CFC Family Histories

[Traitorfish]

From "History Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread VII",

My father was in WWII. Both my grandfathers were in the Army during WWI (although neither made it to combat). All of my grandparents were born in the 19th century. So getting more info on their parents at this point not so easy.

Huh, I didn't notice the extra page. When I was born my grandparents were 35 and 37. My great-grandparents were too young for WWII, but my great-grandfathers could have served in Korea. Beyond that, I've no idea. Nor did they; both my great-grandmothers were raised in orphanages, and both my great-grandfathers were shipped to Australia by their parents to escape WWII.

The only time my maternal great-grandfather ever spoke about his family was to shout at The Sound of Music; "No one was ****ing singing when they were fleeing Austria, you stupid b****! We were huddled on a train hoping the Swiss wouldn't stop it!" Apparently, his mother had worked as a secretary for Dolfuss, which convinced them that they would be at best harassed, at worst shot. That's the most he ever discussed, and he was pretty drunk at the time.

Three of my grandparents were all preteens/teens during WWII. My paternal grandfather had quite some memories during WWII of walking by dead bodies on the way to school a lot. My maternal grandfather however was in his early 20s, studying in Paris and left literally weeks before Nazi forces moved in. Actually, now that I realize it, he should've been around my age right now. Never got the chance to ask him about that, though, since he was the first of my grandparents to go and I was relatively young - that would've been really interesting to hear. I don't hear much about my great-grandparents anyways, except my maternal grandma's mom, but the only notable story I know from her is that she died while she was praying in a temple, which is kind of a cool way to go, I guess.

My dad was born during World War II. This might be interesting, it's something I only found out within the past couple of years. My paternal grandfather was a guard for Haile Selassie during his exile.

My grandfather was a chemist. My other grandfather was brn in the deep, rural country and had a myriad of jobs before he created a quite successful garbage disposal company running on not-very-legal practices and he sold it to an American company. He's been doing various investments since. My father and maternal uncles are all trained engineers, though my father works as a programmer I think and my uncles are both consultants for the same firm. My pternal grandfather's father worked at an electric car company, I'm not sure as what but possibly as a salesman. Maternals were all peasants, for what I know. My maternal grandmother's mother ran away from her town in the deep Aragonese Pyrenées to marry her stepbrother, then came here and survived as she could, while her husband caught the tuberculosis doing the military service and died soon afterwards, I don't know if before or after my grandmother was born.

Pretty diverse history.

Do we want to break this off into a "talk about your family history" thread? Plot?

Professionally -

Father's side:
Dad is a county parks employee. Landscape Architecture and Planning
Grandfather worked as an engineer planning projects in various places around the world. Apparently he was in Saudi Arabia for some time in the 70s and was in Chile when things were getting hairy with Allende
Again I know nothing about my paternal family beyond that other than the family moved to Great Britain from Nürnberg in 1871/2

Grandmother was a stay-at-home mom(?)
I don't know a whole lot about this side of the family either because - again - they never talk about their family, and my paternal family is extremely tiny to begin with. But this side of the family is from Cardiff. One of them apparently served in the Royal Artillery during WWI. We have a bunch of his service medals hanging on our wall. Another was a Classics Professor

Mother's side:
Mother worked as a business manager in various places in Chicago and the Bay Area before she quit to be a stay-at-home mom.
Grandfather worked as a carpenter and then as an engineer
My mom's paternal side of the family ran a fairly successful construction company. Apparently they built sizeable chunks of Sioux Falls, SD in the 1940s and 50s. Before that both sides of my mom's family were homesteaders in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Iowa. A Norwegian branch came over in the 1840s and a Pommeranian branch came over in I think the 1850s or 60s? There's a Scots or Irish side of the family whom our family genealogist is still trying to pin down. Apparently they came over in the 17th century.

Add your own, and feel free to expand on any of the above comments!


