Show Us Your Pedigree! The Heritage Thread.

[Darhling]

On my mothers side, I am directly linked to a Norwegian king Harald Hårfager or Harald Finehair known in english who lived from about the year 850 to 933. Both lines are danish for about a thousand years, so there is no exotic blood in me, although I am often mistaken for being spanish, italian or even french - that has increased after I have dyed my hair dark brown. I still have my light blue eyes though

I haven't been able to trace back my dad's line, but my mothers heritage can be traced back in a very old heritage book, we have even had our own crest.

 

[Midgetqueen]

I'm a mutt too! Part German, part English, part French (Mom's side. That part of my family was among the Huguenots who came to America 'cause they didn't want to be Catholic. I've got rebel-blood from way back!), part Scotch (I'm directly descended from the Dunbar clan on my Dad's side--very cool!), perhaps part Irish but not certain, and somewhere there's some Ukrainian mixed in too.

 

[Joie DeVive]

Calling all researchers!

For those of you interested in genealogy, for a limited time there is a free resource available to you. Ancestry.com is making military records available to the public for free....but only until May 31st. So get hopping!!

Here are the details: http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_9315825

 

[BeBopBaby]

I just found out I am a member of an ancient Scottish clan named Macfie:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Macfie

I'm excited to be able to wear a tartan that I have ties to!

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

I just found out I am a member of an ancient Scottish clan named Macfie:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Macfie

I'm excited to be able to wear a tartan that I have ties to!

You might want to make sure that you're entitled - I haven't an idea about rules there, but maybe you'd have to be in some male line, or a line of firstborns or the like.

 

[Warbaby]

I just found out I am a member of an ancient Scottish clan named Macfie:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Macfie

I'm excited to be able to wear a tartan that I have ties to!

Cool! My wife is also a Macfie - thanks for the Wikipedia link.

 

[Widebrim]

Greco-Roman

My father's parents were Italian, from the province of Umbria (central area), and were tall with very Roman faces. They both met, however, in Pennsylvania around 1913. My mother's mom was from northern Sicily; arrived in New York about 1913. She was 5" short, and looked more French (Norman?), I think, than the "typical" Sicilian (as if there were such a thing!). My mother's father was Greek, supposedly from Athens, and was tall and broad. He arrived here before 1913, after fighting the Turks. The only grandparent I knew was my Sicilian "nanny," and I came to know a bit about her culture. However, I met many of my father's family back in PA, and know more about that side than any other. My Greek grandfather went back to Greece around 1920, and died there, so I know little of that side. Because of my looks (medium complexion, dark hair, blue eyes, long nose, prominent chin), I have been mistaken for French, Armenian, Argentinian, Cuban, Spaniard (I speak Spanish), sometimes Italian, but hardly ever Greek! My sister's boyfriend, who is Black, once saw me from afar dressed vintage, and thought that I was a very light-skinned Creole brother!:cool2: Actually, it comes in handy being able to blend in with different ethnicities.

 

[Widebrim]

Well...

On my mothers side, I am directly linked to a Norwegian king Harald Hårfager or Harald Finehair known in english who lived from about the year 850 to 933. Both lines are danish for about a thousand years, so there is no exotic blood in me, although I am often mistaken for being spanish, italian or even french - that has increased after I have dyed my hair dark brown. I still have my light blue eyes though

Whatever you may be mistaken for, you're one solid-looking sister! Or as they say in Chicano/Pachuco dialect, you are one firme-looking jaina!

 

[Mojito]

On my mothers side, I am directly linked to a Norwegian king Harald Hårfager or Harald Finehair known in english who lived from about the year 850 to 933. Both lines are danish for about a thousand years, so there is no exotic blood in me, although I am often mistaken for being spanish, italian or even french - that has increased after I have dyed my hair dark brown. I still have my light blue eyes though

Interesting you get the "Spanish" question, Darhling - we do sometimes as well, although we're predominantly Irish on both sides of the family and have lighter eyes (mine are green, my brother is hazel and my sister is light blue) and fair, rather than olive, skin. Even the branch from Gotland (my g-g-grandfather) were dark haired. But there is a Spanish sea captain tucked away somewhere in the family tree.

I recently started looking into the first ancestor on the maternal side to arrive in Australia, a Daniel Tindall (or Tyndall). He was noted down in the family tree as having been sent out to plotting to assassinate King George III - I always thought he couldn't have been too serious about it, given his death sentence was commuted to life transportation, but I was always rather intrigued.

I found out he was one of the group of men who were with Colonel Edward Despard, and the last men in England to be sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered for high treason. Twelve were tried with Despard, accused of plotting to 1) Assasinate the King 2) Take over the Bank of England 3) Seize the Tower of London. I was most impressed! Three of the men, including Daniel, were recommended for "respite" from their sentence, and languished in gaol for a few years before finally being sent down here in 1807.

Reading more about Despard and the "plot" in Mike Jay's excellent book "The Unfortunate Colonel Despard", it becomes apparent that what Despard believed in were things that we today take for granted. In his early career in the West Indies he had fought for the rights of the dispossessed such as free slaves and the Irish, believing that English law recognised no distinction on the basis of colour or ethnicity. After a long and sad chain of events, he embraced the ideas of Thomas Paine and democratic principles, and found himself on the wrong side of Pitt's war against societies advocating the extension of suffrage and liberty to a wider section of the community and causes such as self-government in Ireland. He was imprisoned without trial for several years under ghastly conditions, and was rearrested not long after his release in the company of men such as my g-g-g-g-g-grandfather at an illegal gathering. The "plot" was almost certainly largely a beatup, but he did have links to groups such as the United Irishmen.

