Your Background/Family History

[anzac1915]

Good morning/G'Day/Good evening everyone .
Since EUIV is less than 2 weeks away (and to pass the time ) and because I love history and getting to know peoples background, I thought we could get to know each others background, nationality and (if known) family history (In EUIVs timeframe, but before and/or after EUIVs timeframe is ok as well ). I shall start off: I am Australian (quite obvious, I guess), On my Father's side, my ancestor stole 20 pigs in the 1830s in Mother England :rofl: and was sent to Tassie (Tasmania, or back then Van Diemans land). A couple of generations later, one of my ancestors skipped Tassie and came to Melbourne, Victoria. On my Mothers side, my Nonna e Nonnu (grandmother and grandfather, respectively) came from Italia (Italy) during the great Immigration of the 1950s. So that makes me half Australian/half Italian (although I like to think of myself as half British Empire/half Roman Empire ). So, how about you Paradoxian Forumites (as well as the Paradox Devs), what is your background, nationality and (if known) family history?

 

[Gogog]

My paternal side was an airforce family, my great, great grandfather was an early (base/squadron?) RAF CO. At some point after the first world war they moved to Canada. My paternal great grandfather (RCAF now) actually commanded my maternal great grandfather funnily enough. It was a minor scandal when my grandfather and grandmother married because he was an officer and she wasn't. He was also 6'4 and she was 5'4. He was too tall for the airforce apparently and only got in by not sleeping for a couple of days until he was short enough (I don't know if this is true, it was apparently a small difference and is what my grandmother told me).

My maternal grandma did alot of sleuthing on that side of the family tree and there were two main lines (more relevant to EUIV). One side was originally a British Captain who recieved a land grant in Canada in the 1700's. Trail got cold after that I believe.
The other side was an West India Company family in Nieuw Amsterdam (Tenbrook ?sp? I think). They stayed after it became a British Colony. Our family is apparently descended from a loyalist brother who left during the American war for independance.

Then my parents moved to New Zealand. It's funny how much people move about isn't it?

 

[skynet464]

My paternal great grand-father came to America from Russia in the 1900s (so did my great grandmother, but from Austia-Hungary), while my mother sides been kicking it back near the great lakes for centuries. What have they done? Not much really, other than a few great great great something or others serving in the military, few in the Civil War and a few in WW2.

 

[sskrypteia]

First member of my Family arrived in Australia from Belfast in 1815 as a LT in the British Marines. The rest came in dribs and drabs as free settlers. Family owned a stud farm in Cowra and the prince of wales was gifted one of their horses. If you go far back enough I am related (supposedly) to Svein Forkbeard as well as one of the high kings of Ireland, i believe it was one of the Nialls (I think Brian Ua Neill). None of my grand parents, nor great grand parents were in either of the world wars as they were either too young or too old respectively.

Thats really the only interesting backround. The rest is scattering of Scottish (Fraser clan) and some English.

 

[Gatkramp]

Good morning/G'Day/Good evening everyone .
Since EUIV is less than 2 weeks away (and to pass the time ) and because I love history and getting to know peoples background, I thought we could get to know each others background, nationality and (if known) family history (In EUIVs timeframe, but before and/or after EUIVs timeframe is ok as well ). I shall start off: I am Australian (quite obvious, I guess), On my Father's side, my ancestor stole 20 pigs in the 1830s in Mother England :rofl: and was sent to Tassie (Tasmania, or back then Van Diemans land). A couple of generations later, one of my ancestors skipped Tassie and came to Melbourne, Victoria. On my Mothers side, my Nonna e Nonnu (grandmother and grandfather, respectively) came from Italia (Italy) during the great Immigration of the 1950s. So that makes me half Australian/half Italian (although I like to think of myself as half British Empire/half Roman Empire ). So, how about you Paradoxian Forumites (as well as the Paradox Devs), what is your background, nationality and (if known) family history?

As far back as my family can be traced, some fellow from Northern France (Jacques Pinard, born in Brittany, baptised in Normandy) decided it would be a good idea to convert to the Protestant Reformed Church of France. This was obviously a big no-no, as the French had already decided to give them all the smack down - supported by the loving Catholic Church, which was merely concerned about their immortal souls.

