DreamTheaterForums.org Dream Theater Fan Site
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Phoenix87x on February 06, 2021, 05:49:23 AM
-
In my 30's now and I finally felt the urge to ask my Grandfather what our history was.
I'm mostly German and Italian, with some Irish and Ukrainian.
How about you guys, what ancestry are you? And do you still follow some of the customs or mostly just do your own thing?
-
.
-
I'm a Euromutt:
1/4 Danish (my maternal grandfather was 100% Danish and emigrated from Denmark sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s)
1/4 Irish (three great-great-grandparents came to the U.S. from Ireland, and a fourth was the child of Irish immigrants)
3/16 German (one great-grandfather and a great-great-grandfather from Germany)
1/16 Italian (the great-great-grandfather who is the source of my last name was born in Italy and came to Massachusetts (via Belgium) in the early/mid-1800s)
1/16 French (the French-born wife of the aforementioned Italian)
The other 3/16 is a mystery - American-born as far back as we know.
I have both a Civil War and a Revolutionary War veteran in my family tree, and my wife is descended two Mayflower passengers.
-
1/2 Lebanese
1/4 Irish
1/4 French Canadian
-
Polish and Norwegian.
-
Father's family came over from Ireland four generback during the potato famine. Mothers cane in the early 1800s from Spain, and somewhere in the time that passed had some heavy native American in there (I'm 20%)
-
According to DNA ancestry, I'm an American mut with a bit of a bunch of stuff.
(https://i.imgur.com/mlqQmUX.jpg)
My grandmother always used to tell me as a kid that her family came over a few trips after the Mayflower. They bred with every wave of immigrants since. Seems to be confirmed by the historical view/timeline below.
(https://i.imgur.com/gHVln8O.jpg)
-
My mother has a box of letters from the civil war and the years leading up to it. They talk about what will happen if Lincoln gets elected and stuff. It's really cool.
-
My mother has a box of letters from the civil war and the years leading up to it. They talk about what will happen if Lincoln gets elected and stuff. It's really cool.
Very cool!
-
I tihnk I wrote this in another thread, but on my dad's side, Polish and Slovakian (the families are about 50 km away from each other, near as I can tell, separated by what is now the Polish-Slovakian border).
My mom's side is a little more... I don't know. One half we think is Ukranian, one half Hungarian (though my grandmother used to always say she was a gypsy; I said that to a real Hungarian - one who lives, today, in Hungary - and he looked at me like I said "pedophile" instead. ;). I still haven't found out what that's all about.
It's really interesting; I can take Dad's fam all the way back to the 1700's, and I can probably go further if I can ever get over there to look at the church records. Mom's family basically drops off the map around 1900 or so (when my great grandparents came to America). Fascinating to see, really. They just lived... not off the grid, so much, but they weren't terribly literate or involved in the typical societal things like church and what not.
-
Did a 23&Me thing a year or so ago.
I always knew my mom's family was pretty traditional Ashkenazi Jew from Europe, probably Russian/Polish mix. But I never knew my dad.
Turns out I'm around 51% Ashkenazi Jew, 4% or so random stuff, and 45% or something Turkish. I did not know or expect the huge Turkish part.
-
I've wanted to do a DNA test to figure this out for myself but as far as I know I'm 80% Lithuanian.
-
It's funny, all three of us kids are adopted and all three of us are American Indian, at least that's what it says on our birth certificates. Many years ago my brother went to find his biological parents because he planned on having lots of children and wanted know his family medical history. He found out he was indeed of Ponca Indian and French descent and he looks least like an American Indian than both myself and my sister.
Fast forward to about 5 years ago and my sister goes and does the same thing. My niece and nephew celebrated their Indian heritage by reading books about the AI and even buying Indian artwork only to find out their mom is actually - Mexican. You see back in the day, there was a stigma attached to adopting Mexican children and it was easier if the priests lied about the ethnicity of the child to get that child adopted.
Fast forward again and my wife gets me a DNA test for Xmas and it shows I am from the New Mexico, Nevada on down to Mexico area so now I need contact Catholic Charities to find my biological parents.
Bottom line, I really don't know what I am but it's probably Mexican.
-
British.
-
Im a 100% swedish goose
-
I'm mostly German and Mexican, with tiny bits of Native American, Danish, and Scottish.
