NationStates Jolt Archive

I have been recently looking up my family tree and i was wondering what your family tree is like.
My mum is english and my dad is american.
My mums grandad was an arbon I recently found out that they cam from the netherlands germany and belgium three weeks ago i went down the lines of my something great grandads brother and found i have three living relatives in holland van den bergs I tried to contact them but it did not work.
also from my mums grannys side they are all mainly english around kent and suffolk I had a petit in it thinking my family was french i went down the tree and found i hada petet petit how emigrated in the late 1600s to england around the time lots of french protestants were pushed out of france to england.
From my dads side him mums side is all from wales.
But my dads dad side they were canadian americans it was very confusing to explain my grandad did not no his real dad but we think it is louis eddy who was a boxer.
So what is yours like.

No replies.
:( :( .

Well, I know that if I look back into my family tree I can trace one line through an Archbishop of Dublin, a few Earls of Tyrone, some Earls of Angelsey, Earls of Ormonde, Earls of Kildare, Lords of Cavan, some Earls of Hereford and Essex, King Edward I, Henry III, King John, Henry II, Empress Maud, Henry I, William I (the conqueror), and every Duke of Normandy before that.

That's just taking it down one line. There's loads of Kings of Scotland, a few Kings of France, some Dukes of Brittany, Counts of Anjou, Dukes of Acquitaine, Castille and Provence, and many, many more I haven't looked into. I can trace right back to some obscure Swedish Earl of Moer (Ragnvald Eysteinsson) in the 800s.

One of the advantages of having a section of the tree like that is that it's easy to trace people.

It's a Rowan, I believe. I could be mistaken, I'm no great shakes at arbology.

Well I'm sorry, someone had to. And yes, I did just make arbology up.

well mine was all screwed up on my mum's side cos of the war. her mother's side were german living in hamburg iIRC, wealthy architects of some sort with maids and butlers and all that, apparently also related to the Norweigan royal family (who isn't? ;) :p); her father's side is from Poland but i don't know much else. they married and had kids in england (father as a POW) and worked as farm labourers. my mum, thanks to the socialised policies of that nice mr. Harold Wilson got into university and escaped poverty that way.
the family farm in poland was burned by Stalin after the war, and the family history on that side, past that generation, is totally broken.

my dad's side is all welsh as far back as you can go, and that's about it. not much to say there... one bloke went off to california in one of the gold rushes, but that's about all that's interesting. my dad's parents ran a children's home (so my dad grew up with 10 brothers and sisters) and were also farmers before that (i have cousins in wales who are still farmers, though only tenants i think - not owners)


so, generally a poor background, not much history left/known, no heirlooms or land, nothing much interesting, and not much in the way of extended family (at least not that we ever see) :(

My mother was adopted and my father is my stepfather. My family tree is pretty much going to have to start today.

It's a Rowan, I believe. I could be mistaken, I'm no great shakes at arbology.

Well I'm sorry, someone had to. And yes, I did just make arbology up.

Damn you!! I was gonna do a tree joke! Grrrr!

Ah what the hell I'll do one anyway.

Pine. It gives a lovely fresh smell to the house.

Very complicated.

My son's national decendency is: English, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Portuguese, Russian, Scot.

We half expect him to marry an Asian/African.

I know mine just a bit, but here goes.

My mom is pretty much full-on Irish (red hair, green eyes; the whole package). Her parents were born from Irish people, and their parents were Irish... It goes on like that.

My dad's a mix. His mom was a bit of everything... French, English, and German (with roots also traced back to Scandinavia). His dad was a mix of Scotch-Irish and Cherokee-Chickasaw. His mom was about 75% Chickasaw, and his dad was about a quarter Cherokee.

That's about all that's really important (though I am a direct descendent of Allan Pinkerton, who was instrumental in the North's victory in the Civil War).

Dad's family is Irish, Mum's is scottish. I was born in England and have lived in Wales since I was six months old. Go figure, I guess.

Dad's family are Catholics and there are THOUSANDS of them. ONE of them is called 'Mrs Herring' - that's actually what she's down on the tree as, because nobody can remember her first name.

Mum's side is more scandalous and athiestic - My grandmother was married to two blokes at the same time (but she had one of them put in a mental hospital, so that's kind of okay, isn't it?), because she told the second one she was widowed.

HER grandfather died in a goldmine in South Africa, and her grandmother then met a man, told him she was thirty (she was forty - how didn't he notice?), he said HE was thirty (he was twenty five) and they had a baby who was then the same age as some of her grandchildren.

