Genealogy/Family Pedigree

[VargasGirl]

I would like to do my farther's side the most. There is a story that my great grandfather was the son of a Czech Duke and his mistress. Apparently the proof was distroyed, which really ticked off my great-aunt. I would love to find out that I was Czech royalty!

 

[Fletch]

I am descended from North of England lead miners and German Lutheran ministers on my dad's side, and backwoods Northern Italians and mysterious Ukrainians on my mom's. (Her mother died very young and that side of the family cut off relations not long after.)

We have the English side going back to 1790 or so, the German to about 1810, and the Italian to maybe 1850. The miners came over ca. 1830 to Pennsylvania, then Illinois and Wisconsin. The Lutherans arrived in Missouri around the time of the mass German influx of 1848. The Italian side first came to the USA before Italians began to emigrate in numbers, to New Orleans and the produce business around 1870. Didn't like it, went back home and returned in 1890 or so to Bridgeport, CT. About the Ukrainians I know absolutely zip. The way the borders used to flip around, I'm not even 100% sure they were Ukrainian.

Some of my illustrious forebears include a Prussian veteran of the Waterloo campaign, a Civil War veteran, a weekly newspaper publisher, two wholesale grocers (on opposite sides of the family), the boss of a court stenographers' agency who (supposedly) pioneered temp employment in Chicago, two crazy maiden sisters who raised chihuahuas, the first Italian-American (again supposedly) elected to public office in Connecticut, and the Commissioner of Dikes in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

 

[Lauren]

My great (times whatever) grandfather came over on the Mormon Trail and my Aunt still has the family bible and memoirs he wrote down. With his help we've gotten our family back to the early 1500's in England. Our surname is Wilcox. Since he did the footwork, I've played around with various names of wives or husbands and have gotten the Dudley line back to the 1400's in England- In the movie Elizabeth (well in real life, too), Robert was her favorite and he was a Dudley, as was the husband and father in law of Lady Jane Gray- so they tried to overthrow the throne and boot Elizabeth out after Mary's death. When I was in England I made a point to visit the Tower because of this and saw where they were buried and where they scratched into the tower when imprisoned. I've also found I'm related distantly to Harriet Beecher Stowe, Yale (who donated the books to start Yale college), loads of Puritans and a girl who made the trip all alone way back then to come join family here in the New World, and one of the first female poets in the New World (but I can't remember her name. It's been a while). Geneology is fun!

 

[dolly]

A few years ago my mother managed to trace some branches of the family back to the 1400s.
After that it's really dubious, we may or may not be related to Eleanor of Aquitane or one of her ladies in waiting.

My dads side emigated from the UK to Greenland NH in the early 1600s i think. In the 1840s my great-great grandfather moved on to the recently settled Melbourne, Australia.

Mums side were in the UK until the mid 1800s. One ansestor came to Australia on with the first fleet as an officer but went back to the UK & his son moved out here much later. They owned Martindale Hall in the Adelaide hills. Where parts of Picnic at Hanging Rock was filmed. My great grandfather was quite a well known methodist missionary. He worked at crocodile island & collected quite a lot of aboriginal art for the NGV.

 

[kath]

Wow, I love this stuff too! It's so interesting!

On my Mom's Dad's (my grandfathers) side, we go back to the early 1700's. I don't think anyone has tried to go further back, but it would be interesting. In the 1500's we were in the Netherlands (we don't have names, but my families religious beliefs came from Menno Simons in the 1530's, and our family name was Dutch through and through until the 1700's where they dropped the "Van Den" at the beginning). My family was forced to flee from religious persecution and buried all their riches under some huge oak tree near 'the church fence'. Supposedly there is a map, and relatives have gone back to look, but nothing has ever been found. So they flee to Prussia, and end up having to flee again, this time to Russia (Catherine the Great wanted hard working farmers). The Russians hated them because they became so wealthy (they we not allowed to integrate, thus, created their own little society, and shared with each other). My Grandfathers Uncle became advisor to the Tzar before the revolution. My family was extremely wealthy, with lots of land, and houses on the Black Sea, and of course, a lot were killed during the revolution. I have only one surviving relative still in Russia. After the revolution & war, many moved to Canada, Mexico & the US. My grandfather was 4 when his family fled Russia. He ended up living in Mexico for some time, until an eye infection cleared up. Supposedly he then had to take a train all by himself to Saskatchewan when he was only a small child. There is also a diary written by his sister about the journey, supposedly it was quite awful.