-
Born in Italy, I'm italian.
Yeah, the european answers are gonna be pretty boring ;D
This is always one of the things I've considered the biggest difference between the two sides of the pond, beside the weird stubborness to not adopt the metric system and tipping in restaurants: the interest for ancestry and therefore the labels about being 1/8 irish or whatever. The way I see it, you're born in the USA, you're an (US) american citizen and that's it.
I guess probably it has to do with the way Europe and the Americas evolved, the history is obviously different and the USA is a very yoiung country, and there's a far greater chance that someone in the USA has immigrant grandparents or grand-grandparents, rather than a french or a german or a swede being anything else that someone born from a french, german or swedish family. With the USA of course this is different and so time and again you hear both common people and celebrities talking about their ancestry, like Lady Gaga who talks about being italian in every other interview (it's not that I find this annoying however, just a peculiar difference between the way of reasonings about one's ancestry on the two sides of the Atlantic).
-
So....... one of my very good friends grew up with his mom. His dad left....I'm guessing, but I'm saying 3, 4 years old, right after his younger brother was born. I knew his brother (he passed away probably 25 years ago or so); he looked NOTHING like my friend. My friend is swarthy, good looking, one of those guys you hate - played lead guitar in a band, excellent baseball/softball player, scratch golfer, slept with more women than I've spoken to, lawyer with his own firm, wife who is a bona fide blonde Cindy Crawford - but his brother was skinny, awkward, a nice kid but not necessarily the person you note when you walk in the room.
We lived together through law school, and I was working in the environmental business, and I did a lot of records searches, and knew how to get information. So around '96 or so, I helped him find his Dad. I even went with him to meet him the first time; the guy was a dead ringer for his younger brother, but looked and acted NOTHING like Eric. He had a relationship for a while, but his dad was a disappointment on every level, and he ended the relationship. So he calls me a couple years ago, and says he's trying to get his ancestry (I've been doing mine and have about 1,000 people in my family tree at this point); turns out his dad's father was adopted, so the trail sort of ends. But - and it's a conversation we've had a couple times - he wasn't 100% that everything was adding up. He wasn't sure what was up and didn't want to confront that maybe he was lied to, but he knew that not all the cards were on the table. I don't hear anything about this for a while. He calls me a year or so ago (it was before COVID, so it's likely two years ago now) and says he took a DNA test and he logged on Ancestry, and he has a match. A SISTER. Now... it's not my story, so I'm leaving out some details, but suffice to say, it IS his sister and he finds the "dad" he thought was his dad, wasn't, and he has a new man in his life, a new "dad. It shouldn't surprise anyone, but as he's describing this new guy, I'm thinking, "Buddy, that's YOU, for better or worse! You just took a different path!"
Opened up a whole new world for him. I can't imagine what that was like for him.
-
The way I see it, you're born in the USA, you're an (US) american citizen and that's it.
But then how would we know what ethnic/cultural group to identify with? :D
My mom's dad immigrated from Poland; I do not know about her mom's history. My dad's family immigrated (his dad, illegally, if the stories are true) from what is now Montenagro. Ancestry has never been an important issue with my family. My dad had a hard time growing up, and when he moved out he tried to put much of his childhood behind, though he still had a reasonable relationship with his parents till they died. My mom's family was small and while she was close with her parents and sister (who have all since passed) she doesn't have any connection with any other blood relatives so far as I know.
-
Im a 100% swedish goose
Which part?
-
It's funny, all three of us kids are adopted and all three of us are American Indian, at least that's what it says on our birth certificates. Many years ago my brother went to find his biological parents because he planned on having lots of children and wanted know his family medical history. He found out he was indeed of Ponca Indian and French descent and he looks least like an American Indian than both myself and my sister.
Fast forward to about 5 years ago and my sister goes and does the same thing. My niece and nephew celebrated their Indian heritage by reading books about the AI and even buying Indian artwork only to find out their mom is actually - Mexican. You see back in the day, there was a stigma attached to adopting Mexican children and it was easier if the priests lied about the ethnicity of the child to get that child adopted.
Fast forward again and my wife gets me a DNA test for Xmas and it shows I am from the New Mexico, Nevada on down to Mexico area so now I need contact Catholic Charities to find my biological parents.