Jacques Pinard then fled to Holland, as they seemed to be slightly less inclined to murder people for stupid reasons. Here Jacques Pinard married another French refugee. Unfortunately, the Dutch didn't really want a large influx of people in Holland, so they sent them packing on ships overseas. My ancestor was lucky enough in 1689 to end up in the recently established Cape Colony, where he had plenty of kids with his first wife and then some more with his second wife.

From there, the family changed its last name so the Dutch could pronounce it (Pinard becoming Pienaar). Most of them stayed in the Cape, as farmers and other small time businessmen, with very few participating in the trek's inland after the Brits seized the colony in the 1800s. Most of the French descendent stuck mostly to themselves well into the 1800s, with that proud French history still reflecting in some of the old families today.

Eventually however, they left their traditional French areas (such as Franschhoek) and began marrying other South Africans. My ancestors now include; Englishmen, Scots, Irishmen, Dutchmen and other Frenchmen. That's all the ones I can provide evidence for, though I suspect there is some German in there somewhere too. Don't know anything about the maternal side of my family however (as my mum was adopted), but her part of the country indicates likely German heritage.

While there are some achievements in my family history (primarily in the military, politics and literature), they all fall outside of the time frame though.

Oh. And I live in New Zealand now, after a family history of over 300 hundred years in Africa. Really does make you think how old some of these "European" communities really are.

 

[Forris]

My great great etc. something was one of the guys organizing the first boattrip with emigrants from Norway to USA in the 19th century.

My family was split during WW2. One family member joined the Shetland Bus, while another joined the Heer, don't remember which unit though - my family doesn't seem to want to talk much about it. Apparently he was bogged down outside Leningrad during the siege, and was later involved in some battles in the Baltics. He survived the war.

My father and uncle both served in Lebanon during the civil war, in a peacekeeping force organized by the UN.

 

[SirWallyWombat]

My fathers family had moved to the United States from the United Kingdom sometime in the 19th century, And they had moved westward slowly, until they stopped and resided in Arkansas (many generations later my father moved westward to Washington State along the Pacific). My mother on the other hand came from the former US/Spanish territory of the Philippines. Some of here ancestors had moved there from China/Vietnam to a mainland Asian settlement in the southern Philippines some long years ago, and I am partially related to Genghis Khan (then again, MANY people are...) She moved to Washington state in the early ninety's. My father's family is a conglomerate of British Isle dwellers, and my mothers side is a little hard for me to keep track of, due to the lack of proper documentation etc.


Not exactly all that interesting, and I have never looked into my ancestry that much, since the last time I tried I gave up investigating after my mothers side of the tree got so messy with all the name changing (Like traditional names forcibly changed to Spanish ones like Jose, Fernando, Rizal etc).

 

[Olligarchy]

I am a twenty something Finn that loves history and lives in the Gibraltar of the North...Helsinki. After some historical research and consultation by experts it's been discovered that I can trace my lineage all the way back to the Folkungs of Sweden; and Birger Jarl! My family tree is full of Swedish, Russian and German adel, but the first find pretty much overshadows them all. Other notable in the family tree includes Sophia of Minsk, though she is in matrilinear descent and as such doesn't really count.

The funny thing about my family is that we've changed our name so many times it gets difficult to keep it straight. Historically the family remained as af Bjälbo till around the beginning of the Kalmar Union, from there it changed into von Rasch, from there it moved to Tallgren when the Swedish empire began until finally it has settled in it's current form.

 

[anzac1915]

It's funny how much people move about isn't it?

Very true, but also very interesting .

Wow, all these different family histories and nationalities are very interesting and fascinating , it has been an absolute joy reading all of them , cannot wait to read more .
Also, do not worry that you do not know all you family history (after all, who would know all their family history through all the ages of human history), just type what you do know (if you would like to, of course ), every family history is interesting, fascinating and unique (just like any other type of history ), which is why I (and probably others) like reading about them .

