Good Idea Terry!!!

What shall be the first topic here??? I got it!

Gorge Washington!!!

He chopped down a cherry tree you know.

Andrew Ronzino
(KingGramJohnson)
<><

(Edited for spelling in topic title.)

[ 11-10-2001: Message edited by: thejazzkickazz ]

Drat - I thought I'd be the first one in here to get the honour of christening the new forum. I think I deserve it seeing as I live in a castle (it's a student halls of residence, but it is a proper old castle) which I think marks out my historical credibility to get first post in here - but you foiled my plans!

What sort of history do you have about your castle? Sounds positively medieval to me.

Does anyone else out there live in a castle?

Cheers

It's a funny setup isn't it for students to live in! I think most of it dates from the 10th century, with bits added on over the years. It's in Durham and it was the home of the Prince Bishops who ruled the area, until, just before they were about to be abolished by the Government, it was handed over to be used to form a new university - in the 1800s (I'm no good with exact dates). Then they let students live in it - which is a completely bizzare idea, so our college dining room is in the Great Hall, and our bar is the ultimate in untrashable student bars because the walls are about 10 foot thick.

It's also a great postal address to get your bank statements sent to - and the reaction you get from delivery companies when you give them the address is hilarious!

I'm only back there for this year, but it is still such an odd idea wandering in and out of the place!

Can anyone help me to website information on the DUTCH origins of New York and on how it became New YORK rather than New AMSTERDAM ???
Were there other DUTCH settlements apart from New Amsterdam?

mate, try this site
A Brief Outline of Dutch History and the Province of New Netherland

quote:

---

On September 8, 1664, the Director General Pieter Stuyvesant surrendered Fort Amsterdam and on September 24, 1664, Fort Orange capitulated. Both the city of New Amsterdam and the entire colony were renamed New York, while Fort Amsterdam was renamed Fort James and Fort Orange became Fort Albany.

---

some others of interest:
Dutch Colonies
The Early History of Suffolk County, Long Island
The United States of America and the Netherlands

[ 11-11-2001: Message edited by: gtho4 ]

For those who are curious I have found a photo of Fay's castle, this is no leg pull she really does live here.

yea, pull the other leg
it'll play jingle bells

George my friend, this time I am telling the truth, honest.

Take a virtual tour of Fay's castle

It's true I'm afraid - like I said, it's used for a student halls of residence!

Thx a lot for websites on Dutch origins of New York.
- I read somewhere that there is a monument in Battery Park
"In Memory of the Walloon settlers". Guess that must refer to Peter Minuit. No New Yorkers here who happen to have seen that monument. Well it might a tiny plaque of course...

On 20 May 1924, in Battery Park, City of New York, near the place where the Walloons landed three hundred years earlier, a memorial was dedicated in their honor.

The modest monument was fashioned from the granite of Hainault, from which Belgian province the first settlers in New York and the Middle States, originated.

The inscription reads:

PRESENTED TO THE CITY OF NEW YORK
BY THE CONSEIL PROVINCIAL DE HAINAUT
IN MEMORY OF THE WALLOON SETTLERS
WHO CAME OVER TO AMERICA IN THE
"NIEU NEDERLAND" UNDER THE
INSPIRATION OF JESSE DE FOREST OF
AVESNES THEN COUNTY OF HAINAUT
ONE OF THE XVII PROVINCES

I live just beneath a castle here in France as it turns out. It's tenth century if I recall, have to ask the little one as he did the research on it in school. They have concerts and parties up there now.
I prefer the 1000 year olive tree though, its roots come all the way down here through the Earth.
If you'd told me I'd live so close to a castle when I was a kid, I'd have thought you were crazy! The closest we got was Fairy Tale town!

Flemmie, here's a URL I came across while researching my quiz on Coney Island:

http://naid.sppsr.ucla.edu/coneyisland/articles/earlyhistory.htm

Interesting. May be you know something about the ORIGIN of the name CONEY ISLAND ?
I always have heard it originally was a sandy area with plenty of rabbit burrows. CONEY might then be a derivation from Dutch/Flemish KONIJN or dialectical KEUN.(= rabbit).

Flemmie, that's one of the questions in my quiz. Here is what my source says:

quote:

---

The question that I'm asked most, especially among school children, is "How did Coney Island get its name?" I can't give a straight forward answer as there are multiple theories to the origin of the name. Choose the one that you like from the following four.

1) The original Dutch name "Konijn Kok" first evolved to Conyne Island by the English and later to the easier sounding Coney Island. Konijn is the Dutch word for rabbit. While there were rabbits on the island during the 18th and 19th centuries, they were the domesticated variety, not the wild rabbits that might have inhabited the island when the first mariners visited it.

2) It is more likely that the name refers to a topological feature reported only by early mariners. On a portion of the island lacking shelter of any kind, a low delta about a mile and a half long by half a mile wide, wind had blown the sand into truncated cones. Thus the name "Coney" used as an adjective described the island's appearance.

3) Judge Egbert Benson in a report to the New York Historical Society in 1816, argued that "Coney" came from "Conyn" the name of a Dutch family that once lived at the beach.

Some believe that the area was named after John Coleman, the officer aboard Hudson's "Half Moon" ship, who was killed by the Indians. The name evolved to Coney Island.

---

Encyclopedia Brittanica mentions the Konijn Eiland explanation.
A Dutch "Konijn"-name I never came across. More frequent is the name "Commeyne".
Am a bit sceptical of the 'coney'=cone-shaped version. Skeat mentions "cone" as occasionally meaning "peak". But there are no peaks I suppose.
Coney shapes would be eroded by wind.Certainly if the soil is sandy.
Unsolved mystery if you ask me.
In Flanders Konijn often occurs in toponyms: Konijneberg or Keuneberg = Rabbit Hill. Konijnebos = Rabbit Wood.Konijnepijp= system of rabbit burrows.

Brewer's Dictionary of Names supports the derivation from the Dutch "konijn" (rabbit).

[ 11-14-2001: Message edited by: TabbyTom ]

Check out this Coney Island name origin source: http://coneyisland.brooklyn.ny.us/plainsite/faq.html
No one seems to know how it got its name.

Though rare the surname is not "non-existent" as I first thought.
"Konijn" as a surname is mentioned in various forms by Dr. F.Debrabandere in his Dictionary of Surnames in Belgium and North France.
His estimation is that as a surname it may refer to a. the profession of rabbit-breeder b. to a certain style of nibbling and chewing food.
In the Middle Ages it occurs in the area of Ypres in a form
that is particularly interesting in this context.
In 1277 the town registers mention one Hannekin Conin. (Johnnie Rabbit).
In 1392 a Jacquemin Keunin is mentioned. (James Rabbit).

The Flemish variant may show how easily Dutch Konijn can develop into a shortened Flemish form Conin that is not unlike Coney.

Speculation of course , and as said by fjohn "no one seems to know for sure".