Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: Russ on April 06, 2020, 01:11:30 pm
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So i was wondering if any of you guys do family history. I find its fun to connect with my ancestors. This quarantine might be the best time to try and find out who your ancestors are! I found out im mostly German and English.
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We've got ours back to 1634 here in North America and 1 generation further in England. Lots of history there.
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I'm 2nd generation Irish(57%{Sligo})on my Father's side. His Dad came from England in the late 1800 to NYC then Savannah, GA, Dad was born in 1900. On my Mom's side it's mostly English with a touch of Cajun. The Henderson's(Mom's) go back to the early 1700 in NC but went to Arkansas, Louisiana(Cajun, great granny), Mississippi, Florida and finally Georgia. My Mom's Dad was in the paper and timber industry.
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My sister is a devout genealogist. She's got the Case side back to about the American Revolution when we appeared in Ontario, Canada. She's stuck there but she thinks we were United Empire Loyalists. All other branches pretty much go to the British Isles. My paternal Grandmother was Texan, although her father was from the Ilse of Man.
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well actually here's a picture of it. i guess its not germany but everywhere around germany lol
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I'm First Generation here on my Father's side. Not much to look up and I only been here 65+ years so not far to look back ... ;)
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According to old church books my ancestors have been living in the same valley (an area of some 50 square miles) since 1490's on my father's side and maybe a few decades less on my mother's side. They most likely originally came from what is today Serbia and relocated to today's Slovenia due to the Ottomans and stayed in the same area for the next 500 years or so. In fact both family names can be traced to their respecitve villages as far back as 1600's. My father's surname is mentioned in relation to "attempting to incite a peasant's revolt". The guy got punished with 30 strikes using a "light stick", tried to incite another revolt a few years later and got sentenced to 30 heavy stripes using a "heavy stick". No mention of defying authorities for the next 370 years after that. On my mother's side the surname is mentioned across several generations as clergymen or their brothers. More recently, one of my great great grandfathers came from Italy some time before 1900.
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I love my direct family's history. I've "studied" my dads side extensively. Im the 5th generation off the boat from Germany. My family earned its way over here by twisting up rope in exchange for rides on ships. It took them a few years and several stops. But they made it and here we all were and are. They had intended on settling in another German Catholic community about 15 miles farther away. But, the carts were falling apart, the weather was miserable and the ox were whooped. So they stopped in Fowler, Michigan. Needless to say I belong to one of those super enormous midwest German Catholic families where every family had 6-10 kids each back in "the day".
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100% Dutch as far as I know.Pretty much all farmers.My sister did a heritage history of us long ago talking to very old local relatives of us tracing us clear back to the Netherlands.I have long shirt tail relatives there.
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My wife got me one of those DNA history kits. The results didn't line up with what we've been told on my Dad's side. The small percentage of African was a surprise.
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My Mother's side is Portuguese/ German. Rutherfords for the German side and Josephs on the Portuguese. Dad's side is Irish, Leatham for that side. 5th generation Floridian.
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Haven't done a DNA thing yet, but my grandfather on my mother's side traces back to Flanders and Zeeland into the mid 1500s, her mother claimed she was English, but her maiden name was Craig, which could be Scottish or Irish, maybe northern England. Her father or grandfather came through Canada. Pretty sure my grandmother on my dad's side was Irish(McCoy), and his dad was German, but Dad changed his name to McConnell when he was 16. I'll likely do a DNA swab the next time they have a sale and maybe find out more.
Hawkdancer
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Haven't done a DNA thing yet, but my grandfather on my mother's side traces back to Flanders and Zeeland into the mid 1500s, her mother claimed she was English, but her maiden name was Craig, which could be Scottish or Irish, maybe northern England. Her father or grandfather came through Canada. Pretty sure my grandmother on my dad's side was Irish(McCoy), and his dad was German, but Dad changed his name to McConnell when he was 16. I'll likely do a DNA swab the next time they have a sale and maybe find out more.
Hawkdancer
I dont think i would ever want to do a dna test if theres a needle involved. if theres not maybe ill try it someday. all of the percentages are just names tracked back to the 1700. i just hook my name up to my parents and then their parents and their parents. the troublesome part is when you get to a point where the oldest one in the family doesnt know his great great grandparents. then the digging begins. but the fun part is, is that you got the whole family, and i mean whole family people in the family on the site and soon you got a huuuuuggggeee tree. sometimes you find connections to people you dont know.
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Some od my family did the DNA tests and it pretty much reaffirmed what we knew already, that we're from England.
I have several relatives that have done alot of family history work but I'm personally not all that interested in my pre-American ancestors for whatever reason. I guess I just don't connect.
One of my aunts uncovered a letter on an ancestor. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and was captured by the British. The captives were tied to a log and a British commander went down the line asking for names. He spared my ancestor and one other gentleman because they had good last names, then split the heads of the other prisoners with his saber.
