I never had the the slightest connection to New York. Also, I have no Dutch Knickerbockers in my family tree except for maybe one obscure branch, but you have to go back so many generations to find any Dutch that it matters almost not at all and it would be hard for me to find that again it was so far back, 10 or 20 generations, I don't remember. Although we Americans are quite a blend of Europe, anyway, there wouldn't be any reason to expect any there in Europe to remember who I am. Certainly my grandmother's face never decorated the walls of a European castle. We're just not very in touch with Europe. I can't speak for my cousins. Maybe their other grandmother was Dutch New York. I only know that mine was not.
I tend to think of Gretchen as an appropriate name for an ornery dog that deserves to be kicked under the table, but of course I don't dare say that. I don't have a public platform for riding roughshod over all my enemies and disaffected relatives. That is not really an appropriate job function, at least not in my opinion.