Bottom line, I really don't know what I am but it's probably Mexican.
So the Southwest... :biggrin:
You might not be American Indian, but you could still be Native American. Some Mexicans, and Most South Americans, I consider Native Americans. I classify it all as Indigenous Peoples of The Americas. And this includes the Canadian Natives, and the Natives of the Pacific Islands, and also the Caribbean Island Natives.
Hispanic, is it's own and is more of a mix of cultures and languages. A mix of spanish and native traditions, and values. But, Hispanic/Latin is used more to refer to peoples of that area from Mexico to South America.
Most Hispanic people have Native Blood, and don't really know it. A lot of colored people born in North and South America, likely, have Native Blood.
It is also, really hard to trace Native Blood, and what Tribe you specifically would belong too. It's really dependent on lineage, and born within a clan of that Tribe, more so than Blood. But, each Tribe has it's own criteria for what constitutes being considered a Tribal Member.
It would not surprise me though to see some European, African, or Asian/Filipino blood, if some of us were to get a DNA test, and do an Ancestry thing.
-
My mother is Cape Verdean (Portuguese) and the sperm donor is, who knows, he fucking lies about everything. According to Ancestry.com the dominant genes in me are from "the Iberian Peninsula" which means I am mostly of either Portuguese or Hispanic decent.
-
I read was reading a writeup a few months ago talking about how there's a bunch of people doing these DNA test kits and finding cousins overseas. Turns out grandpa did things besides fighting while at war :lol
-
According to Ancestry.com
Scotland 40%
Native American 24%
England and Northwestern Europe 16%
Ireland 12%
Norway 8%
-
Half spanish, half italian on my father's side. Half spanish, 1/4 swiss, 1/4 german on my mother's.
-
I don't know, but I'd guess I am 100% Swede. A blonde viking who fights polar bears for a living.
-
I read was reading a writeup a few months ago talking about how there's a bunch of people doing these DNA test kits and finding cousins overseas. Turns out grandpa did things besides fighting while at war :lol
Not just the war, but this is a real thing. I have things in my tree that just flat out don't make sense, and "there's another player involved" is the easiest explanation. But - and this is what my friend had to face up to - who wants to look back and acknowledge that perhaps that person you loved, or admired, or who was hailed in the family as a hero, maybe wasn't?
-
You mean like my hatchet-murdering great grandmother? :rollin
-
Considering my great-grandparents nationalities:
Portuguese 3/8
Italian 3/8
Spanish 1/8
German 1/8
-
You mean like my hatchet-murdering great grandmother? :rollin
What, you're named Kirk Borden?
-
I read was reading a writeup a few months ago talking about how there's a bunch of people doing these DNA test kits and finding cousins overseas. Turns out grandpa did things besides fighting while at war :lol
Not just the war, but this is a real thing. I have things in my tree that just flat out don't make sense, and "there's another player involved" is the easiest explanation. But - and this is what my friend had to face up to - who wants to look back and acknowledge that perhaps that person you loved, or admired, or who was hailed in the family as a hero, maybe wasn't?
That's basically discovering that they have flaws like any human does. And you are just now discovering those flaws. Reminds me of Death At A Funeral (the Chris rock one) where they find out their Dad was gay. :lol
These are what I consider, Hard Truths. Truths that slap you in the face with a brick. Or, the Black Sheep of the family. Or the family secret no one wants to talk about.
These DNA tests are funny for us Natives. Because all it does is tell us, we have Native American blood. Yet, it doesn't tell us which tribe, and that makes a big difference in our Native Ways. There's past Traumas and Stigmas attached to certain Tribes, one against the other. So imagine if one where to find out they were actually also from that Tribe.
With just how Mixed and Scrambled our People were in the Southwest. There are natives here that look Filipino or Pacific Islander like Hawaii and Maori. My auntie got mistaken for a Hawaiian when she went there. And my friend and her man got mistaken for a Maori when they went to New Zealand. We also have some black natives, and now, spanish/white half breed natives.
So as far as I know....I am Native from 3 different Tribes. Clan from Hopi, raised in a different Pueblo, with ties to another Pueblo from my grandfather.
