My Lineage
 

I'm an Ashkenazi Jew, so it breaks down like this:

Father's Paternal side is from Warsaw, Poland
Father's Maternal side is from Minsk, Belarus
Mother's Paternal side is from Hungarian
Mother's Maternal side is from Audtria, but before that Russia.

3 of my grandparents were born here. My mom's mom was born in Austria, and walked, with her family, from Austria to Denmark in 1917 to take a ship, in steerage, to Ellis Island.

An interesting thing about my lineage happened in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis. After 45 hours awake, and in the air, my father (an airman aboard a B-52) informed his CO that one of the final potential targets, for his airplane, was Minsk. His mom's family was from Minsk. The Air Force investigated and gave him an honorable discharge.

YEARS ago, I read a book by Anya Seton called "Devil Water". It was the fictionalized account of two real families, one of whom was the Radcliffes. The daughter of the last Earl of Radcliffe moved to Virginia, lived with the Byrd family (as in Westover Plantation), married a man from Scotland, and raised a family in "the hills". Would this be your connection?

Gotta find that book...!

ooh such an interesting thread!!

my father is from County Mayo, Ireland and came here in the very late 50's (funny sidenote: my father's father apparently came to America for a little while but he didn't like it so he went back to Ireland)

my mother's father was from Madrid, Spain

my mother's mother's parents were both from the same part of Sicily and their families had known each other but they had immigrated here separately with their families when my great grandmother was a baby and when my great grandfather was in his teens.

Nah.....

Although a Scottish Clan Chief did set-up the settlement of Perth in Ontario as his personal fiefdom, when British Empire soldiers settled they didn't put-up with his crap and booted him out.

must be nice to be able to trace your heritage. Anyone want to give me a million dollars so that I can research into where my north american ancestors came from?

Hush enlightenment. ;)

Paternal Great-Grandparents--Alsace Lorraine, Germany (spelled wrong I think)

Maternal Great-Great-Grandparents---New Orleans by way of Cuba by way of France

I also have a little bit of Irish, hence the auburn hair, green eyes, and freckles and little bit of British.


My mom's mother's family settled in St.Louis, MO and lived there and then my grandmother met my grandfather and they moved to New Orleans, LA because my grandfather's family was from there and he was in med school at Tulane.

My dad's mother's family was from Decherd, TN, near Sewanee, TN. They actually gave some land to Sewanee (The University of the South). They ended up in New Orleans because my grandmother's father was a journalist and he got a job in New Orleans as a reporter for a paper, I think the Times Picayune.

My dad's father's family was from New Iberia, LA and they lived on a Sugar Cane plantation and we still have the sugar cane fields to this day. The house is gone but we have the land. They ended up in New Orleans, as well, because of Tulane where my great-great uncle, Richard Koch, helped to start the School of Architecture there.

Then there's myself who is now in Oxford, MS where I'm making this my home for a while until I find a man and get married. Oh and on my mom's side of the family I'm related, way way back, to the naturalist and artist John J. Audubon. It is through his wife that I'm related to her. She was a Bakewell and so that is how we are tied together. My mom's uncle wrote a genelogy book that is over 100 pages about this side of my family. It is pretty interesting, he went all over getting documents and pictures.

You don't need a million dollars, you just need the desire! I would assume that your family has been here much, much longer than a lot of other people's, and there are records - increasingly more available - for African Americans. Many genealogists are donating time to try to compile this information, especially in the last 20 years or so.

I can only trace back 4 generations because of the way Jews were treated in 19th century Europe. Anyway, within 10-20 years, we will all, thanks to advances in genetics, be able to trace our ancestry back hundreds, if not thousands of generations, and probably for not a lot of money. The future will be very interesting.

Actually, I was referring to research here in the USA. Different countries are more or less genealogically prone than the US.

Genetics are already being used for some projects! I recently saw a woman successfully apply to the DAR using a DNA test!

I found out what I am:

Scottish
British
English
French
Norman
Bohemian/Hungarian

I know.....I just read an article recently about a company that does DNA tests of African Americans to determine what ethnic group in Africa they have the strongest tie to. I wish I could remember the names. Seems like DNA testing is the hottest thing in geneology these days. There was also a feature on a woman from Puerto Rico (I think--I know she was Hispanic or from South America) who found out she was like 49% of some ethnic group in Africa. Boy was she suprised! :eek: :eek:

My father's side: the original ancestor was actually a German Hessian hired to fight against the Americans in the Revolutionary War (actually, there were 2 brothers, but they went their separate ways) who settled in America after the war. I can trace my father's side down from one of these brothers. Actually, we have a published family history, and we have included very limited information on the other brothers' family. It kind of gets lost somewhere in the 1800s though. We're working on it. :)

My mother's side: she's adopted - I have no clue! It's such a shame. I know she has tried for many many years to find her birth family, and I believe she hired a private investigator, but so far no such luck.

As for my husband, I know his father's family originally comes from France. I don't know anything really about his mother's side. He hasn't given too much information.

I've been thinking...is it wrong for me to think that my ethnicity is the best?

my moms side is pretty short. all 4 of my great grandparents on that side came from ireland and had kids and moved back. and on my dads side, his mom was irish, and his dad was greek.