Poll: How much do you know about your heritage?

[Heather in Neverland]

I don't know great details but lately I have been interested in it. The problem is my father adopted me from my birth father and all I have of my birth father is his name so I think it would be difficult to dig up info.

[weddell]

I have done just a little genealogy on my mom's side and traced every line back to when they immigrated. It is only 3 to 4 generations back so not super far. I don't think I plan to try and go back farther than that in their native countries. Everyone is a poor white farmer who moved to Iowa as far as I can tell. I may do my dad's side as well, but I don't think they were in the U.S. farther back than that either.

[fatfishes]

My grandmother spent many,many years researching the family tree.

I know that one of my ancestors married a deaf and dumb man and gave birth to 23 children.My Grandmother felt this showed how significant body language was.

My Grandmother believes that she has traced our family back to William the Conquerer's -half brother Robert.But going back that far-its hard to be certain.

Given how often people have looked at my son and asked if my husband is Mediteranian by strangers,I would guess that we have romany ancestors.

[abdesigns]

I love researching this stuff, but my sister and aunt are the ones who did the bulk of it.

 

No slave owners, no native american or african american. On my mother's side, we go back to Jamestown, we are related to one signer of the Constitution, and two Presidents. We also are related to three of Henry the VIII's wives (though, two of those only indirectly, this includes the two that lost their heads), so that makes us indirectly related to Elizabeth I. Since they were nobility, the tree was very easy to trace. I'm related to someone named Elfwine, don't know if that's a man or woman, but I LOVE the name.

 

My father never had his history, and never had family that he knew. I may have found the reason for it, his immediate family came here during one of the last pogroms in Germany before WWII. It appears as if the rest of his family either escaped to South Africa, then to Israel, and the members that were left died in the holocaust. My dad was raised as a Christian, and became a Protestant minister, for some reason, he doesn't believe my research, even though in all the old photos I've found, these people look just like him.

 

I'm getting ready to start my husbands, which will be really easy, since his coat of arms says everything right on it. His mom is 1/4 Cherokee, so my children do have Native American blood. On his dad's side, they are hard core Italian. I'm looking forward to doing his!

[Alice]

Do you know a lot or a little? Would you know if there were people of color (to include Native Americans) or slave owners in your family tree? Do you know which side of the Civil War your family fought on (or if there were people who fought on each side)? Has your family been in the US for many generations or only a few?

 

I know a little. My Dad's family has been here a long time, I'm not even sure how long. On my mom's side, my grandfather came from a family who has been here awhile. My Maternal grandmother was from France (met my grandfather in WWII and moved here as a bride). Her family escaped from Russia right before the Communist Revolution and was very secretive about their past. They were apparently quite frightened of something, changed their name and wouldn't even tell anyone exactly where they were from. Much later I found out they said they were Russian but we think one was really Ukrainian and one was Armenian.

 

I just found out this summer that on my Dad's side there were slave owners. His side of the family has a big family reunion every year and is trying this year to join with the side of the family descended from slaves who have the same last name (unsure if it was just slaves who took the same name or who were actually children of the owner).

 

We fought on the Confederate side, everyone who has been here awhile was in Virginia for a long time.

[Melissa in Australia]

I know heaps, my great grandparents immigrated to Australia from England. My grandmother is right into family trees, and has traced her ancestors back many many generations.

My Dh's family are from Germany, they are descendants of some Barron or something, and have a book of records that goes back to the 12th century. He and his siblings are the last entry, then the family line was broken ( his mother had no brothers)

[TravelingChris]

I marked the 1-3 generations and that would also be true for my husband. My parents immigrated in the late 50's and I was born a few years later. With my husband, his relatives immigrated all during the 1890's to 1910's period. One grandparents and all great grandparents were immigrants or stayed in Europe. Neither of us have any interracial marriage going back a long time (we probably do with Mongol invaders or some such group going back 800-1500 years). None of our ancestors fought in the War Between the States.

