Family History - Tell us!

[TheLastOne36]

As requested in another thread...

What is your family history? As in, where does your family originate, what cool stuff has happened in your family et cetera.

My family history is very interesting..

My dad's side is Polish with the first record of my Polish side in the 1100's, when my ancestor was the royal guard of the King of Poland.

Due to this, my family has a family crest, and was quite wealthy in the history that followed. Over time my family owned quite a bit, and were businessmen, and in the 1800's, owned a large factory in Moscow.

Following WWI, the Russians destroyed everything and ruined all of my family's wealth, and my family became just regular everyday people from Katowice, Silesia.


My Mother's side comes from France, Spain and somewhere in Africa.

The French side came from Normandy and was presumed to be descendant from Normans from Scandinavia. (So I'm Viking! ) I believe they later immigrated to somewhere south of France, in Toulouse or something.

Later on, my ancestors got an opportunity to own a plantation in Haiti, and moved there, this is where I got my Black Ancestor. During the Haitian war, my family got screwed over again when the Haitians took over the plantation. Most of my family from Haiti immigrated over to Colombia, but my Grandfather migrated to Venezuela.

My Spanish side is from Galicia, and they migrated over to Venezuela and Colombia. My Grandmother was born in Colombia, but immigrated over to Venezuela when she was young. She met my Grandfather and that's how my Venezuelan side started.
----
My Dad escaped Poland during communism and went to an Polish Camp in Italy where other Poles escaped to as well. He later migrated to Venezuela for a year, met my mom, and married her and brought her to Canada where I was born.

I moved to live in Poland when I was 16, and now live in Venezuela to run my Uncle(he's Swiss ) and Aunt's tourism business from Merida, while they run it from the Rafting Camp in Barinas.

---------------------------------
Now Dazzle me with your family histories!

 

[kulade]

bout 500 years ago or so my family got hellabored in europe so they and their friends decided to conquer the world. went pretty well for them. the moved to merkuh and begat people who begat me. tru storie.

 

[Imperialmajesty]

Bunch of Italians came over from Europe, shagged, and I was born.

 

[Onionsoilder]

Meh, I don't remember the exact details, but apparently I'm descended from Daniel Boone. I'm also nobility, since some thousand years back my family did some favor for the English king. I am OnionBaron!

 

[JohnRM]

I can trace my Mother's side of my family back to an immigrant named Anthony Adam who came here from somewhere in southwest Germany in 1732. My Mother's side of the family is reported to be mostly German, with some Irish. My Father's side is reported to be mainly Dutch, but I can only trace the family back as far as Jackson, Tennessee.

My Great-great-great-grandfather was apparently some big-time German military officer, but I don't know much more than from the picture my Great-Grandmother used to have of him. Spike-helmet and all.

My Grandparents on my Father's side both took part in World War II. My Grandmother was awarded a medal for service during the Cold War.

My Dad says that my Grandmother's side of the family fought for the Union (Pennsylvania), during the American Civil War, and that my Grandfather's side of the family fought for the Confederacy (Tennessee).

My Uncle fought in the Vietnam War. Though he survived and, as far as I know, is still alive today. I consider him a casualty of the war, nonetheless.

My Aunt saw service during the First Gulf War, in Saudi Arabia.

 

[bigdog5994]

on my Grandmas side i am a descendant of William The Conqueror of Normandy the first Norman King of England

and on my granddad's side they were a bunch of German shepards

 

[cardgame]

My family lived in Poland at one point (before 1900s, probably in the 18th/early 19th century) but I don't have any documentation or anything of that... My great-grandfather immigrated to 'Merkuh from Austria just before WW1 broke out. There may have been others who came to America earlier, but I don't have any evidence for it.

I think I heard a family rumor that we had it very well in Poland but there was some gov't reform or something and we lost most of it.

 

[Godwynn]

In order of most prevalent:

German
English
Swiss-German
French
Scots-Irish
Cherokee

Here I am.

EDIT: Since you wanted something interesting, everyone in my direct paternal line is born with light blue eyes and brown hair.

 

[JohnRM]

Oh, I'd say that at this point, I am pure 100 percent Pennsylvanian!

 

[kulade]

Due to this, my family has a family crest, and was quite wealthy in the history that followed. Over time my family owned quite a bit, and were businessmen, and in the 1800's, owned a large factory in Moscow.

I think I heard a family rumor that we had it very well in Poland

Is not too hard to be rich in Poland. Haven't you seen Eurotrip?

