posted on September 4, 2000 01:48:07 AM
A great many of us are either immigrants to the country we now call home or our family history has its origins in countries far removed from where we are now.
Where did you or your family originate from and where are you now?
Although I'm proud to be an Australian and love this country I was an English migrant. As far as I know our family roots have always been English.
posted on September 4, 2000 05:21:05 AM
Branch #1: originated in Ipswich (England); my line ended up in Dorset, then came over here to NY and CT in 1688, founded a couple towns in NY and VT, got stuck on the wrong side during the American Revolution and ended up in Quebec, then back into NY in 1815.
Branch #2: originated in Thalmasingen, Bavaria and Schaffhausen, Switzerland, emigrated to NY in 1867-68.
Branch #3 and 4: Scots-Irish, emigrated to NY before 1850.
Branch #5 and 6: From Alsace and someplace in Poland, emigrated to NY in the 1880s.
posted on September 4, 2000 06:38:16 AM
Nice thread
Both my parents are from Denmark and travelled to Canada in the late '50's. My father spent some time in the nothern uranium mines until my sister and I were born. I spent my first 2 years travelling west through Canada until arriving in Vancouver. I moved myself to the prairies (a move I'm regretting..it's soooo cooooold). My mom is going home to Denmark and I'm trying to convince my wife and kids to try life in Europe for a while. Possibly a full circel trip for me back to my roots
My wife is of English/Romanian descent. I often make fun of my own children by reminding them that they are half viking/part vampire.....
posted on September 4, 2000 07:05:36 AM
Third generation+ English + who knows from Alabama/Floida on my Dads side a very well to do family who lost everything, and 4th generation Pennsylvanian Dutch (german) on my mothers side and who knows what. Married a third generation Polish/ German Father gal with a Kentucky Grandmother who was 3 or 4th generation Scot/Irish/English and an English/French Grandfather. My maternal grandmother was a Powwow woman who had all daughters so it ended there. My maternal Aunt married Scot/Native American and finally brought that into the family. We really do not retain any heritage of culture or religion except cooking. But then we have no one who we consider our traditional foes
so that is fine.
posted on September 4, 2000 07:17:13 AM
Polish on my father's side. Grandfather born in this country. Grandmother came over from Poland when she was 16 and landed at Ellis Island. Mostly French on my mother's side. Relatives came over from France behind the Mayflower (so the story goes). Have been told that there is a little bit of English and Welsh thrown in on my mother's side too. Husband's side has been harder to trace. Believe that some of the relatives came over from England. Not sure if they came to USA and went to Canada or vice versa. Not many of his relatives are left in this country. Some have told us that family started in Norway. Can't find the missing link so to speak. Have been able to trace it back to the 1500's in England.
posted on September 4, 2000 08:30:12 AM
England, Germany, Ireland. One branch started the german colony in Missouri, coming from Germany with a Dr of religion.
I am mostly Scottish and English on all sides with one line of German and one of French (can't remember what that disident(m.sp.) movement was called right now). My first in America came over at the beginning of Jamestown. I never had anyone go through Ellis Island or any of the other ports of entry but wish I did because I think it is so interesting and cool.
Is your son still in America? If so how is he doing? I think about him everytime there is something on the news about the fires.
posted on September 4, 2000 12:06:40 PM
My mothers parents came from Poland. But met in Chicago where so many Poles migrated. My dad's family I think were English. My parents were divorced when I was three and I never really got to know that side of the family.
posted on September 4, 2000 12:37:04 PM
bitsandbobs is a nice poster too i enjoy reading his comments
my father was a frisky adventurous young hobbit called frodo and my mother was fair elven queen gwendolyn of the misty british forests. faeries attended at their wedding. a joke but thats how I came up with the enchanted name I love tolkien stories
posted on September 4, 2000 02:55:44 PM
I am of Scotish-Irish heritage which I know little about. My heritage is basically the South. I do know that my great great grandfather on my father's side brought a log cabin here on a covered wagon from Virgina and then re-assembled it in Webster County Mississippi. It has once again been moved and is currenty a hunting lodge complete with original smokehouse. I remember visiting my great grandpa when he was living in it when I was about 3. He was already very old and it was somewhat in a state of disrepair. Specifically, I remember a cat coming in between the logs where the mud had crumbled away. It was winter. There was one light bulb and a log stove, no plumbing. that would have been about 1968. I went back to it last year in it's new location and it looks much better now. Cute little picture postcard cabin.
That great grandfather used to give me nickles as gifts (I still have them) and when we watched a NASA Launch he told me about listing to the reports of the first flight at Kitty Hawk on a radio. He died in a fire at my grandmother's house in his 90 as the result of an electric blanket fire.
On the other side, I really don't know my actual "heritage". I know there was a preacher in my linage and my grandparents were married in a Model T in 1932. I have her wedding ring with the engraved date inside. It came from Sears and Roebuck, is gold with a diamond and cost $3.15.
Best I can do. No coat of arms here.
NASA Surplus: http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/jim-and-terri
T
posted on September 4, 2000 05:04:36 PM
My father was the delightful product of a union between an original (goes back to Oglethorpe) Georgia family, with roots in the Netherlands, and a lovely Cherokee Indian woman. So, I suppose I am 1/4 Dutch-Georgia Cracker, and 1/4 Native American.
My mother's family traces back to France (on my Grandmother's side) and England (on my Grandfather's side), ancestors on the Mayflower, George Washington and Patrick Henry traceable on the family tree, real D.A.R. junk. My maternal grandfather's family mostly settled in Alabama, and my maternal grandmother's family hails from Louisiana...around New Orleans.