[Rebecca VA]

My ancestry sounds a lot like Cricket's! Maybe we're related? My dad's family came from Scotland (mostly) and Ireland and ended up in Leake County, Mississippi and central Arkansas. Several families have already traced back my family trees, so it was easy to get the information from Ancestry.com.

 

My mom was adopted under mysterious circumstances, and she died at a young age, so I'll probably never know anything about her family. I might be able to go to Memphis and have the records unsealed, but I'm not sure if they'll be accurate.

[lionfamily1999]

Do you know a lot or a little? Would you know if there were people of color (to include Native Americans) or slave owners in your family tree? Do you know which side of the Civil War your family fought on (or if there were people who fought on each side)? Has your family been in the US for many generations or only a few?

I think I know a lot. :lol: I don't know WAY MORE than I know, but I know quite a bit :D

 

On my mother's side there is Cherokee, but who's not related to the Cherokee tribe in the US? My mother's father's mother's great-uncle (ish, there may be another generation in there) owned slaves. He came over well before her family. She never owned slaves and is where our Cherokee line came in. I don't know if his family fought in the Civil War. I know he gave his slaves his last name and they were in Oklahoma when they were freed...

 

My mother's mother is first generation. She came here after WWII with her mom and dad.

 

My father's mother's family came over on the Mayflower. We're related to four different people from that boat and two from the next. I don't know if they fought in the Civil War, but I do know they were snobby about their heritage, iow, I seriously doubt there was any color on their side.

 

My father's father was born in the US, but his parents were originally French Canadian. His grandfather moved here twice. The first time he was a young man and signed up to ride with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, his parents found out and dragged him back to Canada :lol: The second time he was married.

 

So...

 

Mom's mother moved here. Her father's mother moved here, her father's father was Cherokee. Dad's mother was Mayflower, his father was first generation born here from parents that had moved here.

 

We're a good mix of the old and new :p

[Hunter's Moon]

We know more about my father's side than my mother's, which is strange because we know more of my mother's family.

 

On the paternal side, we have an Italian immigrant from the early 1900's and a full-blood Native American

 

On the maternal side, we have some who have been here since the English settlers and some who immigrated from Canada in the late 1800s.

Edited August 8, 2011 by BeatleMania

[Three Crows]

Most of my family was uninvolved in the civil war as far as I know. GGGGrandparents on my mothers side were from Norway in the late 19th century. Some German in there as well. The only question mark is he maternal side-- they were dirt farmers in Alabama. Scotts Irish we think (certainly red-haired) and poor as they come. My 92 year old grandmother is still living, but she doesn't know.

 

Father's side were French Canadian. And my great- grand mother on that side was Miq-Maq Native American. She lived to be a hundred and one, and died when I was in my 20s. Other than making beautiful things out of glass beads, she never talked about her heritage, and in fact would refuse to answer questions. She was raised in a Catholic orphanage, we think. Her appearance was Native American enough that on a road trip through the segregated south in the 1950s or 60s the family encountered problems in restaurants and hotels. But apparently in Michigan it was never much of an issue.

[8circles]

Both sides came to the US fairly recently,post civil war. The unknowns of my heritage relate to WWII. People try to deny obvious things and they arent really willing to discuss it- I think ots out of fear. I find it silly on the one hand but on theother hand Im not willing to share the details here either.

[DawnM]

Me too.

 

I do know I am Irish and a few other bits and pieces of info.

 

Dawn

 

I was adopted, closed adoption...so no info at all....

 

Faithe

[dani3boys]

I know a lot about my father's family. We can trace one line back to the 1400s in Germany.

My 3rd great-grandmother, along with two of her children, was captured by the Dakota Indians during the Dakota Conflict of 1862 in MN. After she was released, she wrote a book about it.

I wish I knew more about my mother's family.

[Spock]

Do you know a lot or a little? Would you know if there were people of color (to include Native Americans) or slave owners in your family tree? Do you know which side of the Civil War your family fought on (or if there were people who fought on each side)? Has your family been in the US for many generations or only a few?

