My ancestry is undeniably "peasant". What's your's?

[joeybee12]

Grandparents on both sides came to this country illegally to escape communism and facsism. Lived in small villages--worked the land, etc. No royal blood in my lineage!

How about you? Have you ever traced your ancestry?

[liberalpragmatist]

1. Hindu priests and lawyers

But I don't really know all the details. That's just one line that's been traced. The rest, I don't know.

[joeybee12]

17. That actually sounds kind of interesting!

[liberalpragmatist]

103. Yeah

I'm really interested into actually tracing it back. I'm sure there are a lot of lines, but it'll be interesting to see how the lines actually turn out. Also, I'd like to see how "pure" my lineage is. Because of the caste system in India, it's likely that my ancestors would have married almost solely within their relatively privileged caste. We did trace that one ancestor far back was the highest priest in one Southern Indian kingdom and chief religious advisor to the king, which is pretty cool.

That's entirely within my mother's mother's line. So I don't know where else it'll lead. I wish records were better kept in India - as far as I know, they never have been, so it's harder to trace. In the US we have immigration records and all kinds of titles and documents - Western societies are much bigger on paper and things than non-Western societies have been.

[joeybee12]

107. Sniff...mine is too peasant to be pure...

...probably married within their class with the blood of some randy nobleman thrown in somewhere!

[liberalpragmatist]

141. There's a love-hate thing going on for me

I know I'm where I am because of my caste, which bothers me a great deal. It's not that caste really matters much to educated Indians these days, but the point is that the people who ARE educated are the ones who were high-caste. They're the ones who had access to good education and job opportunities under the British. Had my ancestors been less fortunate, I (well, to be fair, I probably wouldn't exist, but there would be some other person in my place that existed) would be living probably in poverty.

Not that I'm anything but middle-class right now. Still, it does make things a little weird.

[lenidog]

2. Shady characters on my dad's side and respectable but still shady

characters on my moms. She pulls down all the famous people in the family except for one on dads side who is infamous.

[joeybee12]

11. That actually could be interesting!

Mine were too damn poor to have done anything shady!;(

[lenidog]

24. Well lets see dad

had riverboat gamblers, conmen, oyster pirates, bootleggers and horse thieves in his family tree. He also had a member of his family who traveled the Colonies hunting witches and one who was tried as a witch. The only famous or infamous person in the family was Jack McCall who earned his rep by getting pissed off at Wild Bill Hickock and shooting him in the back of the head.

From my moms side I can add in General George Edward Pickett as an uncle. (fought for the Confederacy. Not exactly a great thing on the resume) Woodrow Wilson as a cousin (big time racist)and Edgar Allan Poe as a cousin/uncle. He was adopted and married a cousin. (by adoption)

[NoPasaran]

40. Don't beat yourself up too much over Pickett

He wasn't a very good general.

[joeybee12]

43. If you're a writer--you should make Dad's side a novel...

...you could sell Mon's story down south--they still love anything confederate.

[Flying Dream Blues]

70. Um, you and I must be cousins, Lenidog!!!

My grandfather's grandfather was the first cousin of Gen. George Pickett. He was a lot younger and was in his unit as a quartermaster/Sgt. and my grandfather knew him. It's one of those Thanksgiving dinner conversations, ya know?

[lenidog]

75. His brother moved North after the war to the Chamberburg area

and met my great-great-great-grandmother and married her that is where the connection comes from. So its very possible.

[LeftyMom]

3. Much the same

Dirt poor rural people on my Dad's side, city people getting by on my Mother's. No people of great wealth or historical importance on either side.

Both families did pretty well for themselves after coming to the states in the early part of the last century dispite a great deal of anti-Catholic bigotry at the time.

[joeybee12]

14. Hey, at least we're in the majority!

;)

[Reverend_Smitty]

4. The earliest ancestors I know of are...

the ones who came through Ellis Island, Irish, Polish and Slovak peasants fleeing something or other. One of my great-grandmother's sisters was killed as a young girl by a land mine in WWI, she fled Czechoslovakia shortly after. Yep I'm pure peasant stock

[joeybee12]

19. I would be interested in knowing if there's any way of knowing how

many Americans today can trace their heritage to people who came through Ellis Island. Could it be that we're almost a majority?

[Reverend_Smitty]

28. I'm sure it's quite a large number...

I've been to Ellis Island and several of my relatives names are on the monument wall there.

[fudge stripe cookays]

120. I have two--my mother's maternal grandparents from Germany.

We found them on the Ellis Island site, then cooperated and got them put on the wall.

Other than that, most of the others came in the 1600s or mid 1800s, and I haven't found records for their voyages. But the lines are pretty well traced.

FSC

[EstimatedProphet]

5. I am descended from King Duncan of MacBeth fame

Seriously.

[joeybee12]

9. I always confuse MacBeth with Hamlet--both went nuts, right?

Duncan becomes king at the end, right?

At least you're not (I hope) from the same stock as Charles or his new (new--hah! She's been aging for years!) bride.

[EstimatedProphet]

78. MacBeth kills Duncan and ascends to the throne of Scotland

and is avenged by his son Malcolm

[joeybee12]

81. Thanks! I knew there was vengenace somehow, oh, and madness...

...just couldn't match the names with the attributes!

[RogueTrooper]

184. That 's just English propaganda

About as accurate as Mel Gibson's portrayal of William Wallace.

MacBeth was the last true Celtic king, or Aird Righ, of Scotland. Prior the the ascension of Malcom Scotland did not practice primogeniture ( the practice where title is handed down to the eldest son only ).

[Joe Chi Minh]

200. Didn't Siward

avenge him, or was he in cahoots with Malcolm and they both did for him? If so, as a descendant of his, I'll accept your fulsome gratitude with all humility, EstimatedProphet.

[skygazer]

119. Cousin!

I go back to Duncan myself through Henry I's wife Matilda. Small world....

[mitchtv]

6. Irish peasants and English dissidents

they had to get out of MA and helped Roger Williams found RI
certainly no royals.

[joeybee12]

10. That certainly goes back a loooooooooooooong way!

[northzax]

15. got kicked out of RI by Roger Williams

for heresy.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

18. Don't you mean Ro-Dielin? lol. Born and raised there.

[mitchtv]

80. Actually ended up in the Mohawk Valley

In New Yawk. had a relative kidnapped by the Indians and the baby smashed against a tree-

[lpbk2713]

7. Verrrry distant relative of Abe Lincoln.

Something like third or fourth cousins.

Also distant cousins to comedian Rip Taylor and jockey Willie Shoemaker.

[AlCzervik]

8. Irish peasants and Jewish peasants

[joeybee12]

25. A friend who comes from a similar background as yours said her

grandmother always told her they were descended from the "kings and queens" of Ireland.

Even as a young girl I guess she never really did believe Grandma!

[chaumont58]

12. I read once that my surname meant 'Servant'

in the old country's language, so we started at the bottom.

[joeybee12]

23. Yeah, I'd think that would be a dead give-away!

;)

[Joe Chi Minh]

213. Not necessarily.

The Paladins were the twelve peers of Charlemagne's household, assigned to posts such as "butler", and other such, ordinarily servile occupations; though those paladins "doubled" as knight-errant champions of his, on the field of battle.

William the Conqueror adopted the same practice. One of my ancestors was a "dapifer", or "steward", (literally, the "person who bears meat to the table".

Also, the Anglo-Saxon word, "cniht", meaning "household retainer" or "servant". Only in the 12th century did it become inextricably associated with so-called gentle birth.

[hickman1937]

13. Irish peasants, and German peasants.

I think. The furthest back I've found so far it a great great grandfather in New York, who was an Irish born butcher, and a great great grandfather from Canada who spoke only german.

[joeybee12]

67. I said it before--we peasants are certainly in the majority!

[SoCalDem]

16. Bohemia & Ireland on the maternal side.. Aristocratic Cuban on Paternal

actuallt more like F.O.B. (friends of Batista).. Grandfather from Spain grandmother from France..

We are mongrels..

[joeybee12]

34. Love that baby--anyone you know?

[SoCalDem]

49. Nope.. just a cute pic I found online a long time ago

The news of the paintings' demise (possibly) reminded me that I even had it on my computer..

