Why Are We Here

[ruaidhri]

Why are we here? The answer could be philosophical or simply because our parents had fun. Well, I’ve discovered a lot of people had fun in order for us to be here. I have found an interesting new hobby, genealogy. Now, you might groan because genealogy is certainly an old person's hobby and I wouldn’t disagree. Normally, I prefer to look forward rather than back, but, as you grow older, you become more aware of your own fragile mortality. You realize that you are nothing more than a link to many, many ancestors, most dead. All of these ancestors are directly responsible for your being here today.

I did know something about my mother’s family before I started this quest. I knew her father and mother’s name (my grandparents) and I knew my great grandparents name. I also knew my great-grandmother’s father’s name because he was somewhat famous for having helped Irish political prisoners escape from Australia on board the ship be captained. Unfortunately, for him, the British declared him a pirate which ended his career at sea. But, then, if that hadn’t happened his daughter probably would never had met my Great Grandfather.

I also knew that my mother’s family were in America for many years before the American Revolution. (I later learned that the first arrived around the middle of the 17th Century.) So armed with this information I first set out to discover my maternal ancestors. My father’s ancestry was done by the German Government in the 1930’s because his brother had a business in New York where he exchanged U.S. dollars for German Marks for Americans of German decent to send money to their families in Germany. The exchange rate for dollars to marks was greater in the U.S. than in Germany. Anyway, the German government (Nazi) wanted to verify that my uncle was pure arian and had no jewish blood so they did an genealogy of the family.

So, armed with a smidgen of information on my mother, I purchased a membership in Ancestry.Com and started a search. It didn’t take long before I ran into a roadblock. I couldn’t determine my great grandfather’s parents. For a long time I could go no further. Then, one day I worded a simple google search a little different and up came with a reference to someone else’s tree with my Great Great Grandfather as a member. They had history going back a number of generations. Armed with that I was on a role. Unbelievably, so far, I have traced my ancestors back 26 generations to Lord Todmag Hundred who was born in 1045 in Saxony and died (year unknown) in Suffolk, England.

Needless to say, I’m enjoying myself. I plan to get as much information as I can and put together a book of our family tree for my sons.

I am also working on my wife’s family but probably will have to purchase another service for European studies. I doubt that anyone has done extensive research on her family as they immigrated from Ireland in the first decade of the 20th Century. Where the early relatives on my mother’s side were fairly wealthy and titled those on my wife’s mother’s side were poor. Yet, I do have a copy of the passenger list of the ship that brought her Grandmother over and the small Western Ireland town in which they lived. It’s a start.

So, is anyone else interested in where they came from?

[belladonna]

i may be young but i've been interested in genealogy because i know very little about my family

[Kusoyaro]

Yes, very much so. Back in '95, I went on a trip with my brother to India, where my parents came from. During my 3 months there, I learned about my mothers' side (some of who were among the first adherents of my religion, some of whom were Gurkha) and my fathers' side (who were from Bhutan, Tibet, and possibly Indonesia, and others of Kashmiri descent). Since then, I have been documenting my lineage and trying to go back as far as I can. Knowing where your blood is from makes you realize how many other there are in the world who share it, and don't know. We could easily be walking by people in the streets whose blood can be traced only a few generations back to the root of yours. It's amazing.

[Josh]

My uncle paid somebody hundreds of dollars to go back along my paternal family tree as far back as he could and we got back to around the middle 11th century. That's all I know about it though, he ended up losing it a couple years back while tearing up his house on a crack binge.

Interesting note, scientists think that all humans on Earth are 50th cousins.

[Buckwheat]

The farthest I've managed to get is a great-great grandmother on my fathers side who came to America from England a few years before Custer's last stand. I have not yet found out when my mother's family arrived but all indications point to somewhere beyond then, maybe as old as revolutionary times.

[stsparky]

I'm adopted. I'll likely never know.

But as to why we are here - the gig as I understand it is to repair the world.

[MNJetter]

I was so tempted to get a membership to ancestry.com a couple years ago while going through a genealogy phase. I know a couple things, but without access to any decent references, I don't know much more than what my dad could already tell me. I know which one of my father's paternal ancestors arrived in North America and where, and which one of his sons was my father's direct ancestor. But I don't know who goes in between that, or what happened before they came to this continent. The rest of my knowledge is pretty sparse like that, too.

