Roots

[Coffeehouse]

Roots
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I was hoping some of my fellow Mooters would share, in however general or specific terms ya'd like, what roots you have. And by that I mean where in the world your roots are, f.ex. Americans and Canadians with European descent, etc.
Would also be cool to see what sort of walks of life, generally speaking, your roots come from. Agricultural (Lifestock, Farming), Fishing (Coastal, Deep Sea), Industry/Urban.

So please share if ya like

[inked]

American, of German/Scots/Irish stock. My Dad's side male lineage from Germany as refugees from religious persecution into Pennsylvania (Penn's Woods) and his maternal lineage from Scots and Irish immigration into South Carolina. On my Mom's side, male lineage from Germany but by way of Switzerland to escape religious persecution and female lineage from Germany,too. We laugh that the male side story may be a cover up for malefactors sent to Georgia by the British crown because there is a town by my surname a few miles form the penal colony settlement!

Agricultural for generations on both sides with my parents being the first urban/industrial rather than farmers.

I was the first college graduate in the family and the first medical doctor. My younger brother was the second college graduate. There are more now, of course, since we are in our fifties.

I have resided in SC, VA, TX, and now MO. I have travelled in the USA, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Chile (and I sat on the tarmac in Argentina waiting for the fog to lift over Santiago,Chile - but I never set foot upon Argentinian soil).

I support well-drilling in the Diocese (Anglican) of Lui in the Sudan in Africa. I support medical and dental work in Honduras. I serve on the Board of a regional mental health service.

[Coffeehouse]

Great answer Inked!

*Out of curiosity, have you been to the Sudan too?*

My own roots are slightly mixed.
On my maternal side I have roots from Western Norway, where one part of that family traces its roots to northeast Germany, while the rest traces its roots back to before the 1200s in Norway at the least. My family on this side has for the most part been coastal fishers and traders.
On my paternal side I am Norwegian-Swedish, from the southeast of Norway. I can also trace roots to Germany on this side, but it's only one small part. This part of the family has a long naval tradition; coastal fishing, whaling in the South Atlantic, cooks on sailing ships, captains and (in my grandfathers case) naval mechanic, dating back to at least the 1300s. Naturally I have a deep affection for sealife, from seafood to sailing, salt in my blood

My own parents were the first to both take University education - political scientist and economist, so definitely the days of fishing are behind us! I've lived in my 22 years of life abroad in 3 continents, so I can now safely say that I feel really, really at home at airports

[Empress_Flynn]

Good topic I'm kind of a history/genealogy fan...

Well... I can only give you what I know, which isn't too much... but I've been trying to do some genealogical research lately, and that's filled in a lot of blank spaces.. still a lot more to go though!

I am American, on my mother's side my ancestors come from England, Ireland, and Germany for sure, and possibly Wales and Scotland too, though I still need definite confirmation on that.

However, we've been in the US a very very long time, the earliest I could track my ancestors back was in the 1700s when they came here from England and Ireland (not entirely sure where the German came in, yet, but I'm working on it).

All of my maternal grandfather's ancestors settled in Maine after coming to the US and I believe most of them were farmers up until my grandfather and his brothers and sisters when they began to get into other trades: butchers, shopkeepers, and my own grandfather ran trains and also made watches before working in a factory.

On my maternal grandmother's side they lived in Pennsylvania from the time they moved here and they were all either farmers or laborers of some kind... my grandmother moved away from Pennsylvania and met my grandfather in the factory where they worked together.

I am definitely related to Horace Greeley, a famous American journalist known for his "Go west young man," and I am possibly (though this is only family lore at the moment and not yet definitely confirmed) related to Patrick Henry, a famous politician and orator as well as a fervent supporter of the American Revolution and the creation of the Bill of Rights

Of course that's only my mother's side... on my dad's I have no clue except for English (and that's only because of my last name). He didn't know much about our family history... Hopefully I'll be able to do some research and figure that all out...

[Coffeehouse]

Cool! So far two Americans with families that settled there early, that's fun

I know that I have distant family in California and in Minnesota, parts of the family whom both migrated in the 1800s.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

My family is religious troublemakers on all possible sides. We arrived here prior to the Revolutionary War, from Ireland, Switzerland and France, mostly. On the wrong side of every argument until we reached the Land of The Free.

So mostly they were preachers and theologians, and other such ornaments. Hardly an honest laborer in the batch, closest we get is a prominent architect in the early development of Kansas City, his father was an engineer who followed the trains out, and HIS father was a wheelwright in Pittsburgh. That's the only batch that left the coast, at all, really. My paternal side. The rest of them stayed near here. My grandmother was a hospital administrator...at a time when women were hardly tolerated as nurses. She was sumpin', she was.

Having good roots contributes to my being a wanderer, of sorts. I've lived in Maine, Ohio, Quebec and Colorado, and visited (for a length of time) almost every other state in the lower 48. I've also been to GB, Puerto Rico, the Carribean and Venezuela, but only as a tourist.

