Show us your roots!

[vorlon13]

LOL, family lore has a cousin (somehow, 'step' by marriage) of the generation ahead of mine making the FBI's 10 most wanted list in the 50s.

I haven't had much luck tracking down anything to verify the claim.

[drfuzzy]

Lots and lots of genealogists in the family.  I started taking up the hobby about a decade ago, because there are still mysteries we haven't solved.  We can't seem to track my surname immigrant 4th Great-grandfather back across the pond to Merry Old England.  (We just might find that he was on the run, avoiding a lynch mob or something.)

I come from all sorts of folks.  Lots of farmers and tanners and carpenters, Hugenots and Mennonites. Regular folk.  But we do have a line or two that goes back to royalty.  (This is more common than people think, over here in 'Murica.  MANY younger sons of Dukes and Earls emigrated to the colonies, -- they weren't going to inherit, they had the money to travel and bring necessary goods and tools -- it was a good opportunity.)  So I'm a double Plantagenet.  On both my mother and father's side.  Henry II and Eleanor of Acquitaine were my 24th Great-Grandparents.  Yep.  I'll claim Eleanor.  She was a tough lady.
         What I think is even more fun is that my parents share a distant ancestor.  They have the same 17th great-grandmother.  My father descends from her daughter her second husband, and my mother descends by her son by the first husband.  
         I like to find the bravery of immigrants, the courage of descendants who first took a stand against slavery - - I like to find the stories, and share them with family.

[Crossless2.0]

I'm only aware of my family tree about as far back as my parents' great and/or great-great grandparents (which includes the people in my line who immigrated to the U.S.). My heritage is Irish, German, and Norwegian.

[ignoramus]

LOL, family lore has a cousin (somehow, 'step' by marriage) of the generation ahead of mine making the FBI's 10 most wanted list in the 50s.

I haven't had much luck tracking down anything to verify the claim.

If you find them, tell them they can come out now!
The world has changed....

[Thumpalumpacus]

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)

---

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.

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.

[drfuzzy]

---

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)
[hide]


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.

---

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.

[Clueless Morgan]

My grandma did a lot of genealogy stuff and traced part of our family line back to the Norman conquest in 1066 (the English side of my family). Otherwise, I'm German and Dutch. Part of my ancestry came to America pre-Revolutionary war, so I could join a Daughters of the Revolution group if I wanted to, and my dad's side moved to the US around the turn of the century.

[Thumpalumpacus]

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.

I appreciate the offer, but I'm not interested in such things, myself. They seem to crop up in every genealogy I hear about, y'know?

[drfuzzy]

Lol Thump!  Yes, a lot of folks want to claim Mayflower ancestry, or a link to a celebrity.  I don't get it - if it's not real, why put it in your tree?
You remind me of my brother.  Genealogy bores him to tears.  Best quote from him: "don't tell me my ancestors lived in a castle unless you can hand me the keys".   We can't change our forebears, and who they were has little impact on our daily lives.  But I do like the history and the stories.

[Regina]

We're a family of wanderers.

My mothers side are mostly Bavarian (allegedly with some distant Russian ancestry, not proven). They moved over to England some time in the early 20th century, and because of the state of affairs they quickly decided to assimilate, take on British names and live as culturally British people. I had no idea they were German for a long time, they fit in here so well.

Dad's side is easier, they're Maltese. Grandparents moved here in the 1950s. I'd love to do more research on this side and see where it leads. Malta is a country which has been colonised so many times over historically that our ancestry could lead anywhere around The Mediterranean. Our surname, like many Maltese names, is one of Arabic origin that probably dates back to The Middle Ages. At face value it sounds Italian though, since all Maltese people have been through heavy Latinization since.