News Archive

Charlotte Van Horne Squarcy is a celebrity …in Holland! Fifteen generations after her Dutch ancestors sailed to Nieuw Amsterdam (better known as New York City) Charlotte Squarcy became a modern-day spokeswoman for the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Dutch colony.

After her initial success promoting the anniversary event in 2009, the Dutch Reality show “Man Bijt Hond” (Translation: “Man Bites Dog”) invited her to Holland for live commentary of Queen’s Day celebrations and 17 additional episodes in other Dutch towns and villages.

Squarcy’s humorous, off-the-cuff remarks have earned her a following in Holland, where, she says, she has been asked for autographs or pictures by a wide variety of people. Squarcy, who used the stage name Charlotte Van Hoorn, also writes a blog for her fans.

She is proud of her Hoosier roots, as well as her Dutch heritage. Having taken the bar exam prior to finishing her law degree, she was sworn in as Deputy Attorney General of Indiana the week after commencement in 1977. “It was a genuine thrill to have litigated 50 trials and administrative hearings while serving the people of Indiana,” she says. “Service in the AG’s Office is terrific trial experience.”

After leaving Indiana, she spent over three decades in corporate and private practice in product liability and environmental law, as supervising litigator for outside counsel at General Motors and Olin Corporation. She also founded the American Bar Association’s Warning and Labeling (now Preventative Law) Committee of the Litigation Section. “My legacy was communication across the language barrier about safe product usage through the use of pictographs,” she states.

In semi-retirement she continues to trace her mother’s family’s roots which relate to one of the founding families of the Dutch colony in America. She is a member of the Society of Daughters of Holland Dames and the Dutch Settlers of Albany. She also serves on the board of the Wyckoff Farmhouse museum, a 17^th century Dutch farmhouse that is the oldest landmark building in New York, and her ancestral home (a Wyckoff granddaughter married one of her Van Horne ancestors in America). She says, “That was a ‘wow’ moment when I saw the hand-hewn timbers inside the house’s walls and realized my ancestors had touched them.”

By all accounts the Dutch television series was a hit! Squarcy received a formal letter from the Private Secretary of HRH Queen Beatrix congratulating her on the TV series. Previously, she had met Crown Prince Wilhelm and Princess Maxima of The Netherlands.

Squarcy says she would love to do another series in the U.S. on sites influenced by Dutch culture. As for her future in show business, she laughs, “I hope to get a hair care commercial out of this!”

Check out her Dutch escapades on the web: http://www.manbijthond.nl (and search on Charlotte).

UPDATE: Charlotte Van Horne Squarcy is embarking on the voyage of a lifetime on April 3, 2011.  She will be on the HAL flagship MS Nieuw Amsterdam sailing the Spanish Main to the Old World (the same route her ancestors sailed to the New World).  Follow Charlotte's Blog
She also has a blog on the Dutch TV site (click here).