Show us your roots!

[drfuzzy]

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Guys, How far back have you traced your ancestry?

I'm a little fascinated with the colours, patterns and symbolism of medival English/Scottish clans/traditions.
Do you have a house flag? Kilt pattern? Did your ancestors make mead?  Boru?
Anyone have a family totem pole?

The further back, the more exciting! It's like travelling through time.

Here's mine (if you're having trouble sleeping)
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Mine's not all that exciting really. I mentioned this before, Being an Aussie born Greek, I wasn't all that fussed about my parents culture.

Myself and my 2 older sisters didn't really embrace much of the Greek culture growing up. It helps that the parents weren't all that perturbed about it either. 

(They weren't educated at all).



Anyway, one day, a Greek teacher explained the origins of our surname. It literally means "Victory over the Turks".

Dad was a Spartan, and during the 400 years of Turkish rule 1421-1821 (Ottoman Empire), the Turks didn't really bother with the harsh arid mountainous landscape of Sparta.

In this regard, the Spartans are generally considered pure blood as a general rule, as the woman of that area were not raped or taken.

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Any Americans who can trace their origins back to mother England?
Any famous dudes in your past?  The Wild West? Murdered? Got hanged? Bumped into Emmet Brown? Anything.  [/hide]

My mom gave me a genealogy a few years back that purports that one of my ancestors came over on the Mayflower, but those sorts of claims seem rife in this field.

Cool, Thump!  -- That one is usually pretty easy to confirm/deny.  I do quite a bit of genealogy research, I could check the connections out for you if you want.