 

[aronnax]

My ancestors came from Fuzhou region in China. I have a book that records all the generations of the Hong Family (Telling you my surname because well... There are a million Hongs in this world and you will probably never find me) and it goes back to the reign of the Ming Emperor Hongwu. I am like the 18th Generation descendant.

We were probably all farmers and village people. Europeans get cooler family history, cause they keep moving around.

Anyway, my Grandfather (Paternal) immigrated to Singapore when he was 9 with his Uncle in 1938. This was 4 years before Japan invaded Singapore. He married my Grandmother when he was 15 and she was 13 during the war as it was common for people to marry young because they might die anytime.

My grandfather made his wealth and then lost it, and gained it again by helping my Father set up business. He died this year, leaving my Father as the Head of the Hong Household for both the Singapore and China sides. My grandfather built a mansion in China for my China relatives to live in on the condition that our family will always have access to it.

My grandmother as well as my maternal side were born in Singapore. But I dont know much.

 

[emzie]

My granddad got interesting in genealogy and traced his surname to a village wiped out by the Plague in Cornwall. I thought that was pretty cool.

 

[Gilder]

Dunno a bit outside what makes me up. I'm English, Scottish, Irish, Dutch, German, Cherokee and Canadian.

My last English ancestor immigrated to Pennsylvania around 1850. I had a Canadian marry into my... father's side of the family I think, sometime in the 1940s. No one knew he was Canadian until after he died, so there's little information on his.

My grandmother actually kept a notebook on family history, but I haven't seen it since shortly after she died.

 

[sophie]

Well, let's see here:

My father's side is a bit murky, but my Grandmother is 100% Welsh (from Caerdydd though, so who knows) Aside from that, I don't know much about them. My Grandfather's family was from Bavaria and had the last name Friedrich, and later moved to England, where they changed their last name to Frederick during the First World War. My great grandfather served in the Royal Artillery during WWI, we have a bunch of his medals in my parent's living room.

On my mother's side: Lots of Norwegian blood. Our Norwegian link is called Tovik, and apparently have an island in northern Norway where some of our distant relatives still live. My side of that family moved into South Dakota in the mid-1800s, settling along SD/MN area. They built a Lutheran church there that still stands to this day.

Additionally my family is Prussian, and we're supposed to be distantly related to a Prussian Prince

My ancestry in descending order is:
Welsh
Norwegian
Bavarian
Prussian
English
Scottish
(We aren't too sure on this, but we're supposed to be French too )

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

My dad's side of the family can be traced back to 16th Century Lancashire. They came over to Maryland Colony late in the 17th century and started up a tobacco plantation. From them I claim both distant lineage to the House of Stuart, though by marriage and not by bloodline, and likewise to J.E.B. Stuart, the Civil War cavalry commander. Also, one of my ancestors was responsible for designing the uniform for the Maryland Militia, which eventually became the standard for the Continental Army during the Revolution. I have a letter of recommendation from George Washington himself saying what a wonderful job he had done and endorsing him in his pursuit of other employment after the war.

My mom's side of the family is German and Irish, but live in Newfoundland. I don't know much about their history save for that they were unremarkable people, probably fishermen and the like. I think there is also French and Russian from her line, but I can't be sure as they didn't keep records like my dad's side did, and my mom has pretty much disowned her family.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Also, one of my ancestors was responsible for designing the uniform for the Maryland Militia, which eventually became the standard for the Continental Army during the Revolution. I have a letter of recommendation from George Washington himself saying what a wonderful job he had done and endorsing him in his pursuit of other employment after the war.

Wow, thats pretty cool.

 

[mechaerik]

My family hails from Mexico. Me and my siblings were born here (although i think my oldest sister was born in Mexico). My father was the classic illegal immigrant for years before he settled down. Worked all over the state for <Minimum wage, sending large portions of it back to his family, had run ins with la migra, etc. When he got older, he and my mother settled down in a small apartment here. They eventually got their Green Card and got decent jobs, as well as raise a family. The family grew, and now we live in a moderate house. Now my parents are citizens, and have even registered to vote, which they did for the first time during the Democratic primary.

My last name apparently comes from Spain, and is apparently descended from some sort of title (i've researched it).

 

[thomas.berubeg]

On my Mother's side, I am pure, 100% unadulterated French Canadian. On my Maternal grandfather's side, My Family can be traced to minor French nobility in Roquefort, who emmigrated to Canada early on in the French colonization, probably to escape some trouble with the law. MY Maternal Grandmother's family has been in Quebec since pretty much as long.