 

[Red_warning]

I grew up on a farm in the northern Swedish inland close to the Norwegian border. I've done some family research and on my father's side I could only find northerners for as far back as the church records went (ca 1500), which is kinda surprising since most people in northern Sweden stem from southerners who immigrated north in the 19th century to work in the mines, steelworks and with forestry. They lived in Västerbotten until the 18th century and then slowly moved up through the Umeå river and eventually settled in the village I grew up in somewhere in 1850. I was surprised to see how few Sami and Finns I could find in my linage, considering northern Sweden always have been a mixed country and intermarriage was common. Nonetheless I could figure out that I'm 1/128th Finnish and 1/256th Sami. My latest Finnish family member had moved to Västerbotten county around year 1700 from Finnish Karelia to avoid to constant wars going on there. My latest Sami family member lived in Lappland's first town, Lycksele, as a pretty wealthy merchant and big scale farmer.

I've not research my mother's heritage yet but I know most of them come from Bohuslän, so my other side is probably Norwegian if I go back far enough.

I could also trace my linage back to a very affluent semi-legendary noble family, the Bure family. But I don't see anything special in that as we all have some blue blood in us if we go back far enough.

Edit: I also wish to throw a boot at the CKII team for not having the Bure family rule Västerbotten

 

[Gemberkoekje]

My whole family is from the Netherlands (and bits of Germany) from at least 1700-ish onwards, and while there are a few written sources, which would suggest one of my ancestors could write, they were mostly boring farmers. I think it's time to revolt from these shackles and throw down royalty and higher classes alike! REVOLUTION! INSURGENCY! NOMNOMNOM! eh... never mind.

 

[Willem IV]

All known ancestors are from The Netherlands or it's predecessors. The earliest ancestor was Mayor of Middelburg in the late 16th century. His son-in-law was my male-line ancestor and also mayor of Middelburg at start of the 17th century, he also founded the Zeeuwsche Companie. Which later founded the infamous Dutch VOC. One of his sons also became mayor of the City of Middelburg, but i'm not sure if he's ancestor of mine.

After Napoleon, my branch of the family became either a Priest or a Soldier, my dad was the first to break that tradition. And i'm a Pacifist and an Athiest.

 

[Alley]

My whole family is from the Netherlands (and bits of Germany) from at least 1700-ish onwards, and while there are a few written sources, which would suggest one of my ancestors could write, they were mostly boring farmers. I think it's time to revolt from these shackles and throw down royalty and higher classes alike! REVOLUTION! INSURGENCY! NOMNOMNOM! eh... never mind.

*Alley hands Gemberkoekje a shovel, thanks for the revolution, now you can clean up to help pay your release, just another 200 years and you'll have paid it off.

 

[Gemberkoekje]

*Alley hands Gemberkoekje a shovel, thanks for the revolution, now you can clean up to help pay your release, just another 200 years and you'll have paid it off.

*Starts digging while whistling I am working on the railroad*

 

[stilgarpl]

One of my great-grandfather was Czech and fought during First World for independence of Poland in the Polish Legions, under general Haller. For this he was awarded with Polish citizenship and some medals. My other great-grandfather figthing during that war too and was captured by Russians and held in the Tsaritsyn (most of you probably know this city as Stalingrad), when he met young Latvian woman, whom he married and they settled in the same city my other great-grandfather lived. Funny thing is, when the First World War erupted, both were conscripted to different armies - one to the Austro-Hungarian, the other one to the Russian.

During the Zamość Uprising he was a commander of Peasants' Battalions Lublin Region and commander in the Battle of Zaboreczno ( 250 Poles vs 600 Germans (some sources say 400) ). It was a total victory - on the Polish side there was 1 dead and 2 injured, on the German side, more than 100 was killed. After this victory, expulsions from Zamość region (the cause of the uprising) were stopped. Ernst Schweiger, German commander wrote in the report after battle that they were attacked by 700 men and he was very impressed by my great-grandfather skills, but he only knew his pseudonym, "Thunder".

So, I'm 1/4 Czech, 1/8 Latvian and 5/8 Polish (although I'm not sure about that last part, I think there might be some Hungarian blood there too...)

