Your Background/Family History

[stinebot]

My father's side of the family hails from Scotland and England. Details are a bit hazy, but they came to what is now Maine in the early 1700s. On my mother's side, I have a family tree which puts my maternal grandmother's ancestors in Essex around 1500 and they came to what is now the Maine/New Brunswick border around 1650. My maternal grandfather's family originally comes from Brittany, and they came to Maine in the late 1600s. So my ancestry goes back to some of the earliest inhabitants of Maine, which I suppose is cool to think about.

 

[Krelian91]

Mostly Northern Italian, with some French, German and Southern Italian way back. I know for a fact that my father's family is originary from France and that my great-great-grandmother was from Berlin.
Also, my mother brags that her family descends directly from the Longobardians who came to northern Italy during the Dark Ages. No way to prove or disprove that.

 

[Calahir]

Also, my mother brags that her family descends directly from the Longobardians who came to northern Italy during the Dark Ages. No way to prove or disprove that.

Examine your genes.

 

[rho]

On my father's side, my family has been living in the same region since time immemorial (ie, as far back as I've managed to track to date). Of his great great grandparents (my great x 3), only one was born outside the county (Lancashire, if my forum avatar didn't give it away) with the vast majority being from within about 5-10 miles of each other. Given that my surname is also from close to this area, it's a fairly safe bet that at least my paternal line has been in the area for a Very Long Time.

My mother's side is a bit more cosmopolitan and/or mongrel (depending on who you ask). It's mostly English on that side too, but spread out through different parts of England, rather than all being in one place. There's some Scottish and Welsh in there too, as well as an Irish ancestor who came to England during the Great Famine. There's a bit of Italian in there too; one of my great grandmothers was an illegitimate daughter of a Tuscan businessman who had a dalliance with my great great grandmother while on business in England.

 

[Rams]

My ancestors shagged goats for a couple of thousands years until they ascended from their mountains in Chechnya and moved to the Netherlands to shag Dutchies.

 

[mic-dk]

Most of my ancestors have probably been farmers for the last 1000 years or so.

My brother! My mothers side of the family is an unbroken string of peasants in the north of Jutland. They were mostly free men, but peasants none the less. Only thing of note I am aware of is my grandfathers brother. He... Ehm... Developed a strong interest in all tings german in the 30ies. He got lost somewhere between Moscow and Berlin on the return trip.

So, no dukes or generals for me, only peasants and a single adventerous spirit.

 

[CptVicky]

Mother's family came over from the British Isles, (her father's side was British and her mother's Irish), my father's family is entirely Irish, his parents came here in 1968 from Mayo, Ireland and had a family, then my parents met in 1993 and two years later I happened.

 

[InnocentIII]

I'm half German and half Irish. I'm also 1/4 Canadian, so I love hockey (No Goal!). According to a relative who provided info to my kids when they did their family tree, somewhere in the distant past is a Polish Princess TGTC.

Great thread idea.

 

[Al.Bindy]

Swedish (or quasi-Swedish) as far back as I can track them.

My fathers side is fairly uninteresting. His dads father was a feno-swede from österbotten that, on his way to America, managed to find work in a sawmill in the Sundsvall area. On my paternal grandmothers side they have all been fishermen or farmers on the Swedish bottenhavet-coast. About the same, but further up the coast, on my maternal grandmothers side.

It's only on my mom's dad's side things get interesting. His sister traced the family back to a nobleman in Småland who was mentioned in legal documents in 1430 and 1434. His decendants were mansion owners and soldiers. One was appointed governor of Bornholm after the island turned Swedish after the Roskilde peace 1658. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you looks at it) the local populace did not welcome their new Swedish overlords and he was killed in an uprising. After that the family died out on the sword side and ended up as teachers in northern Sweden.

 

[sirrichard]

I have been notified that I am a far off relative of Harald Hårfagre.

 

[atmafox]

Mine gets muddy in the period from the American Civil War on, but before that it's fairly clear. At least the part I claim. There's some German in there on my grandmother's side, family name Junkin, but I haven't tracked that:
Rutledge.

