Roots

[The Gaffer]

I'm a Pict. Male line comes from the central Highlands of Scotland, moved to Aberdeen in the late 1700s then down the east coast of the UK. Dunno about the female line past grandfather; mostly Edinburgh through and through as far as I know.

Neither grandfather lived long enough to see me born, and my maternal one barely saw my mum (she was 1 when he popped his clogs). Maternal grandmother raised 3 daughters whilst earning her crust as an bookkeeper and caring for her own mother. During the 1930s & 40s. Hence she's my family hero.

Paternal grandfather fought in WW1. He was at most of the major battles - Ypres, Somme, Passchendaele - in the front lines. He never said a word about it, other than to state his pride in entering the army a private and leaving it a private. (I take that to express quiet disgust at the officer class.) Subsequently became a tobacconist.

A theme throughout is the sacrifices these people made to educate their children, who then did the same for my generation.

[GrayMouser]

Not much to tell for me- straight Manchester Lancashire working class on both sides- coal miners, millworkers, sailors. My sister and I were the first to go to college; the only ones among our numerous cousins.

Mother and father got married right after WWII and emigrated to Canada. My father was the oldest, and had three sisters who all emigrated to North America, as did my paternal grandparents. Two of my aunts married American soldiers stationed in Britain during the war, so I've got a half-dozen American cousins.

My father was a ship's captain on Manchester Liners, and travelled all over the world, a love of which he passed to me. He was torpedoed by a German submarine during WWII, but was safely rescued. My grandfather was a seaman who also was torpedoed by the Germans in WWI -that's one family tradition I've managed to avoid!

[Coffeehouse]

Honourable guys and girls in both your families Gaffer & GreyMouser. It's strange how WWI and WWII has affected the world. Brings back strong memories in people. I also have a particular profound respect for the ones who lived during WWII. More often than not there's a special integrity and life wisdom about them. It's sad that soon this generation no longer will be around..

[OldHippie]

Originally Posted by katya

I live in the far north of Michigan.

Are you a Yooper by chance????

[Empress_Flynn]

^Hehe... I just love that term...

Only reason I know it is because I read "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman... leave it to me to learn something about America from a Brit

...

Oh yes, also wanted to mention I know for sure one of my some odd great grandfather's on my dad's side fought in the Civil War (on the northern side, I presume) and they still have the buttons from his uniform somewhere...

Apparently my grandfather never fought in any wars because he ran the trains so they let him stay behind so they could keep running...

And my family has a long history of twins...

[Coffeehouse]

Originally Posted by OldHippie

Are you a Yooper by chance????

What's a Yooper?

Originally Posted by Empress_Flynn

^Hehe... I just love that term...

Only reason I know it is because I read "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman... leave it to me to learn something about America from a Brit

...

Oh yes, also wanted to mention I know for sure one of my some odd great grandfather's on my dad's side fought in the Civil War (on the northern side, I presume) and they still have the buttons from his uniform somewhere...

Apparently my grandfather never fought in any wars because he ran the trains so they let him stay behind so they could keep running...

And my family has a long history of twins...

Hey, so do my family! I am a twin by the way With a she, thankfully

[katya]

Yes, I'm a yooper, born and raised. I laughed at the u.p. References in American Gods. Pasties are definitely big here though. Mmm.

[Empress_Flynn]

Originally Posted by Coffeehouse

What's a Yooper?

Hey, so do my family! I am a twin by the way With a she, thankfully

A "yooper" or "yoopie" is someone who comes from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan... the U.P.... so... "yoopie." lol...

My mom's a twin

So is my fiance's dad...

And a gypsy told his mom that one of her children would have twins..

[katya]

I've never heard the word "yoopie" except in American Gods.

[OldHippie]

I've never heard Yoopie either. I'm currently a misplaced Yooper bannished to the nether worlds of Lower Michigan.


Here you go coffeehouse. A quick primer on Yoopers.(we have a collectively a pretty good sense of humor about being Yoopers)

http://www.galactic-guide.com/articles/8R98.html

[Empress_Flynn]

Originally Posted by katya

I've never heard the word "yoopie" except in American Gods.

Guess old Neil wasn't completely right then!

[katya]

Good ol' Neil.

Interesting article, OldHippy. I was expecting a "you know you're from the u.p. if..." type thing. I'm in an area of the U.P. now that is a few hours from where I grew up and the accent is a lot stronger here. It's funny because I have professors who will be talking about something really sophisticated and they have this super thick yooper accent. I've been told I don't have one at all. I can hear myself sometimes though with the vowels when I get really excited, haha.

[Empress_Flynn]

I have no discernible accent... at least not one that you could imitate.. and most of the "you know you're from... if..." things are wrong about me...

My state sucks...

But then again they just reversed the ban on gay marriage, so they must be sucking less lately! Good news!

[The last sane person]

*waves the Iranian flag*

Lots of notables in my family... Thankfully no Shah'i people; my family were (and are) supporters of Mosadeq all of them. Unfortunatly they were either all wiped out by the CIA or SAVAK. Oh well. But I ain't a posting it here, to be sure.

But born and raised, that's what I am. Iranian, for all I care. Only problem was the 79 fiasco and we lost our country. So I a countryless, as it seems.

[Empress_Flynn]

Oh yeah... and new info on my family.... some of them anyone..

My grandmother's side first arrived here in 1718 from Northern Ireland. They bought land in Pennsylvania from William Penn and set about making a nice little homestead

Some of the descendants went on to become avid patriots and to fight in the Revolutionary War...

[OldHippie]

Originally Posted by katya

Good ol' Neil.

Interesting article, OldHippy. I was expecting a "you know you're from the u.p. if..." type thing. I'm in an area of the U.P. now that is a few hours from where I grew up and the accent is a lot stronger here. It's funny because I have professors who will be talking about something really sophisticated and they have this super thick yooper accent. I've been told I don't have one at all. I can hear myself sometimes though with the vowels when I get really excited, haha.

I've been pretty much gone from the UP since 1981 but I still add 'eh to the end of my sentences 'eh. I even type it.

[katya]

Speaking in a thick U.P. accent was actually kind of a fad at my high school for a while. Not so much the "eh" but the U.P. vowels. I never really thought about this area being my roots though. Makes me kind of proud, because it's such a small little area that so many people have never heard of, and there's like this whole sub-culture. Especially in the west. Lots of Finns here. Lots of old miners too.

[OldHippie]

Down in my neck of the UP it's mostly farmers and loggers. Lot of French, Italian and polish people with a bunch of Swedes tossed in.

This is my normal avatar but I can't get it to work here.

[feawen]

we dont really know anything about my family. We all come from england as far as we can tell, however we dont have an english name. My dads side are all farmers or farming enginers like my dad. My grandad was a market gardener before he took over the farm with his brother. We can only trace this side of the family back a few 100 years so we dont know where we come from. Because are are of farming stock as coffeehouse put it! we are a very old thinking family. Old names, old habits!
My mums family have had a varity of different jobs, shop workers, seamstresses etc. My grandad did national service in the REF more of a fixer than a flyer. After he left the REF he worked for british airs. We did have a relative on the titanic, a worker not a guest on board.
I was the first one in my family to go to university and to train to be a nurse, closely followed by my younger sister.
Both sides of my family at one point or another have had the same surname marry into it, we think its scotish, at least it sounds scotish!

[Coffeehouse]

Wow, this became more popular than I thought. It seems... your all Brits one way or the other!