There were some people with my last name born in a castle in England in the sixteen hundreds, but the sources I can find on the internet don't tell me anything about them. For all I know, they were stablehands or maids or something. XD

There was one website that, looking up my surname, said that my family used to be British nobility. But they followed that up with "If you send us $XX, we will send you a copy of your family's coat of arms, etc., etc." and didn't offer any more information. I figured it was a scam. I bet they tell everybody their ancestors were nobility. :P

[Beowulf]

I know a lot about my family tree because my older aunts went into this huge "map the family" phase. My family came from Ireland originally. They were dirt poor farmers who were crushed by the famine. The original family split into three branches. The group that came to America (spawning me), the group that escaped to Germany (good plan guys), and those that stayed in the Emerald Isle trying to eke out a living.

[ruaidhri]

Beowulf, my mother always believed we were Irish. She even gave me an Irish first name. I suppose this belief originated with the family stories about my Great Great Grandfather, Captain Charles Buttton Davis, who rescued a notable Irish Political prisoner from Australia in the mid-nineteenth century. Now, it appears that if there's any Irish in my blood it comes from a long time family sympathy for their freedom struggle. At this point it appears that my mother's side of the family is English through and through except perhaps for Lord Todmag Hundred who was born in 1045 in Saxony. Was he a Viking invader?

I believe it was the early wealth of my mother's family that opened the doors to their history. One thing I found particularly interesting was the longevity of the family members. Many lived well into their 80's and 90's, which was very uncommon 3, 4, 5, 600 years ago.

My wife's family is a different story. My wife is red-haired woman of 1/4 German and 3/4 Irish decent. We've started working on her mothers side of the family and, in particular, her Grandmother who emigrated from Ireland in 1908. She departed Queenstown (now Cobh), Eire and had lived in Kinvara in county Galway. Her name was Hanora Linane and her father's name was listed on the shipboard passenger list as John, although he did not travel with her. Originally we had problems locating her passenger records because they used Nora instead of Hanora and spelled her surname with two n's (Linnane). Many immigrant's names were anglicized when they arrived in this country. Most were spelled as they were pronounced, not with their original spellings. Linnane or Linane are essentially the same name as Lennon, which is how the Irish would have pronounced Linnane.

Genealogy is a true opportunity to solve a mystery. With each find more doors open. It's exciting because it's part of who we are and where we came from.

MNJetter, you can discover a lot through Ancestry.Com because it connects you with Census, birth, death, marriage and emigration records in addition to other members' family trees. They even have photocopies of the original documents that you can print for your records. The problem with Ancestry.Com is that it's not cheap.

Buckwheat, you might want to check out census records. Every new discovery is exciting. Josh, if you know who did the genealogy you might be able to get another copy. Kusoyaro, very, very interesting. belladonna, now's the time to ask your family questions that can help open the genealogy doors when and if you ever decide to trace your family's history. Be sure to write down what they tell you and file it away where you'll be able to find it when the time arrives.

[4letterwords]

My mother paid for someone to do one of those searches... thats when I found out I was directly related to John Wilkes Booth.

Kindof a cool day, that was.

Anyway I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who this interests. Most people in America's ancestors are not from America, so its interesting to see who made the jump and when... how... why... its fun.

[Everdarke]

I also am quite interested in my family genealogy. It's quite interesting to know what and where your roots are. My parents did a genealogy research up to 1600's on my mothers and fathers ancestry. My family roots go to Iceland, Sweden, Italy and Russia. On my mothers side there are two people who have been arrested for illegal booze selling. On my fathers side there was an Italian monk who broke his celibacy oaths and mated with a Finnish woman. After that he moved to Finland with her and changed his Italian surname to one more Finnish, my current surname. Also there have been many smiths, carpenters and farmers in our family. Also my grandfather was declared dead twice during the Cold War. In the end he died to cancer around 20 years ago before I was born. We still have all his medals and a shrapnel of a cannon that exploded, taken from his chest. It's a shame I never got to meet him in person. :(

[nanashi]

I know mostly about my Mother's side of the family since I can only trace the other side to my greatgranmother who basically disowned her family.

Father's side: My great grandmother is Trinidadian. I don't know about my Grandmother (her mother makes things up about her many previous husbands) but I know she's at least half east indian (possibly half british) and grew up somewhat in both Trinidad and America. My grandfather is German-American and I actually know his last name was Hustler or something but my biological father's last name was changed because he was adopted by his stepdad. And that's all I know about them.