[CBGLuthier]

20. Cherokee Scottish English Melungeon

Cherokee and Scottish on my father's side. Both of his parents were half Cherokee and my surname is Scottish.

Mostly English on my mother's side but they were in the hills of Kentucky for about the last two hundred years. My great great great grandfather on that side was a Melungeon, who were a very dark skinned people of uncertain origin. They were discovered in America as far back as the 1600's. Most theories are they were the descendants of Portugese slaves but no one is certain.

So some of my ancestors had been here for thousands of years and the other parts probably 150 to 200 years. Not a rich man or royal in the bunch.

[joeybee12]

21. That does go a long way back...

...most people here seem to be tracing their roots (like me) to Europe.

[Tracer]

22. Irish farmers.

Emigrated to the U.S. and became the stereotypical Boston Irish immigrant: a Boston policeman, a seamstress, a stonemason. The next generation did much better - engineers, doctors, lawyers.

Some went to Florida in the early part of the 20th century. One became mayor of Tampa.

[joeybee12]

38. Any still down in Florida? Always helps to have relatives in warm

climes!;)

[sportndandy]

26. My ancestors were Royal Pains in the Ass!

:evilgrin:

[joeybee12]

29. Oh, I'm impressed! I've always had a fascination for royalty!

;)

[FuzzySlippers]

27. I'm descended from the Jukes and the Kallikaks.

:crazy: :dunce:

[joeybee12]

32. Ain't we all!?!

;)

[LibDemAlways]

30. Polish Peasants - both sides.

Husband's paternal ancestors came to California from the midwest during the gold rush and operated a blacksmith shop near Yosemite. One of his aunts on his mother's side once told me they were distantly related to a French nobleman, but she may just have been blowing smoke.

[joeybee12]

191. "Distant" usually means it was some randy nobleman

having his way. That's what they did in those days. Oh yeah, they're still doing it!

[taught_me_patience]

31. mother's side = serfs

father's side = textile merchants

[joeybee12]

203. I love the word "serf"--reminds me of the serfs in Monty

Python and the Holy Grail! "There's some lovely filth over here!"

[EC]

33. Peasant on my Italian Dad's side

East coast "elite" Daughters of the American Revolution, Republican, and disowned on my Mom's side.


On Edit: Oh yeah, forgot to mention related to the John and John Quincy Adams...I did trace back to England and found some royalty and before that some were Huguenots chased out of Europe...

[deutsey]

35. Religious dissidents from Sweden, immigrants from Ireland

Those are the main two roots of my family tree...both peasant lineage, as far as I can tell. We sure were never nobility or gentry.

[TK421]

36. Irish assasins on my Mom's side, fleeing criminals on my Dad's side

Apparently, they fled from England ( still not sure what happened, but whatever it was, it was bad. ) and changed their name later on from Burkenstock to...

[joeybee12]

57. Always nice to have something interesting like that in your background!

[TK421]

58. It's weird, my aunt is really into the family history thing..

Can you imagine what the reunions are like?;)

[joeybee12]

66. In sheer numbers of people, or her prying you for info or telling you?

[TK421]

73. No, I just thought it was funny that they were assassins

Some of my relatives are a little nuts:crazy:

[CBHagman]

157. Reminds me of something my brother said.

I got into researching the Irish branch of our family several years back and went to see The Gangs of New York because that was set in the era when my relatives were just getting to the East Coast. I mentioned to my brother that I hadn't found any evidence anyone in our family was involved in the gangs, and he e-mailed back, "What makes you think a member of our family wouldn't be involved in criminal activity?" I must admit he had a point.

On the other hand, my Swedish-American great-grandfather ran a workhouse, so I guess he was on the other side of things. :-)

We have the usual family legends about being related to the famous (e.g., a saint, a cardinal), but so far I've found skilled laborers in the 19th century, white collar workers in the 20th century, and so on.

[patcox2]

37. Bog-trotting Irish peasant, low as low.

But my entire family has this genetic arrogance, everyone sees it, we think we're aristocracy for some reason.

[joeybee12]

59. Could be an Irish thing--my firend has a similar background, yet her

grandmother insisted they were descended from the "kings and queens of Ireland!"

[Joe Chi Minh]

211. I'm sure there are others,

but O'Connors and O'Neills are descended from the high kings of Ireland, I believe. An Irish priest friend told me many O'Connors still seem to think very highly of themselves!

The Fitzgeralds are descendants of Gerald de Barri (the ancestral castle/fortified manor can still be seen in Manorbier, Pembrokeshire), A Flemish toff. One of his sons, Gerald of Wales, became an eminent medieval historian,and another led the advance party of the invasion of Ireland, prior to Strongbow's. The Barrys are descended from them, as are the earls of Kildare and Desmond. I think Ireland may be a bit like Scotland, where, it is said, nearly everyone is descended from one of their toff families. Probably more ascertainably so than the English, the population being so much smaller.

[deadparrot]

39. Mixed.

Mostly poor (German, Irish, Swiss, Belgian, French), but there is a line in my family that's traced back to the Plantagenets. So that's cool.:)

[JohnKleeb]

41. What did they do? you mean?

I have no idea but I assume they were poor especially on my mom's side, perhaps middle class on my dad's german side, and poor on his Irish. I definely got no royal blood that said.

[joeybee12]

51. Yeah, how they lived, etc....

...mine were poor, so it's not like their achievements were written down anywhere to research--just part of the great, unwashed mass!

[JohnKleeb]

52. I wish I knew more

but I doubt they were rich since I am told that before my Slovak Great Grandather came to America, he had worked on the railroad in Russia. Have little knowledge about my dad's side which is German-Irish, since that side has been here since around the civil war, and were fairly well integrated by the time my grandparents on that side were born in the 1910's, I know for a fact that my late nana's father was not Irish born, but I will assume that his father was Irish born.

[joeybee12]

60. Yeah, I'd like to know more also...but you can't when nothing is

written down, especially since most of my ancestors couldn't write!

[Maine-ah]

42. One line of my family is Dutch.

They planted themselves in N.Y. Infact, right where Rockefeller Center is now, is right where the family farm was. Big legal battle, and a lot of BS happend when they lost the farm. I'm not sure of all the details, but my family has it documented.

Samuel Adams is my (numerous times back)great grandfather.

I have my husbands paternal side traced back to Charlemagne, but from what I've read, just about anyone can trace their tree to Chalemagne. Franklin Pierce is a great (numerous times back) uncle, of my husbands. Which somewhere along the line ties him into Babs Bush as a cousin x-amounts of times removed.

[joeybee12]

48. Any still over there? If so, introduce me--I'd love to get back to

Amsterdam--it's been 3 whole weeks since my last time there!

[Maine-ah]

61. Possible.

Still learning about them, my mother has kept incredible records, it's just there are tons of them.

[joeybee12]

74. Good! That way I won't be a bore, staying at one place for too

long--they can shuffle me around! ;-)

[NoPasaran]

44. Eastern European peasant

Part of that vast stream through Ellis Island

[comsymp]

45. Pirates

Well, one, anyway... or so the (Drummond side of the)family legend goes. Otherwise, Irish peasants galore, some English aristocrats and Delaware Indians.

[Terran]

46. English Catholic Aristos

on my mother's side. They patroned Alexander Pope, got painted by Gainsborough, and helped finance and the colonization of New Zealand. I have them at least as far back as Henry VIII, who had my ancestor in his cabinet. They still have an estate in Essex, and their coat of arms is in the arms of the city of Ranganui, NZ.

[montanacowboy]

47. Grandmother was Italian aristocracy who

fled to America with a "commoner" - came through Ellis Island and they used alias names so her family could not find them!

[hickman1937]

53. That would make a great movie.

Just my opinion.

[On the Road]

50. On My Father's Side

my ancestors came over to New Amsterdam with the Dutch. They lived in New York and northern New Jersey, and were mostly farmers, small businessmen, and city officials.

My mother's family is primarily German and came over from near the German/Swiss border in the mid-19th century, reportedly to escape the military draft. They moved as far West as they could, which at that point was Cincinnati, and established small tanneries and ironworks.

