Ancestry thread..

[Dave-W]

My youngest daughter and her husband have been using Ancestry and others for a few years and have went pretty far back. She had several of the men on both sides of the family get the DNA test. Mitochondrial DNA on me showed the 2nd most common Jewish hapilotype. (not unexpected as there were Jews on my mom's side)

But the Y chromosome DNA was a surprise. At the first level (12 markers?) I am related to the Shapiro dynasty of Chassidic rabbis from the middle ages. But the fuller results were not emailed. So eventually my daughter calls them up to find out why, and they apologized, saying that beyond the base level, my DNA is completely unique - unlike any they had registered before.

My wife said "I knew you were part alien...."

 

[Cearbhall]

Actually, my family is quite diverse. lol I am related to many well known historic people (and some not so history, but none the less famous). Ive traced a number of my European roots back to the 10th century.

Yeah, it gets pretty easy to get that far back once you hit nobility. Thanks, Internet. I enjoy reading about the historical figures, though I assume someone had a lover or an abuser along the way and I'm not actually related to them.

 

[blackribbon]

That reminds me of the responses to the question about ethnicity on the U.S. census. For some reason, they offer "American" as a choice (separate from Native American). The only place where it's a common response is in the Bible Belt. Apparently, some people in that regional culture refuse to identify as anything else.

I don't know. My husband's father's family has literally been on North American territory for potentially over 300 years. I think that does qualify as "American" more than it some European heritage that they no longer have any ties to. My maternal family has been here longer than the US existed, too. At some point, we have to stop being five million different hyphenated identities and literally, become "Americans". That sounds better than "Heinz 57" like my grandmother used to say even though she could list all the connections.

 

[Cearbhall]

I don't know. My husband's father's family has literally been on North American territory for potentially over 300 years. I think that does qualify as "American" more than it some European heritage that they no longer have any ties to.

Same with some of the branches of my tree. I realize there are different opinions on the matter, but it seems strange to me to treat it like an ethnicity. I mainly posted it because it's interesting to me that only that one part of the country feels that way. It's obvious that it correlates with something else.

 

[blackribbon]

Same with some of the branches of my tree. I realize there are different opinions on the matter, but it seems strange to me to treat it like an ethnicity. I mainly posted it because it's interesting to me that only that one part of the country feels that way. It's obvious that it correlates with something else.

I think it may have to do with that in the south, the people don't cling to their old world traditions as much...they are more likely to identify with uniquely American cultural activities. I live in a northern state now and areas are know by their cultural ties...one town is "Mennonite"....another is "Orthodox Jewish"...another is heavy in Japanese influence...another area has a lot of Russian immigrants..."Mexican Town"...Greek...etc.... While in Texas, people will identify themselves as something like "Polish", but their culture is uniquely Texan with maybe a little bit of old world traditions sprinkled in. They tend to be more aware of their southern roots than their European ones.

 

[Travelers.Soul]

In July, I am hoping to get back onto ancestry.com. It looks like a lot of the newer hints are perfect matches for my people. I love that site but I do not love the price. Happy hunting, my fellow ancestry enthusiasts.

 

[pdudgeon]

There are some interesting stories in my family tree. The family of my grandmother on my father's side came from Aarhus, Denmark.
My grandmother's father emigrated from there and was followed later by another brother. The oldest brother remained behind in Denmark. But He did come over to visit his younger brothers, and while here, he had his picture taken with one of his younger brothers my great grandfather. I have that picture today.

There was also an article about the visit in the local paper; about how Mr. Jensen from Denmark was visiting his younger brothers, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Mahoney.
Needless to say "Mr. Johnson" was the Americanized version of Jensen, and "Mr. Mahoney" was the youngest brother who on his way over to America met with an Irish family aboard ship. He liked them so much that he took their name when he landed.

 

[William67]

Same with some of the branches of my tree. I realize there are different opinions on the matter, but it seems strange to me to treat it like an ethnicity. I mainly posted it because it's interesting to me that only that one part of the country feels that way. It's obvious that it correlates with something else.

I wouldn't say people are treating it like an ethnicity, but more like they want so preserve some aspects of their ancestors traditional culture. I like to joke about it, but I do have, and wear, kilts. I sometimes attend pow-wows and even the highland games here in NC. I go to Oktoberfest, even though I don't drink. I took French while in school. I wouldn't say I am fluent, but I can get by. I have thought about learning Gaelic. So, while I identify myself as "American", I still try to preserve aspects of my ancestry. And if your suggesting that identifying as "American" correlates to racism, youre very wrong. Actually, if they were racist, they would identify even more with their ancestral "race".