It wouldn't surprise me to find some other Tribe mixed in, and some Spanish, or Filipino blood in my DNA.
-
You mean like my hatchet-murdering great grandmother? :rollin
What, you're named Kirk Borden?
ha ha, no I told the story in another thread about how my great grandmother killed her abusive husband (my great grandfather who I never met) back in the early 1900's in Western MA. They lived in a rural area and my great grandmother -who, at the time, had just had one of her arms amputated just above the elbow due to cancer- buried a hatchet in the chest of my great grandfather after he came home drunk (again) and beat the shit out of her. She waited until he was asleep then she buried it right in the middle of his chest killing him instantly. They then sent word to the sheriff who came out and evaluated the situation and helped her bury him out behind the house. I am sure the story was embellished over the years, but that's pretty much how my mother told it to me. Apparently my great grandfather was a well-known drunkard and abuser of women which is why the sheriff had no interest in arresting my great grandmother who would go on to live until she was over 90
-
Mostly German. Some Scottish. A little tiny bit of Cherokee.
-
Im a 100% swedish goose
That's silly.
-
You mean like my hatchet-murdering great grandmother? :rollin
Haha, I was thinking more along the lines of someone with multiple kids with multiple partners, but that will do! :)
-
Anyway, if you think about it, it's such a mental trip to ponder about ancestry and where we all come from. I mean, if we're here, it's because everything went good, but if you go far back enough in time, it's insane to think how many things had to go "right" for each and everyone of us to be here.
I mean, for all we know, at least someone in this thread is alive only because someone in 1547 avoided a carriage of a startled horse just at the last possible second, and that guy went on to have a child, then a grandchild, then a grand grand grand grand..... descendant, and that's one of us in this thread. Heck, maybe that "phew, I avoided a carriage that would have trampled me to death, it's my lucky day" guy is an ancient ancestor of Hitler, and he would have never been born if that carriage had struck on time.
The possibilites, both positive and negative, are endless. For all the scientists we have, maybe the one to discover the cure for cancer 50 years before it will eventually happen has never been born. We got Freddie Mercury, but maybe because of a drunk brawl in a pub in 1678 that resulted in a killing, we never had someone who would have created the greatest band in the history of music, something that would make the Beatles irrelevant.
Really, think how many wars, how many emigrations, how many diseases for which there was no cure our ancestors survived in order for all of us to be here today. It's crazy if you think about it.
-
For those families that came from Middle Europe, that's certainly true. My grandmother's family is more or less within 50km of THREE death camps, and at least 2 other camps, from the Nazi occupation. They're vague, and seem to vary over time, but there are stories from those in the family that stayed behind, and it puts things into a stark perspective.
I know even in my own tree, go back two or three generations and the number of children born increase significantly even if the number of children that lived to adulthood stayed the same.
-
100% Chinese. All four grandparents are from remote villages in mainland China.
-
Pretty sure I'm 100% Chinese too, although I've had some people assume I was Southeast Asian, Filipino, Hawaiian, Japanese or even Mexican! I guess I could've been a good undercover international spy.
Anyway, my Dad's side is from a hick mountain region in China called Tai Shan. Yes, that Tai Shan from the bad Rush song.
My Mom's side is from Hong Kong, but I don't know what her ancestry is prior to that.
My Dad was born in Brooklyn at a time when there were very few Chinese women in the country due to the Chinese Exclusion Act. Many Chinese men, including my Dad and his younger brother went back to the old country to find and bring back their wives. I believe at the time, my Mom was a nurse in Hong Kong.
-
I would think that China is one of the few regions of the world where people can say they are 100% and have it be pretty damn close to being factual. For most other regions of the world, I just don't see that being possible/likely. I mean, if you go back back just 300 years, that's what, 15 generations give or take? That's nearly 38,000 individual bloodlines that eventually manifested into you, and that's just in the last three centuries. Go back five centuries and see where we're at. Odds are at least one of those people was from a distance.
-
But then how would we know what ethnic/cultural group to identify with? :D
You get to "identify" as whatever you want. Didn't you know? :biggrin:
This week, I'll be identifying as a 27 year old Pakistani woman. Not sure about next week.