[Coffeehouse]

Great! Although you could say some of your ancestors have been on a few unfortunate sides of the arguments, your 'lot' is quite the fearless type! A Huguenot then?

So far, 100% expectations affirmed. Disagreeing Europeans shipping off to the Promised Land and making their own Fortune! I like it!

Hope for more Tales!

*Debate begins now so I better tune in*

[Empress_Flynn]

Forgot to mention... my grandmother's side had the last name Wherry, which is a kind of fishing boat, which leads me to believe my ancestors may have been fishermen back in their country of origin...

Just a guess because they were definitely farmers after coming to America... but I thought it was a good guess

[Coffeehouse]

Cool. Chances are they probably were being that you have ancestry all over the British Isles.

My great-grandfather's work was sort of special since he was a cook in the last era of sailships travelling the high seas. As a cook he was onboard in a three-mast ship that went passed the Cape of Good Hope and so on. What a life that must of been!

[BeardofPants]

On my maternal side, my family came out to NZ during the late 1800s from England. Quite a hoity-toity family if my granddad is to be believed (yeah right, fibbing, fibber). There is some french in there from my grandma. So the usual hodge-podge of english ancestry, I woul think.

On my paternal side, dutch. My oma & opa came out post-war (after eating that tulip bulb soup). My opa came from the dutch colony in indonesia (and was a POW during WWII - he HATES the Japanese). My oma came from holland. On my opa's side, there is some Siam (I am 1/16th 'Siam'). There's also some story about a wealthy polish family 'marrying down' into my opa's side somewhere. Anyway, oma & opa were paid to leave holland & go to NZ, and they've been there ever since.

[Mari]

I'm Dutch. Through and through. The family from my mother's side is from a fishers village that was an island until 1950 or so. My grandfather liked genealogy, so he researched his family and found that we have a minister in the family somewhere around 1600, one German woman of wealthy descend in 1920 or so and a mayor in the 1800's who was buried in the church of the village.
My great-grandfather from my fathers side was a lighthouse caretaker person. The entire family comes from Texel, an island in the north.
This side of the family was more into baking etc. than fishing for as far as I know though.
That's it.

I was born here and lived here for almost all my life. Went to Japan for a year, went abroad to France twice, Austria once, went to Germany and Belgium a lot.

My father has a college degree and used to be a chemist. He is now an IT-specialist.
My mother dropped out of kindergarten education school and worked as carer for the elder for years until she got married to my father. When my sister and I went to secondary school, she went to a few courses and now works with visually handicapped people as a testing assistant and planner. If I finish this degree with a few specific courses, I can be one of my mother's colleagues
I'm the only one with a Gymnasium diploma (it's different in that I had Greek, Latin and Classical Culture), but maybe my cousin will also take Latin. He still won't have a Gymnasium diploma though, because his school doesn't offer Greek.
All my cousins have gone or are going to college, only my older cousin and I went to University.

My family is strongly Protestant from both sides, but it has diverged over the years in reformed, new reformed, new new reformed, evangelistic, baptist, 1 catholic and 1 new ager. Plus a few a-theists. All in 2 generations

[Coffeehouse]

Wow, some really colorful backgrounds I like your multicontinental, multilanguage, multiethnic, multieverything roots BoP

As far as prominent people in my family I am related to the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen who was the first person to reach the South Pole. Kinda neat.
My great-great-great-great-great grandfather was the Captain aboard the vessel that brought the Danish King (then Prince) Christian Frederick VII to Norway in 1814 for him to be crowned King. But since Norway was in Union with Denmark at the time, and since the Danes were allied with the French in the Napoleonic Wars, it meant that he was only King for less than a year. The Danes let go of Norway (finally! after 400 yrs), and then.. sigh.. Sweden annexed us and so on, etc blabla

The coolest ancestry I have is to the (Royal) House of Mecklenburg, wherein I am a direct descendent of a in-married German Baron who came to Norway ca. year 1700. It's a huge family though, I wonder if I can ever trace down any distant relatives..

Hope for more Mooter's Roots!

[katya]

I really don't know a lot of the details of mine, but my family on both sides is Scottish or Irish, mostly Irish. My ancestors on my dad's side at least (probably my mom's is similar) came from Ireland and Scotland 3 generations ago (?) with my great grandparents. Somewhere around there. My whole family on both sides is Catholic, and I can't think of anyone who isn't (though not all my relatives are believers). As a result, I have an abundance of aunts and uncles and cousins. Most live in the midwest but I have some relatives who moved to Kansas and Florida and out west.