We were a Scottish clan from the Scots-English border, some moderately high placed priests in there, and later favourites of the Stuart kings. That being a minor embarrassment to me, it takes something special to lose your head to the British parliament after all. In any case, I think around that time they decided they needed to give personal attention to a land grant that'd been given in the Carolinas and skipped out. From there, Rutledges were on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, John Marshall's Supreme Court, and the first governor of South Carolina under the US constitution. Fast forward a ways and you have Colonel B.H. Rutledge, Fourth South Carolina Cavalry, Army of Northern Virginia. Having your country entirely conquered and kept as a mercantalist colony for a hundred years or so, though, will really knock a family down a ways.

I'm of a branch off that main line, and not entirely sure where my branch came off. There are still Rutledges back east in South Carolina, while my line has sort of drifted steadily west since. But that's well out of the time frame for EUIV. ^_^

What's funny is I know that the Junkin name was on a German (relatively recent immigrants, in fact, and likely some minor nobility) family, but looking it up I only find references to the Welsh usage of the name. I'm suspecting it has to do with a misspelling or other change in the name when that side of the family came over, but I don't really have enough information to work from to go digging and my grandmother from that side passed relatively recently.

Thanks,
-Atma

 

[spyroware1]

I was born in Athens and both my parents are Greek. My father is from Morea/Peloponnesus. He comes from a long line of farmers and herders who lived in the mountains around Patras. Poor and simple people, nothing major. Some villages in the area had Slavic or Albanian names that the Greek government changed at some point. So it’s quite possible that there’s some medieval Albanian or Slavic element in the family, which is however lost by now. One ancestor however was a warlord during the Ottoman times, and was among those present at Agia Lavra (a local church) in 1821, during what is considered to be the declaration of the Greek war of independence.

My mother, although of a Peloponnesian father, for all intents and purposes is Anatolian like her mother. Her maternal grandparent was a very wealthy industrialist from Samos during the Principality era - the North Aegean islands shared the same culture with the Anatolian Coast. The Ottoman Army was one of his clients and some of his factories produced their leather boots. Her maternal grandmother was born in the Dardanelles/Çanakkale and was a teacher even though she was from a well-to-do family. Anatolian Greeks were very progressive and women would work and trade and generally were more independent. Izmir still has this liberal character in modern Turkey. Her report card, Greek on one side, Ottoman Arabic on the other, is a prized heirloom of my family. Anyway after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the failed Greek campaign in Anatolia she had to relocate to Greece proper as per the 1922 population exchange between Greece and Turkey. My mother was born in a suburb of Piraeus (the main port of Athens) where many Anatolian immigrants were settled.

Of interest is an uncle of hers who was a high ranking official in the Orthodox Church. At some point, despite being a foreigner during the Soviet times, he was professor of Theology in St. Petersburg. In his later years he was a candidate to become a Patriarch of Alexandria. He died in a helicopter accident in 2004 along with Patriarch Peter VII of Alexandria, on their way to Mt Athos. The most prized family heirloom comes from him and is a gilded candelabrum from the Romanovs’ possessions that the Russian Church saved during the Russian Revolution (and had gifted to my great-uncle at some point).

As for me, warlords shmarlords even though it’s 3/4, the Moriot side never really registered. I feel Anatolian like my mother. I’m very cosmopolitan and generally closer to that kind of refined society of magnates and literati with their big townhouses and balls and stuff. The people I feel are closest to this are the Viennese. But it’s all aspirational really as I’m firmly middle class

 

[Zubrowka]

My family spent a couple of years in Kazakhstan but when Stalin allowed Polish Army of general Anders to be send under the British guidance...