My Mom's family is Italian and they were from all over. I think my Grandfather's family was mainly Sicilian and my grandmother was probably from somewhere more north but they grew up in Rome. My grandmother's family was apparently rich but never really cared about her or us. She says that her father or grandfather was the chef of police till Mussolini kicked him out and that a lot of people in her family were doctors. But she makes things up so I'm not sure how true that is. My grandfather's family was just a normal middle-class family. Although currently there are a few famous people in Italy with his last name I share great-great-great-grandfathers with.

[edit] Oh, I forgot to mention that my grandfather's brother did give us pictures of his family dating back to the early 1900s. that was fun. They are here (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v601/Jennpanda/Totti%20Family/) if anyone is interested in old photography.

[ruaidhri]

Being older myself and having older parents to begin with puts my more immediate history way back. I was born in 1941, when my father was 43 and my mother, 38. My father was born in 1898 when his father was 44 and his mother, 39. My mother was born in 1903 when her father was 33 and her mother 26. When we start talking about Great Grandparents the dates go back even further.

My Great Grandfather on my mother's side was in the GAR during the Civil War. I have his original discharge papers. It's all very exciting.

[belladonna]

i know that my great-grandfather was german as was his wife, but they met in kansas after she emigrated from siberia where she was an indentured servant, (my grandfather's parents) my grandmother is related to stonewall jackson. on my mom's side we're related to a set of brothers that rode with jesse james

[ruaidhri]

belladonna, well then you have to find out more information. When you go back far enough it's amazing how many people you're related to. My aunt said we're related to President Grover Cleveland but I haven't proven than yet. I do know that one of my ancestors married a Cleveland so it's entirely possible. It's important that you get names and write them down for future reference. Sometimes old Bibles are a good source. If they lived in the U.S. the U.S. Census is a great reference.

Also a great all around reference source (not necessarily genealogy) on the internet is www.refdesk.com.

[Beowulf]

Yeah my family pretty much had the option of leaving or starving to death. We actually recently got in contact with the german branch of our family. Apparently I have a distant cousin, Wolfgang Vernick, living somewhere outside of Berlin. We haven't been able to find the remaining family members in Ireland. Speculation (and some coincidences in court records) have led us to believe that at least some of them were arrested and shipped off to Australia. No one's heard from them since so it doesn't seem likely that they survived long enough to produce decedents.

[Roxie]

It's been kind of hard, considering my families come from slavery, it is likely I will never know what country they were from and that kills me a little. I never understood how ppl cannot be interested in Genealogy...especially when it's so easy for a lot of people. It burns me up, very much. I remember going to ancestry.com and Ellis Island with some sort of hope and excitement. Then I got over my naivety and it made me very sad and I felt very much "othered".

A cousin on my dad's side of the family has found out some info though. We have copies of the taxes that show how our first relatives where sold into slavery in Louisiana. We also know that we have a "white" family, which isn't a surprise given that was a common practice in Louisiana (to have a black and white family). However, they have refused to have anything to do with us.

We also know that that one of our family member, a Rembert, killed a white man (don't know the circumstances), ran for his life and changed his name once he got to Arkansas.

We also know that we have Chickasaw Indian in our family. Learning some of the language cheered me up a bit.

My father's father died when my father was 2, so I'll never know about him

On my mother's side. There is a story that my great-great-great uncle was Sherman's water boy during the civil war. And that he was the son of a Blackfoot princess who was abandoned by her tribe once she decided to stay with the boy's father.

Also, my great-great-great grandmother had a baby by the slave master's son.

So far, that's all I know. I wish my great grandmother were still alive so I could ask her more. She died when I was about 16/17.

[ruaidhri]

Beowulf, well, what's important is that you survived.

I know that my wife's family was poor both in Ireland and in the United States. Here in Wisconsin, they were farm poor. When I met my wife we would visit her parent's farm. It was without running water, bathrooms and central heat. The water came from a pump, the toilet was an outhouse and the heat was a single pot bellied stove in the living room. During the Winters, it got damn cold in the middle of Wisconsin. We pulled the feather tic over ourselves at night and were toasty. Of course the chamber pot was beneath the bed. It was truly cold and painful to get out of the covers and use it.