Which is how I know the parish about which you had a question, Terri. Did you get your answer to your question about the three-spired church pictured on the ashtray? One of my summers in college, I lived in New Orleans, and that was my parish. Beautiful.
posted on September 4, 2000 05:47:05 PM
Hi enchanted.
I'm blushing!!
calamity.
Thanks for thinking of my son. He's due home this weekend. I haven't had too much chat with him except for emails but I do know that the community's over there have shown our guys nothing but support, hospitality and kindness. It has made a real contribution to helping them cope with being away from their families.
Regards and thanks from all of them.
Bob, Downunder but never down.
posted on September 4, 2000 06:42:01 PM
100% SwissGerman ... Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry to be exact, which is the Americanized way to say Pennsylvania Deutsch. Both sides of my family can and has traced their history back to Germany and the German part of Switzerland. My grandparents were Mennonite missionaries in Argentina for 20 some odd years, which is where my father grew up from the time he was less than a year old till he returned to the States to go to college.
posted on September 4, 2000 06:50:37 PM
Hi Terri! I'm glad you already got an answer to your question! When I briefly lived in New Orleans, I lived in the French Quarter, and attended mass at the Cathedral of Saint Louis King of France (that parish). It is a wonderful church, almost 300 years old now, an extraordinary and grand gothic.
About the term "cracker". Folks in Florida and Georgia have called themselves "cracker" for centuries. I don't know the origin of the term. The dictionary (Websters) describes it as a derogatory term, used to describe poor white residents of the South, and particularly of those two states, but I reckon Webster must not have been from the South (ya think?), since no one I know from there (and that's where I grew up) finds it offensive, nor uses it with derogatory meaning or intent, nor applies it to a particular race. Mercy.
So...in my neverending effort to be politically correct...I ain't no "cracker", I'm a "wafer", I'm a "Ritz", I'm a "Cheezit"!
posted on September 4, 2000 08:13:03 PM
Al Burt, former Miami Herald roving columnist, in his newest book, "The Tropic of Cracker," explains the term “Cracker:
"It's somebody who loves natural Florida and has a concern about its history and heritage.”
“In Florida, the term comes out of state history. Old-time cow hunters drove great herds of cattle across Florida to shipping points, popping long cowhide whips so loudly that they could be heard for miles ahead. Because of this, they became known as Crackers”.
posted on September 4, 2000 08:25:22 PM
Great Thread !! on my Mother's side my Grand parents came to the US at the turn of the century from County Tipperary in Ireland.
On my Fathers side my Grand Mother came from Germany and my Grand Father was Irish /Melungeon.
posted on September 4, 2000 08:37:49 PM
Irish, County Cork and County Mayo , on my mothers side.
French and who knows what on my fathers side.They used to joke that my father has Scottish blood in him in him but I'm not sure it was for real. He was awful tight with the wallet. (I discovered when I went to Scotland that quite a few of the locals are proud to have this considered the chief trait of thier countryman. As one told me "when you think of the way some europeons are labeled it's quite a compliment that this is the only thing they can find to compain about"
posted on September 4, 2000 09:12:33 PM
Thanks for that information, Corrdogg! I sure do wish someone would inform Webster and the rest of the PC community.
Proudly discarding "wafer" and returning to "cracker", I am!
Terri...sorry...I am also 1/4 French and 1/4 English. That makes a whole me, I think.
posted on September 4, 2000 09:43:12 PM
Interesting thread, since we we're talking about Ireland on another
My grandparents on my mothers side came from
Ireland. Of which I only have a Bible since both my grandparents are gone, and so is my mother (she was an only child ).
And grandparents from fathers side from Germany. They went to a town in PA where about 3/4 of this town have my last name then came to Seattle and started one of the larger lumber companies in the NW, waaaaaaaay back when, now gone almost bankrupt and of which my father sold out his part long ago, so there is only my siblings, elderly father and one aunt that is nearly 90 left on that side.
Geez guess I do need to look up the relatives in Ireland! Or my kids better have kids, but NOT NOW
Question: Are you 2nd generation if your grandparents immigrated here, or 3rd?
posted on September 4, 2000 09:46:04 PM
Nice thread.
Two grandparents are from Israel, another was from Hungary and one grandfather is American born (his parents were from Hungary). My family's roots in America began in 1901.
We are all mutts. That's what has made America, Australia and Canada so great. We've managed to combine different aspects of different cultures into one big huge (excuse the worn expression) melting pot. In other words we are outbred. Hellcat, I think you might agree with this, DAR, etc. be hornswaggled.
Bitsandbobs,
Glad to hear that your son is doing well and will be home soon.
posted on September 4, 2000 11:37:26 PM
They always refused to tell me much about my provenance, but they did let it slip once that my head was from Macedonia. I'm almost sure I have imported blood, just like everybody here. It's nice to think we're all more or less the same gooey mess under our multicolored sheaths.
posted on September 4, 2000 11:50:34 PM
Ahhh HellCat, now I know why I have always felt some sense of kinship with you.
½ Italian, Calabrese on my Father's side. On the maternal side, my Grandfather was born in Alabama, though I believe his parents came there from North Carolina, Lumbee Indian, scotch-Irish, English. My Grandmother was Cherokee, Scotch-Irish and dutch via Tennessee and N.C. I was Georgia born and bred and ended up marrying a first generation Irishman whose parents emigrated from Galway, the Connemarra.
cariad
Noah's last words: "damn woodpeckers"
and of which my father sold out his part long ago, so there is only my siblings, elderly father and one aunt that is nearly 90 left on that side.