Never judge a book by it's cover and never judge yourself by your perceptions. My aunt who turned 65 this year created a comprehensive Family Tree for my father's side of the family. I am NOT what I thought I was all these years. LOL. It is funny how we peg ourselves based on our perceptions, and behave accordingly. Some cool facts and some facts that shattered some of my existing beliefs about who I am.... 1) I am German. For years as a teenager I remember saying internally, " I hope I am not German because of the Holocaust....". I know it sounds funny, but teenagers are crazy in their thought processes and I was no different. My oldest German ancestor that we know of was born around 1600 in Germany, prior to his family immigrating to the US in the late 1600's. 2) I am..........French. For years I made fun of the French by poking jokes here and there...well my earliest French ancestor was born in 1641 in Nantes, France before immigrating into Goochland County, VA in 1690. 3) I have ancestors that owned slaves....I NEVER thought that I had ancestors that owned slaves until this morning. I am so vehemently against slavery and racism altogether that I prided myself on the fact that I thought my family never owned slaves. Well one of my great, great grandfathers owned slaves when he moved from Virginia to Borboun Cty. Kentucky. Yikes, that shattered some stuff right there. 4). I have full blooded American Indians on my dads side with the last being a full blooded Cherokee Indian in the late 1800's. 5). I live in the same county as the first Tillett(my last name) that walked onto dry land here in Virginia back in 1641. UNREAL. That is absolutely crazy that I have lived all over country only to marry a girl and move to her hometown...and that hometown was the birthplace so to speak of my dad's side of the family in the US, 370 years ago. You guys have any unique or cool facts about your family's? It is interesting to me and I would love to hear about how your families came to the US or any other cool fact. It is weird that my background is so different than what I thought it was, but that is cool to me. Brett
we (one side of my fam) came to this country in 1841 from Birmingham, England to Birmingham, AL... we were poor cotton farmers from day one, in fact we didn't have indoor plumbing/electric until my dad relocated to the chicago area in the late 1950's... on my mom's side, one of my great great uncles used to ride with jesse james gang... he was never caught so it is family lore that tells me this...
On my mom's side: Great grandparents moved here from Belgium in the early 1920s. On my dad's side: Who knows? With a last name like "Hooker", we could be a mix of all kinds of things. The earliest he has traced his family was back to the late 1800s in east Texas and they were wealthy oil field land owners.
Cool guys! Hooker, my next door neighbor is from Belgium. She is a tough old lady. Also, on my moms side they are from Texas. They are the reason they have a Parker County, Texas as they came in with the first wave of people that settled Texas. Sevenmag--you have a treasure map or anything?
My Dad is 100% Polish, and my Mom 100% Italian. I don't know much about my Dad's side of the family for whatever reason. My Dad's parents were very strict. My grandparents on my Mom's side are first generation Americans. Their parents moved here from Sicily. That side of my family has always been very warm and welcoming. Maybe thats why I embraced that side of my family's history more.
Cool Vito. Do you know where your ancestors originally came into the US? How did you get all the way up there in Michigan?
very interesting read. I find it a little odd to worry about what my ancestors/country did in the past. I am part German, but don't associate myself with the Holocaust. I am unique and I live in a unique time, hopefully history will judge me for MY decisions and not the decisions of my family. So I have a provocative question for you. Since you are part Indian, do you think that someone owes you something for basically destroying your people or at the very least pushing them off their land? Good post!
That I do not know for sure. If I have been told, I don't remember how my great grandparents on my Mom's side got to the US. When they did come here, they settled in the Detroit area. Both my parents were born and raised in the Detroit area too. The city of Hamtramck, just outside Detroit, has a very high population of Polish people. That is where my Dad's grandparents lived. Not sure when or how they came to settle there.
French and German on my dads side of the family. Irish and Indian on my moms side. I guess thats where the drinking and fighting side of me came from. :D
Brett thats very interesting. I will try and dig into some of mine soon and post. My Mom is a geneoligy fanitic, it is interesting.
My mother's, father came over through Ellis Island from Norway. My wife looked him up in the books when she and some girlfriends took a trip to New York. She brought a copy home for my mom. My fathers family was German and Irish. I always figured we are who we are now, not so much who our great-great grandparents were.
I am not worried, just that I believe I am connected to forces greater than myself sometimes, and my ancestors offer part of that link. Like I said, I was a stupid teenager at one point in my life and teenagers have some weird thought processes. And to answer your question about the Indians, NO. I am also part Comanche on my mother's side (full blooded mid 1850's in Texas). I do not even think about that type of stuff. But NO is the answer, this world is/was full of constant change and people have been and will continue to be displaced/conquered. It is a natural part of the world. Fletch, on my mother's side, my grandfather was Irish. I never met him however.
Do they put something in the water in Texas? Seems like everyone from Texas says the same thing. Maybe they just never leave Texas
I leave Texas all the time. I enjoy other states and countries, but I wouldn't live anywhere else You have to live here to understand
This is an interesting thread. I don't know a great deal about my family. My mother's parents disowned her when she got pregnant with me and refused to have an abortion so she doesn't talk about them much. I also don't know who my father is and my mom won't tell me anything. :p I do know that my ancestors on both sides were brought from Japan to Hawaii to work on the farms there in the 1800s. They managed to save enough money to make the move to the mainland, (California). They were interned during WWII and had to start over again afterwards, but managed to do so. I am of Japanese descent, obviously, but conceived in California, born in Michigan, and 100% American. Also a quality shepherdess
me? im sicilian, german, and cuban. my dad moved to hawaii with his parents when he was about 15 or 16 from germany, and my mom is first gen american from her parents(sicilian). i really dont know how cuban got in there, but my dad says hes part cuban. i just go with it.
That IS interesting Daddy's. I lived in Hawaii for three years and there were a lot of people with Japanese Ancestry. There was a large asian population in general. I have a lady at my work whose family was interned in Michigan/Minnesota during WWII because they were part Japanese. Her family was displaced from Hawaii after living there for generations.
