Show Us Your Pedigree! The Heritage Thread.

[Real Swell Gal]

I, like many many other Americans am pure blooded German-Irish. LOL!

 

[miss_elise]

On one side we are German Lutherans who came to Australia in the 1830's...there is also some Wendish in there as well...

On my other side, I have post-war migration Dutch heritage, 1950's, which is why i like wooden shoes, tulips and fried food... and mayonnaise on my chips... lol

but all in all you can tell all of this anglo, germanic, dutch heritage in my bone structure...

 

[airforceindy]

Bit of a mixed bag, but mostly UK blood. Worrick (my own surname) is taken originally from Warwickshire, England, or so I'm told. These are the names I could dig up from the family tree:

Dad's Side: Worrick, Smith, Baker, Brown

Mom's Side: Johnston, Hughes, DeLong, Nadeau

So, 62.5% English, 25% French, and 12.5% Scot.

Or something like that...

 

[Edward]

I need to dig out all the details properly sometime, but what I do know:

Dad's side, the family name goes back to Switzerland. My grandmother's side of the family were German back a few geenrations before - I remember the story she told was that the daughter married a man who didn't own land, so she was disowned and eventually ended up in Ireland. Big Germanic influence there - actually, I fine (and it's true for celts in general, I think) that there's a strong sense of a shared attitude t life / culture / etc with my own experience and what I've seen of Germany and Switzerland. In some respect, I think much more like the Germans I've known than the English folks I live among now.

On my mother's side, both the Blairs and the McCaws came over from Scotland, I believe at some point post Culloden. I don't think they were early enough to have been planters. Granda Blair always insisted that the Blairs were thrown out of Scotland for being sheep theives. While I'm still trying to substantiate it, I believe they were both allied to Clan Stewart, and would have fought for the Jacobites. Also entwined in there, farther back, is a Norse streak - I've got Viking blood in my veins. My maternal grandmother's grandmother was Spanish (where my dark eyes come from).

Both sides of the family have been in Ireland for a very long time. I'm one of realtively few who have emigrated out of Ireland; I consider myself an Irish boy living in voluntary exile in England. Well, London - I'm not sure you can really call London England - it's such a place of its own.

 

[alphy27]

At least half of my ancestors have been on this continent for over 300 years. The oldest documented family members on my Mom's side came over to Canada from the Normandy region of France shortly after their marriage in 1670. They settled in the Montreal area and no one left there until my maternal grandfather's generation. The persistent unsubstantiated rumor on my Mom's side is that some where back in Canada there was some Native American blood but no documentation found as of yet to back that up. My heritage from Dad's side is a little tougher to figure since the family genealogist, my great uncle, died and all the records disappeared when his wife and daughter moved home to New York state and were never heard from again. All I know is that my paternal grandfather was born in Montreal Canada. The family emigrated to the US before my Dad was born.

 

[alphy27]

I, like many many other Americans am pure blooded German-Irish. LOL!

My best friend claims the same heritage as you but she puts it this way: An Irish temper with German stubbornness!lol lol lol

 

[lyburnum]

On my Fathers side - Northern Ireland, however our surname is Scottish, which leads us to believe that his real ancestry is back in Scotland.

On my Mothers side - British with Welsh parents, however the name Nuttall first originated in Lancashire, meaning that it's likely her true roots are English.

All in all I'm 100% British

 

[PhilS]

German, Cornish, Hillbilly, Mutt

Dad's side - German (Baden Wurtemburg), left in 1810's to farm in Russia ("Germans from Russia" is a large group with a wealth of genealogical research, because they remained German and had to account to the authorities), left Russia in 1874 when the draft exemption was revoked, moved to North Dakota under Homestead Act. Also Hillbilly - WV offshoot of Hatfields clan of Hatfields and McCoys fame.

Mom's side - Cornish, German and Scots-Irish.

I would not be surprised to find lots more ethnic types in the mix. When DNA testing for fun hits the mainstream, I'll be sure to check it out.

 

[AmateisGal]

Dad's side - German (Baden Wurtemburg), left in 1810's to farm in Russia ("Germans from Russia" is a large group with a wealth of genealogical research, because they remained German and had to account to the authorities), left Russia in 1874 when the draft exemption was revoked, moved to North Dakota under Homestead Act. Also Hillbilly - WV offshoot of Hatfields clan of Hatfields and McCoys fame.

I live very close to the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia and my neighborhood was settled mostly by the Germans from Russia.

My grandmother's parents were Germans from Russia and her family has already compiled an extensive family history.

Can I assume you know what butterballs are?

 

[Bourbon Guy]

Surname: Border Scots (don't call it "lowland;" I prefer "front line"). Came over early 1800's. Migrated west through NY and PA. Early pioneers.
Father's mother: English. Came over early 1700's. Early eastern town folk. Don't know why they went west.
Mother's father: German. Came over late 1800's. Don't get too bent out of shape about hearing Spanish, because my Grandpa's 8th grade graduation diploma, from an Illinois public school, is written in German. So long as you love it once you are here.
Mother's mother: Scots. Came over mid 1800's.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

So: what "extraction" are you? And what do you feel you have gotten from those roots?

I am, in order of the most blood:

Mostly Celtic--Scottish and a little Irish and Welsh-- what did I get from being Celtic? Black hair and my smile. I'm very stubborn and independent. The liking of wool tweed and freedom.

German and proud of it: My interest in the details. My liking of Strauss.

A little Norwegian: My liking of cold weather, ships and boats.

Most of the extractions that I come from have been in this country for some time, some arrived in the 1700's and some the early 1800's, and the smaller faction, the Norwegian, around the early 1900's.