My Mom's Mom has a similar story, and both families fled close to the same time. This photo is of my Grandmothers side (some cousins and siblings). It was taken in South Russia 1926 when she was 10 mos old (far right). They fled shortly thereafter.

 

[Tourbillion]

A few years ago my mother managed to trace some branches of the family back to the 1400s.
After that it's really dubious, we may or may not be related to Eleanor of Aquitane or one of her ladies in waiting.

My dads side emigated from the UK to Greenland NH in the early 1600s i think. In the 1840s my great-great grandfather moved on to the recently settled Melbourne, Australia.

Mums side were in the UK until the mid 1800s. One ansestor came to Australia on with the first fleet as an officer but went back to the UK & his son moved out here much later. They owned Martindale Hall in the Adelaide hills. Where parts of Picnic at Hanging Rock was filmed. My great grandfather was quite a well known methodist missionary. He worked at crocodile island & collected quite a lot of aboriginal art for the NGV.

Eleanor of Aquitane has a gazillon descendants, I'm one of them. She had nine children, so I would suppose that there are tons of descendants around that have no idea that they are related to her.

 

[MissHuff]

I wish I could trace back my family history but there wasn't much record keeping in the mountains of northern Laos. Both of my parents are from Laos and my mother is Tai Dam or Black Thai, a small ethnic group that is spread across southeast asia. All I know is that my grandfather was from Vietnam and left shortly after the communists came along in the 40s.

My Mother, Uncle, and Aunt left Laos in the late 70s after the war along with My father and his family. My parents were sweethearts back home before they became refugees. My mom did a stint in a refugee camp in the Phillipines before she was sponsored by a methodist family in Iowa and she came to live with them. My father's side made their way to California, Illinois and Iowa. Then they all moved on over to little Rhode Island.

I don't have much although I will hopefully somehow get the Vietnam War stories out of my family, especially my grandfather. I think it's very important to know where you came from. I don't have a lot of information but I hope to get started on my fiance's family history so that my daughter has something to start with when she gets older. His mother's irish (freitas) and her mother's family (devine) was from County Cork. On his father's side (pinocci) his grandfather is from Lucca, Italy. So I guess that's where my search is going to begin.

 

[ITG]

This is a thread that both the men and women can participate in. I'm moving it out of the Powder Room and into the OB.

 

[panamag8or]

FL ate my post. I'd post my pedigree here, but it wouldn't fit.

Anyway, I have my family tree back to Adam and Eve if you believe the Mormons.

They even proxy re-baptised my maternal line back to the 1600's.

My Grandmother used the same source to get ours back to Adam and Eve. Along the way, we have Charlemagne, many British monarchs, as well as Jane Seymour, the only one of King Henry VIII's wives to bear a son.

 

[warbird]

The Mormon church is also a great resource. They have the most extensive records of family lineage of any institution in the world. I have looked to them several times when I was stuck at a generational level.

 

[Steve]

My paternal grandfather traced his side of the family to Capt. Benjamin Merrell, who was gruesomely executed for assisting in an uprise against the British forces in New Jersey in 1774.

On my mother's side, we go back to Andrew Jackson (my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather,) and are distant cousins to Stonewall Jackson.

 

[lindylady]

On my father's side, I know that my great-uncle was the first black assistant attorney general in the U.S. His last name was McGill. I have to research more on my mother's side.