 

We know very little about my father's side of the family (either parent), other than that they were from Ohio. We think they were German in origin, and possibly Jewish.

 

We know more about my mother's family. A distant cousin traced my maternal grandmother's lineage from an ancestor in Scotland in the 1500s who moved to France and married there. That son moved from France to Ireland, and his grandson moved to Pennsylvania. From there, the descendants moved to NC, then Illinois (where my direct ancestor was married in 1861), and then to Missouri. In 1902, my great-grandfather from this line married the daughter of German immigrants (music teachers). My grandmother was born in 1915. We know almost nothing about my grandfather's family, except that he was the youngest of 9-10 children and one of his parents was an orphan. One of his older brothers remembered traveling on a wagon train (to Illinois, maybe? that's where my grandfather was born).

 

I am not aware of any Native American or African American ancestors. They would have to be on my father's side, because my mother's family are all very fair skinned and mostly blue-eyed. (Although my husband is part Mayan, so my children are part Native American, if you don't limit the classification to North American.) Judging by where they lived during the Civil War, my ancestors would have fought for the Union if they were involved at all.

Edited August 8, 2011 by Spock

[FO4UR]

I am half Kentucky, half Scot. My uncle & brother have traced our Scottish roots back pretty far...I am the 4th generation born on US soil on that side. On the other side, we were part of the Tobacco War in KY. (I have relatives that fought on both sides of that.)

 

I wish I knew more...

[NotSoObvious]

My great, great grandfather came over from Norway and settled the family ranch that my uncle still owns.

 

We know a lot about each of those generations, thanks to a persistent family member who even went to Norway to meet more "relatives."

 

 

In contrast, I know nothing about my other side of the family because no one has ever cared enough to gather and pass on information. Sad.

[Karen in CO]

My family has been here since the 1600-1700's (the ones that weren't here already). I'm still tracking down the women of the family which is much harder, but the men of the family built railroads, prospected for gold, were farm workers, and were always moving into the wild frontiers as they opened. I have Creeks who survived the Creek uprising in the South. I have set of ancestors that are listed in the census of 1850 in southern Alabama as being a mixed race couple with 6 children with no race listed. I have Cherokee that made it to Oklahoma along with many who didn't. In my hometown's last census before the civil war, none of my family was listed as slave owners. My county's representatives voted against joining the Confederacy. Both my mother's and father's relative fought on the side of the south. I have found men listed in the Civil War records in both the calvery and as regular soldiers. I have found at least 4 who were listed in the prisoner of war roles and are listed with unknown death dates in the family Bibles.

 

And prior to that, I found land grants for relatives from the War of 1812.

 

And before that, I have that one part of the family was on the "wrong" side of the Revolutionary War.

 

Along with that, I have found the region of Ireland and the Scottish that they came from.

 

Hubby's family was actually easier on his father's side because his family name is rare - we traced him through several name changes across census errors back to England, then to Normady, then to a Viking. His mother is Korean so it will probably be impossible for me to trace.

Edited August 8, 2011 by Karen in CO

[kpnick in nc]

By the Civil War, all my lines were in SC, so any CW vets would've been confederate. One likely, but not confirmed, ancestor was a loyalist in SC during the Rev War!

 

I know of one ancestor who came as an indentured servant in 1600s.

 

My maternal gf's line has some interesting bits and legends. He always told us that he had a fairly recent Native American ancestor - facial features are consistent, but I can't confirm otherwise. He also told us that a recent ancestor (I can't remember/never knew if these two are the same) ran away from home as a teen and was picked up on the road by another family. Another difficult thing to confirm. He also had an ancestor listed as a farm overseer on a mid1800s census in SC. While I'm pretty sure no one owned slaves, I wonder if this man had to do the dirty work involved in such an awful institution.

 

DH's grandmother still owns property that was part of her husband's line's royal land charter pre Rev War, which I think is pretty awesome!

