the Spanish occupation of
the Netherlands many of these so-called black Dutch are still in New York today while other
families migrated south and west to other states DNA studies have shown that these people are of
mainly European descent with little if any African or Native American DNA in them Sephardic Jewish
merchants came to the Netherlands from Spain and Portugal in the 15th century after being expelled
from those nations some of them were admitted to England during Oliver Cromwell's occupation
of it in the 17th century during the English Civil War many of these eventually came to the
American colonies and settled in New England and in the south the Sephardic Jewish immigrants often
mixed with free or enslaved Africans and bore children with them sometimes the men stayed with
their mixed-race families especially if the woman was free while other times they abandoned them
for Jewish wives the descendants of the Sephardic Jewish immigrants and the Africans in America with
whom they bore children were also historically referred to as black Dutch some Native Americans
particularly the Cherokees of the Carolinas identified themselves as in order to avoid being
sent West to reservations giving themselves this designation also allowed them to buy
an owned land in the East something that was only permitted to those of European descent at the time
these natives denied their ancestry sometimes for generations because they were concerned their land
would be taken from them and they would be sent west today though most natives who identified as
black Dutch have become open about their ancestry if you have a native in your family who identified
as black Dutch in order to stay in the East and buy land you will probably know it through
family records and strong oral tradition the term Dutch has long been used for German immigrants as
Germans called themselves the Deutsche people this easily anglicized into Dutch and both
German and Dutch immigrants became known by the same designation the Pennsylvania Dutch are the
descendants of German immigrants and many groups of them particularly the Amish still speak various
versions of German today like the dark-skinned immigrants from the Netherlands who settled in
New York German immigrants to Pennsylvania and other areas were also referred to as black Dutch
if they had darker than usual complexions the surnames of these black Dutch have remained
decidedly German even to the present day making it easier to identify a black Dutch ancestor who was
really a German immigrant then possibly for any other group of people referred to as black Dutch
as many northern families who were referred to as black Dutch immigrated south the original meaning
of the term became lost through the generations many southern people today claim to have black
Dutch ancestry usually believing they have an ancestor who bore children with a native-american
in most cases this is incorrect however it was not uncommon for people in the south to have
children with Africans during the 18th and 19th centuries and these mixed-race families
gradually integrated into their communities most of the southern black Dutch do not have German
or Dutch ancestry at all but are of English or Irish descent with maybe some African mixed in
since black Dutch is an American term you will be doing all of your research in American records it
was a common term in legal and personal documents from the 1600s through the early 1900's in this
country if you come across it in your research or if you've been told you have black Dutch ancestry
the easiest thing to do is to get a DNA test from one of the inexpensive companies that now does
this for genealogists it will tell you where your ancestors came from in the past several hundred
years and this will allow you to narrow down the ethnicity of your own particular brand of
black Dutch knowing this will make following the paper trail to your original black Dutch ancestor
easier you can follow the line of ethnicity back through census records court records wills
church records and even old newspaper records eventually you will find someone in your line
who is identified as Dutch Jewish German or even outright black Dutch further research on
that ancestor will reveal their origins in most cases this will allow you to prove or disprove
family lore and learn the true meaning of black Dutch as it pertains to your family
passenger and immigration records contain a wealth of information on
your immigrant ancestors I'll talk about how to find those records and
what you might discover in them on the next ancestral findings comm podcast
you