Same event changed a lot for my grandmother and her family. They were from the same part of Poland, but were taken by the Soviets on cattle cars by rail in the frozen dead of winter... to a gulag... in Kamchatka. They were told on arrival by the camp commandant that they would die there. They survived, branded and starving, by foraging and laboring just enough not to get punished too severely. Oh, and that Anders diplomacy was clutch. They were sent to Tehran to group up for that army, but then fled the Soviets for British India (today Karachi, Pakistan). They were refugees under the British, learned English, my great grandfather served as a policeman for them, and my grandmother was the first to move to America, embracing a hope for a new future far the hell away from the Soviets.

My grandfather and namesake was also Polish, but he was one hell of a crafty man. He got out of dodge in 38' while the gettin' was good and joined up with Uncle Sam just to kill Nazis. Yes, you need to go back and read that with the southern drawl of Aldo "the Apache" Raine from Tarentino's Inglorious Basterds to get the full effect. He was also a drill sergeant and served in Patton's 3rd Army, including the Battle of the Bulge, and was awarded the Purple Heart. He didn't stop after the war. He served as an MP translator at the Nuremberg Trials on account of his lingual skills. He spoke English, German, Polish, Russian, Italian, and a couple others. After all that, he settled down and started a small grocer/sandwich shop in a small city outside Philadelphia. He operated it for a couple decades, serving the local immigrant enclaves that characterized the community. He served, among others, former SS members who emigrated to the US. That's what we call making peace.

My paternal side described above goes back further as well. The grandfather's side specifically were Szlachta (nobles, though at one time 10% of Poland were nobles), including a baron, and one of my distant relatives stateside has done a great job with the genealogy research, finding a written marriage certificate from the Commonwealth, dated in the early 1600s and confirming some key details.

My mother's side is the typical Irish potato famine story, but also with a religious freedom issue as they were Northern Irish / Ulster Irish Catholics. The genealogy on this side has not been done, so I don't know so much. Grandfather fought in WWII as well for the US but in the marines in the Pacific theatre, including the Philippines. He worked the rest of his days for a public transit agency.

My parents have done medical administration work and IT network engineering in their careers. I went a different route and became an attorney, and practice business law in Pennsylvania. Also, I'm working on my Polish and can say this much is true: Kto rano wstaje, temu pan Bóg daje.

I've enjoyed reading everyone's backgrounds and family histories. This was really a great thread idea. My thanks to the OP and everyone for sharing! I hope you enjoyed that bit of my family history.

P.S. Just wanted to add that I have a close friend, a German/Irish American, whose ancestor owned Appomattox Courthouse during the Civil War. Yeah, that guy lost so many possessions as it was looted for souvenirs. History is crazy!

 

[Agrippa43]

My ancestors shagged goats for a couple of thousands years until they ascended from their mountains in Chechnya and moved to the Netherlands to shag Dutchies.

Shagged Goats? hmmmm :unsure:

 

[Plasma Doctor]

Half of my lineage is Ulster-Scot-Irish. My family had county seats there (Thus Counts) and came over to America sometime during the homesteading period and sometime a bit before the potato famine (Being of status enough to gain counties, they were probably better off than most). Half my lineage is a mix of Polish-German from the Northern coast area of Poland-Prussia. My Polish half denies it is Polish, despite having a very, very Polish name.

 

[EUTony]

My paternal grandfather's side is from Lebanon and came to America in the early 1900s. My paternal grandmother has ties to France from long ago but most recently to Canada. My maternal grandfather's side is largely Irish. My maternal grandmother's side has German roots. I know the most about my paternal grandfather's side, not so much about the others. All were Roman Catholic. We now all live in southeastern Michigan.

 

[Garak]

My father's family came from the Warsaw area (or maybe Krakow. My grandfather told me once, years ago, but I can't remember which anymore), where I assume they were dirt poor peasant farmers. My mother's family comes from all over, but has a large Scotch-Irish streak, and came to the new world during colonial times or shortly thereafter. I don't know much about what they did, but apparently, some great-great-grandfather of mine sold those hokey patent-medicines back in the 19th century.

 

[Dafool]

On my paternal side, I'm English and Welsh. That portion of my family is descended from the Buttons, most famously Thomas Button, who attempted to rescue Henry Hudson and was also a notable explorer himself. Through that same lineage we are also related to Button Gwinnett, who signed the Declaration of Independence and was briefly the "President" of Georgia before being killed in duel.