[Maine-ah]

62. wow, thats what my Dutch family did, hm....

maybe were distantly related....stranger things have happened.

[On the Road]

92. 100 Years Ago

a family member named Honeyman hired a genealogist to write a volume on family history entitled: "Johannes Nevius and His Descendants: 1629-1900." According to his research, my direct male ancestor sailed over to the New World as Peter Stuyvesant's personal secretary and assisted in the founding and administration of New Amsterdam. When the British took over from the Dutch, he became the first mayor of New York City.

I'd like to corroborate this independently, because after all, it was a private book written to make the family look good. For one thing, the author even speculated that the Nevius family was descended from an ancient Roman family also called Nevius, who has several prominent members, including one who had debated Cicero and written an epic poem on the Second Punic War. I would not bet the farm on this being true.

Many of my ancestors were illiterate and could not spell their own names, resulting in over a hundred different variations. But if you're related to anyone named Nevius, Neefus, Neff, etc, we're probably distant relatives.

[Maine-ah]

109. Dutch ancestors

Peter Stuyvesant didn't come until 1645 or so, and is documented
in history books. New Amsterdam was already a colony by 1625.

1670's (or so) is when Peter became mayor, and also the same time that the British took our farm, and didn't pay us. Check out a book by Wyckoff, called Anneke Jans Bogartus (my 16 x's back) great grandmother. Published in 1924, during a law suit against the Trinity Church, which was a class action suit to recieve money for the property they took from us. This book can be found at the New York Historical Society in Cooperstown, New York.


Everardus Bogardus (Bogart) Humphry Bogart and I share the same great grandfather 15 generations back. Bogardus who is Anneke Jans' second husband was the second Minister of New Amsterdam. Another spelling for Anneke was documented as "Annetje".

Bargardus came from Amsterdam, went to school, and graduated from the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands. Went back to the Netherlands because of arguments with the administration of New Amsterdam, to report to the council in Amsterdam, and his ship went down near Land's End (England) and he drowned, with everyone else on board. Left his wife with eight kids (4 from previous marriage and four from his). The older four were pretty much grown up, but the youngest was about 12 years old.

The reason reason Anneke Jans is in history books, is because it was "rumored" that she was the daughter of William the Silent of Orange, who was King of Holland, who was assinated in 1588, by a spaniard. I stress that this is a rumor. Her maiden name was Webber.

[Maine-ah]

114. more Bogardus

http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/families/hmgfm/bogardus-1.html

[Joe Chi Minh]

212. I believe there was

a film actress called Hildegarde Neff. But that's really interesting though, and I bet it's true. I don't mean the Roman stuff, though anything could be.

I read that serious genealogists don't give much credence to pedigrees as far back as the Romans, though I believe some of them figure on the tree of Homer Beers James on the Net. Though it could well have been he who was dismissive of the authenticity of records of Roman antecedents.

[evlbstrd]

54. Dirt poor

mackerel-snappin bog-hoppin tater diggers during the Great Famine of '47.

[Bridget Burke]

55. Descended from the De Burgos, doncha know?

Norman conquerers of Connaught back in the 12th century. ("Burke" is not my real last name but is in the tree.) My immediate ancestors were definitely in the peasant class--further investigation would require travel to Ireland, alas.

There's some Orange in the woodpile, as well.

[Book Lover]

56. Piscine

Go back far enough, and everybody with a backbone is descended from the same fish.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

63. The Norwegian and Latvian ancestors were peasants

The German ancestors were middle-class and owned an inn. They were prosperous enough to send their children to boarding school for the equivalent of secondary education, and my great-grandparents came to America for adventure, inspired by the novels of James Fennimore Cooper ("The Last of the Mohicans.")

[KitSileya]

64. Farmers and fishermen.

We didn't turn city-dwellin' until my great grandfather ran away from home (Hitra, island outside the Trondheimsfjord) to the big metropol of Trondheim (po. 136 000, Norway's 3rd largest city) to become a painter (he wasn't a very good one, and ended up a customs inspector instead.) His wife was of farming stock, from the North, and according to her family tree, the black hair and brown eyes of my father, grandmother and myself came from sailors on a shipwrecked Spanish ship from the Spanish Armada (1588). My mother's family was from the same island as my great grandfather. They became working class in the city, and everyone were organized, and many were dedicated communists (my great grandmother certainly.)

My father has some higher education, as had his mother, but my siblings and I were the first to get degrees, and I am the first to get a Master's degree on that side of the family - I am the second on my mother's side.

So no, no royalty in my family tree either - and thank God for that!

[luvLLB]

65. Hillbilly....plain and simple.

[BreweryYardRat]

68. Western European...

My family's not much for records, so this is mostly educated guesses.

French (probably blacksmiths) on my Dad's side, German and...Welsh, I think, on my Mom's.

Only interesting relative I actually know about was a Confederate doctor on my Mom's side of the family, who apparently discovered the cure for some disease or other. Or maybe it was how to sterilize surgical equipment...

[Kire]

69. Alcoholics, Bar Owners, the first Sheriff of New Jersey

apparently, a lot has been hidden, but there has been some Genealogy done, even the tragic stories are cool to learn about

[joeybee12]

88. I think I'd like to learn about the sheriff....

...how long ago? Was it when it was just being settled?

[hippiepunk]

71. My fuckup rich great-great-great-great grandfather

gambled away all our money. :grr: Dammit! Then his family moved to America to get away from money he owed.

[SarahB]

72. English, Swedish, German

The English side is mostly old-time. pre-Revolutionary people (even a Mayflower person thrown in), on the Swedish end I know my great great grandmother came over in the 1870's by herself at 16 (my ancestry includes some very strong, independent women), and I'm only about 1/16th German, but they came over in the early 1800's and i don't know the story.

Typical WASP I guess. :shrug:

[joeybee12]

76. That goes back pretty damn far! Wish I could trace mine that far back!

[SarahB]

130. I have a great-aunt....

who traced family lineage back to Charlemagne and one of the men who signed the Magna Charta.
My grandma on my dad's side keeps telling me I should join the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution). Probably not going to happen though given their conservative bend. :D

[Joe Chi Minh]

77. You know, joeybee12, those

medieval kings and magnates, not to speak of the lesser barons, put themsleves about a bit; not to speak of their toff descendants in the first half of the last century.

So not surprisingly, professional genealogists estimate that there would be few people who were not descended from them. I believe there are millions, if not tens of millions of African Americans directly descended from William the Conqueror. The difficulty for most people is finding records going back far enough; assuming they were all recorded.

[joeybee12]

79. That is very, very, very true.........

...the problem with my personal claim to royalty is that Lithuania never really had a monarchy! They tried it for a few years, and then booted the king out! Seriously. Maybe some straying princes from nearby lands perhaps?

[Joe Chi Minh]

198. It could well be

that the link is precisely with the "trial" royals.

Someone has mentioned burnished and embellished family myths, but in my family's case, it worked the other way. The reality was much more interesting, and I suspect that most of us instinctively err on the side of caution, for obvious reasons. The passion to know our roots and the preverse glamour of being descended from rich and powerful rogues and vagabonds seems to be extraordinarily strong in us.

[joeybee12]

202. True, the desire to believe in a royal linkage is strong, and

also strange, if you happened to see any of the recent royal wedding. :puke:

[Joe Chi Minh]

204. Nope,

interest in royalty qua royalty, has always baffled me.

As people our lot seem a nice crowd by and large. It's become all too clear, anyway, in recent years, that the envious alternatives, newspaper proprietors, other species of tycoons, politicians, etc all of a sudden make the royals seem paragons of goodness and wisdom.

Certainly, Liz and Phil. Philip come across as a rough diamond. You don't really want a difficent intravert as consort, it's normally a kind of slightly demeaning role, to appearances, that is. But Phil's a man's man, and as mad as a hatter as extraverts usually are. Just what you need. Though not as a sensitive diplomat.

In some measure, a kind of racism is deeply ingrained in that generation. And in his case, in my view, would be skin deep... I mean the reality I think is he'd look upon and treat everyone as he found them. I remember reading an article by a woman who'd been a young domestic servant at Gordonstoun where he went to school, in which she said he picked up her cases when she arrived and carried them to her room for her. No... I know what you're thinking... I don't think so.

