Show Us Your Pedigree! The Heritage Thread.

[GeniusInTheLamp]

My paternal grandmother's parents came from Sweden (seperately) in 1892. My gg-grandfather emigrated from Bavaria in 1857. My other ancestors are of English, Scottish, Scots-Irish, and Alsatian stock. The earliest arrival into this country was Isaac Allerton, who sailed on the Mayflower.

The most famous people in my family were philosopher/educator John Dewey, Westminster College football coach Harold Burry (in the College Football HOF), and steel guitarist Hoot Rains (who backed Slim Whitman and is credited with inventing the "shooting arrow" sound).

 

[RedShoesGirl]

Heinz 57

scots—campbell
irish—kennedy
welsh—roberts (mostly bootleggers, rustlers and outlaws—i can't find any of them before my grandfather! don't think they were into the census)
osage
and the rest english— can go back to the 1400s in one line.

rsg

 

[Phaedra]

My grandparents are from Sicily and Italy.

 

[VargasGirl]

This will mainly focus on my dad's side, my mom's has been here (the US) so long we just say we are from the South!
My paternal grandfather (who passed away just over a year ago) was born in Texas. Now, I may have the generation wrong here, but I believe was his father who was the illigitimate son of an Czech Duke and a dometic staff member. Somewhere in there is Austrian as well. (I get it all confused, and with grandpa gone some of it is prob. lost forever.) My grandfather married my English grandmother during WWII when she was 19 and he was a US serviceman. She came to the states on the Queen Mary.

 

[GOK]

If we are talking way back in the mists of time, then back in the 800s my maternal line was Germanic. By the time of the Conquest it was very firmly Norman (no surprises there, since Norman is a corruption of Northman/Norseman). The le Stranges came to England with William and settled here.

If you want more recent lineage, my mother was English and my father, Venetian. What does that make me? European! I feel neither completely English, nor Italian but a mixture of both; English d?©corum combined with Italian passion!

 

[Harp]

I feel neither completely English, nor Italian but a mixture of both; English d?©corum combined with Italian passion!

What a fascinating combination!:eusa_clap

 

[GOK]

What a fascinating combination!:eusa_clap

So I'm told!

lol

 

[Spitfire]

As danish as you can get, and then again...

My fathers family comes from a small village in Jutland - and can be traced back to 1803. Farmers, tradepeople, even liquordestillers.
Way back in 1866 some of them - two brothers - went to Australia in search of gold. They were never heard from since.

My mothers family is also danish - But there is evidence that they, at some time in the 1760's came over from either Scotland or Ireland as weavers.
As part of a deal the danish king made with the english king, in order to get a better quality in clothmaking.
The king simply bought some families and brought them here.
Unfortunately my mothers family is not so well documented. A lot of official papers and churchregistrations were lost during a war with Sweden, where they (the swedes) burned the lot.

I think it is very typical for europeans, that they did not move around so much.
For centuries my fathers family lived and died - generation after generation - within a very small geograhical radius. Only if you were forced by unemployment, hunger or war did you move.
Or if the police had something on you!

 

[Miss Sis]

Cornish, French, Scottish, Italian(definitely Sicilian).
Born in New Zealand.
B
T

Where in NZ are you from, BT? That Avatar has me thinking you look familar.... but then everyone in NZ is either related to you or is related to someone you know! lol

I was born in good old New Zealand too. My Dad is Dutch and My Mum is a Kiwi of Scottish/Irish/English extraction.

From the Dutch and Scottish side I get my frugality Gift of the Gab from the Irish. And the English? Perhaps my love of History?

 

[Fletch]

I was gonna say, ":eusa_doh: Oh, I thought it said 'Show Us Your Pedicure!'" until I discovered that was not an original thought.

Besides, you'd rather not see mine, I promise you. You may be familiar with my nail stylist...

Besides besides, I already posted my family history. It turns out I was in the Powder Room at the time. This de facto gender segregation is getting a little out of hand.

 

[OldSkoolFrat]

English, but that could be Briton, Saxon Angle or Jute. Briton being Celt and the other three Germanic.

Scots, but that could be Briton, Pict, Viking and Irish even. Irish because the Daldric Scots came from present day Ireland. They left roughly around the time Ireland was Christianized. The snake featured very prominently in the Scots pagan worship rites. St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland and all that.