 

[PhilS]

Butterballs

I live very close to the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia and my neighborhood was settled mostly by the Germans from Russia.

My grandmother's parents were Germans from Russia and her family has already compiled an extensive family history.

Can I assume you know what butterballs are?

I know vaguely - had them once or twice in chicken soup as I recall. Because I am 6th generation, because this line is on my paternal side, and especially because everyone ran from the German heritage during the two world wars I didn't get a lot of the cooking growing up. (During WWI my great great grandfather and great grandfather changed their names from Heinrich and Andreas to Henry and Andrew, respectively. They left the last name intact, which makes no sense to me).

My favorite German's from Russia saying is this embroidered pillow:

Dad was sick and couldn't drink for a month.
He's better now.
God be praised!

As to genealogy - I have used both the AHSGR and GRHC resources as well as the St. Petersburg web files. What a treasure trove for genealogy! Johannestahl was my family's town.

 

[pgoat]

I asked my mother once and she told me "Greek". I should have known better than to try and dig beyond that!

I will say my father's side looked very northern African at times; middle eastern at others. I have some of his physical features, but more from my mom's side; they all looked more like eastern Europeans.

As far as culture goes, I guess I've gotten a love for bouzouki music and feta cheese, a hatred of lamb and kaseri cheese fried in oil, and a bad case of the heebie jeebies from various church going experiences at an extremely young age. I howled with laughter at David Sedaris' "Get yer Ya Yas out", but am mystified at "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (where did this spitting buisness come from? Never heard of it.).

Oddly, when you look at prominent Greeks in modern history, many are active in politics, and I must admit I have a love of that as well.

On second thought, make that a love/hate thing.

 

[Real Swell Gal]

My best friend claims the same heritage as you but she puts it this way: An Irish temper with German stubbornness!lol lol lol

That's so funny because my dad was always griping about my mom being a "hard headed German". He was worse than she was.

 

[alphy27]

That's so funny because my dad was always griping about my mom being a "hard headed German". He was worse than she was.

That sounds just like my friend's parents but he's the hard headed German and she's the hot tempered Irish gal. It made for some very entertaining times for my friend growing up. She admits to having both traits all rolled up into one fire cracker of a woman.

 

[Real Swell Gal]

That sounds just like my friend's parents but he's the hard headed German and she's the hot tempered Irish gal. It made for some very entertaining times for my friend growing up. She admits to having both traits all rolled up into one fire cracker of a woman.

Alas, so do I. Gets me in trouble sometimes but makes me on helluva good cook.

 

[Slim Portly]

My great-great-grandfather was an English lad who was “pressed” into service in the Royal Navy. He jumped ship in America and made his way to the Grate Lakes, serving on various vessels until he earned the right to pilot his own ship. His son (my great-grandfather) was a ne’er do well, a jack of all trades and master of none. He explored various methods of turning a buck, and at one point actually took a mule train into Mexico to sell pedal-powered sewing machines to the women in the many remote villages.

He would sometimes ask the young señoritas if they would like a ride on one of his mules, and almost without exception they were too afraid. One day a lovely lass by the name of Maria Contreras accepted his offer. Impressed by her nerve and smitten with her beauty, he asked her to come with him when the time came to move on, and she accepted his offer. They were wed and had many children. Maria stayed in Mexico with the children, and her husband continued to travel as he followed the dollar from one job to another.

Years later Maria became ill and came north across the border to find her husband at the mining facility where he was now working. She died before she made her way to him, but the children were brought to their father by the good people who found them, using the information that the oldest boy knew. Their father, now a widower, was unable to care for the children and so he placed them with various members of his family. The oldest boy (my grandfather) was sent to live with an uncle, but he was never treated with love. He was forced to sleep on a board in the basement of the house. He lived this way through the Great Depression, never having anything that he could call his own, never owning anything new, not even so much as a pair of shoes

He grew to be a tall, handsome young man, and the young ladies of the town admired his dark skin and thick black hair. He worked at a filling station, saving his money and learning all he could about the business. He married a pretty girl and had four daughters, raising them with the money he made from the station that he now owned. When the girls were teenagers their father moved the family from the southwest to southern California to open a larger automotive business. The second-youngest daughter met a university graduate who had also moved from the southwest, in his case to study naval engineering.

His family had come across from England, from a place that still bears their name. They settled in the hills of Tennessee, where they brought their religious fervor and love of music. To this day the family name is synonymous with Gospel music.

They married and soon he had a job testing weapons systems for the Navy. They had three children, the middle child being me. My grandfather taught me songs in Spanish when I was barely old enough to understand, and he and my grandmother died within months of each other after almost seventy years of marriage.

 

[GWD]

Father's Side is English, my first relative came to America on the Mayflower "Edward Doty" he was a servant to Stephen Hopkins who was a tanner. He was also involved in the first duel in the colonies. My mother side is half Scottish and half Dutch.

 

[Josephine]

My great-great-grandfather was an English lad who was “pressed” into service in the Royal Navy. ...

That's a neat history. All we have is a street with our name in Brooklyn.

 

[Maguire]

Father's irish from the border of County Limerick, right off the boat, only arrived in the states in the early 60s. Still in ireland in spirit.

on my mother's side: my grandfather immigrated from Galicia, Spain to Cuba as a boy with his family, my grandmother was born in Cuba to spanish parents (also from Galicia). They moved to the United States in 1955 or 56 when my mother was around 5 or so, but most stayed behind in Cuba. So that makes me part irish part spanish i suppose. If one wants to get anthropological that makes me 100% Mediterranean stock.