Lineage, and Family Trees

PinkStar17 · #1 06-17-2001, 04:21 AM

Hey, I haven't posted a topic, but I was thinking about this and wondered if any other chapters were like us here in miami, florida

Here at my school we have lineage's, and family trees. What your big sister or brother is in will determine what lineage you are.
We also give them names,like DarkSide, Flipmode, Mafia, etc.. and they usually have their own shirt colors, different from our pink jersey colors.
its just a fun way to get creative with your immediate lil family when u get a big sis( twins, grandsis, etc)

also when i got a big brother.. he adopted me to his lineage as well.. and we have our own "family" colors for that its a fairly common thing on my campus..every chapter here does that..

also.. do other chapters give nicknames to their innitiated members? here we get our nicknames after we are innitiated. but since nationally we are discouraged from having nicknames we put them on shirts only.. not our jerseys..i hear that some sororitys dont even wear jerseys???? i also heard that its usually just frats that get nicknames.. is that true???

but its our way of getting creative..
just wanted to see what everyone else out there did in their chapters

[This message has been edited by PinkStar17 (edited June 17, 2001).]

Tom Earp · #2 06-17-2001, 11:24 AM

pink star, while it sounds like it is doing well with you chapter, there is one of our chapters that did the same thing. There got to be a strong rift between the Brothers as to their family tree!
Beware that the same does not happen with you!
As I told the Brother who brought it up, We are all of the same in our Fraternity and not just groups within.

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Tom Earp LX Z#1
Pittsburg State U. (Kansas)

SilverTurtle · #3 06-17-2001, 01:28 PM

We have had families, although we didn't have different colors or anything. Bigs would make their lil's family trees with the lineage. I just got an email from my great-great-great-grand lil' a few weeks ago!

Her big (my great-great-grand lil') was a new member when I was the new member educator. Some of the families, like mine, are rather close. Others aren't

My lil' and I are great friends... we even work together & hang out a couple times a week!!

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SilverTurtle

Phi Beta Fraternity: National Professional Association for the Creative & Performing Arts

PinkStar17 · #4 06-17-2001, 02:44 PM

TomEarp,
I know ive seen it happen at other chapters at my school (we have a small greek system..where everyone knows what organization someone belongs to..10 frats 6 soro.)
i have seen some chapters become really divided..which begins to reflect on their entire chapter, because the unity will not show.. however, in my chapter we are all very close.. and its never been a problem.. but i can see what u mean how some might start to become divided.. but we dont take it to that extreme.. its just something we do for our bigs and lils..
some are even part of 2 lineages,
like im a Mafia Darkside..cause my grandsis was adopted into another lineage after her big sis left..

so it depends on how each chapter works, but sometimes it can be fun

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Love, Honor, Truth

33girl · #5 06-17-2001, 08:46 PM

We didn't have family names, but we did have certain "family" things like lavalier design (ex, our family's was silver diagonal) and some of the big-little gifts that were given.

We didn't have nicknames - some of us did, but not in the sense of "from now on, your Delta Tau Chi name is Pinto" etc. The guys did do that though. I told my non-Greek boyfriend that that's one Greek stereotype that is 100% true - all the guys have incredibly stupid nicknames. Monkey, Flounder, Smurf, Pancake....I could go on, and the sad thing is I couldn't call some of these guys by their right names if you paid me.

PinkStar17 · #6 06-17-2001, 09:23 PM

LOLOL...
33girl
that was hillarious.. "ur delta tau chi..is pinto"
my nickname wasnt given like that..LOL
but it gave me an idea...
i have tons of nicknames.. but my offical one if really weird.. "Dep-n-ga" long weird story...email me if ur that curious

but some of my other ones are funny and cute.. given to me my other sisters, and phi sisters from my class

here its not uncommon to have so many nicknames..
ive seen shirts like.."so and sos lil midget"
"so and sos lil cookie" etc etc..

matthewg · #7 06-18-2001, 12:54 AM

Hi Pink Star,
that is really cool - we in Germany do have the same thing: both, the family trees and the nicknames. Fortunately, it is not at all like Tom Earp described from one of his fraternity's chapters and it does not affect brotherhood in a negative way.