Irish, but that could be remixed with any and all of the above not to mention Viking again and possibly the odd Spanish sailor from the Armada.

And lastly, one Family Frog or Frenchman who left Alsace after "Le Bosh" took control in 1871.

One side came to VA in the 1600's and the other left Scotland around 1830ish by boat to Panama, walked the isthumus then took a boat up to San Fransisco.

That is just my mom's side. My dad was adopted, so no one has a clue about his ancestors

 

[OldSkoolFrat]

Fletch, you are a Fun-guy

I was gonna say, ":eusa_doh: Oh, I thought it said 'Show Us Your Pedicure!'" until I discovered that was not an original thought.

Besides, you'd rather not see mine, I promise you. You may be familiar with my nail stylist...

Besides besides, I already posted my family history. It turns out I was in the Powder Room at the time. This de facto gender segregation is getting a little out of hand.

No relatives from the Pun-jab, But I love a good pun and a jab now and then

 

[Fletch]

From the Dutch and Scottish side I get my frugality Gift of the Gab from the Irish. And the English? Perhaps my love of History?

My family loves making generalizations about national character (mostly my mom, who grew up in Bridgeport when it was a real melting pot). We concluded I get my sense of style and laissez-faire from the Italians, my musicality and compulsiveness from the Germans, my love of the past and sense of humor from the English and my fatalism and love of strong drink from the Slavs.

English, Scots, Irish, Scots-Irish and German really seem to be leading the pack. And a surprisingly strong showing for Danish.

Does this make us a fundamentally "white bread" community despite our high level of individual diversity???

 

[Harry Pierpont]

I'm French;
My great x 4 grandfather, that makes me 5th generation, was a cousin of King Louis XVI and a classmate of the Marquis de Lafayette, and during the American revolution he bought and outfitted 2 ships and brought them to America to help. He was wounded and left for dead in 1777, he was found by an innkeeper and Quaker and nursed back to health, he married the innkeepers daughter in 1778, they had 13 children. Unfortunately since his contributions to the war effort were considered "private" he was never reimbursed for his service and died penniless in 1829. Needless to say I didn't get any inheritance. I still have relatives in France and we exchange letters once in awhile.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

1/2 Slovak.
1/2 Ukrainian.

Both families arrived in New York about 1925.

 

[Grnidwitch]

Melting pot and very busy family

Paternal side:

Austrian, Bohemian, Scottish an Polish. Maiden name was Czech.

Maternal side:

Irish, English, German and Gypsy.

The Germanic is what shows. Blonde, green eyed, shoulders like a linebacker and just under 6' tall. Not a petite flower for sure.

 

[lindylady]

I have African-American, Scots, Irish, and Native American on my father's side. One of my great-uncles was the first black assistant attorney general in the U.S.

On my mother's side, we have African-American, Choctaw, and Anglo-Saxon.

 

[pigeon toe]

My mom's side is Irish (my great grandparents immigrated to New York in the 1920's), and my dad's is Scottish (I believe his family immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1800's). A lot of people don't believe that my mom is full Irish though, since she, her brother and her father are all olive-skinned, and have dark hair and dark eyes. I still came out nearly albino though!

Since I grew up around my maternal grandparents and have been to Ireland three times, I certainly feel more Irish. My dad's side of the family is also more removed from the Scottish side, since they have been here longer and moved out west early on. That part of the family is more "country" than anything else.

I love being Irish/Scottish, however I could go without the thick Scottish eyebrows my dad passed on to me!

 

[Kimberly]

What is your heritage?

The post on cooking got me curious about people's heritage so I figured I would ask this.

I have a good amount of German in me (my mothers father was from Germany), a lot of English and Dutch as well.

I have found myself very curious about my ancestors and tried doing some genealogy on my own but hit a lot of brick walls. I did luck out with my relatives from the Netherlands though. I found a distant 3rd cousin who is actually a genealogist as a profession so I was able to track that part of my family all the way to when they came to America. I am even able to track that part of my family down as decendents of the Mayflower!!

Have any of you ever tried to find out more about your ancestors?

 

[Miss Lucy June]

I should say completely American. My family has been here (landed in Charleston, SC) whilst the US was still British colonies. That being said, I am English English English. And I have the skin to prove it!