Our 8th President, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, New York, in 1782.  He was the first President to be born in the United States, all of his predecessors having been born before the Revolutionary War while the U.S. was still a group of English colonies and not yet an independent nation. The Van Buren family was of Dutch descent and young Martin grew up speaking Dutch at home; he learned English as a second language, once he started school.