[joeybee12]

205. What am I thinking?

Actually, I have heard that he gets around.

The racism and the attitude comes partly from British colonialism--they really did think they discovered and ruled everything.

[Joe Chi Minh]

208. That *was* what I thought you'd be thinking.

In his younger days, it's said.

But the lethal legacy of colonialism, (originally deriving from the Norman ethos of murder, domination and exploitation, meant that we were living off the spoils of the colonial power, while the other countries prized technology and manufacturing, adn still do to this day - unlike ourselves). It wasn't empire-building that Britain engaged in, in a fit of absent-mindedness, it was industrial invention and manufacturing.

You might get the impression for that, that I'm agin the toffs here, but that's not the case. For the following reasons:

They have been one of the last bastions of Christianity in this country. A strange version of it, admittedly, but a mustard seed is all that's necessary to be a vast improvement on anything else.

In view of the greed and economic oppression of the Establishment prior to WWII, it's hardly surprising that when they were able to do so without reprisal by the local squire, the people distanced themselves from the faith. But distance themselves, they did, so that the likes of Blair's grandparents were Glaswegian trade-union leaders of Communist persuasion. Full of honourable sentiments of justice and compassion, no doubt, until they got a rung or three up the ladder and then it was evidently, bysie-bye folks, I'm gonna be a gentleman farmer. Thatcher's father was a Socialist councillor, Reagan, a trade-union leader, Tebbit a trade-union leader. Very far to the right and utterly ruthless. I can't speak about the parents and grandparents in those terms, but their sprogs and/or grandsprogs, sure.

However, as regards the Norman/quasi Norman toffs, though, from their earliest depredations on the Anglo-saxons inhabitants of this country to 1945/6, and despite their inherited warmongering culture, the better ones among them had always cherished a genuine Christian faith and love.

Personally, though a nerdy type myself, I hold to the concept of the "purity of arms" (which is by no means the same as war-mongering), physical valour and self-sacrice, which actually did imbue their ethos. It's usually the courtiers and cerebral types who generally tend to be snidy, and disdain the "David" figures of the battle field, as Yahoos; the Nelsons, the Rommels, the Zhukovs, and their counterparts lower in the chain of command, who choose to lead from the front.

Back in the present day, though, the ex-Tory Prime Minister, Harold McMillan described the Thatcherite privatisation of the public utilities and services as "selling the family silver". A mixed economy was not anathema to such people. Their appetite for wealth was not without any kind of limits; they had a sense of shame; they could see the benefits to the nation which the pressures that their Socialist rivals in government prompted them to pursue, brought about when they were in power, themselves. They were One-Nation Conservatives. You have them, or used to have them, in your country, too. In Tobias Wolfe's autobiographical book, "This Boy's Life", he mentions with great affection a young teacher of that type who was kind to him when he had won a scholarship to a private school. Real nobility and kindness, we more commonly find among ourselves. I suspect it may be the remnants of these people, rather than the putative left-wing firebrands I used to expect so much from, who will eventually help put this world back into some kind of sane order again - indeed, hopefully, better.

[joeybee12]

209. You're mosre optimistic than I am...the history of man

has been a lot of boodshed and violenc. Doubt we'll ever be put into order, just a brief respite when we get tired, adn then we'll be lied to again.

[Joe Chi Minh]

210. Your summation is so pessimistic,

but so understandable, I couldn't help laughing.

To revert to my comments on our militarist national history, while I don't think the spread of true Christianity via the demoniac putative Christianity of the slave-plantation owners could ever be put forward as a justification of slavery on any level; as regards the empire and colonisation, post facto, the inhabitants of colonised countries did, I believe, benefit from aspects of the old British colonial administration; particularly the poorer and more disadvantaged people.

Actually, I'm inclined to think that the worst influence our ruling class has had on other nations, has been that exercised in the United States, where the Wild West ethos, e.g. in the 19th centruy, shooting foreign workers on the railroads on payday, in lieu of paying them their wages, would have sat very agreeably with the old Tory. I know at least one of our aristos was guilty of that. But it would have been symptomatic of their casual inhumanity and cruelty, no less to their own countrymen.

It seems to me that this spirit, while much less present in our "old money" ruling class, today, has unfortunately been adopted by all too much of the rest of the population, once they feel, usually erroneously, that they have ascended the social ladder a couple of rungs (our only remotely plausible neocons, the Blairites, have so many tricks up their sleeve).

[joeybee12]

215. It was brief because I had to leave to catch a flight back home...now

this one will be brief because I just got in and am dead tired! I'll try to write more tomorrow!

[redsoxliberal]

82. peasent in england, middle class in egypt

[tammywammy]

83. My mom says we're realted to Queen Isabella

yeah, that one, the Columbus one.

Oh and, if you know your TX history, Daniel Boone. As for the rest, just plain ol' people.

[nuxvomica]

84. Peasants on my dad's side; French royalty on my mom's

In the little town my Dad's folks came from, one relative, an old recluse, was actually postmistress once. My mother was told once that her maternal grandmother's family, the Belrose, are descended from Louis XIV and that the proof would only cost a considerable amount of money. So there you have it.

[KT2000]

85. family sent from Ireland

(my great aunts and uncle) because their parents could not afford to keep them. They went to work as domestics in the US.
The other side I try my best to ignore and pretend are not my relatives - whatever they came from was mean and intolerant. Repugs now.

[two gun sid]

86. My father's family escaped Cromwell in Ireland in the 1600's....

came to what is now Connecticut and slowly migrated south through Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia. Mother's family is from Mexico. No slave owners, landed gentry or aristocracy in the bunch. I'm damn proud of my forefathers and mothers.


Up Sinn Fein!

[Joe Chi Minh]

199. A friend of mine who toured Ireland

with his family, told me that he'd seen fresh flowers left at monuments to local men fallen in battle against Cromwell's troops!

[Nikia]

87. Rather diverse

Many different peoples of many different backgrounds. They were all pre Civil War with most of them being pre Declaration of Independence.

[joeybee12]

89. Vanity kick, because I want this to reach 100! Dobrou noc!

[mvd]

90. Oh yes - my mom has done a lot of genealogy work

Way back on my mom's side, I had sailors, pioneers, miners, and farmers. On my dad's side, I had French Huguenot way back. More recently on my mom's side - teachers, craftspeople, musicians, and businesspeople. More recently on my dad's side - accountants, businesspeople, and teachers. Interesting question!

[Hardrada]

91. In old country Norway

small farm owners for centuries, parish records for us exist since 1530, maybe Viking raiders before that (home village is Vik i Sogn,the Sognfjord was the staging area for a lot of Viking enterprises). After voyage to US, large farm owners and professionals.
All ancestors are Norwegian. Not much exposure to non-Nordics.

[brainshrub]

93. Upper-class Catholic Belgian bourgeois all the way.

No nobility, we all worked for a living.

I have full genealogical charts going back 200 years.

[joeybee12]

170. Hey--I was just in Belgium--first time there and I

loved it!

[sharonking21]

94. A mixed but interesting bag

most likely of peasant stock back in Europe. Haven't got that far yet. But many of my lines go way back here in New England (1600s) and some if not all were English immigrants and (pre-revolutionary 1700's)Pennsylvania, Virgina, and North Carolina German immigrants from Southern Germany.

Lets see, one great-(many greats) grandfather was a cloth merchant in Boston, transplanted from England who wrote in 1700 the book "More Wonders of the Invisible World"--an anti-Salem witch trial book in response to Cotton Mather (Calef).

Another great-(many) grandfather's daughter was arrested as a witch with her young daughter during the "trials" but was finally released (Lord).