On my maternal side, I'm German. My descendant were Prussians from just outside Danzig and had but two great traditions: making shoes and naming every male in the family Adolph. We believe they emigrated from that area to the United States in the 1890's because of the influx of Protestant Germans and the tensions with local Poles. My descendants, being Catholic Germans, really couldn't win in that situation. After coming to the United States, they moved to a German neighborhood in St. Louis and kept up the tradition of making shoes and naming all the boys Adolph. One Adolph fought in the First World War, briefly spending some time in France, and another fought in the Second World War and died fighting in Italy. In the late 40's they switched to industrial work and stopped naming everyone Adolph (for obvious reasons).

 

[edwardianed]

Paternally, my ancestors came from southern Ireland to Somerset some time around 1390 and were successful sea merchants, then after a while of nothing much happening someone married a loose relation of the Duke of Devon in about 1720. For about a century we tried to climb the social ladder, but never really achieved anything more than minor aristocracy, although one did marry into Lord Nelsons family; so we sodded off to Kent in the hopes that we could achieve more near London. In 1848 my great-great-great-great uncle married the third cousin of the Earl of Fife, giving us loose ties to Clan Carnegie, although in retrospect perhaps we'd have been better off with another Carnegie of the time Again, attempts at social climbing didn't result in much, and the family just sort of hung around going to parties and failing to marry Marquesses until a lot of them died in the Wars.

Just before World War One, my maternal great-grandparents married, they were Russian nobility until the Bolsheviks fixed that, and they fled to Germany. Their children took different paths in the Second World War my great-uncle joined the Nazi party whilst my grandmother hated him for it and returned to Russia, she never saw him again as he was shot for dereliction of duty. There she met my grandfather who was the great-great nephew of Russian diplomat Peter Dubrovsky; however Stalinist Russia didn't agree with my grandmother (or anyone else really) and they managed to flee to England, I honestly have no idea how although I suspect money is the answer. They didn't do anything much more interesting other than travel a lot and have my mother, who of course met my father and they had me... which from my perspective is the best bit of the story.

So in summary: my family history is just a bunch of minor aristocrats who weren't very good at convincing people to marry them

 

[Brevared747]

We haven't had very much success tracking our family back before the various branches showed up in the US, but, considering my first American ancestor came over on the Mayflower, that's still a good chunk of time. I've got a good number of ancestors with interesting stories. A few highlights: the mayflower guy, two different ancestors (who were not yet related to each other) who fought in the Revolution, a representative to the Constitutional Convention (he voted no), two ancestors who fought in the Civil War, one for the Union and one for the Confederacy (the Confederate got captured during the Battle of Gettysburg), and a great uncle who was a bomber pilot in WWII. The various branches of my family showed up from various places throughout western Europe throughout that time, but my direct paternal line (the one I get my last name from) has both been here the shortest and has the most interesting emigration story.

My father's father's, father's, father's, father (I think that's the right number of fathers) was a farmer who lived outside Hamburg and, when he heard the Franco-Prussian war was coming, he fled to Denmark to avoid the draft. He caught a boat from Copenhagen to New York and (being something of a ne'er-do-well and a layabout, to use the parlance of the time) began drifting westward, doing odd jobs(and probably stealing) to get by. He finally ended up in Kansas where he impregnated the daughter of a local farmer and suddenly found himself the victim of a shotgun wedding. Thus forced to set down roots he became a hired hand and then a farmer, and his descendants would keep moving southward until they ended up in Texas where I was born.

As to my national makeup, considering our poor record at tracking the lines of descent before immigration, we can't get very specific, but I'm definitely German, English, French, Welsh, Irish, and Scottish, and probably have some Dutch, Danish, and Norwegian somewhere in there as well. So, for simplicity's sake, let's just call me a true blue American mutt.

P.S.
I've really enjoyed reading everyone's stories and I hope people will keep posting.