[MamaJo]

I know a fair amount but I need to be able to click more than one of your options. Part of my family has been here since long before the revolution. OTOH, one of my grandfathers was in the womb when his parents emigrated here.

[musicmommy]

We know a great deal about my dad's side of the family. It's fun to get together at the reunion every 5 years because part of the family from Germany still attends. We even have a big show of rolling out the family tree and adding any new babies to it. Special times! We can trace both sides of that family quite a ways back into Germany. Until me, that side of the family is full German all the way.

 

On my mom's side, we know very little because my Grandpa was sent over with his brother from Poland and they were then separated. My grandpa came to Chicago and his brother was sent to Canada. About 20 years ago, we found his brother. My grandma's side is a bit more interesting and we lose the line also. Very colorful side of the family. There is a mix of German, Polish and Welsh on that side. Perhaps a bit of Russian, but the trail runs cold.

 

On hubby's side, his dad was full Italian and fairly easy to trace back. We also celebrate his Cherokee heritage which comes down through his mom.

[Ellie]

My mother's family has been on the Outer Banks of North Carolina since the late 1600s. Wherever the original settlers came from, apparently they didn't care, because we have no family memory of it. Or maybe there were too many to keep track of, the Outer Banks being the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," and there always being shipwrecks with survivors just happy to be alive. I dunno. ;-)

 

I'm sure there are people of color in my heritage, because they were there first, and yes, there were small slave-holders back in the day. The OBX didn't have any big plantations/farmers or anything, just small pieces of land (as far as I can tell). Most of the settlers were of European descent.

 

My father's family came from Georgia, settled in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. That's all I know about them, except that I do know that at least one of my ancestors fought in the War of Northern Agression and I qualify for the Daughters of the Confederacy. Woohoo.

 

So, really, what I know is that I'm a GRITS on both sides (Girls Raised In The South).:D

[Wabi Sabi]

I know very little about our family's heritage. When I asked my grandmother once for a school project as a kid all she said is that our ancestors are from Tennessee, LOL.

 

All I know is that for as many generations as anyone can remember that our family were very poor Appalachian folk. Huge families and lots of poverty (my own grandmother was one of 13 children.) My grandma tells stories of having nothing but saltine crackers to eat at times.

[Karen in CO]

I know very little about our family's heritage. When I asked my grandmother once for a school project as a kid all she said is that our ancestors are from Tennessee, LOL.

 

All I know is that for as many generations as anyone can remember that our family were very poor Appalachian folk. Huge families and lots of poverty (my own grandmother was one of 13 children.) My grandma tells stories of having nothing but saltine crackers to eat at times.

 

 

Actually, if you know family names and the state, you can start getting some good information. familysearch.org will search public records for free including the public census records. Once you narrow down the county, you will probably be able to find more. Many of the counties have more information available such as grave markers, marriage records, and county newpapers.

[luvnlattes]

I chose other. My maternal grandparents came here from Norway through Ellis Island. My grandmother came as a child with her parents. My grandfather came here as a young man. So that side of the family has been here for 3 generations.

 

My paternal grandparents were born in the US but both of their parents immigrated from Germany. I counted that side of the family as being here for 4 generations.

 

I know a small amount about both sides of the family from the time they came state side but little family history before that other than names. There are no people of color in my lineage in the US but I have no idea what happened across the border. I would love to learn more about that.

 

They were not slave owners. Both sides lived in the north...Nebraska and Washington.

[gardenmom5]

His mother is Korean so it will probably be impossible for me to trace.

asians have a strong record keeping ethic. once you get in the groove, you could do very well. contact his mother's relatives and ask. chances are they may know someone to refer you to.

I know of one chinese man who spent 20 years looking, with no luck. got one fabulous break and went back 2000 YEARS. he was able to travel to china and see the names from his great-grandfather backwards to his first listed ancestor engraved on the walls of the temple.