A distant cousin, who ran a general store in New Hampshire, was a constitutional delegate and signed it (but apparently was not really a mover and shaker.)(Gilman)

Among the German immigrants, one great (many) grandfathers came to Philadelphia as a child and became an indentured servant. He and his wife had to sue the master in Virginia where they moved with him to get their parting sum of money. They moved to North Carolina. He then fought in the Revolutionary War but was killed at home on leave by a sneak attack of local Loyalists during the war. They murdered him and his next-door neighbor. (Fritts)

One branch of the New England "English" contingent led by a physician were loyalists and they went to New Brunswick. (Calef)

One great-great-grandfather came from New Hampshire to Kansas and Oklahoma and he was a blacksmith. His father was a shoemaker. (Lord) His son-in-law, my great grandfather was a deputy US Marshal in Oklahoma Territory. (Langley)

Another great-grandfather fought in the Civil War on the Northern side and thus became alienated from his family in Indiana who supported the Southern cause; he later became a farmer in Oklahoma. (Watson).

My grand-mom on my mother's side was raised in Northern Kansas where abolitionist tradition was strong. (Owens) She married my grandfather (Fritts) from the South and became the family blue-stocking radical, a tendency she learned from her own mom. Her father was a working class railroad man from New York.

All-in-all an interesting lot if not particularly royal or aristocratic, and I have loved finding out things about them.

[Joe Chi Minh]

214. I was saying to a

family friend, who gave us most of our family-genealogy info, how strangely comforting it was pondering your ancestors, even no more than a few generations back, and he used the word "feel-good". I'm inclined to think our family forebears watch over our efforts to discover them. Who knows? Maybe all of them in Heaven.

Some very peculiar coincidences and deja vu occurrences often seem to occur, when you research your family history. I was discussing it with another poster here. I'd been expecting to see her name on this thread, but haven't, so must tell her about it, in case she hasn't come across it.

Which reminds me, I saw a powerfully bizarre clip came on the TV tonight in a programme about the lad-up to WWII, called "Lessons from History".

A meeting between Hitler and Stalin took place in a kind of lodge looking out onto a landscape of beetling mountains, at which they were to sign a non-agression pact.

In the evening, someone pointed to the sky, which had become transfigured into a hideously ominous pattern of colours, grey, black and jagged yellow. And maybe one or two other hues.

Anyway, the speaker said that a Hungarian woman turned to Hitleer and exclaimed something like, "Oh, how terrible! It means blood! blood! etc. About 8 or 9 "bloods". Whereupon Hitler, also seeing it, apparently visibly shuddered and immediately retired to his room for the night. I wonder if it was a precognition of his and his country's fate being sealed by Barbarossa, Stalingrad, Kursk, etc., ironically, at the very time when he was to sign a peace pact with Stalin.

[susu369]

216. Fascinating story, KCabotDullesMarxIII

The surprising and wonderful way that serendipity plays into family research is one that never fails to fascinate me. Indeed, I agree that our blood ancestors "watch" over us.

This is an interesting thread but cries for some perspective! We need to remember that our family tree literally mushrooms the further back we go. As a genealogist you start with yourself and work back. You find that you have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on (the number doubles with each generation) - so when you take your family tree back, you are soon looking at thousands, then millions of ancestors. Hard to believe but true.

We are all kin and I highly doubt one person has nothing but "peasants" in their family tree.

Thanks for letting me know about this thread, KCabotDullesMarxIII.

:-)

[joeybee12]

218. Yeah, they guy knows his stuff!

:)

[Joe Chi Minh]

219. De nada, susu!

[Joe Chi Minh]

220. Thank you, joey, but it [b]is[/b] all

at the layman's level.

I'm always glad, of course, just the same, when a little snippet of knowledge on some tangential matter that I've gleaned, may be of interest to others of the passionate fraternity of genealogical nuts. I mean there are some real nuts out there, who take themselves very seriously because of some of their ascendants, but I mean regular people.

[Left Is Write]

95. Farmers and fishermen.

I'm of Scandinavian heritage (mostly Norwegian, a smidge of Swedish).

[ironflange]

96. Jeez, there sure are a lot of peasants around here

Me too, sturdy Ukrainian serf heritage on both sides of the family; I have the stubby peasant hands to prove it. Mom's family came over at the turn of the last century, Dad's fled the turmoil following Workd War I.

[joeybee12]

112. Damn right! And we're the majority! Always have been...

...so why aren't we ruling the world now?

[Gold Metal Flake]

97. Why the fuck should I care?

I am an American. The world begins, ends and revolves around me.

Those who came before existed only to be objects of my ridicule and scorn.

Thanks for asking!

[onager]

98. Descended from a Revolutionary War vet...

...in Georgia. We know that because he won the lottery for a land grant open to veterans of the Revolution. (IIRC, originally veterans were promised free land, no lottery mentioned. Some things haven't changed much.)

Since Georgia started as a penal colony, that's probably how he or his family got to the U.S.

That's my father's mother's side. His father's lineage in the ol' family Bible ends with a blank space for "Father's Name." What the Brits would call a "Bar Sinister," I think.

They're a strange bunch, apparently Melungeon since they're all dark-skinned. My father was dark enough to occasionally be asked if he was "part n***er." Since he was also a king-hell racist, this made for some amusing moments in my childhood.

[joeybee12]

108. That's interesting...wish I coud trace mine farther back!

[FunkyLeprechaun]

99. I'm Irish

My mum and dad emigrated to the US from Belfast, Ireland. They also couldn't get married in Ireland because my mum's Catholic and my dad's Protestant (they ended up going to Nigeria to get married).

My mum's mum's ancesters came from Scotland and had the surname Coulter (my grandmother's name was Ann Coulter, my great-grandmother's name was Ann Coulter). I will be very embarassed if I was related to THAT Ann Coulter.

My mum's dad's ancestors came off the Spanish Armada (my grandfather was tall dark and handsome, whilist I'm short, redheaded and freckly).

My dad's side (I'll have to do more study) came from Oxford in England and the Oxfordshire seat of St. Clements.

[happyslug]

100. I have some suspicious ancestors

An Austrian ancestor deserted his army unit the night before he was to be a guess of Honor at either a neck tie party or a shooting party (The Story is kind of blurred, he covered it up as much as possible like he was watching out for any extradition papers).

The family with the longest ties with America came from Alsace-Lorraine, when is unknown. It is believe they were NOT here for the Revolution but did get a land grant for helping to defend Baltimore during the Attack by the British in 1814. The oral tradition on how that ancestor arrived in American is that the ship he was traveling on sunk outside of Baltimore, he woke up with his brother in law and found the ship abandoned so he took an old door and use it as a raft to get to shore. At that point he and his brother in law went to Hagerstown Maryland (Yes straight to the Mountains, not to Baltimore nor Annapolis. Just think about it, your ship has just went down, you made it to shore, so rather than go to the nearest town or port you head for the Mountains for you now fear the sea. Anyone who just survived a shipwreck will do the same, yea, right).

Now from 1774 till 1830 immigration to American was nil. You had some immigration but do to the Revolution and than the Wars of the French Revolution immigration came to a virtual halt (Restarted with the Irish and their Potato Famine). Now some people from Alsace-Lorraine did come to America during this period, as one of the French Regiments sent to help Washington. After Yorktown the French pulled their regiments out of the US via Baltimore. Could my ancestor been a French Deserter? Not wanting to die of Yellow Fever in the West Indies (Where the French units were being shipped to)? Would explain my ancestor and his Brother in Law heading for Hagerstown instead of Baltimore and how he was in the US in 1814 but not in 1775 but lets stick with the official story that it is normal for shipwrecked survivors to head for the Mountains.

Later on this branch of my family supported the South During the Civil War. The family living on top of South Mountain in Maryland. Remember all politics is local, my ancestors were the Hillbillies on top of the Mountain in Political opposition to the Republicans in the Valley below South Mountain. Thus my family supported the South and the Maryland shore Democrats just to oppose the people in the Valley. After The Civil War the local Church split, Republicans held the Valley Church, Democrats left to form what is called the Mountain Church. Afterward, never the two did meet.

Now this part of Maryland was not a big Slave owning area, but Slaves did exist. After the Civil War the Blacks were freed, but the Valley Church did not permit them to join their all White Republican Church. The South Supporting Democrats did permit the blacks to join their church (If you are a minority you look for any allies you can get). Politics can make some fun history.

