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Where Are You REALLY From?

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  • Where Are You REALLY From?

    So, inspired by a discussion in another thread, I'm curious if there are any genealogy fans, and if you're interested in sharing anything about your family history.

    I guess I'll start.

    I've done the whole 23andme DNA test, and also have a rather large tree on My Heritage. As you can see by the attached jpg, I'm primarily British/Irish and French/German with a bit of Scandinavian and just a tiny dash of Iberian, Ashkenazi and East Asian/Native American.



    A split view (which users have the option of seeing if both parents are in the 23andme database) shows that most of the British/Irish comes from my mom's side, and most of the French/German my father's. Most of the Scandinavian comes from my father's side, the Ashkenazi from my mom's side, and both sides show traces of Native American.

    Genealogy research confirms all of the above. Though my grandmother was orphaned as a child, she swears up and down that her grandmother was half Indian. Unfortunately, I've hit a roadblock trying to get past my grandmother's mother. There's just not much information to be found there.

    The payloads are my father's father, and my mother's father's sides of the family. Thanks to the fact that one of my dad's 2nd cousins is a history professor and a professional genealogist, we've been able to trace my father's father's side all the way back to 1275 (though the earliest person with a similar family name starts in 1484). This family line is mostly German, and the surname is thankfully not so common. Lots of Johann's for the first names. Jakob seems to be the second most popular. Lots of Anna's and Maria's for the women. Most of my ancestors were relatively average people. Probably farmers. When I lived in Germany I actually visited the sleepy foggy little village my family left before coming to America in the 1830s. One of my relatives knew Martin Luther, and thanks to our cousin there's a pretty decent genealogical book that goes into some personal diary notes, and legal records.

    My mother's father's side I'm still piecing together. One of my direct ancestors was drafted into the Civil War, but was unqualified because of sickness. He died a couple years after the war ended. Another direct ancestor was a captain in the American Revolution. This great great great great great great grandfather of mine was probably Dutch, but it's hard figuring out precisely who his ancestors were (though I have a number of good leads), but his wife is the more interesting one. She was Scottish American. For the longest time I couldn't find any information about her, especially about her mother, but then one day I found a relative match that suggested her mother's name, and then another, very distant relative match, that confirmed it. Her mother had the prefix title "Lady", which suggested some weak nobility, and from what I can gather her father was a man named The Honorable John Stewart, who was the son of Alexander Stuart, 5th Earl of Moray. He was a descendant of James Stewart, the 2nd Earl of Moray who was notoriously murdered. There's a famous Scottish ballad about him called The Bonnie Earl O' Moray.



    From there you can trace the lineage winding all the way through Scottish nobility including folks like Robert II of Scotland and Robert the Bruce, and then, tentatively to the earliest kings of Scotland.

    Anyhow, yeah, pretty cool stuff. Sorry for the long read. What about you all?
    Last edited by Adrift; 07-07-2015, 03:00 PM.

  • #2
    Half Scottish border country, half Isle of Wight with a touch of Germany. On average that means I'm from Milton Keynes.
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    • #3
      Euromutt. Or more specifically a northwestern European mutt.

      A quarter Swedish. A quarter Norwegian. A quarter German. And a quarter what we simply call British (a mix of English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Dutch -- from the time a bunch of Brits were living there). Still there has been a rumor of the possibility of some Sioux blood having snuck in there somewhere in the British side and if you ever had seen my grandmother's nose you could see why. Classic Plains Indian.

      I'm always still in trouble again

      "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
      "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
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      • #4
        That is really interesting Adrift. We have had ads on tv for 23andme lately though IIRC they tend to come from the direction of letting a person know what health issues they may be susceptible to. I think I am probably also mainly Irish/British/German/French/Dutch. My mother's father's paternal side were from Prussia. My husband's paternal line is Welsh.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Abigail View Post
          That is really interesting Adrift. We have had ads on tv for 23andme lately though IIRC they tend to come from the direction of letting a person know what health issues they may be susceptible to.
          In America, 23andMe got in trouble with the FDA because it was offering both genealogy and health information. The FDA claimed that by providing peer reviewed research about health information, 23andMe were essentially offering a diagnosis (which they weren't). I was able to get in right before they got in trouble, so I have both the genealogy and health data, but current purchasers of the kit will only get the genealogy stuff. There are ways to get some of the health data from 3rd party companies though (free).

          I think I am probably also mainly Irish/British/German/French/Dutch. My mother's father's paternal side were from Prussia. My husband's paternal line is Welsh.
          Fascinating. I wondered about people in Europe, and especially England. Being an island nation, I figured there wouldn't have been much variation unless you go pretty far back. Cool stuff!