Another of that family ran off when they were fourteen and got a job in a factory making men's ties, and another was a housemaid who had an illegitimate son and lied on the birth certificate, while ANOTHER had a job making hats with bunches of grapes and flowers on them.

Ta da. Family tree in three minutes. (sorry).

Italian Mother and Australian Father.

The Italian side is 3/4 noble blood (which means nothing thanks to the stupid risorgimento, and stupid Mussolini), decending from France about 500 years ago.

The Australian side is Aussie as it gets (apart from aboriginals), going back to the first fleet! This is mixed with Scottish from the Aukney Isles as north as Scottland gets.

My Dad's side is Scottish, my Mum's is Irish. I don't know much beyond the last few generations.

Don't know too much about my family tree, to be honest. I know one of my dad's cousins (which makes him, what, my second cousin? I was never very good at figuring out all that stuff) is working on a family tree, but I've never seen it. Anywho, my mother and her entire family are Filipino. My paternal grandmother is Irish-American. My paternal grandfather is half Norwegian, half German. And that's about the extent of my knowledge.

My dad's side is an old American family. I went on a tour at a family reunion and saw the Colonial era graveyards myself. The only real variety on that side is a great-great grandmother who was Cherokee. Found that out after I turned out to be the only dark-skinned, brown-eyed child in the family.

My mother's side is much sketchier, but I've traced back the line to Austria. Apparently, we came from the Black Forest area, not sure where that is, and there is a Baron back there somewhere. I haven't managed to trace when my ancetor immigrated here, but I'm lazy like that.

A friend of mine from Mississippi says he doesn't have a family tree, he has a family wreath.

I have horse theives, cattle rustlers and moonshiners in my dad's family. As well as a southerner who killed a carpetbagger tax collector and got aquitted.

My mothers family has Indian fighters, Indians and slave owners.

I hardly know anything about my family tree.

Nothing exciting on my dad's side, as far as I know, it's just German (originally from Saxony in the Eastern part of the country, IIRC.)

My mom was a bit more interesting in that respect - her mom (my grandmother, obviously) was Italian and married a German. I'm not even sure about things even in that generation, her dad must have been Italian for sure, judging from the family name, but I seem to remember that her mother was part French and part, um, Swedish or Spanish (something starting with an "S", basically...:rolleyes:). I'm not even entirely sure how my grandmother's family ended up in Germany.

Sigh. Maybe I should have asked when people were still alive, dammit.

My mother's side is much sketchier, but I've traced back the line to Austria. Apparently, we came from the Black Forest area, not sure where that is, Well, it's not in Austria, that's for sure. :p (The Black Forest ("Schwarzwald" in German) is a hilly, wooded region in the south western corner of Germany. :))

Mine can only back about 3 generations- then it gets too tricky. Nearly all the State's records of that ilk were destroyed in 1921 thanks to the poxy Civil War. :(

Go back far enough, I know roughly that my fathers side were originally Huguenots that fled from France in the late 17th century.

My family might have also fled what was there last name.
Mine where petets and petits strange when thye came to england thye made there name more french.
My some great grandad Johannes Jacobus arbon must have been very bilinquil he was born in flanders where they speak french his mum was dutch his dad was german and then he moved to england.

Mine can only back about 3 generations- then it gets too tricky. Nearly all the State's records of that ilk were destroyed in 1921 thanks to the poxy Civil War. :(
Oh aye, that reminds me. In Uni a month or so ago we were able to look through the records from the Irish Parliament for a session in the early 1700s, including a good deal of the Penal Laws. It was one of the few books that survived the Civil War, and is kept in the Public Record Office in Belfast. Fascinating; it even had the speaker's handwritten notes and stuff beside some things.

If anyone has hardies eddys mcmillans arbons durrants luxmore taveners that would help.
My last name is mackin when it should be eddy my last name was given from my grandads stepdad.

Oh aye, that reminds me. In Uni a month or so ago we were able to look through the records from the Irish Parliament for a session in the early 1700s, including a good deal of the Penal Laws. It was one of the few books that survived the Civil War, and is kept in the Public Record Office in Belfast. Fascinating; it even had the speaker's handwritten notes and stuff beside some things.

The ultimate irony.

We're so busy knocking lumps out of each other, and end up burning our own past, that the only people who helped save such important documents...were the ones we were fighting over in the first place. :rolleyes:

By the way QUB or UUC?