Now the Mountain Church closed down in the Depression, and at the last meeting of the Church the Members were told their could join any church EXCEPT THE VALLEY CHURCH. In the early 1970s the Blacks in the Area had again had enough of the Valley Church and Split off. My Father had to make a special Trip down to Maryland so he could sign the deed over to them. Somehow or another by operation of law he was the "owner" of the Church. Somehow (I have never had the time to check this out so the following is my speculation of what happened in the early 1970s). Apparently the Church had been entailed, but to the youngest son instead of the Eldest son, thus my father (not his older brothers), being his father's youngest son, had to sign off on the deed (My father was the youngest son of a Youngest son). This is the best explanation for the trip (when we made the trip I was a Pre-Teen and stayed in an Apple Orchard in a Tent while my Father went someplace, thus I remember the trip but NOT why we made the trip). Someday I need to check out the details, but I just have not had the free time. My Father's only comment was he was glad someone was going to take care of the old Church and Graveyard (actions speak louder than words, he made the trip when he could ill afford it, the new church had contacted a relative of his in the area asking to contact him, she contacted him for them and he made the trip).

I had another near relative (Not an ancestor, just a relative) who passed himself off an a Hindu Indian mystic (Never became a Hindu, just a mystic, selling his Hindu elixirs in the days just before the FDA banned such medicine in 1912).

Sometime around 1840 my ancestor and his three brothers went to Ohio. His Brother stayed in Ohio, but my ancestor returned with an American Indian Wife (Who might also just be half American Indian, subsequent ancestors tried to covered up her linage, but the high Cheek-bones from her just keeps resurfacing in every generation).

On the other side of the family I had an ancestor who came in on a Tourist visa in the late 1800s via Baltimore. He spoke several languages (including Polish, German, and even Yiddish in addition to English). He was a skilled blacksmith and in the days of wooden wheels capable of building such wheels by himself (This came up in a story that after he was in the US he was working for another blacksmith and someone came in with a broken wheel, which he repaired completely, his employer had always shipped them out to another more skilled blacksmith. The employer was impressed and tried to get him to marry his daughter, but my ancestor decided it was time to look for employment elsewhere). During WWI he volunteer to serve in the US Army, but was deem by his employer (Jones and Laughlin Steel) to be to important in their steel plant to be permitted to serve. His language skills and blacksmithing skills were to extensive to be a mere peasant (and coming in via Baltimore sets of warning bells). Spy? For who? and why? Revolutionary (some talk of being a Horse thief in Poland but as a skilled blacksmith?)? After he meet his wife he stayed in the US (and made his offer to serve in the US Army). Interesting, but the records (if ever kept) are long destroyed (Through doing a slow time in the Mill he helped install new cable in the Mt Oliver Incline sometime around 1925, the incline was torn down in 1951).

His wife is even more interesting, both were Polish but different parts of Poland. Meet in Pittsburgh and married. A cousin of hers had married several years earlier in Poland, and after the marriage was to travel to America. She gave her ticket to my grandmother who wanted to get away from her family. Now she was going first class not Steerage as such she never put foot on Ellis Island (First class were intervened on the Ship by immigration, not on the Island like Steerage). She was the only one of my ancestor to come "through" Ellis Island. Once in the US she made her way to Pittsburgh and worked as a maid. She was happy to do this until she meet her husband. Her husband always said his wife was of a higher class than he was, but what his class was and her class was just was NOT talked about. She died before he did and was buried by him to be on his RIGHT (i.e. he is in the tradition place for the wife, the left and he was the one who set this up). Unlike her husband she never became an American Citizen, and several times she decided to go back to Poland, but than backed off (Her husband supported her in her decision to go back and to not go back). She was happy with her little house on the Slopes of the South Side of Pittsburgh, but also wanted to go back to Poland for some reason loss to Family knowledge

[joeybee12]

201. Jst got around to reading yours--talk about detail!

Wish I knew as much about mine!:hi:

[sakabatou]

101. High preists during the Temple

[Zuni]

102. serfs in Russia

my grandparents also came here to escape communism and fascism

[joeybee12]

180. Hey--we could be related!

I doubt it--but I'm sure our ancestry is very common, in the sense that many other people have a similar tale to tell!

[alittlelark]

104. Half aristocracy, half peasant

Dad's uncle was Cass Stiling Gilbert, he was the architect of the Supreme Court Bldg, the Woolworth Bldg (tallest in the world for 15 or so years), The Minnesota Capital... many others. The 'Stirling' in his name came from Stirling castle in Scotland. According to family accounts he was not a nice man.

The rest is Welsh peasantry, Irish peasantry, and a touch of wealthy German.

[maveric]

105. Irish and Scilian peasants.

Laborers and bricklayers.

[enigmatic]

106. Wanderlust Drifters...

At least on my Dad's side; and I'm a chip off the old block, I guess..

[xmas74]

110. Family settled the Mass. Bay Colonies in the mid 1600's

on dad's side. Have Rev.War veterans on that side and supposedly have a distant claim to possibly two signers of the Declaration of Independence. Really interesting claims on a part of my mom's side but the rest drops off.
On my dad's side, the family name had a different spelling to start off in the US. Around the time of the Rev War, some family members changed the spelling by one vowel (supposedly to differentiate who was on what side of the argument). I now have towns w/ my last name, a military school, an ice cream chain, someone who was involved in the personal grooming industry and family members who either sold or leased land to the movie industry. I am related to all of them, but I came from the poor branch. They keep very good records. Anytime I run into someone w/ the same last name, we can usually sit down and trace back exactly where we are related.

[joeybee12]

111. I'm jealous--wish I could trace mine that far back!

[xmas74]

113. I can trace it back even further than that

but I stuck w/ most of the events in the US. And they are not all good.

[Dervill Crow]

115. My adoptive mom's lineage goes back to Edward Teach

aka Blackbeard. On the wrong side of the blanket, of course. My dad's family has been traced back as far as the Mayflower, so I guess they were making an escape from something. My birth mom was from western NC, so I seem to have inherited a bit of a rebellious streak both by nature and nurture. And I hate to wear shoes, so maybe that stereotype has some truth to it. From my appearance, I'd guess I'm pure Scotch-Irish peasant and proud of it.

[joeybee12]

116. Yeah--be proud of being a peasant! We're in the majority!

Always have been, and probably always will be!

[skygazer]

117. Puritans on my dad's side

Who came over in 1630 from England. They were very much revolutionaries - I had several ancestors who fought in the Revolution (two generals and many private soldiers) as well as one who signed the Declaration. I think that's very cool.

Edited to add - there was also an Irishman in there who came to the US in the 1840's and married into Dad's family. He was a Civil War Colonel.

My mother's parents both came from Italy after WWI - my grandfather's family had owned vineyards. I'm not sure about my grandmother's family. I would love to visit Italy and try to find any relatives I might have there. Hubby has family in Italy as well.

[joeybee12]

118. Yeah--they could be living in Tuscany--what a great place to visit!

[fudge stripe cookays]

121. Farmers, farmers, and more farmers.

3/4 solid Kraut, a bit of English, and a bit of French. The only real celebrity we have is a chanteuse named "The Incomparable Hildegarde" who was big in the 40s. She was my grandmother's first cousin.

I love genealogy, and am actually taking a research trip to the Midwest next month to do some more looking.

Just about all my branches settled in Illinois or Wisconsin, so I have a harder time doing research down here, as far as newspaper artcles, obits, and wedding announcements.

On edit: we have a genealogy forum on DU now. Ya'll come visit!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=331

FSC

[joeybee12]

122. I'll take a gander...I'll also have to take a trip to the "old country"

to research a little--a lot of both sides stayed over there!

[fudge stripe cookays]

129. I want to....

but the main branch I'm working on right now I need to find the immigrant.

I discovered some records at LDS, but whatever they are, they're top secret classified something or others. Must have Joseph Smith's original birth record on em or soemthing.

I have to be able to prove a direct connection to the guy I'm looking for, I can't make copies of it, just copy the information, and I can't look at it at any of the local centers. Sounds like I have to go directly to Salt Lake to see it.

So I'm gathering up all the required death certs right now. Hopefully next year I can sneak to the main library for a lookup. THEN I can head to the Old Country. Eventually.