Horatio Nelson made an appearance at his trial as a character witness, and testified both to his courage and to his character - the two had been friends and comrades in arms many years before in the West Indies. It was probably largely due to his influence (and fear of public opinion) that the setences of death were commuted to simple hanging with beheading afterwards. Public opinion was very strong on "the poor men that were to be murdered".

Tindall's family was very successful down here - his wife and four children came out to join him a couple of years after he arrived - and became pioneers and large landholders in the Eden-Monaro district.

I don't think it's any disgrace to be associated with a man like Despard, and to have a political prisinor like Tindall in the family tree - on the contrary, while Tindall remains an enigmatic figure, I hope that he was drawn to the same cause as Despard by a love of freedom and democratic participation.

 

[Diamondback]

Interesting, another Lounger with an ancestor who fought a spectacular losing battle over principles.


another tidbit: on my mother's side, I'm also also related to the Helms gang out of Northeast Indiana (around 1850s-'60s), who gave the "Hell's Half Acre" region of Whitley County it's name, and a once-prominent family of Northwest Ohio small-town politicians.

 

[Mojito]

I had to go waaaaay back and read up on your Alamo roots, Diamondback! The family has a softspot for Texans - my parents met in Houston as ex-pat Aussies working there in the 60s through an article Dad wrote for the Houston Chronicle, and I've a few good Texan mates.

I'm rather chuffed to have an ancestor mentioned in the Newgate Calender, but unfortunately most people draw a blank when I mention this.

 

[freebird]

So far I've found relatives, on both sides of the family, in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. On my Father's side of the family I've discovered that 3 of my GGG Grand Uncles, 2 blood one by marriage, were killed at Mountain Meadows in the Massacre of 1857. This was the incident that spawned the movie September Dawn. The History Channel will be re-airing a show they did in 2004 on that incident.

On Mom's side I've traced her family back to 1600's England. Dad's side I've only traced back to 1790's Virginia.

 

[scotrace]

Always interesting to know more about our members.

 

[B.J. Hedberg]

I’m game since I just started researching the family history this past summer.

I’m a sixth generation Minnesotan of mostly German stock. My paternal Grandmother’s side of the family is all German and came over just prior to the Civil War, with one group of ancestors settling in MN just before statehood, and the other just after the war. My maternal Grandmother’s side is a bit more interesting as they were descendants of those Germans who originally left Germany to settle in Russia at the invitation of the Czar, before becoming uninvited and heading to the US, eventually settling in South Dakota; and both Grandfathers come from a mix of Norwegian and Swedish stock.

 

[MisterGrey]

I'm a third-generation American; my grandfather was the last person in our family to arrive in the states, around 1933. He had a bad feeling about the direction Poland was headed in. The rest had arrived around the turn of the century. My great-grandparents were Russian Jews on my mother's side and Germans and Poles on my father's. My maternal great-grandparents are by far the most interesting of the family; in the early days of prohibition they very quietly converted the barn of their Pennsylvania farm into a massive booze-making operation and began supplying individuals in "the city," an arrangement they kept up throughout the remainder of the 1920s. This was a "family secret" that we'd all known about for years, but my great aunt shocked us several years ago when she confessed on her deathbed that it was her mother-- my great-grandmother-- who was in charge of the operation, and not my great-grandfather, as the family had long believed; he simply oversaw the distribution, which often involved one of my then-teenaged great aunts being given the keys to the farm truck, directions, and a shotgun. They ultimately shut down their still and opened up a general store, which went under; they spent the last parts of their lives in public housing and died in the 60s (great grandmother) and 70s (great grandfather), having lived into their 80s and 90s, respectively.

 

[Yeps]

I am a real mutt. My mother's side of the family is Italian and German, with a little Irish thrown in somewhere for good measure and my dad's side of the family is scotch-irish, scottish, english and at least one branch of the tree was here before here was the USA.

The Italian side is interesting. I am Italian from two parts, Marche and Puglia (although I don't know the Marchese family). The Pugliese family is really interesting, because the town where they are from, Casalvecchio di Puglia, is traditionally Albanian, and consequently my older relatives speak Albanese (Arbëresh), which is a local dialect of Albanian. That area is also the home to the Italo-Albanian Church, which is the only Eastern Catholic Church on the Italian Penninsula (really the western most of the Eastern Churches.)

Oh, and the cooking is divine.

 

[Pompidou]

I'm mostly Irish, as my mom's maiden name was Shea, and they dropped the O not long after getting here. Not entirely sure, but I think they came over with the potato famine, but I could be wrong. Dad's side has a good chunk of Irish in it too, but from his side, I'm either 1/8th or 1/16th Cherokee.

 

[Zombie_61]

I was adopted. I'm told my heritage is Irish, German, English, and Scottish, but outside of hiring someone to find my real mother and father (something I have absolutely no interest in) I have no real way of knowing.

 

[moonmatrix]

I am 100% Canadian French. MY family is from Maine and Connecticut. Both Grandparents were from canada, My great Grandmother only spoke French.

 

[HungaryTom]

Paternal lineage thoroughbred Hungarian.
Maternal lineage - mixed: German, Polish, Moravian, Transylvanian Székely, Huguenot roots.
My maternal grandparent's crest -grandpa (Serly) 1913 -Germans and grandma (Arday) Huguenots -1653. Oberscherli and Niederscherli are located next to Bern, Switzerland. Great-great granddad was a watchmaker. Maybe the Swiss genes. Arday were originally called Ardey and wandered following St. Bartholomew as miners through Germany to "Upper Hungary" today's Slovakia.