Your Ancestors

Discussion in 'The Chatterbox' started by Uncle Trojan, Aug 20, 2021.

  1. Terry

    Terry Tool Admirer

    They weren't hillbillies either, but they'd have fit right in.

    Well....


    tp
     
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  2. Paul Turner

    Paul Turner outside the quote(s) now

    It's THE BEVERLY STOOGES!!!!
     
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  3. Terry

    Terry Tool Admirer

    Well....
    Probably.
    tp
     
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  4. jimjo1031

    jimjo1031 never bloomed myself

    Both of my parents were born in Greece. But my Dad was a US citizen because my Grandfather became one because of his service in the US Army during WW I. Going back a couple of hundred years, both sides came from the Epirus area, at one time related, then moved to the Macedonian area. During the Turkish occupation, my Mom's family had a good amount of wealth (gold, silver and jewels) and buried it to keep the Turks from getting it. But a female relative dug it up and left in a hurry. My family and other relatives also owned land in what is now called "The Plaka" in Athens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaka). Why or how it wasn't kept in the family, I don't remember. I should've wrote things down my Mom told me. She was the unofficial historian of her village. My Grandfather, Mom's side, also owned a flour mill, which is now a museum. My uncle, one of Mom's brothers, fought with the partisans during WW II when he was about 16 years old. During that time, a Gestapo officer rounded up relatives of known partisans, including my Mom's, and had them grouped at a wall to be executed. But by luck, the local command of higher rank, stopped the executions. He wasn't a Nazi, and because of him, I'm here today.
     
  5. brit

    brit in a box

    basically brit-danish over hundreds of years.family member in England is building/reseaching the history at present..
     
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  6. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    I'm lucky that my family has retained records and preserved the stories of my family that came before.

    We are decended from Anacher, Great Forester of Flanders. He died in 972 AD.

    My family migrated to England fairly early on, and several of them fought in the crusades. One of them was on the losing side in the battle of Sterling, where Robert the Bruce crushed the English army and regained Scottish independence. He survived the battle.

    My family emigrated to the United States on the Mayflower.

    Benen Foster served in the Revolutionary army, was wounded, but survived.

    President John Adams was my great (×6) grandfather.

    My great (x3) grandfather served in the American Civil War, 144th volunteer Pennsylvania infantry, IIRC.

    My great grandfather on my mom's side served in WW1, and was a full blooded Cherokee, but I know no more of him than that.

    One of the more notable members of the family was Lodawiska Adams, John Adams grand-daughter. A travelling trader told her father he would leave his inheritance to her if he got to name her. He happened to be hauling a 'load of whisky,' which is how she ended up with her unusual name. She burned to death along with several of her children. Her dress caught fire as she was writing a letter to her husband, who was working in the gold fields.

    My great grandfather on that side of the family was a founding member of Goodwill Industries, and donated a large parcel of land to that institution. That land was the site of the Lighthouse oil strike, one of the richest oil strikes on record. My great grandfather on the other side of the family, developed the seedless orange. He ended up selling his farm, which covered thousands of acres, for .05 cents an acre, because the land "was worthless for anything but growing oranges." That farm covered the entirety of what is now Rolling Hills Estates in California.

    I've made it my life's work to be less stupid than my Great Grandfathers.

    Members of my family have served in every major conflict America has been involved in, with the exception of Vietnam, and my father's unit of the Marine Corp Reserve was on standby to be deployed. He was visiting his parents one last time, and was getting ready to leave, when my grandmother remembered that he'd gotten a letter from the dept. of the Navy. He opened it. It was his discharge papers. They celebrated that night!
     
  7. richgem

    richgem suffering from chronic clicker hand cramps

    Well, an amazing family. But I think you forgot the mic drop at the end. ;) clearly you have won this thread.
     
  8. wristwatchb

    wristwatchb wristwatch "danger" b

    You were a cute kid, Rich.

    1.jpg

    Life has been tough, though.

    2.jpg
     
  9. richgem

    richgem suffering from chronic clicker hand cramps

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  10. Eeyore

    Eeyore Well-Known Member

    I do, back to the 17th century for some in my ancestry tree. But it's all not very impressive, and mostly they (my dad's ancestors) stayed in the same region for centuries.
    For my mom's side, we could not trace them back until the late 18th century. Not very impressive either, and not much further spread out.

    No kings or knights in my direct ancestral lines, I am afraid ;) Just peasants, farmers, fishermen, and one or two soldiers.
     
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  11. lightcs1776

    lightcs1776 Well-Known Member

    And to Me, that is impressive. Just saying.

    Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
     
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  12. Ursa

    Ursa Well-Known Member

    My Dad's side is French, First Nations, and Black, while my Mom's side self-identifies as Croatian.

    I've traced almost all of my Dad's ancestral lines back to either a First Nations person, or a person who emigrated to New France.

    Notable ancestors include Jean Nicolet (famed explorer), Mathieu da Costa (first free Black man to set foot in New France), Helene Desportes (probably the first non-First Nations person born in New France).

    My Frist Nations ancestors come from the Kootenay, Nipissing, Algonquin, and Mohawk First Nations. There are possibly Wyandot and Mi'kmaq lines, too. I'm still working on those.

    Interestingly, almost all of my French ancestors came over from Normandy, on the Celtic fringe. Many of them had to be of Celtic descent; my DNA results show that I'm about 17% Irish and Scottish.

    DNA results also show that I am actually Slovenian, not Croatian. Eh, close enough for jazz.
     
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  13. BigMike

    BigMike Well-Known Member

    I have an uncle who is is now 90 years old and is still as sharp as a tack. He tells fantastic stories about his dirt-poor mother who graduated top of her class from Harvard, his prankster uncle the Catholic priest, and his grandfather the teamster-turned-dairy farmer with his giant Belgium horses King and Prince. I keep asking him to write those stories down for posterity. Names, dates of birth and death, even professions say so very little about people. Their character stories are always so much more lively!
     
  14. gadabout

    gadabout Well-Known Member

    Awhile back, I got hooked on the genealogy thing and bought some genealogy software. I entered all my known family history, most of which was told to me by my mother while she was still alive. I can only go back as far as my great grandparents though. Being a first generation Italian-American, the information is hard to come by.
     
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  15. Paul Turner

    Paul Turner outside the quote(s) now

    If he's talkinabout Lincoln, it is. I admire his quotes on stuff.
     
  16. Paul Turner

    Paul Turner outside the quote(s) now

    Ah yes...the humor firm of Feinstein, Horowitz and Horowitz (their real last names).
     
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  17. Kilgore Trout

    Kilgore Trout The Smart Bunny

    Funny how nobody descends from Joe the Ragman.
     
  18. Kilgore Trout

    Kilgore Trout The Smart Bunny

    Especially his work on the internet.
     
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  19. Paul Turner

    Paul Turner outside the quote(s) now

    That's what I was most interested in while helping my Mom with her mother's ancestors.....not the names so much as what were they LIKE.
     
  20. Lancre

    Lancre Well-Known Member

    As more DNA data accumulates from more users that may shift. After all, they are right next to each other, and I would expect considerable genetic similarity.
     

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