 

[William67]

Yeah, it gets pretty easy to get that far back once you hit nobility. Thanks, Internet. I enjoy reading about the historical figures, though I assume someone had a lover or an abuser along the way and I'm not actually related to them.

Some were nobility, others...not so noble. lol Actually, a lot of my information comes from research done by other family members over the last 50-60 years. The internet allowed me to obtain documents which confirmed some relationships. I also found connections to ships in passenger manifests, so I had actually dates for the arrival of some of my ancestors. One ancestor, Elizabeth Fox (or Faux on some documents) actually came over with William Penn when she was a child.

 

[MehGuy]

Just discovered that one of my relatives was 5 feet and 2 inches tall on his WW1 draft registration card. Apparently that was short at the time because he wrote that he was short then added his height.

Poor guy.

 

[blackribbon]

We have some similar ties because my grandmother's extensive research has her line crossing over with William Penn on The Welcome.

 

[Cearbhall]

Just discovered that one of my relatives was 5 feet and 2 inches tall on his WW1 draft registration card. Apparently that was short at the time because he wrote that he was short then added his height.

Poor guy.

I love seeing the physical descriptions that they had to provide before photographs were widely used on documents.

 

[MehGuy]

I love seeing the physical descriptions that they had to provide before photographs were widely used on documents.

Yeah. Fortunately he actually wrote his height. All the other cards just state short, medium, etc.. But he felt like going one step further. Lol.

Dang though 4 inches below average, almost the same as me today. Lol.

 

[blackribbon]

<wrong thread>

 

[MehGuy]

Found more relatives on my mother's mother side. They seem to be English.

So far I got, German, Danish, English, Scottish and that's about it.

 

[kittysbecute]

I've had a little bit of luck on ancestry.com. My dad got a free trial of it several years ago for a week, and asked me to do some research. I was pretty busy that week with other stuff going on, but I was able to find several census records and I downloaded them to look at later.
I think if I had more time on the site, and more time to use it, it would be interesting what I could find.
I have done some other research without that site though. If you can find census records, marriage records, or immigration records, those can be useful. Also death records sometimes give some hints.
I found out I'm probably 1/8th Irish, and started that search by looking up my great grandparents marriage record (My great grandmother's maiden name sounded Irish to me). I'm not sure if it was on ancestry.com or not but it was on a local county site in the county they got married in. I found someone elses research that had my great grandparents listed that traced back to someone who immigrated from Ireland.
Several years ago I found the Ellis island records of some other family members, they had very common names so there were a lot of people with the same names, but I was able to verify it was them because I knew the whole families names and an idea of all their ages.
I was doing some research several years ago about immigrants (and 1st or 2nd generation Americans) in my area and was surprised to actually find information on relatives I knew growing up in a local archive.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

I am trying to get the most out of the 14 free days. I have to say that I have found a lot so far. Think I will have had my fill by the end.

 

[DragonFox91]

It's good to be proud of your heritage, but I think we put too much emphasis on it.

I'm a mix of Dutch, Polish, & German.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

This has helped me to be more appreciative of my present moment. I can't go back generations to visit anyone. We all have our short span of years and then it is over. i am a blip in the family timeline. It inspires me to make the most of every minute.

 

[Anthony2019]

I am adopted, but in recent years, and thanks to the internet, have been able to unravel details about my ancestry!
I grew up in Devon, in south western England, and many of my ancestors came from neighbouring Cornwall, and lived there for literally hundreds of years. Cornwall used to have its own Celtic language, very similar to Welsh and Breton (spoken in NW France) and in recent years there have been many efforts to try and revitalise it.
Bro goth agan tasow, dha fleghes a'th kar, Old land of our fathers, your children love you,
Gwlas ker an howlsedhes, pan vro yw dha bar? Dear country of the west, what land is your equal?
War oll an norvys 'th on ni skollys a-les, Over all the world, we are spread far and wide,
Mes agan kerensa yw dhis. But our love is for you.
Kernow, Kernow y keryn Kernow; Cornwall, Cornwall, we love Cornwall;
An mor hedre vo yn fos dhis a-dro For as long as the sea is a wall around you
Th on onan hag oll rag Kernow! We are one and all for Cornwall!
It is total codswallop and mumbo jumbo nonsense. Hardly anyone these days speaks Cornish, it is a language that has been almost extinct for hundreds of years. Yet it is displayed on signs everyone and even there are streets and road names in the language. The nearest language to Cornish is Welsh, and Welsh is still spoken by a sizeable population in the UK, especially in Wales, and recognised as one of the main official languages of the UK. But Cornish? It is still promoted for cultural reasons, but hardly anyone speaks it.