For meself,

Paternal grandfather's side of the family are Irish; his grandfather came over from Donegal in the 1890s, the rest I think from thereabouts. (Most of the Irish in Scotland came from the old Ulster Province, the six counties of Northern Ireland plus three counties in the Republic.) First one was a dirt farmer-turned-labourer, next was a panel-beater, then a clerk, then a teacher; pretty standard multi-generational immigrant success story, really, until I screwed decided to screw it up with a useless liberal arts degree.
Paternal grandmother's side were coal miners from Galloway; apparently there's some Irish in there, but she doesn't really talk about her family, so I'm not sure where or how much.
Maternal grandfather's side is an odd one: my paternal great-grandfather was from a wealthy Protestant family- his father owned a major local construction firm- but he was disowned for marrying an Irish Catholic. He became a joiner, I think, and his son, my grandfather, managed to get a scholarship to Glasgow and became a veterinarian. (No small achievement for a working class Catholic in the 1930s!)
Maternal grandmother's side is more straightforward: Irish on both sides, moved over some time in the 1880s or '90s. Mostly in the building trade, I think; her father was a builder's foreman by the time he retired, very much your "respectable working class", wore a bowler hat on Sundays.

 

[Kyriakos]

I am a direct descendant of the House of Great Komnenoi.

 

[Lohrenswald]

You wrote paternal four times, Traitorfish

I'll add my own a bit later

 

[Borachio]

Both my parents were primary school teachers who only entered teaching because they came of age during the Depression of the 20s and 30s and the government were crying out for teachers, but no one else.

My mother's father was a journeyman labourer (as it says on my mother's birth certificate) which meant he had no discernible trade or profession. And my mother's mother never did a day's paid work in her life (though she did claim she would have been a nurse, if only she "hadn't had naturally curly hair" - the mad bat! I discovered years later that her naturally curly hair was the result of a perm - and if only she could have been able "to put up with the sight of blood".) My mother's father, a widower, married my mother's mother as a favour to her family (and because he wanted a housekeeper and mother for his son) and no one else would have her.

Anyway, he died after WW2 (unlamented by anyone), and my grandmother promptly married the Polish lodger - 30 years her junior - who had been conscripted into the German army, taken prisoner by the Americans, and conscripted into the British army, and billeted with my grandparents.

My mother's mother's family were the principal tailors in the Lancashire textile town where they lived right up until the Depression when they simply went bust and never recovered.

My father's father was a dairyman (from Shepherd's Bush, later moved to Manchester), and could have done well, except that he got ill, went through the Depression, died, and his business went bust when my father's mother couldn't run it properly and wouldn't let anyone else (like my father) run it for her.

A pretty Depressed, and Depressing, bunch, all things considered. But I liked them. Though I never met my father's parents, nor my mother's father.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

You know Lieutenant Dan in Forest Gump and how there's a scene where he explains that all of the men in his family have been in every American war back to the revolution? That's my family (mother's side), more or less, though it stopped at my generation. I had a great-great-whatever-grandfather who was at Valley Forge with Washington and then a long list of greats that were in most of the major wars up through Iraq II and Afghanistan.

My father is the son of a Spanish immigrant; she married his GI dad when he was stationed in Madrid. I don't know too much about the Spanish side of my family to be honest, though I know my grandmother's sister and her husband have done very well for themselves in Spain. Apparently he was a waiter at a restaurant for years and years and when the owner retired, he gave her husband the business. He used that platform to launch some other businesses and like I said, he's done well for himself. Their kids live and work in Australia, oddly enough, but I don't know much else about them.

My mother's side is the militant one and they immigrated pretty early in American history.


Oh and I'm also the direct descendent of one of the few kids that survived the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Damn Mormons tried to wipe us out.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Father's side:
Descended from clan MacGregor in Scotland, married English. Came to the states before the Revolution - changed our last name spelling to differentiate ourselves from the Tories during the war. Had a distant relative (not in direct tree) in the Blue Eyed Six.

More immediately, my great-grandfather fought in WWI and was a minister up in Vermont, my grandfather fought in WWII and then started working for NASA. He got polio in the 50s and wasn't able to walk since. My dad is an architect.