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Found out I'm about 1% from Ghana/Code d'Ivoire according to the genetic test. Plenty of Neanderthal thrown in there, too.
Diversity is one of my strengths, ya know...
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According to old church books my ancestors have been living in the same valley (an area of some 50 square miles) since 1490's on my father's side and maybe a few decades less on my mother's side. They most likely originally came from what is today Serbia and relocated to today's Slovenia due to the Ottomans and stayed in the same area for the next 500 years or so. In fact both family names can be traced to their respecitve villages as far back as 1600's. My father's surname is mentioned in relation to "attempting to incite a peasant's revolt". The guy got punished with 30 strikes using a "light stick", tried to incite another revolt a few years later and got sentenced to 30 heavy stripes using a "heavy stick". No mention of defying authorities for the next 370 years after that. On my mother's side the surname is mentioned across several generations as clergymen or their brothers. More recently, one of my great great grandfathers came from Italy some time before 1900.
That's cool to have such deep roots :D I've often wondered if I would feel differently about "things" if my family had lived in one spot for hundreds or thousands of years. I saw an Australian production about human migration. One of the people was an Aborigine and his mothers line had been living in the same small area for over 30,000 years. That's got to do something in your head. :D
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Pretty much like Pearl. German Catholic farmers . Came here after the big fire of 1881. There is one of the oldest Polish settlements in America about 10 miles west. I remember my dad telling me my grandma told him not to go out with those polish girls.lol. I was related to almost every girl in my school. Took me 36 years but I found a good German girl from another school closer to the polish settlement.lol. Being German wasn’t one of my priorities.
My cousin went back to the homeland farm a few years ago. He brought some dirt. Gave everyone a little. I ate some and spread the rest on my farm.
Bjrogg
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My wife has done a lot of genealogy on both hers and my family. My European ancestors came to Canada in the 1600's and are a mix of French, English, German and probably a couple others. My native side is Mi'kmak, Abanaki and possibly Naskapi
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My people came from England in the 1600 , settled in the NC then moved west to middle TN. :) :) In Early 1700, we were goat herders for the king in the 1400's and the king crested our family for that. I will put up a picture of our crest if I can fine it, pretty cool. :) I am just a typical European white male, nothing special. :)
Pappy
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My first Ancestry DNA test had me a 48% Scandinavian, 30% english, 9% eastern european (Russia) 7% southern mediterranean and the rest undecided.
They updated the results lately and came up with about the same except the 48% scandinavian had been changed to eastern european and added that I had 1% from a tribe in the congo.
We have a long family history of Cherokee blood with my great grandmother supposedly being full. This didn't show in my DNA, I later found that Cherokees don't have a distinct genetic profile like western tribes. Their genetic code is diverse and mixed and can't be pinpointed, they even have Jewish DNA in their profile.
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Pretty much like Pearl. German Catholic farmers . Came here after the big fire of 1881. There is one of the oldest Polish settlements in America about 10 miles west. I remember my dad telling me my grandma told him not to go out with those polish girls.lol. I was related to almost every girl in my school. Took me 36 years but I found a good German girl from another school closer to the polish settlement.lol. Being German wasn’t one of my priorities.
My cousin went back to the homeland farm a few years ago. He brought some dirt. Gave everyone a little. I ate some and spread the rest on my farm.
Bjrogg
I'm curious--what big fire in 1881?
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Jeff there was a large forest Fire here in 1881. It must have been terrible. Many died. I heard stories of people hiding in wells and rivers. Many still died. I also have heard that many went out to Lake Huron. The ash from the fire made a lye solution and many died with their skin pealing off.
After the fire farmers moved in. My great grandfather came over with other families from Germany then.
Bjrogg
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I don't wanna throw cold water on everyone, but be sensitive about collecting family history. In college, as part of a genetics course, we had to collect and diagram our family relationships. My father has always been a cold and tight-lipped man, but I went around him and gathered information from external sources.
The stories I got were hair raising, to say the least. I tracked all 38 living and dead family members from his side back to my grandparents and that's exactly where the trail went cold. I submitted my diagram for the class and took my grade.
A year later I was called by a woman that said she believed we are related. I told her I really doubted it, but sure, let's compare notes. She arranged to meet with me later in the summer as she and her husband drove across the country on vacation. She brought computer print outs of the genealogy going back to the ancestor that immigrated from Norway in 1872. My family on my father's side expanded from 38 living and dead to over 400 in America alone.
She was very careful ask me if I was going to handle this well if I got information that was disturbing or painful. She explained there was a lot of pain, anger, and even violence associated. I agreed to not hold her responsible, seeing as neither she or I were part of the drama. In short, our branch of the family tree was "pruned" off. Let's just say that when my father found out I knew about our family history the very poor relation he and I have always had was over.
