I’ve been looking at my stats tonight. I shouldn’t, because I’m pretending not to care about them…but it’s like a drug really. I can honestly say I’ve never tried heavy drugs. I tried a little pot when I was (a lot) younger but nothing more than that. They say those heavy drugs are addictive, and so are stats :-).
But what do I find? After the United States, readers from The Netherlands are the next biggest readers. So G’day to The Netherlands. I’ve got a unique link to you guys, because my Mrs’s maiden name is De Boer (Dutch meaning The Farmer). My Grand-parents-in-law are Dutch. They moved out here after WW2. My father in law’s real name (he doesn’t go by it) is Jan. Now don’t say it with the J, but try it with a jcha. Similar to Juan. But of course if you’re name looked like a girls name you’d adopt another name, and he did, the English version of Jan. Now incase he ever reads this, Gday Jan. You’re a great bloke. Love my inlaws greatly, you really have done more than I can ever thank you for, for us.
But back to the story. My son is essentially part Dutch. Sure, he got an Irish name, despite the fact that my heritage is actually English (ppl said to me that Declan was very Irish, but I just loved it!). Would you believe that my line or Riley’s isn’t Irish!. I’d always believed for many years that the background was Scottish. Riley is generally the Scottish spelling of the name. My folks gave me a Scottish first name because of it. But get this. My line of Riley’s are actually English. The old spelling was Ryly, from the North of England. Later it became Ryley. They moved to Scotland in the 17th century and changed the spelling!. Can’t blame them really. Ryly is hard to spell.
So here we have it. The son of English descendants who people presume are Irish but spent time in Scotland. Of a mother who is half English stock, half Dutch.
Ain’t the world an interesting place. Multiculturalism at work, in a good way.