-
But then how would we know what ethnic/cultural group to identify with? :D
You get to "identify" as whatever you want. Didn't you know? :biggrin:
This week, I'll be identifying as a 27 year old Pakistani woman. Not sure about next week.
For the past few weeks, I've been trying like hell to identify as a 75 year old doctor with asthma, but no one is buying it. I feel unheard.
-
Cameroon, Congo & Western Bantu Peoples - 25%
Spain - 20%
Nigeria - 14%
Portugal - 8%
Mali - 8%
Benin & Togo - 5%
Ivory Coast & Ghana - 4%
England & Northwestern Europe - 3%
Indigenous Puerto Rico - 3%
Senegal - 2%
Basque - 2%
Cyprus - 2%
Southern Bantu Peoples - 1%
Northern Africa - 1%
Ethiopia & Eritrea - 1%
Wales - 1%
100% Herrick
-
(https://i.ibb.co/N9bcTb4/Screenshot-20210208-205343-2.png)
-
You are the ultimate mutt. Lol
-
I started a thread about genealogy a while ago. I'm glad someone else started one up again. My ancestry is exceedingly important to me.
All eight of my great-grandparents emigrated from Italy. I've succeeded in finding the town of origin for all but one of them, which while giving me a sense of accomplishment is slightly frustrating because of the one I can't find.
I did the Ancestry DNA test a while back. I'm 93% Italian, which is broken down to 80% Southern Italian and 13% Northern Italian. The other 7% is Greece & Albania. I know Greeks occupied a large portion of Sicily many years ago so I'm guessing that's where that comes from.
-
don't know specifics other than I'm like half Italian from my dad's side and then a lot of German and Swedish from my mother's side
if my great grandfather hadn't been orphaned and had his name anglicized I'd probably have the surname di Giovanni
(https://media2.giphy.com/media/135E47VKw6TM6A/200.gif)
-
if my great grandfather hadn't been orphaned and had his name anglicized I'd probably have the surname di Giovanni
(https://media2.giphy.com/media/135E47VKw6TM6A/200.gif)
I have a friend with that surname. I don't see it that often.
-
if my great grandfather hadn't been orphaned and had his name anglicized I'd probably have the surname di Giovanni
(https://media2.giphy.com/media/135E47VKw6TM6A/200.gif)
I have a friend with that surname. I don't see it that often.
La mia familia! :lol
-
According to 23andMe, 73% United Kingdom (Mostly from around London and Liverpool, a bit of Coventry and some Scottish highlander), 26% Scandinavian (all Danish), 0.1% undetermined Northerwestern European.
-
if my great grandfather hadn't been orphaned and had his name anglicized I'd probably have the surname di Giovanni
(https://media2.giphy.com/media/135E47VKw6TM6A/200.gif)
I have a friend with that surname. I don't see it that often.
La mia familia! :lol
I'm going to turn into an Italian grammar Nazi. It's actually famiglia. Familia is Spanish. ;)
-
I swear I had the g in there when I posted because I definitely know that. WTF :lol
-
:lol
From where in Italy was your great-grandfather?
-
:lol
From where in Italy was your great-grandfather?
I honestly have no idea. Details on my family history are super fuzzy. Beyond that story about him, I know nothing else about him or my family history beyond my grandparents on both sides. Sometimes I hate that, others... I'm kind of okay with that.
-
:lol
From where in Italy was your great-grandfather?
I honestly have no idea. Details on my family history are super fuzzy. Beyond that story about him, I know nothing else about him or my family history beyond my grandparents on both sides. Sometimes I hate that, others... I'm kind of okay with that.
You could probably do a little digging and figure it out if you wanted.
-
Well if you don't mind posting the surname on the internet, I could tell you if it sounds like a specific region of Italy....
-
All I know is that his name was Pio di Giovanni and he was orphaned and raised by nuns and had his name changed to Johnson. I don't even know anything about my grandpa's life other than that he made my dad's side of the family and was an X-ray technician in the Air Force. I could go into why but I'm not terribly interested in learning about my ancestry. I was never told much about it growing up so I have zero connection to most of my family beyond my siblings and parents. It is what it is. I was considering doing the Ancestry.com thing but then I read something a while back about how the results from that place aren't actually reliable? I dunno.