I'm not sure what kind of jobs and things they had, actually. My maternal grandfather sold boats. My paternal grandfather died quite a long time before I was born, but from what I understand he did some sort of manual labor and also fought in the Korean war. My other grandpa was in WWII also but he didn't fight, he was a cook or something. My grandmothers were stay at home moms, of course. My dad's mum was pretty interesting, but she is really mean too, especially to her kids. Interest include sewing, church, cats, and opera. Singing, I mean. Supposedly she was offered to go to New York and be a professional opera singer, but her dad wouldn't allow it. She also eloped once or twice, the first time to marry an Indian (a man with some Native American ancestry, I mean), and she married my grandpa after he died. She's still alive now, but she's pretty much gone with the fairies and doesn't know who I am anymore. My mom's dad is still alive too. I never knew my dad's dad or my mom's mom.

I think the simplest way to describe my roots is Irish Catholic. And if you know anything about Irish Catholic vs. Protestant maybe you have an idea what that means. I think we were pretty typical Irish Catholic. Except all the boys on my dad's side have protestant names, I have no idea why (Edward, Andrew, William, Robert, and Charles).

[Coffeehouse]

Awesome history Katya. Strange with the names! Maybe your family was Irish Catholic Lite

So much respect to those who fought in WWII!
My own grandfather was a naval mechanic aboard an Allied trade vessel through the war. He was in Liverpool when the Germans invaded Norway so he couldn't really return home...
His ship was first torpedoed in the Haifa harbour on Christmas Eve 1941. It burned but they managed to rescue the ship.
Next up his ship came across a British warship that was torpedoed and sank around Malta, so they had to rescue hundreds of British sailors.
Later still his ship was just south of Florida, and there his ship was torpedoed again by this famous German submarine captain, Krutz or something. They managed to get to New Orleans before the ship had to be taken apart because it was pretty much useless by then. And the rest of the war he spent in a hospital in New York.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Total war. I hope we never see it again. Every person I know in that generation was so affected by it. Some escaped the holocaust. Some helped them. Some fought in the Pacific, some in Europe. Some were in Japanese internment camps. Some were teaching there.

Total war. Unimaginable.

[Nurvingiel]

Originally Posted by Empress_Flynn

Forgot to mention... my grandmother's side had the last name Wherry, which is a kind of fishing boat, which leads me to believe my ancestors may have been fishermen back in their country of origin...

Just a guess because they were definitely farmers after coming to America... but I thought it was a good guess

On my Dad's side, our name is the same as a type of fish. I bet some of our ancestors were fishermen too!

BoP, my great-uncle was also in a Japanese POW camp in WWII. He didn't talk about it for a very, very long time. He's quite an old dude now, in his late 80s, but very spry.

If I worked this out properly, I am 1/8 Dutch, 1/2 British, 1/8 Canadian and 1/4 Irish.

Unless you count my Mom's birth family instead of adoptive family, in which case I'm 1/8 Dutch, 1/2 British, 1/8 Canadian (Ontario) and 1/4 French-Canadian. Somewhere in my family tree, waaaay back, is an Iroquois woman. She's like a great-great-great grandmother or something.

So like many Canadians, I have British ex-pats, long-time Canadians and a little wee bit First Nations.


My fiance is the first man in his family not to be a logger. But I'm in forestry, so I'll keep it up. (Except I don't cut trees down.)

[katya]

None of my grandparents have a very favorable view of Japan either. I think they were all horrified when I went to live there for a year. Of course, I got a lot of dirty looks from elderly Japanese people too. War doesn't generally bring out the best in a people.

[Nurvingiel]

Where do you live Katya? Even though us Canadians were involved in WWII and we made all people of Japanese decent living in British Columbia relocate to reasonably humane internment camps in the interior, then proceeded to steal all their property, Japanese people are generally not that pissed at us.

Japanese-Canadians did receive some compensation (but probably not enough considering the market value of some of the land) and I like to think that we have all moved on now.

Canadians go to Japan all the time, and Japanese people not only travel here, but move here permanently and become citizens.

Maybe we weren't as deeply involved as other countries? Is it cultural?

Edit: The internment camps were basically nice little towns. The problem is that people were forced to go. This may have been necessary. My grandfather who was in the RAF (even though he was Canadian) felt that it was necessary because Japanese spies could have disguised themselves as Canadians and given a lot of information about our navy and coastal defenses. Stealing people's stuff though, he was not cool with that of course.

[OldHippie]

Grandparents on my fathers side immigrated from Poland to the USA in roughly 1917. After landing in Chicago they moved to the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. They were farmers, lumberjacks and whatever else they could do to make a buck. My mother's side is a mix of French and Swede and maybe a bit of Native American. I think they came from Canada to Upper Michigan. Again, farmers and lumberjacks and whatever they could do to make a buck.

[katya]

I live in the far north of Michigan, Nurvi. It's not like all Japanese hate Americans or anything, but once in a while I talked to people that I think lived through the war seemed a little bitter. I did, like I said, get some dirty looks from strangers too who wouldn't know I was American but probably either assumed or grouped all caucasians together like Americans do with Asians. Young people tend to be in love with America though and a lot of people like foreigners are "cool". I mean, Americans are also thought of as being fat, but movie stars and the like are considered very cool. Not sure about thoughts on Canada.