[Karen in CO]

asians have a strong record keeping ethic. once you get in the groove, you could do very well. contact his mother's relatives and ask. chances are they may know someone to refer you to.

I know of one chinese man who spent 20 years looking, with no luck. got one fabulous break and went back 2000 YEARS. he was able to travel to china and see the names from his great-grandfather backwards to his first listed ancestor engraved on the walls of the temple.

That is very cool; it might take me 20 years. None of his mother's relatives are in the states. We have the city where he was born and a picture of the aunt that cared for him until his parents were able to get him into the states when he was 3 or 4. Thanks for giving me some hope/ I'll have to put some more effort into it.

[Unicorn.]

More than 5 generations on both sides. I know a lot of history on my father's side, and I know some of my mother's family history.

[mommymilkies]

..

Edited June 22, 2013 by mommymilkies

[dirty ethel rackham]

My lack of knowledge about my family heritage is due to the fact that I was 5th out of 6 kids, not related to how long our family has been in the country (3 generations on both sides.) My older siblings know more because more of our relatives were alive when they were young and they just heard more history. By the time I came around, we didn't visit as much and my parents just didn't talk as much about stuff. I do, however, have several boxes of my mom's stuff in my living room that contain geneology info and death certificates and stuff.

[Sputterduck]

I am an expat and I know a lot about my family history.

 

Many branches of my family have been in the US for 12+ generations.

 

Would you know if there were people of color (to include Native Americans) or slave owners in your family tree? We never had slaves, but there is Native American on my mom's mom's side.

 

Do you know which side of the Civil War your family fought on (or if there were people who fought on each side)? I'm pretty sure we have both.

[mom2scouts]

On my paternal side, I know that my family has been here since the 1760's and both sides of the family have lived in a certain area of Kentucky since the early 1800s. I know that my ggg grandfather and his brother were Union soldiers in the Civil War and I've seen records of the battles they fought. I've also seen records showing that a grandfather's half brother was in the Revolutionary War. His wife got $51.33 as her widow's war pension! My maternal relatives were Irish immigrants who came later.

[Onceuponatime]

My family has been in the US less than 4 generations. They came down from Canada to NH and Maine. Some were French Canadian, some from Nova Scotia. The Nova Scotia side can trace ancestors back to England and Germany, the Germans go back to Johann Frederick ------ in the 1500's. The French Canadian side was wild and woolly with a few black sheep and a lot of unknowns.

 

I was thinking about this the other day. There have been John Fredericks and Frederick Johns all the way to the last generation. My father's name is also a family name commonly found in Nova Scotia. However, I think that is the end of the line. No one in our family is using the old names any more. It's a little sad.

Edited August 8, 2011 by Onceuponatime

[Cinder]

I voted 4 generations or longer but knowing little of my family history. My family doesn't seem to want to share its secrets. I'm part-Hawaiian on my mom's side, and I'm pretty sure my GGM was born before HI became a territory. Where all the other background came from and when . . . no idea. My dad was adopted and never told us--mom told us eventually. Where his birth parents came from and when . . . no idea. I think he was embarrassed that he was adopted. :001_unsure: As a kid I don't ever remember spending time with my dad's side of the family unless my mom took us, which wasn't as often after the divorce. (She got along great with his family, just not him.) So I have lots of cousins I don't even know.

[UnsinkableKristen]

4 generations or longer and we know a LOT about our family history. My Grandmother is very into genealogy. We are registered Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Daughters of the Confederacy, Daughters of the American Revolution and who knows how many other things.

 

We have Native Americans in our family tree and we have slaves and slave owners in our family tree. One line of the family goes back over a thousand years. I have absolutely no idea how she did this, but I know she takes what she does very, very seriously and verifies and registers everything.

 

I'm pretty sure that if someone went to the bathroom and wrote it down, then she knows about it :D. I hope someone takes up the torch of family history when Gmama is no longer able to, but it probably won't be me :D

 

She has done research for other sides of our family, but they only go back so far. My Dad's family came from Germany about 5 generations ago, and we know next to nothing about them.