-
I've read articles online (they must be true!) about those ancestry tests, and how they're basically a crock of shit. There are no genetic markers which can place the geography of your ancestors. What they have are databases of people's markers and where they came from, and they keep adding to that, but it's not scientifically accurate and includes a healthy dose of guesswork. That's why they include disclaimers. They're not scientific and are for entertainment only.
My sister took one, just for the shits and giggles. According to them, she's mostly Chinese, with some Samoan, Inuit, and few others tossed in. When you consider that both Samoans and Inuit are believed to have Asian ancestry, it makes sense. What doesn't make sense is saying a Chinese person is "part Samoan". The genes are the same; they just happen to have some Samoans in the database.
As I mentioned, all four of our grandparents come from remote villages in mainland China, so it's pretty safe to assume that we're Chinese "all the way back". The chances of anything other than Chinese being in the mix are practically nil. Those tests are a joke.
-
All I know is that his name was Pio di Giovanni and he was orphaned and raised by nuns and had his name changed to Johnson. I don't even know anything about my grandpa's life other than that he made my dad's side of the family and was an X-ray technician in the Air Force. I could go into why but I'm not terribly interested in learning about my ancestry. I was never told much about it growing up so I have zero connection to most of my family beyond my siblings and parents. It is what it is. I was considering doing the Ancestry.com thing but then I read something a while back about how the results from that place aren't actually reliable? I dunno.
Definitively not a famous surname, looks like it might be from the center, but most likely from souther regions such as Abruzzo, Campania and Sicily.
-
All I know is that his name was Pio di Giovanni and he was orphaned and raised by nuns and had his name changed to Johnson. I don't even know anything about my grandpa's life other than that he made my dad's side of the family and was an X-ray technician in the Air Force. I could go into why but I'm not terribly interested in learning about my ancestry. I was never told much about it growing up so I have zero connection to most of my family beyond my siblings and parents. It is what it is. I was considering doing the Ancestry.com thing but then I read something a while back about how the results from that place aren't actually reliable? I dunno.
Definitively not a famous surname, looks like it might be from the center, but most likely from souther regions such as Abruzzo, Campania and Sicily.
Very interesting! :corn
-
All I know is that his name was Pio di Giovanni and he was orphaned and raised by nuns and had his name changed to Johnson. I don't even know anything about my grandpa's life other than that he made my dad's side of the family and was an X-ray technician in the Air Force. I could go into why but I'm not terribly interested in learning about my ancestry. I was never told much about it growing up so I have zero connection to most of my family beyond my siblings and parents. It is what it is. I was considering doing the Ancestry.com thing but then I read something a while back about how the results from that place aren't actually reliable? I dunno.
Definitively not a famous surname, looks like it might be from the center, but most likely from souther regions such as Abruzzo, Campania and Sicily.
Very interesting! :corn
I've been doing genealogy research for close to twenty years now. The records on sites like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org are official records. They aren't unreliable. What is unreliable is when people add misinformation to their own trees which then gets propagated into other trees. Always confirm your sources. It'll save you from a lot of headaches.
As far as the Di Giovanni surname, I would agree with MM. I've come across that name in Campania and Sicily. I have family from both of those regions. I don't have family from Abruzzo so I never looked into the towns there and therefore wouldn't be able to comment on the surnames from the region.
-
I've been doing this too, for about 10 years now, and have a tree that is in excess of 1,200 people. Before COVID hit, I was planning a trip (hopefully around the Iron Maiden touring cycle!) to Slovakia and Poland and Ukraine, for this purpose. It will still happen.
I respectfully think that Prog Snob is closer to accurate than Orbert. It's not FOOLPROOF, but it's not a crock either.
Mike, I can't tell you what you SHOULD do, that's personal, and that's up to you. I know that I've found some... not peace, really, but connection, in searching out my tree. My grandparents, on both sides but especially my mom, were rather uninterested in ancestral stuff. Particularly on my maternal grandfather's side, he didn't speak to his brothers and sisters, and I only know his parents names, but not a scrap of info on them. My material grandmother and her parents, I daresay they were essentially illiterate. Upon coming to America - from god knows where (I don't have even one reference to a ship crossing or other transit to America) - they parked in an unincorporated village in between towns in Connecticut and there almost no records, church or municipal. That's what I grew up with, but I've gotten a good deal of other information that has fleshed out that story. On Dad's side I can get back to the mid-1700's in Europe (and hope to go farther once I'm over there).