Mother's side:
Distantly descended from the Roman emperor Probus (I'm not clear on the specific lineage), so I'll be taking your oaths of fealty tomorrow. Mingled with Germanic blood, and came to the states and settled in PA with the rest of the Pennsylvania Dutch.

More immediately, I'm not sure what my great-grandfather on that side did, but my grandfather was too young to fight in WWII although he worked as a Navy radio man. After that he eventually worked as director of naval laboratories, where he helped develop the nuclear sub. Mom was a teacher, and now works for a non-profit after being a stay at home mom for a long time.

 

[Kyriakos]

Lovecraft had drawn a family tree of his where he was related to Yog Sothoth and other notables

 

[thecrazyscot]

We are all but pustules clinging to Azathoth's corpulence.

 

[warpus]

I only know my family history back to my dad's grandparents and my mom's grandparents. After that it's very vague and uncertain due to the shape the country was in at the time and all the upheaval involved.

I did find our last name on a "Polish royalty" list, but I haven't been able to track it down since. It's not very common, but there are people with the same last name who live in several American states for instance. I think one in Toronto too. We have no idea who they are.

 

[Leifmk]

Father's side:
My father and his sisters were the first in their family to get a higher education. He was born in 1947, youngest of four siblings. Went to college and became a teacher; met my mother at some pretty early point in that process and they got married long before they graduated. Graduated, got jobs, started having kids (i.e. me and my two sisters). After about a decade as a teacher, wanted to switch to a different career and got into aquaculture with farming on the side; stayed there until retirement.

My paternal grandfather and grandmother were in many ways a typical rural/coastal Norwegian married couple. Both born in 1907; had four kids between 1937 and 1947; had a small farm and a fishing boat; were quite a bit more strictly religious than the norm (this did not really pass into any branch of the next generation). In some other ways they were a bit untypical; although neither ever had the opportunity to get a higher education, they were both more intellectually resourceful than the norm. Grandpa was involved in local politics (even served as Mayor or whatever of our small municipality during the 1960s) as well as in the national fisherman's association. He was retired and had just started writing a sort of memoir when his health started failing (Alzheimer's can go to hell); died in 1984. Grandma lived until 1997 and was basically a beloved honorary matriarch of an increasingly huge clan.

Mother's side:
My mother was a teacher like my dad and she's still working as a teacher (close to retirement age now).

Maternal grandparents: Grandpa went to university and became a pharmacologist; worked in pharmacies. Grandma was a home-maker. They had four kids between 1950 and 1960; then grandpa developed health problems and died tragically young in 1968, so I never met him. Grandma remained a widow and somewhat solitary until she died last year.

Great-grandparents and beyond, on both sides: 99%+ Norwegian fishermen and/or farmers since Odin killed Ymir and fashioned the world from his corpse. Occasional stragglers such as a priest or a soldier or (allegedly) an itinerant Jewish craftsman, but everything regressed to subsistence-level fishing and farming.

Not very interesting, I know, but it's what I have.

 

[Farm Boy]

Oh and I'm also the direct descendent of one of the few kids that survived the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Damn Mormons tried to wipe us out.

That explains an exchange we had a couple years ago!

 

[warpus]

"Okay guys.. I think the last slaughter was a bit too much. We've got to tone it down a bit. From now on no more massacres, and while we're at it, no more coffee or tea. We've got ot draw a line somewhere."

 

[PhroX]

My family's more recent heritage isn't hugely exciting, though go further back, and there are a few vaguely interesting things. For example, I am descended from one of this guy's illegitimate children (and thus this chap's sibling).

 

[Lohrenswald]

So like most posters in the questions thread pointed out, I too know nothing about my great-grandparents and beyond.
Except this thing:
One of my great-great-(I think another great)-grandparents was most likely a illegitimate child of king Oscar II of Norway and Sweden.