SilverTurtle · #8 06-18-2001, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by 33girl:
...I told my non-Greek boyfriend that that's one Greek stereotype that is 100% true - all the guys have incredibly stupid nicknames. Monkey, Flounder, Smurf, Pancake....I could go on, and the sad thing is I couldn't call some of these guys by their right names if you paid me.

LOL!

This is so true. Even our professors called some of the guys by their nicknames. And I have to think really hard to remember some of their real names!

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SilverTurtle

Phi Beta Fraternity: National Professional Association for the Creative & Performing Arts

Katey Alpha Gam · #9 06-18-2001, 11:39 AM

I completely agree, I have NO clue what some of my friends real names are! It's so weird! We kinda have lineage and family in our chapter. We pick matching letters and stuff like that. What's bigger, I think is inter-fraternity family lines. Like when a sorority girl gets a big brother or a fraternity guy gets a big sister. That, to me is bigger b/c then ppl get matching shirts and hats and stuff. But maybe that just at my school???

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Katey, ZA chapter of AGD
"Could I have been anyone other than me?"-Dave Matthews

PinkStar17 · #10 06-18-2001, 01:16 PM

Katey, we have that too...me and my big brother got matching shirts they look really nice.. a navy blue shirt with gray outlining the letters and navy blue inside the letters..
its super cute..his nickname is fish, so he gave me a fish nickname too! and all his lil ones are in his "school of fish" but for him his nickname is an acroynm.. very funny..

LeslieAGD · #11 06-18-2001, 01:50 PM

PinkStar: It's funny that you should say that about the "school of fish" because my Big Brother is known as kind of a player and he used to have a ton of lil sisters (almost all of them are gone/dropped out now) and he called us his "harem."

shadokat · #12 06-18-2001, 02:07 PM

We have nicknames and family lines. The nicknames are so much fun. Mine is Lola, like the lady in the song Copacabana. Trust me, it fit at the time

We also have certain items that are passed down from big to little that have been around a long time. Our big family line gift is this handpainted barstool that the first person in our family line painted. Each time someone in the line gets a little, we add their name to the stool. It's really cool.

Katey Alpha Gam · #13 06-19-2001, 08:18 PM

Pink Star- Those sweatshirts sound really cute. My cousin is comming to school here next year and he is gonna be my little bro and we are gonna do matching shirts and call our family line "La Familia" b/c we are family already! I love the barstool shadokat!!! I wish we had something like that. Tho, simply by coincidence, every member of my family from my great great grand big down have been pledge class president! We raise leaders in my family line!!

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Katey, ZA chapter of AGD
"Could I have been anyone other than me?"-Dave Matthews

zete_boy · #14 06-20-2001, 12:04 AM

Great topic,

We have the same here, ours are only two for our chapter, one unintentional, it started when we were reactivated in 97, one of our reactivation brothers, Dale Gandhu (nickname Punjabi) got a little brother in the following class, then that little bro got one the next class, we didn't notice that every single class since reactivation had a little brother that was linked to Dale till my class the fifth one in, so we have the punjabi family that totals over 10 of the brothers, we have traditions in the family, that i try to continue like, dale's fav drink is Johnnie Walker, so the new guys in the family get initiated in the family by sharing an evening with the family drinking nothing but the good ol' JW. We have others but i can't remember them right now.

The other family we have is the Dogg Pound started recently by brothers, two guys who knew each other for years and went by the nicknames of k-dogg and wolf-dogg started it and they pick, not little bros, but initaiated brothers to join each class, the funny thing is over half are punjabi to my recolection (sp?) they have their traditions like a variation on our handshake, and other things i'm not privy to, because i am not a member.

But that's what we have, i think it's great to keep track of the family tree and keep it going, it's something to look back on and see who was in your specific family over the years.

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Edgar A. Hartling
Zulu and Constitution Contact
Zeta Psi Fraternity of North America - Alpha Mu Chapter
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia

PM_Mama00 · #15 06-20-2001, 12:32 AM

Hey Pinkstar. Are u a Phi Mu? If so, thats awesome that u guys get brothers. At UofM-D we're not allowd to have brothers. Delta Phi Epsilon does, but us and Phi Sigma Sigma don't. I wish we did tho. Oh well...thats awesome!

Lion Love

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It's not who always wins, it's who always gets respect...Phi Mu Rocks!!!
Phildo
PM'00