My Paternal Grandmother's family were rich Hungarians before WW2, but lost quite a bit then, because of Jewish ancestry (they had converted to Catholicism in 1918 because being Jewish in hungary was unsafe) Much of that side of the family died in Concentration camps. My Great Grandfather survived, through luck, and my Great Grandmother and her children (including my Grandmother were hidden in a Franciscan monastery) After the war, the soviets seized the factory and placed them under house arrest, after a time, they realized they had to escape, and so managed to bribe thier way to and through the Hungarian border, and eventually ended up in Montreal. My paternal Grandfather was in the Canadien airforce in the 1950s, after his father, who was a Wing Commander during WW2

 

[Icekommander]

Most of my family is pretty murky (especially my paternal side) and not alot of reasearch has gone on there but what I do know is:

My mothers side is 100% English decentents, classic western-canadian settelers. My Grand-father I know came over as a young child, and grew up on a farm, my grandmother more or less the same, specifics I'm unsure of.

My PAternal side is alot more intresting. My grandfather on that side is completely unknown to me, and I belive my father as well (He left the household when my Dad was two). My PAternal Grandmother cam from Latvia, and my great grand parents emmigrated around the end of WWII (they got to experiance all the fun stuff like Soviet occupation, German occupation and re-Soviet occupation, all that fun stuff.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Both my grandmothers have a fair amount of German ancestry.

I used to think that both my paternal grandparents were descended from Francis Scott Key (the author of the poem that later became our national anthem), but it turns out it was from another guy with the same last name and rank during the war of 1812.

My paternal grandfather's ancestry was mostly Norman, but we have no evidence of his ancestors fighting at Hastings. The first person in my family with my last name to come to America came here in 1688, and was knighted by King George I. He was apparently descended from the Early of Middlesex. It seems most of that side of the family left America during the revolutionary war, and were presumably loyalists. I am descended from a lot of Royal Governors, including the first, Lord Baltimore. I believe I found that through Lord Baltimore I'm descended from the Plantagenet kings (which I guess means I do have ancestors at the battle of hastings on that side of the family too).

Edit: looking it up online it seems we may be mistaken about the early history of my family in America. It seems we may have been here sooner, and that Sir George was knighted by Elizabeth I, not George I. There were apparently a lot of George's in the family though, so maybe one was knighted by King George too. It seems the first one in America was Thomas, who was born in England in 1604, came to America in 1635, and died in Virginia in 1653. A son named George was born in Virgina.

It seems my paternal line returned to the United States in the 1830 or 40s, and was the first to settle in Georgia. Supposedly the guy who settled in and founded an eponymous town near Millidgeville introduced the first watermelon (or at least the first African Grey Watermelon) to the United States, but wikipedia says the Spanish introduced watermelon a couple centuries earlier.

On my mother's side I am descended from people who fought on both sides of the Battle of Hastings. Most tend to be peasants from Northern England though. There is also a little Scottish ancestry on my mother's father's side, which we had previously mistaken for Italian. On my mother's mother's side I'm descended from the daughter of an important Cherokee Chieftain.

I forget exactly when, but my mother's side came to the united states sooner than my father's. They fought in the Continental Army under George Washington, and were eventually paid with a couple thousand acres of plantation land in Alabama. They had a rather high fertility rate, so the slave run plantation was soon split into many small family farms where children instead of slaves did all the work. I think I very vaguely recall hearing of some moderate abolitionists on that side of the family by the time of the civil war.


It seems that during the Civil War most my male ancestors were Confederate Army Surgeons, and none common soldiers. We still have the journals (well, typed copies of his handwritten journals) of my father's mother's father's father during the last couple years of the war. Apparently he cared about supporting the south so much that he stayed in Philadelphia for the first 3 years of the war so that when he went back home he would get a cushy job at a fort close enough to his plantation that he could still live with his wife, who bore him a son (my great grandfather) in the 4th year of the war. He then went on the road with the Army of Tennessee, after it had been reduced enough that most historians forget to mention that it still existed. He comments on the wisdom f the rule that said that any cavalry officer caught wasting ammunition by firing at abandoned train cars would be punished by having his horse given to the company surgeon (him). The shortest entry in the journal was on the day General Lee surrendered, when he notated that nothing important happened that day. (I wonder if he was actually quoting from King George III journal on the day that Cornwallis surrendered.) He never acknowledged the surrender, but the journal does outline his voyage home, making note of the various Masons with whom he stayed and some enjoyable raspberry wine he shared with one. He of course does seem rather racist about the now free slaves he see wandering around for no apparent reason (i.e., trying to find the family members that had been sold away from them). On the day of Lincoln's assassination he goes on for several pages about how the nature of warfare has changed, postulating that in a hundred years wars would be fought with flying machines, automated vehicles, and missiles that can attack from thousands of miles away.