Where did your non-North American ancestors come from?
 

Hi there,
Along the lines of getting to know each other better, I'd love to hear where everyone's roots are from.

Now, to keep it "interesting", I would like to hear where your ancestors came from, and please go back as far as it takes, in order to have non-North American ancestors. (Of course, if you are descended from Native Indian/Native American/First Nation/Aboriginal...then I guess I can "relax" the rules a bit)

So, if you are 4th generation American born or Canadian born, you'll need to trace back a little further.
(i.e. "My grandparents were from Ohio" does not 'count', according to the guidelines that I set).

I want to see how "exotic" we are here on Greek Chat!!
It's easy for me..I'm first generation Canadian.

Dad (and all his ancestors) came from Germany.
Mom (and all her ancestors) came from Latvia.

NEXT!......................

Easy for me, too! :)

I'm first generation American.
My mother is from the island of Chios in Greece.
My father is from the province of Evrytania in Greece.

greeklawboy is also first generation American.
His mother is from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
His father is from Cork, Ireland.

I'm also first generation Canadian.

Mine's pretty straightforward.

My mother came from the UK.
My father's grandparents all came from Poland.

So I guess that makes me a first/third-generation American? :)

well let's see my roots
I'm more of a multi generational American as my great grandparents were born here and as far as they remember we lived somewhere in America for atleast two generations before that.

Father's side: english/irish

Mother's side: Dutch, Scotish, Irish and Cherokee Indian

Republika ng Pilipinas (Republic of the Philippines)

Dad is from Zambal
Mom is from Baguio

Father is 2nd generation New York Irish from St. Albans, Queens, New York. My great grandmother (his grandmother) was fresh off the boat from near Dublin (still have some very distant relatives there).

Mother was born in Maracaibo, Zulia State, Venezuela (the Texas of Venezuela... lots of oil and ego to boot! ;) ) Her father's family came from India by way of Trinidad.

I have done LOTS of family tree research lately, and I have over 200 individuals listed on my family tree program on the computer.

Mother's Father's side:
Some of my anscestors came from Ulster, Ireland in the early 1700s. Before that they lived in Scotland, and I have traced the names and years of birth back to the 1690s. The first of these anscestors to live in America was a Captain in the Revolutionary War as well as a Teacher, Plantation Owner, and a Methodist Clergyman.

Others came from Palentinite, Germany, also in the 1700s.

And yet others were from France. I have not been able to trace much on this.

Mother's Mother's side:
Great grandmother came over from England in the mid 1800s. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star.

Great grandfather's parents came over from England in the mid 1800s. He was a Mason. Some of his family was also from Wales somewhere along the line.

Father's side
I don't know much about them except that they are mostly German.

My two sides are wildly different.

On my fathers side, I am 3rd generation American.
My father's grandparents all came over from Belgium. His parents still speak the language, and my dad and his siblings are the first generation not to have crazy-strong accents.

My mother's side is just the opposite... I'm 12th generation or something like that. The line of the family tree we can trace most easily is from England, they came over in the 1720s or somewhere around there. We have hints of a few of the other lines (the one we've traced is my maternal great-grandfather's line) that all seem to come from England or the greater Isles, with one stray line that came from Luxembourg :)

My dad came over on the Queen Anna Maria! :)

1st generation American. Born and raised in NJ, now in Miami.
Father from the province of Matanzas, Cuba (San Miguel de los Banos)
Mother from the province of Oriente, Cuba (Santiago de Cuba)
Great grandparents on both sides originally Spanish and some possible Italian on my Dad's side. :D

Uh, how far back can we go on this?

I'm pretty much mostly northern European but the pedigree is a couple of thousand years old. Lots of different things get mixed in at that level from Scandinavia to Italy.

Adrienne (PNAM 2003 and All American Mutt <g>)

My mother's family moved to NYC from North Carolina.
My father's family moved here from the Bahamas via Miami.

Prior to that my ancestors came over shackled in the hull of a slave ship amidst the stink of feces, urine and death, waiting to be showcased and sold like livestock.

So basically, besides guessing the general region of Western Africa, I don't know where my ancestors came from. I can only wonder

Edited to Add: My great-grandfather on my mother's side is either Irish or Scottish and one of my great-grandmothers on my mother's side is Native American, either Cherokee or Blackfoot

You go back as far as you like! :).

I'm going to have to skip back about 300 years to the late 1600s (my mom's family has been here ever since then!), when my great-great-however-many-times-grandfather emigrated to America from Wales. My ancestry is predominantly British/Welsh on that side, and Oliver Cromwell and Christopher Gist are relatives of ours.

My dad's side is a whole other story...they could've come from Mars, for all I know, except that I know at least one of them came from Cork, Ireland. I'm thinking of researching it because I can't have one side without the other, you know? :p

My great grandfather came over to America from Ireland, and then his wife was an orphan but I believe her parents were also from Ireland.

Then on my grandmothers side her father was from Ireland and her mother was ... I dont' remember,

All I know is that I am very much Irish

i'm not sure what generation i am...at least 5th generation american and probably more. my paternal grandmather's ancestors were all from ireland and before that, it's very likely they were vikings that ended up on the shores of ireland (my last name means Dark Stranger in Gaelic and all the research i've ever read suggests this). my paternal grandmother's were from Germany, Holland, France, and England. my maternal grandfather's were from France and Germany and I think my maternal grandmother's family is entirely from Germany.

