Location: Lawrence, Kansas, USA

 joined the list out of interest in recapturing something of my ethnic and cultural heritage. My family’s roots can be traced back to 16th century Netherlands, and the Dutch Reformation at which time they became associated with a Dutch preacher and reformer, Menno Simons, leader of a movement which later bore his name, the Mennonites.

Growing up in the last half of the 20th century, I was fortunate to meet here and there members of a much earlier generation who could still speak and understand our ethnic group’s native Plautdietsch. It is this dialect of Low German that I am now attempting to teach myself.

Jim Krause
2005