But anyway:
My maternal grandfather (I call him momdad) was among the very few who was born during the occupation. He went two Norway's technical high school (now elevated to a university) and became an engineer. He actually worked with computers, and in the late 60's I think he and my grandmother moved to Sweden a few years to work on building a computer (It took a team of people a few years to build a single computer). They moved back Norway the day before Sweden switched to driving on the right.
He's also the only person on this side of the family that doesn't vote for the labourer party.

Unfourtunately I've never been able to quite grasp what my maternal grandmother (I call her mommom) did as work. Was it something with telephones? Anyway they're both are from the same place in Norway, and my grandmother was born after 1945, I think. Now they're both retired.

My mother was born in Sweden while they were there. She has an engineer education, but is employed at a position that require less skill, but pays more. She calibrates military equipment.

My paternal grandfather (I call him bestdad) is from the inland near Sweden. He's done all sort of things and rather proud of saying he went to "life's hard school". At some point in time he sold blankets. Now he's retired and lives in the country on a property filled with all sort of mechanical junk he never uses and has withered over the years. In his later years he's unfourtunately become somewhat of a racist and wolf-hater.

My paternal grandmother is the only dead of the four (but I used to call her bestmom). I never figured out what she did, It hasn't crossed my mind to ask.

These two were apparantly among the first in the country to divorce. I think they both have remarried a few times, and this side of the family is an unsortable mess of half-siblings, some of which refuse to speak with eachother. There's also a few "bad eggs" on this side of the family (really one guy in particular, actually).

My father is a car mechanic by profession. A few years ago he felt like 20 years was enough, and tried to work like customer service at the same place for about a year. Now he is a teacher for future car mechanics, and enjoys that job a lot.

Lastly, my parents are divorced, and that has to me been a solely negative business.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Paternal grandparents immigrated from somewhere British Isles. Maternal grandparents immigrated from Scotland. Maternal grandparents survived the depression, paternal grandfather did not.

Father was career air force followed by civil service followed by civilian aerospace triple dipper, bigoted beyond all stretch of imagination. Mom was 'liberated' to work despite minimal skills so she could freely spend "her own money" while her income bumped his tax rate such that he lost more than she made. Her motto was "what's mine is mine, and what's yours is ours". Kids mostly raised ourselves, though I benefited greatly from my older sister.

 

[_random_]

I suppose we share a common heritage of dirt farmers and coal miners, Traitorfish.

Mom's side:

Mom's a nurse. Middle child of three from Ohio.

Her father was a Navy medic during the Korean War, stationed in Japan. Worked for GM after going to college on his GI bill. Her mom delivered mail on the weekends but otherwise stayed at home.

Her maternal grandfather was an important figure with the United Mine Workers, organizing their unions in Kentucky. Got shot in the gut during an altercation with a rival union in Harlan County. Survived. Died drunk driving later.

Her family name is Scottish. A clan from Ayrshire, according to Wikipedia. I haven't found much more specific family history though.

Dad's side:

Dad's a Baptist preacher. Youngest of eleven from eastern Kentucky.

His dad was an intermittently employed logger and kind of an awful person for reasons that might be too disturbing for this forum. His mom worked the family farm. I know one of her grandparents was Cherokee. She didn't completely pass as white and was pretty ashamed of the fact. Neither of my paternal grandparents had much education. I want to say my grandfather went up to sixth grade and my grandmother went up to fourth.

Our family had a feud with another from the same holler after one of my dad's brothers killed a guy after a night of heavy drinking. Sheriff said it was self-defense. My name is a pretty generic German name, which is a bit odd for an established family in Appalachia. I traced it back to two brothers who moved to America in the 18th century, but haven't been able to find anything from Germany. I know they were Lutheran originally, but the family joined a Moravian congregation in North Carolina a generation later. So I suppose if I have an ethnicity, it's "Protestant." They had a good bit of land there, and possibly some slaves (I haven't seen records mentioning them specifically, but their plantation was large enough it would be strange if they didn't). My branch moved to Kentucky shortly thereafter. I have some 3x great uncles who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War there, although Kentucky never actually seceded.