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          • #6
            All I know is I've got some Irish in me. I'd like to know more, but honestly was never sure how.
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            • #7
              Originally posted by Zymologist View Post
              All I know is I've got some Irish in me. I'd like to know more, but honestly was never sure how.
              The DNA analysis through like 23andMe or Ancestry.com are good starting points. That will give you at least an idea of your genetic makeup, but it won't help a whole lot if you're looking for exact family names.

              If you have a relatively uncommon last name, you can find a lot simply through google searches. One good website I ran across while working on my genealogy is Find A Grave. It's kinda morbid sounding, I know, but you can find a lot of great information about your ancestor's fathers, mothers, spouses, siblings and children through it. A number of people on both my mother and father's side have entries there. I don't know who added them to the database. Some were distant relatives I'm sure, but a lot I think were simply curious third parties (maybe a cemetery caretaker?) who take photos of the tomb stone, and attempt to fill in as much data about the person as is possible. I've found that not all of the data collected is 100% accurate, but it's a good starting place.

              Also, certain libraries store genealogical information. I happen to live not too far from one of the best in the country. Here's a good list of those types of libraries:
              http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/9-libraries

              Also, just signing up to a genealogy tree builder website like MyHeritage or Ancestry.com will get you going in the right direction. They can auto-find legal records for relatives if you can enter in at least some data about your parents and grandparents. They'll also match your results with others who've put together trees. Problem is that a lot of these sorts of auto-match things will cost you a bit of money. Not too expensive, but still. The tree builder itself is usually free, but the auto-match add-ons sometimes cost money. Sometimes you can glean enough info from the peak at the record they give you to connect the dots without paying though.

              Interesting thing to keep in mind with a lot of genealogy websites is that they're often owned, staffed or started by the Mormons so that they can perform baptisms of the dead. If that makes you feel uncomfortable, then your options for tree builders is a bit limited.
              Last edited by Adrift; 07-07-2015, 08:56 PM.

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              • #8
                My maternal side is pretty much all English, my paternal side is Scottish and English.
                Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

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                • #9
                  Solid genealogy back hundreds of years puts my family in Scotland. Arrived in US late 17th century.

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                  • #10
                    German from my mother's side (she was German) and tracing back my ancestry on my father's side, turns out I am pretty much a mutt too. English, Irish, Scottish, probably some American Indian, maybe some black African.

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                    • #11
                      My family (Surname) name we have traced back through Pennsylvania to Germany. My Dad's mother was Irish/Scottish. My maternal side is English, both Maternal Grandfather and Grandmother have English Surnames. My maternal grandfather always said that the man who came to America from England was a blacksheep. My mother's maiden name is a very well known name in London.
                      "What has the Church gained if it is popular, but there is no conviction, no repentance, no power?" - A.W. Tozer

                      "... there are two parties in Washington, the stupid party and the evil party, who occasionally get together and do something both stupid and evil, and this is called bipartisanship." - Everett Dirksen

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                      • #12
                        My father's side we can trace back to then- Salzburg,Germany, now Salzburg, Austria. Our family even has its own website with our geneology on it, so that's cool. They arrived in the late 1700s in the US because of religious persecution. They were Lutherans in Catholic-dominated Germany. Anabaptists (?) from Britain helped secure journey to the US. On my mother's side, we hail back to Ireland/Scotland. But I'm sure there's a lot of other stuff mixed in the middle.
                        sigpic

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by heartablaze View Post
                          My father's side we can trace back to then- Salzburg,Germany, now Salzburg, Austria. Our family even has its own website with our geneology on it, so that's cool. They arrived in the late 1700s in the US because of religious persecution. They were Lutherans in Catholic-dominated Germany. Anabaptists (?) from Britain helped secure journey to the US. On my mother's side, we hail back to Ireland/Scotland. But I'm sure there's a lot of other stuff mixed in the middle.
                          cool.

                          I found out that one of my ancestors sailed with a slaver, John Hawkins, who also sailed with Sir Francis Drake (a real pirate)

                          http://www.americanjourneys.org/aj-030/summary/

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                            cool.

                            I found out that one of my ancestors sailed with a slaver, John Hawkins, who also sailed with Sir Francis Drake (a real pirate)

                            http://www.americanjourneys.org/aj-030/summary/
                            It's the little stories like this that make researching your genealogy so rewarding. There's been a lot of days where I'll be burned out looking through all of the faceless names, and then I'll come across some old record in a county review or something, and there'll be some interesting story about an exploit they had. That always helps get me motivated to keep digging.

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Adrift View Post
                              It's the little stories like this that make researching your genealogy so rewarding. There's been a lot of days where I'll be burned out looking through all of the faceless names, and then I'll come across some old record in a county review or something, and there'll be some interesting story about an exploit they had. That always helps get me motivated to keep digging.
                              Just remember, as they say for every prince that you expect to find you're likely to find half a dozen horse thieves.

                              I'm always still in trouble again

                              "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                              "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                              "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

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