 

[FranzVonG]

I can trace my family (father-side) back to end of the XVIII century, looks like they were something akin to brigands/shepards in the Occitan Alps of North-West Italy, often pasturing in Southern France. The surname is clearly Longobard (translated in English it's more or less Shake-spear, an honorific title in Longobard army, probably a leader of some small tribe/band), so no Roman blood in me More recently, my grand-father served in the Alpini (Mountain troops) corp during WW2, captured after the armistice in 1943 and sent to a concentration camp somewhere in northern Germany. He spent there 2 years: he could have come out earlier if he accepted to serve the Fascist Regime in Northern Italy, but he always refused to break the oath to the King.
On my mother side, it looks like they have always been small-medium farmers at the foot of the Alps. So, 50% Savoyard, 50% Occitan

 

[Avrelianvs]

I'm Albanian and my family was a "bejler" family, from the Ottoman title of Bey. We were bej for the last 300 years, at least that's as far as I know my geneaology. A couple of brothers (Ilo and Loni) distinguished themself in the Ottoman army and they were made bej, that's the ufficial family history. They were probably chieftains in the mountains of South Albania, they had their clan warriors under their command and the Ottomans gave them a title and inquadrated them in their nobility as they did through all Albania and the Balkans.

Anyway my family was among the signatories of the independence declaration in 1912 and they took part in the first government of Albania. My great-grandfather was a real progressive, actually a socialist. He sent his children to study abroad and he was actually quite sympathetic to comunism despite being a noble. During WWII he in fact used his house to hide partisans from fascists and after them, nazis. Enver Hoxha who would become the future dictator of Albania hid many times there and one of my great-uncles became one of his commanders and later (after the comunists gained power) one of his generals, actually quite feared and ruthless I'm sorry to say. Anyway, this (he, the general, the black sheep of the family) saved us: nobles usually got hit hard from the regime. We lost everything, but we saved our lifes, and in my case I was born: I wouldn't be here if my grandfather or my father had died in a camp, of course. Not quite as a bad deal as it could have been, if you think about it.

In 1997, I emigrated in Italy, where I live and work now.

 

[Nilmerf]

My paternal side all the way back were Norwegian Vikings who settled in Normandy, and then came over to England with William the Conquerer. They lived in Kent for hundreds of years, and eventually immigrated to Canada. My mother's side were also Norwegian Vikings who settled in Scotland and came to Canada because of a noble-peasant affair scandal. My paternal grandmother's side immigrated to America on the Mayflower, and that leads me to be a Canadian/American dual citizen. With all of the blanks filled in, I am entirely Germanic-Celtic Northern European in background, with Scandinavian, English, Scottish, Irish, German, and Dutch blood.

To this day I have an intense craving for Norwegian blondes, as would attest to my ancestral roots. If Victoria listed me as a POP, I say I would be 75% Anglo-Canadian and 25% Yankee culturally.

 

[unmerged(584823)]

My father come from a traditionnal french rural family, though, he didn't work in field, but in industry, his father was a truck driver, and his great-father a trader. Nothing very interesting in that side.
My mother was a Romanian dissident who, in the late 70's, tried to get away from communist Romania. In order to do so, she organized meetings with american journalists (who were staying in the hotel in which my mother worked), and this, to insure that the securitat wouldn't attend to her and her friend (she also wanted her friends to go out) life or freedom, because the journalist would broadcast their name to Radio Free Europe in this case. Eventually, she managed to get expeled from Romania, she became a stateless person, was dishinerited, and wasn't suppose to ever go back to Romania (neither to see her mother and sister). She worked some months in Austria, and later, thanks to friend of her, managed to organize a marriage of convenience with an old Italian guy in order to obtain an European nationality. She later went to Belgium and then, France. Later, she made her brother and sister take the plane illegaly (without a visa), in order to go to France. During all this time, she was spied by the Securitate and believed that Matei Pavel Haiducu (the romanian spy), who met her in France (but my mother didn't know him yet), tried to attend to her life. The mother of my mother was the bastard of a romanian minister of the Romanian kingdom, she was raised by her aunt. And the mother of the father of my mother was a hungarian woman.

So, basically, my blood is 1/2 french, 3/8 romanian and 1/8 hungarian, and I have both french and italian nationalities.

 

[stilgarpl]

My mother was a Romanian dissident who (...)

They should make a movie about your mother. Seriously. What a story!