 

My husbands family does well to remember their immediate family names :)

[Puma Mom]

My ancestors include some who were here during the Revolutionary War, the pirate Henry Morgan, poor farmers in GA, and coal miners in WV. My mom knows more specifics because she researched her family for DAR.

[mytwomonkeys]

my grandfather is the first generation here. both of my parents are of welsh heritage. i still visit family there.

[Spryte]

I know a lot about my family history, but DH is adopted, and until now we've had very little info about his genetic side of the family. (His adoption was closed until recently. I wouldn't call it open now, but that's changing quickly, and we are cautiously hopeful that it will open in a good way soon.)

 

DH was always very interested in finding information about his genetic heritage, so we used Family Tree DNA and did quite a bit of testing. It was fascinating! We have a fair idea of his birth family's roots now, and he's made connections to distant relatives. Through those relatives (again, very distant), he has learned the (probable) oral history of his birth family's arrival in the US, and their origins. It's made me want to do the same testing for my own family, although I'm not sure I can justify the expense since I *do* have quite a bit of family info. Maybe I can work it into our curriculum at some point and justify it as a school expense? :)

 

Just wanted to throw this option out, though, in case anyone is interested in learning more about their own history, through an unconventional avenue.

[brehon]

Maternal line: Ancestors arrived pre-Revolutionary War (left Scotland sometime after the Battle of Culloden Moor). This line we've traced back to the 900-1000's. These ancestors fought for the Patriots in the Rev War. I'm unsure if any fought in the War of 1812. A branch came to Texas pre-Independance and fought w/Houston in 1836. Ancestors fought for South (Texas calvary companies) during the Civil War. The family tree includes Cherokee.

 

Paternal line: I'm a third generation Italian-American as my grandfather was the first of his family to be born here. My g-grandmother's family (on my paternal grandmother's side - confused yet?:D) was from Prussia, though she was the first or second of her siblings born in the US.

[edithcrawley]

My maternal grandpa did a bunch of genealogy stuff, I haven't seen it yet, but I know it is somewhere in their house. I know nothing about my paternal side beyond who my paternal grandma is. She and paternal grandpa divorced way before I was born and I never met him and was never told his first name. Paternal grandma was an orphan, and I never found out what her maiden name was or anything,

[TheAutumnOak]

I don't know anything about my family heritage other than where my parents were born!...None of my grandparents are still alive and all I know is that some people were Black, some people were Native American, and some people were Irish...If they are not in my immediate family, I know nothing about them...

 

It would be nice to know more...

[Mommy22alyns]

I don't know much about my family history. I have some great-aunts who are very into geneaology, but I never heard all the info. I know there's Irish, English, German in me. :D

[JeneralMom]

I do know alot about my family, and can trace them pretty far back (1400s or 1500s in Europe and Canada). My kids will have a different story. They will know alot from my side of the family and from DH's paternal side (they did some ancestry thing for DAR and my girls are eligible) but not from his maternal side. His great grandfather was a Swedish orphan who emigrated to the US and was given a new name at Elis Island.

[OrganicAnn]

I voted other. I have one grandfather who wasn't born in the US, but came to the US as a child. On the other side of my family I have relatives that fought in the American Revolutionary War. So I couldn't answer the part of generations. I know a lot about both sides of my family mainly because my dad and other relatives researched it.

[Truscifi]

I wish I could have selected multiple options. On my mom's side my family has been here since the late 1700's, all Irish married to Native Americans (mostly Cherokee but there are rumors about Creek and Seminole). My paternal grandparents were first generation German Americans. I know a lot less about that side, though my grandmother used to swear one of my great greats was handmaiden to Kaiser Wilhelm's wife. No verification, of course.

[Rhonda in TX]

On my dad's side, we've been here since the 1600's. French heritage, but now just a big melting pot. Great-great-grandfather fought with Robert E. Lee. Grandmother on my mother's side was 1/4 Native American.