We haven't really searched her family beyond the U.S. Knowing where she came from does give us some help but we're not real hopeful. With my mother's family it was easy because her ancestors were wealthy, owned land and, in England, were titled. However, by the time it got to my mother's parents the money was gone and they were dirt poor, moving from Stow, MA to Ohio to Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Where do you live in Oregon? I was stationed in Astoria when I was in the Coast Guard. Very beautiful although it rained just about every single day. In many ways Wisconsin is like Oregon. It's also a beautiful state and while Oregon attracts people from California, Wisconsin is a magnet for people from Illinois.

[Roxie]

Nice photo Nana

[ruaidhri]

nanashi, I missed the photos when I first read your post. I agree with Roxie, nice photos.

Roxie, slavery continues to harm so many people. I feel very sorry that you can't find out more about your African ancestors. You realize that they were very strong to have survived.

[Stephy]

This is pretty interesting, since I am assigned this Family Background Research Project dealing with Dominant-Minority Relations in America for my sociology class, so it's amuses me to see this thread all of a sudden.

I called up my great great grandma (young family- she's only 71 years old) and I interviewed her in a way and tried to trace back my history. I started this off thinking I am only French and Portuguese. French based on my last name and Portuguese due to my mothers side being entirely from Portugal and only my mother coming from Portugal to reside in the states.

I was wrong.

So we traced back until about 1794 and it seems they married only within the same ethnic background so my dad's entire side of the family and his generations were all Welsh/English and some Native American (which? I'm not sure, she's hard to understand on the phone). My mothers is of course all Portuguese so I was right about that. So I'm basically half Portuguese and part Welsh/English. I'm not sure whether to count the Native American, but this is what I figured out. Quite a surprise. I guess I figured out where I got all my light features from.

I'm thinking about doing a more professional analysis of my background now. Maybe in the future and with some spending money I will, but not now.

[Roxie]

There is a website that national geographic does where they trace you blood back..it's about $100. I wanted to do it, but recently I read that something was wrong with it or something...I don't remember exactly I just remember the feeling of a dream deferred.

[Excel-2008]

We're here because we aren't over there.

[Beowulf]

Where do you live in Oregon? I was stationed in Astoria when I was in the Coast Guard. Very beautiful although it rained just about every single day. In many ways Wisconsin is like Oregon. It's also a beautiful state and while Oregon attracts people from California, Wisconsin is a magnet for people from Illinois.
In Albany about 15 min. away from Corvallis and 30 min. away from Salem. And yes Astoria is a great town, it's where the filmed the Goonies :P

We're here because we aren't over there.
Way to troll a perfectly good thread.


So we traced back until about 1794 and it seems they married only within the same ethnic background so my dad's entire side of the family and his generations were all Welsh/English and some Native American (which? I'm not sure, she's hard to understand on the phone). My mothers is of course all Portuguese so I was right about that. So I'm basically half Portuguese and part Welsh/English. I'm not sure whether to count the Native American, but this is what I figured out. Quite a surprise. I guess I figured out where I got all my light features from.
I can sort of relate because my great uncle was a full-blooded Cherokee. Old family photos are hilarious because all the irish are about 5'3" average while there's this looming giant native behind them all at 6'3".

[Kleshya]

My parents got me into geneology starting when I was little, and by growing up with all the family stories they would tell me. My mother's side of the family is actually very very well documented, as we are direct descendents of the Clark family (Gen. George Rogers Clark and William Clark were my great+ uncles, with Jonathan Clark being my great+grandfather). http://www.kygenweb.net/history/ff_louisville/ff.htm has a small blurb about them.

My father's side is German/Russian nobility. My father has such a unique surname that if you find anyone in the US with the same last name they are related to us in some way.

My mother has been trying to make copies and create a book of all the old documents and photographs that has been handed down from her side of the family. One of the things I am trying to convince them to do with me is to sit down and record all the old family stories because a great many of them only they know.

[ak24]

Hmm, this makes me wonder if there are any Korean genealogists since I'm a 1.5 generation in America. Hmm.

[ruaidhri]

Kleshya, you, like me, are lucky. Notable people in your ancestry make genealogy much easier. My Great Great Grandfather was a key for me. Going back much further (23rd Great Grandfather), I traced a link back to Lord Hugo de Talmash http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/d/a/v/Shaun-A-Davis/GENE5-0001.html, which is very interesting.

Very definitely get all the information you can on paper. Also, record your family telling the stories. That's even more powerful than the written stories. Also, it's a record of your family's voices which is something I don't have and never will considering that I am the sole remaining survivor of my immediate family. My parents, brother, aunts and uncles are all gone as are all but a few of my first cousins. I was the baby of the family. I miss hearing their voices.