My mom's side - Norwegian. They moved to the U.S. in the late 1800s from a middle-of-nowhere village covered in snow. Sadly, I don't know much about that side of my family.
My dad's side - Irish and Scottish. I'm not sure why they came here. I know my direct ancestor's brother (who looks exactly like my uncle, with a handlebar mustache) managed to piss off the King of Prussia at some point, and we even have the letter in a book somewhere where the king basically said "If you come back here, we'll execute you" and that's why he decided to get the fuck away from that part of the world. I think my ancestor just went along because it was a good excuse to move to the U.S. Funnily enough, one of my great (maybe add another "great" in there, I don't know) grandfather's brothers was an amateur boxer in the 1910s and 1920s, and he looks
exactly like my dad... with a handlebar mustache. When I first saw that photo of him, I laughed so hard.
It's not so much just labeling where we came from that I find fascinating, it's who my ancestors were, and what they did individually. Things like receiving death threats from the King of Prussia just seem like gems in my family history that have been lost in time.
Luckily, both of my grandmothers had books full of old photographs and letters. It's all I really have to go on, but I cherish those scrapbooks.