So I'm not terribly proud of this side, all things considered.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Mine is sort of patchy, but it reads like a typical story about Jews from Eastern Europe:

Dad's side:

Great-great somethings lived in the Pale, probably on a shtetl, somewhere near Minsk. The only story I know about them is one that occurred during World War One. At some point during the war, probably in the later years, my family had to house a German officer for a little bit. I believe my great-grandma was a little girl at the time in the house. According to my family, he was a gentleman and very polite. He left soon without incident. Except the Germans took my family cow. I not sure the veracity of this part, but apparently the cow walked away from the Germans camp and came back to my family's house, where the Germans promptly took it back (or shot it, I don't remember).

They left Europe sometime after that. They landed in Canada and made their way through to Chicago, where I think they had family already living.

My grandma's Dad, was a pharmacist in the city. As for my grandpa's parents, I'm not really sure, but he's got the usual depression tales (he came from a very large family, as opposed to my grandma who was an only child).

My grandpa and great-uncle served in World War Two towards the end. My grandpa was a lawyer who worked in an army prison. And my great-uncle was in training to be a ball gunner on a B-24 when the war ended. There was an accident in training at one point, and the ball turret wouldn't raise (this was below the plane) and they almost had to let him go in order to land the plane. Miraculously, after my uncle pleaded for his life they somehow got it to raise and he didn't die that day.

After that my grandpa continued to be a lawyer. My grandma was also a lawyer and worked for the Post Office. My great-uncle became a high-school history teacher in Evanston.

Mom's side:

This side I don't know very much about because my grandparent's are dead. I know that they probably came from a similar place in Europe, though I'm not sure if it was as far north as Minsk, or around the border with Ukraine. Somewhere in Eastern Europe.

We have pictures of our great-something in army uniform, and I have posted it here before. I'm not sure if we could figure out if it was an Austrian military uniform, or a Russian one. Either way, at some point they end up moving to America and live in Chicago.

My grandpa was a mechanic and truck driver, he worked at a sausage factory I think in the city. My grandma didn't work and instead raised a family. When she was a kid she was apparently a very good runner, but I'm not sure what happened to that story. My grandpa ended up serving in Korea. And my uncle served in the military, but I'm not sure if he served in any conflicts.

My family name was I think something made up when my Dad's side immigrated through Canada. Would make sense, since I think it's an English word.

EDIT: I think my mom has a family tree from her side of the family, could be interesting to look into to find more of this stuff out.

 

[Traitorfish]

My name is a pretty generic German name, which is a bit odd for an established family in Appalachia. I traced it back to two brothers who moved to America in the 18th century, but haven't been able to find anything from Germany.

Not as much as you might think! Germans made up something like 5% of the population of the Southern back-country in the 18th century, they just tended to Anglicise their names over time, so it doesn't always show up very clearly in later records. An 18th century date would be about right; German immigrants post-1790 tended to head straight through to the Northwest and tended to retain their surnames more clearly.

 

[classical_hero]

My paternal grandfather was an historian so there is a book he wrote about our family history on that side of the family. I do know that some distant relatives were some of those who came to Perth when it was first formed, but my Dad's side came here in the 1950's after the war. Both my grandfathers served in the war and my paternal grandfather was part of the D-Day invasion, since my father has his war medals. Both of them came here to get away from the horrors of war.

An interesting fact is the my maternal grandmother would have been sent to the concentration camps if she lived in Germany because her maternal grandmother was Jewish and this she was 1/8th Jewish and would have been sent if she was captured. Thankfully she lived in England and thus never subjected to those horrors. Does this make me Jewish according to orthodox Judaism? I don't know and frankly don't care that much if I was or wasn't considered Jewish.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Does this make me Jewish according to orthodox Judaism? I don't know and frankly don't care that much if I was or wasn't considered Jewish.

Yes, as orthodox Judaism holds that you are Jewish through matrilineal descent.