I am first generation Canadian...


both my parents are from London (mum is from Wembley, dad is from Woking), but met in Vancouver

and my boyfriend is also first generation Canadian - his parents are from Belfast.

For the most part my family hails from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales - but there is also some German floating around.

My family has just made a very interesting discover lately - on my maternal grandmother's side we have been able to trace our family back to 10th century Yorkshire :eek:

In case I'm not reading this right, please clarify and tell me you are not mentioning this in response to Enlightenment06's post.

My Dad's side of the family goes way back to the pilgrims. Not sure which boat they came over on. But they landed in Massachussets, and left (okay, banished), and established Rhode Island. My great, great, couple more greats, grandfather signed the Plymouth Compact in 1638 which some historians say established the first democratic form of government. Pretty cool.

The other side is not so easy to research, so I don't know when they came over. And I know I there was an Indian on my great-granmothers side.

My paternal grandmother's mom came over from Scotland when she was a little girl. Her mother was supposedly Irish, but grandma says Scots didn't talk about such things. It was embaressing. :rolleyes:

I am as about american as you can get. A big mix of stuff.

Sigh. Unfortunately, same here. I have to trace my American roots, because I know nothing of my African ancestry and don't know how many generations American I am, though I know I'm at least a 5th generation. On my mother's side, I can trace back to my great great grandparents, and my great great gran was born about two years after Texas slaves realized slavery had ended. I think my great great grandad was born into slavery (they were from a small town, Carthage Texas).

My dad's side is even sketchier. We are from Alabama and I know that we have a mixture of African, Native American and European (maybe English) blood on that side.

No, you don't have to explain yourself in every single post. It just seemed like a really random response and I wanted you to clarify it.

Dad's Side
Scot-Irish. . .we're descendants of the McDonalds who were fueding against the McKays during the Middle Ages

Dominican Republic. . .my great great grandmother was sent here after WW2

Africa. . .

Mum's Side
Creole. . .French and African

I have a friend who is a McKay. She is getting married this fall. Her Dad is wearing a kilt, and they are having bagpipers playing traditional ceremonial music. It is going to be so cool.

Mine's pretty easy as well.

My mother is from the UK (Salisbury area).
My father's grandparents were from Russia and Romania, respectively. They took a boat over to Ellis Island, and my grandparents and my father were both born in New York.

So I'm first/third generation American

I was reading this. . .and I just started laughing at the banished parts
Some of us had some rather rowdy ancestors
My Scot Irish relatives were mean people
When they can for the Oklahoma land race, the story goes that someone stake the property that they were going to claim in spite

So we got left with some not too shoddy land
Years later, my relatives waited until the people left to visit relatives in some other state
And they burned the people's barn to the ground
They never found out who did it because they blamed it on a brush fire
Folks. . .OKLAHOMA doesn't get THAT hot.

Juneteenth!

My dad's side of the family is Irish, but we don't know exactly when they came over. His family is compiling a family tree and I haven't been updated on it in a while.

My mom's side... well, no one's made an effort to preserve our family history. I do know that I am part Cherokee. There has been a dispute on the origin of the surname Aiken and I have no clue where the Henry's came from.

Here I go.....
I am 1st generation American bron
My parents came here from Iran (Persian) not to be confused with Arab please. (it happens a lot) during the Iranian revolution, and for college, they were escaping religious persecution, they are/were not Muslim.

My mom's parents:
Grandfather~ Persian Kurdish
Grandmother~ Hamadan, Iran

My dad's parents:
Grandfather~ Azarbaijan (Persian Turk)
Grandmother~ Tehran, Iran

hmmm like enlightenment I have no clue about my ancestry. My mother's family is from Alabama. Mother's side has english, african, and native american ancestry. My dad's family is from South Carolina. If you ever heard of the low country people "gullah" and "geechee" my dad is descendents from them.

I've heard of low-country people. My mom is also from South Carolina. My ancestry is primarily African; where I don't know. My maternal great-grandfather was French.

I'm VERY into genealogy, so I'm just loving this thread!

On my dad's side, I'm third generation English & Swiss, from Sussex & Bern.

On my mom's side, I've been able to prove 9 generations in America, but there's one link that I have to prove before I can do a WOO HOO!!! Connected to the Mayflower!



May I add my 2¢?

Everyone should be proud of their heritage BUT! No one's is better than anyone else's!

I agree completely. My Dad's side may have pilgrims, but on my Mom's side we had an ancestor from S.Carolina fry in the electric chair. Everyone has their skeletons.;)

I think I'm fifth or sixth generation American, but I can't remember for sure.

On my mom's side, I'm almost entirely Czechoslovakian with a little Hungarian thrown in.

On my dad's side, I'm half English and one-quarter each of Irish and German.

Not a whole lot exciting going on in my family. We even share the relatively rare last name of a famous musician but we're not related to him . . . boring.

South Korea
Hawaii
Cuba

My grandparents came to Argentina from Eastern Europe. My parents were both born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They both came to America, met, married and had me!

http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmili.../pinkieone.gif http://216.40.249.192/s/otn/wink/smily012.gif http://216.40.249.192/s/contrib/blac...milecrunch.gif

It's great to see where everyone's ancestors are from. It's great to see so many different places where people are from :)