No sense in causing yourself pain, if that's what it will do, but if you DO choose to go down that path, there are likely to be answers if you want them.
I found out I'm related to a guy that played on the Green Bay Packers Super Bowl teams in the 60's, too. :) :) :)
Sidebar: one of my best friends found his real dad and a sister he never knew he had - within the last two years or so - through Ancestry, after search most of his adult life for his roots. It was both painful (his mom lied to him for decades about his "dad") and cathartic (he knew in his head and heart that the numbers didn't add up, just didn't know how to get the math right).
-
Well if you don't mind posting the surname on the internet, I could tell you if it sounds like a specific region of Italy....
My great-great-grandfather was born in 1810 in Biella, Piemonte (Piedmont?), Italy, and there are apparently a significant number of folks in that city with my last name, which is quite uncommon/rare here in the states. I won't post it, but my surname is similar to one of two well-known rival factions in medieval Italy, which is also the name of a city in Ontario, Canada.
-
Mostly German. Some Scottish. A little tiny bit of Cherokee.
is that you Mrs. Warren??? :biggrin:
Funny story for my ancestry. I was raised believing I was predominantly German/Irish/Swedish. There's always been a rumor in the family that my dad's mom, who was a fire and brimstone Catholic woman, had an affair with A doctor in the 30's. A few years back my eldest sister did a genealogy test. Not even one percent German. Highest percentage was Jewish (can't remember the actual genealogical name). So I'm Jewish and not German like we grew up thinking.
-
Well if you don't mind posting the surname on the internet, I could tell you if it sounds like a specific region of Italy....
My great-great-grandfather was born in 1810 in Biella, Piemonte (Piedmont?), Italy, and there are apparently a significant number of folks in that city with my last name, which is quite uncommon/rare here in the states. I won't post it, but my surname is similar to one of two well-known rival factions in medieval Italy, which is also the name of a city in Ontario, Canada.
I've been to Biella once! yes, Piedmont is the english name for Piemonte. I have no clue however of the popular surnames of that area :D
-
Mostly German. Some Scottish. A little tiny bit of Cherokee.
is that you Mrs. Warren??? :biggrin:
Funny story for my ancestry. I was raised believing I was predominantly German/Irish/Swedish. There's always been a rumor in the family that my dad's mom, who was a fire and brimstone Catholic woman, had an affair with A doctor in the 30's. A few years back my eldest sister did a genealogy test. Not even one percent German. Highest percentage was Jewish (can't remember the actual genealogical name). So I'm Jewish and not German like we grew up thinking.
That's not uncommon, though, for obvious (or maybe not so obvious) reasons.
I've written a lot about how my dad is one of the smartest people (if not THE smartest person) I've ever met, and his family - his sisters, his parents - are no slouches either. And they all have an interest in the ancestry. But even with that, it's been ever fascinating how much they got wrong through the years, and how nebulous and sketchy family lines can be. I've found at least two instances that are best explained by "someone sleeping with someone they shouldn't" in my tree. It's not my business, but I know I raised one to my dad and he said "yeah, that's been the whispers but no one talks about it."
-
That's not uncommon, though, for obvious (or maybe not so obvious) reasons.
I've written a lot about how my dad is one of the smartest people (if not THE smartest person) I've ever met, and his family - his sisters, his parents - are no slouches either. And they all have an interest in the ancestry. But even with that, it's been ever fascinating how much they got wrong through the years, and how nebulous and sketchy family lines can be. I've found at least two instances that are best explained by "someone sleeping with someone they shouldn't" in my tree. It's not my business, but I know I raised one to my dad and he said "yeah, that's been the whispers but no one talks about it."
I guess it probably happens quite a bit. There's no way in hell we could ever bring the subject up to my Dad. He would flip! He won't take to kindly to the fact that the man he thought was his Dad wasn't his biological Dad.
-
Decided to do 23 and me since everything I knew about my heritage was hear say.
It turned out fairly different, lol.
Thought I was german, and I'm actually mostly Polish. Thought I was half Italian and I'm actually only like 17%.
The only same thing was being Irish, so its been enlightening.