FSC

[joeybee12]

131. My last name is very uncommon here in the US...I dares ya to find

it any phone book outside of CT.

That should be it easier for me when I hit the old country!

[fudge stripe cookays]

142. Yep, me too.

One of the names anyway.

The only ones with it here in the U.S are related to me.

And I've found some in Germany, but my grandfather is very shady; still don't know his heritage. I just have to find the "missing link."

FSC

[susu369]

217. Thank you - did not know about the genealogy forum on DU

:hi:

[DawnneOBTS]

123. Arr Arr Where Be The Gold?

My Aunt Joan, now deceased, did research on family history many years ago (I guess it was the 1940s probably-she has been dead for a few years now) and found out that my father's family had Morgan (pirate) as an ancestor. Yeah, the guy on the rum bottle. It's a shame though that all of that was lost a long time ago,probably when they moved in the '50s. My cousin does genealogy of my father's side of the family (she's a 1st cousin of mine on my father's side), but she doesn't have that much information, and not all of it is correct-she's got some name-spelling issues which aren't correct according to 1st cousins of my father who are a lot older than my father and a real lot older than her and know a lot more than her. She got as far as great-great grandparents (or is it great-great-great) and found Countess Theresa von ? (couldn't get the last name even) and that's as far as she got. My father knew that his great-something grandmother was a countess already (Austria-Hungary, German-descent, German-speaking). My other cousin Kim and I wonder where all the money went! On my mother's side, nothing, just Polish peasants (came to Philadelphia and Trenton).

[joeybee12]

124. Hey, try to find a treasure map somewhere!

[Mass_Liberal]

125. same

British communist peasants. In fact, an ancestor of mine was one of the documented leaders of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Got 'is 'ead chopped off, of course.

[joeybee12]

128. I think that's neat!

[Mass_Liberal]

135. thanks

n/t

[Xithras]

126. Fishermen, merchants & explorers

Most of my ancestry comes from the same small geographic area...the eastern coast of Britain and the western coast of Ireland. As far as we've ever been able to tell, they were just about all fishermen and traders of some sort or another (with a few farmers thrown in). A handful of them also spent parts of there lives as explorers, including one who was a ships hand on Francis Drakes voyage around the world.

No kings or royalty that we've been able to find, though I'm sure there's got to be an old Irish chieftain in there somewhere. Still, I think my ancestry is pretty cool :)

[HeeBGBz]

127. Po folks and vigilantes

Plus a little Cherokee and German immigrant.

[Solly Mack]

132. cut throats and robbers...some of them

out of the lowlands of England

Some from Ireland

Some came by way of the Beringia (Bering Strait) - too long ago to really know exactly when they crossed

Some from Spain and Africa.

[joeybee12]

133. Sounds like you've got quite the mixture going there!

I am actually pure-bred--100% peasant!

[Solly Mack]

134. I'm a mutt

[joeybee12]

136. Most of us are...gotta be something thrown in, even for those of us

whose ancestry is traced to one country.

[CountAllVotes]

137. yes I have

I started after Dad passed away almost 10 years ago now.

Absolutely fascinating subject and guess what, it is not over yet!

I just heard from an unknown cousin that is 89 years old and was looking for her great grandfather and his sons. She found both; the son was a convicted of murder and died in prison in 1906! She said she is trying to find out who he murdered and why and if she finds out she'll let me know. lol!

It seems to never stop!

[joeybee12]

138. Hey--keep us posted when you find out!

[seemunkee]

139. Descendent of a Bastard of the King of Sweden

[joeybee12]

143. I think there's a lot of royal bastards running around out there...

...those princely folks liked to play the field!

[Shopaholic]

140. Royalty on one side, Irish bootleggers on the other

ain't America great?

My mother's mother's side of the family were a land grant family--and descended from a third son of one of the Kings of England. He and his wife was related to half of the royal houses in Europe. My mother's father side of the family were dirt-poor Irish immigrants who made their living in America as bootleggers.

I like to tease my Dad about his "commoner" British ancestors--we can only trace them back to about the 1600's--my mother's royal side goes back centuries further. Dad's also got some assorted Irish & French ancestry as well, making me pretty much equal parts Irish, English, and French.

But my most important heritage? Both my parents are Dems!

[neebob]

144. My ancestry is undeniably gullible

My ancestors were farmers and working-class people from Norway, Sweden, England, and Ireland who wound up in Utah, either because they joined the Mormon church and set out to go there, or because they became Mormons along the way or married Mormons after they got there. Four of my great-great grandfathers were polygamists.

[joeybee12]

145. I'd be willing to bet they married mormons...

heard of people switching religions in order to nab a spouse!

[carpetbagger]

146. More blue collar than peasant.

Industrial Age immigrants: upholsterers, plasterers, painters, furnace-makers, barbers. I'm told one branch of my family goes back to the first settlers of New Amsterdam, but I've never been able to get back past my g-g-gm (Isabella Carpenter, 1850-1904). A distant cousin (one of those you-can-find-anything-on-the-internet contacts) had that same story, so it probably goes back at least to that generation.

Illiterate bunch, though. 30 years after my g-g-g-gf, Sebastian Belschwender, came to Albany, there were no less than 7 different mis-spellings of his name which still exist today. It took me a while looking through records to figure it out. Oddly, my branch is the most contracted-and-phonetically-spelled branch, and they ended up being the printers and lawyers.

[booley]

147. Kings and serfs, Slaves and slave holders

My dad's side of the family are descended from nobility in England that came there with the invasion of 1066 (at least that's the first time they were on the rolls)
Supposedly two brothers founded the family here when they stole some money from an uncle and moved to Virginia where they started up a rail road company.
Right before the civil war. Union destroyed the rail road and the family became hill billies for a time. My ancestors also owned slaves and (again, according to legend) interbred a few times. Hard to say for sure though. especially since my great grandfather was very racist.
That side of the family isn't racist anymore (at least to black people) and they are pretty much your typical WASPs.

My Mom's side are german and irish immigrants, working class the entire time. Came over around the turn of the century like most of fhe immigrants. pretty much your typical blue coller irish catholic family.

actually I find my Mom's side a lot more interesting and tolerant. They are dems. My dad's side are republicans.

[joeybee12]

152. Very interesting...probably a lot of people who can trace their heritage

to before the Civil War in this country had some "intermingling" going on!

[SKKY]

148. Nothing extraordinary in my lineage except for a few German...

...bank robbers and career petty criminals.

[joeybee12]

149. Germans who robbed banks, or robbers who robbed German banks...

...or both?;-)

[SKKY]

153. Definitely Germans who robbed banks.

[joeybee12]

154. That's what I thought--I was sort of kidding...

...wish I could find something that interesting in my family tree!

[Arianrhod]

150. Ancient, ancient, ancient Celtic.

Family name traced by documentation to 1064 Europe, from Gaston, in what is now France, to Glastonbury, in what is now England. Lineage arose from 800 BCE "Gaul". My people created modern Western Civilization, inventing the Iron Age, building Carnac, and giving rise to the Merovingians. . . . I am the son of Arthur, the Bear, the Pendragon, the Once and Future King.

Cia charn cloche nan sliabhe?

My ancestors founded the German city now known as Roman Trier, but called by Augustus Caesar Treveri, in honor of the Celtic tribe that dwelt in the land, whom he could not tame, who his father Julius proclaimed to be the most fearsome warriors he had ever encountered.

Magicks too old to comprehend still operate over the land. . . . Magicks we invented, magicks we to this day command.

I am of royal blood, a Celtic Lord, inheritor of Druidic secrets.

I am no peasant. I run from no man.

[joeybee12]

151. Interesting...where is Roman Trier. I was in Cologne recently and

was astounded by how much of the roman remains had been preserved...those Romans got around.

[Arianrhod]

155. Yeah, they did. :)

They owned pretty much all of Europe, all the way north to Scotland and inland to Turkey.

Trier is near the Belgian border, on the road to Bonn. I've never visited, but I would like to sometime.