I am no longer welcomed home for family events, half the family tolerates me at best (most of them have not been exposed to the family history), and the others are openly hostile. It's not any great loss to me, as we were never much of a close family to start with. The generational dysfunction really rides our family hard.
When you start probing family history, be sensitive. Remember that sometimes a lie is the kindest truth.
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John, my Dad used to say...never look in closets, you might find skeletons. Made me want to look deeper. ;)
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You have to remember many folks were "exiled" for crimes like smuggling, sheep stealing, etc! Not everyone was an stellar citizen, war hero, or whatever!
Hawkdancer
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You have to remember many folks were "exiled" for crimes like smuggling, sheep stealing, etc! Not everyone was an stellar citizen, war hero, or whatever!
Hawkdancer
Yup more than a few black sheep out there from every generation. Like Jerry said. There’s a lot of things that are common place now, that could have got your head chopped off not so very long ago.
Bjrogg
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My sis belongs to the local genealogy club and they are usually very excited when they find a murderer. The mother of a friend was doing her genealogy and happily so for about a year when she discovered that a long lost uncle was a murderer. She was so choked that she threw everything away and wouldn't talk about family ever again. No figuring how people are going to react. I guess it depends on the morality of the crime.
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That's irredeemably extreme, ostracising someone because he found out some old family secret.
A few years ago my grandfather received a letter from the USA inquiring about someone whose name read like an anglicized version of his long deceased uncle's name. The uncle emigrated to Pittsburgh (he supposedly owned a store there) around the year 1900 (we don't know exactly when) and stayed in the USA until his death. As far as we knew he had no children. We emailed them all the info we had but received no reply. I suppose they got their information and didn't want any more trouble with us.
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Im a maclean,my ancestors were products of the Highland clearances in Scotland after the defeat at Culloden at the hands of the English...my gggggggrand father left Scotland (moidart) and settled in Nova Scotia canada.there is a similar story on my mother's side..
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Sheep stealer, bounders, and brigands of all kinds! "And ye cannot go home to Ireland or even Scotland instead, ye cannot home to Ireland for the crown has a price on your head!" ( from a song I wrote "Ye cannot go home"). History isn't what we've been told! Darn!, we're cheerful today!
Hawkdancer
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Far as I'm concerned nothing has more affect on WHO you are more so as a human being than your direct parents,gaurdians,aunts and uncles, or grand parents.Knowing right from wrong.Knowing the right thing to do etc. etc.
It's good to know your heritage but it does'nt make WHO you are as a human being at the present moment.
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Well said! I agree wholeheartedly!
Hawkdancer
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I know, i was talking pretty recently, like i can see how its affected my family.
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I've been debating about posting in this thread, but you guys covered the issue I have, so here goes.
I'm by genetics 62.5% Native (haplogroup B subtype) and the rest is Scottish. I don't know everything about my family, as my mother is dead and I was disowned by her family for being a halfbreed (never mind they weren't pure white.) My entire family tree is hidden racism and hate. My father is 75% Seminole. His father and on back are 100%. My paternal grandmother is 50% Mvskoke and she hates anything that isn't white. Pop and Gramps marched in Selma. I ended up a halfbreed (their words not mine) and part of the family can't stand me cause I don't act "white." I remember the faces of my fathers and mothers. I won't forget where I came from, or the struggle they've had to get their rights. My brother, who shares the same genetic mix as me but doesn't have my genetic condition looks the opposite of me-we barely look related.
My mother was insane. There is no other term for it. Her behavior got her rights terminated and my paternal grandparents adopted us. I was much closer to the source of Native learning that way, and I am very thankful for it. I know very little about my mother's family, other than the fact that she was a model. I only know that from pictures my grandmother saved. As I understand it, they came from money and were embarrassed by their daughter marrying and having kids with someone not white.
Interestingly, I can trace my Native side back to mine slaves in South Alabama. As they were slaves, when they were freed there was an agreement made-if you were a slave you can't be counted as a Native American. No matter what your genetic makeup. I could be counted as black, though. It's made getting my Native ID and Native Artist number impossible. I'm now just one town over form the Poarch Creek, and they recognize my claim without being able to extend membership. It's a painful place to be. I know my clan, know my lineage, know my history and even speak a little of the language, but federal law prohibits me from being an official Native. Federal law prohibits a lot for Natives, if you dig into it.
I'm not trying to be political, cause I didn't name parties-they all did it. But it always comes up when I talk about my geneaology. There's no way to talk about who I am and who my people are without mentioning the way the laws shaped my family.
If you have questions, I'll answer them as I can. I can get links to laws and such if you guys want them.
I know these things are distasteful to talk about. However, for me it's a reality. I'm confronted with it every time I talk to my family.