The French still use the old name--Treves. :)

[DemExpat]

156. I have been there several times in the past couple of years.....

pleasantly surprised what an interesting city it is - with a Roman Arch called Porta Negra, an old Colloseum, etc....
and the house of Karl Marx ....

DemEx

[joeybee12]

160. Very easy to get around, too..I didn't get lost and it was my first time..

...just wish they had better weather!

[joeybee12]

159. There's even Roman ruins in the Czech Republic....

...like I said, they got around!

[argyl]

158. Anglo Saxon white trash Southern boy here.No old country grandparents.

English,Scots Irish,German and Dutch ancestry.

All branches of the family tree(that we know of) have been here in the US for at least three hundred years.Initial landing points were Maryland,Virginia,Georgia,and Massachusetts. I think we were run out of our countries of origin.

My great granddad did hightail it out of Georgia to Texas just after the Civil War with the Federals hot on his trail.

[bleedingheart]

161. I am the great-granddaughter of a Roman Catholic Priest

on my father's side...great-grandpa and his housekeeper had a little secret....they were from Duga Resa, Croatia.

On mom's side...mostly peasants but my Lithuanian grandfather fought in the White Army against the Bolshevik Red Army..

[joeybee12]

162. Hey, maybe he knew my grandfather!!!!!!!

Probably not, but they would have been around the same age if your's was a young-en when he was in the army!

[imenja]

172. cool.

The priest who baptized me ran off with a nun.

[Tektonik]

163. My mother's descendents are farmers and my father's were gvmt officials.

My French mother's grandparents were both from farming families (one rich, one dirt poor). My Afghan father's father worked for the king and was a wealthy landowner, but my 'rich' family fled (the ones who were not in foreign countries prior) when Communism was beginning to spread.

[joeybee12]

164. How long ago was that--sounds relatively recent!

[joeybee12]

165. Vanity kick!

[Deja Q]

166. Lots of people did the wibble-wobble. And I eventually arrived.

I'm sure lots of others will wibble-wobble too. :D

As for their forefathers' status, I do not know. Mom's progeny is farm-centric. Dad's is winery.

And I'm just a pig who whines. :evilgrin:

[joeybee12]

167. Define wibble-wobble!

Just looked it up and.....

[Deja Q]

168. Definitions:

The oingie-boingie.

Horizontal tango.

Fourth 'n' Hennepin special.

As in ___ thread?

:evilgrin:

[joeybee12]

169. Now, I get it!

It took me so long because I'm so young and innocent!;-)

[imenja]

171. Aaron Burr and Jonathan Edwards

On my father's side. Definitely shady. Irish immigrants on my mother's side.

[joeybee12]

174. We probably all have ancestors who are shady...

...but God forbid any of them might have been Republicans!

[imenja]

178. in the 19th Century, better Republicans than Democrats

Since the Democrats were the party of slaveholders. Burr and Edwards lived before the formation of the Republican party.

[joeybee12]

179. You know, in some ways the Repukes were more progressive than the

Dems up until recently--when Ike ran, the Repuke party had support for an equal rights amendment in its platform!

[fleabert]

173. very poor. one side came to texas from TN on a covered wagon.

traveled on the dusty trails with everything and everyone packed into that wagon. It was great to hear it first-hand from my great-great grandmother when I was about 8 years old.

my grandfather has a picture of his grandfather standing next to his still, lol! His grin is huge!

[joeybee12]

175. I'm going to assume that's because he just sampled one of his

still's libations!

Wish I had a still!

[fleabert]

176. I assume so! It makes me laugh when I see it. I will have to try and get

a copy onto the computer. Keep an eye out for it...I'll post soon.

It's priceless!

[joeybee12]

177. Will do!

[Seabiscuit]

181. Ditto. The only part I've traced is to to pig farmers in Alsace, France

My mother's father's father immigrated here as a French Hugonaut with last name of Sugnet (pronounced suuu-nyay). While living in France, a French linguistics professor traced the name back to pig farmers in Alsace - the name formed the origin of the pig call "suu-ey" (or however its spelled).

[joeybee12]

182. Interesting--I think someone else here said their name actually

translates into peasant! No hiding your heritage if that's the case!

[jukes]

183. def NOT aristos:

father: amerind. card-carrying master-machinist union-man.

mother: illegitimate daughter of a '20s gangter, prbly jim rendell of the notorious st. louis "egan's rats", enemies of the "jellyroll hogan mob." rendell ended up inspecting the underside of a river barge 2 years after she was born; unfortunately for him, it was still afloat during his inspection!

mother was raised by her gram, a practicing "witch" (sold potions y told fortunes) during '20s >'30s; until she was incarcerated by the catholic magdelene "school".

[Mr. McD]

185. I am descended from Kings and Nobles

Including Robert the Bruce, but none of the wealth made it down to my hands.:shrug:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

186. Galician peasants as far as the eyes can see.

Beyond that, Celts.

[joeybee12]

187. Join the crowd--most of us are peasants!

I'm surprised we haven't taken over by now--we certainly have the votes to!

Oh yeah, Diebold.

[pagandem4justice]

188. Happy peasant here too!

My paternal grandfather was a ward of the state from Foggia, Italy. He came to the U.S. in 1921, after being released from an Austro-Hungarian POW camp in WWI. My grandmother was his second wife; her family was from Naples with a little bit of French blood, too (we think from Languedoc region), and came to the U.S. in the 1890s.

My mother's side is a bit less known. Her mother's family has been here since the 1790s, and came from Wales; my great-great-grandmother was Lakota Sioux. My mother's father's family was from Germany, and came over some time in the late 19th century.

My husband's family, on the other hand, hail partly from Asturian (Spanish) peasantry, but part from the warrior-aristocracy in Castilla-Leon that became the landowning class in Mexico. And of course, he has native Aztec blood, but we haven't been able to trace back that far on that side yet.

[BiggJawn]

189. A German Bastard.

No shit, we know his Mutter's name but not his Poppi..

Probably some clerk named Alois Schicklgruber...

[joeybee12]

190. Schicklgruber, huh?

Sounds sort of sexy!

Wait, no it doesn't!:crazy:

[crispini]

192. Pretty middle class and working class.

Tailors, small farmers, businessowners, surveyors, a lawyer or two. Nobody particulaly wealthy, but usually well off enough to own a little something.

[joeybee12]

193. Where did they do all this? Here, or in the "Old Country"?

[crispini]

196. Depends on which branch.

Let's see, my great-great GF was a tailor in London. Some of his family were small farmers in Burton-on-Trent. The great GF came over to Louisiana with a brother and two sisters. He was a surveyor and owned a farm and his brother was a lawyer. On the other side of the family there were some German shopowners, lots of farmers, and some Irish peasant folks.

There have been a LOT of people in my family into geneology-- my grandfather traced a branch back to the 1700s-- and although I don't have the geneology bug as bad as some of them do, I sort of keep tabs on it all because it's really interesting. The great GF's emigration journey diary is still floating around the extended family somewhere. I should figure out who has it and get a copy, that'd be cool.

[joeybee12]

197. That definitely would be cool...I'm looking into dual

citizenship, so have to dig up some records. Not sure I'll find much since both sides came here illegally--probably didn't decide to take many documents.

[hippiechick]

194. Bohemian farmers ...

:) Left the border area between Prague and Munich in 1874, in their early 60's. 8 of their 11 children (along with spouses and assorted sprouts and their families) sailed with them. Landed in Annapolis MD, and somehow decided to make their way to NE Wisconsin where they pretty much founded a village, farmed and inbred for a couple generations ... and here I am.

:silly:


The genetics explains my nature-loving, hippie tendencies, though.

[joeybee12]

195. Well, I gotta tell you...Bohemian is one of my favorite words!

Conjures up lots of interesting things!

[tsakshaug]

206. Dirt poor all the way back

Great grandparents came over from Norway and Germany. They were farmers and fishermen. Married farmers in North Dakota, Grandparents had even less during the depression, attempting to farm and raise kids. My father is the only one of 9 who went to college, my mother did 3 years of college.
All 4 of us have a BS or BA
2 Have Masters
1 Dentist

[joeybee12]

207. You're more educated than my family...

...don't think myfather's parents had much schooling over in the Old Country--never did much ehre, either!