Edit: Actually, I think I remember you mentioning UUC and the words 'blind', 'monkey' and 'feces' in the past. Nevermind :p

If anyone has hardies eddys mcmillans arbons durrants luxmore taveners that would help.
My last name is mackin when it should be eddy my last name was given from my grandads stepdad.

What do you mean?

Is your surname Mackin or Eddy?

my family immigrated from germany several generations ago. thats all i really know...

Well Polish and Scottish.

From one line; my Greatx7 Grandfather was Angus McDonald a friend and neighbor of George Washington. He started a Masonic Lodge in Virginia and led forces in Lord Dunmore's war. He is mentioned in the history books.

A cousin wrote a diary about the civil war that is still printed today. Her husband started the 7th Virginia Cavalry and was later staff to Jefferson Davis.

Another relation is part of the VanDivers of St. Louis. Don't know who they are but somebody wrote a book about them.

There other lines we haven't traced yet. Especially the Poles. For whatever reason, they don't talk about the old country that much.....

My father's side is English, and my mother's side is Scottish. One of my great grand-parents was Irish - or something like that, I need to research it more.

The ultimate irony.

We're so busy knocking lumps out of each other, and end up burning our own past, that the only people who helped save such important documents...were the ones we were fighting over in the first place. :rolleyes:

By the way QUB or UUC?

Edit: Actually, I think I remember you mentioning UUC and the words 'blind', 'monkey' and 'feces' in the past. Nevermind :p

Aye, well I'm doing a module that includes Ireland in the early eighteenth century, and one of my tutors (Dr. Sneddon) is a researcher for the Irish Legislation Project (http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofHistoryandAnthropology/Research/MajorResearchProjects/IrishLegislationProject) so he knows his stuff and every now and then he brings in something he's working at and shows us it. Pretty cool.

(Actually, one of my lecturers is on that as well...David Hayton)

Oh, aye, QUB (as if that link wasn't extra evidence :p ), second year.

i don't know the exact details of my family tree but i do know that ive got germans, polish jews, normans, irish, norwegians, english, scots, americans/canadians can't remember which, and some of my family lived in egypt for a long time and there was definitely some affairs going on with some egyptians although i think they stayed in egypt and didn't get incorporated into the family more's the pity.

my mum is well into this family tree stuff and she reckons she can trace her family directly to william the conqueror (while there's definitely normans [her maiden names's norman and there's more evidence besides] i'm taking that with a pinch of salt).

Ok, let's see... there's a British lord, a French dancer, wealthy people fleeing an epidemy in Italy, and some ancestors came over from Sweden, too :D

does anyone care about family trees in the first place? leave it to the people who made it up

We never planted one.

well, lets see
My dads side: English, Scottish
Moms side: Robert E. Lee, George Washington, and Robert the Bruce, English, Scottish, german, Austrian, and possibly French

The American term is Heinz 57. Meaning I'm pretty much a mongrel. Mom's side - English, Scottish, German, French. Dad's side - Scottish, Irish, Danish, Norwegian and, possibly, Cherokee.

My father is Japanese, and his parents grew up in a small city in Japan. His father(my grandfather) grew up without a father and supported his mother since he was 13.

My mother's side has been in the US since the mayflower, and in Maine since the early 1700s. My most famous ancestor is Currier from the company Currier and Ives.

I also have traces of Irish, Dutch and German from people marrying into my family. And there's a rumor that one of my great-great-grandmothers was American Indian, but no one admits it.

The only known case of in-breeding in my family is in the 1800s, when a man married his brothers daughter. :eek:

Both are mixed German, Swiss, English, Irish, and Italian

Some were nazi's, some refused to be nazi's

that's all I know

"What is your Family tree like"

Lots of peasants and burghers, a few horse-thieves and gamblers, a handful of scholors and engineers and artists, and a whole bunch of soldiers and sailors. :)

A stump.

On my grandpa's side we are German. I can only trace it back to a man named Christian Bender, all I know was that he died in Girkhausen, Germany in 1822. I cannot find anything on his parents. I am a descendant of his son, Daniel Bender. He had a lot of sons and I am descendant of Wilhelm.

My grandma's maiden name was Guab. They too were German. I can'y find anything about them.

My mom's dad's family is Prussian. Their last name is Schramm. I don't know much about them.

My mom's mom's family was Yugoslavian. Their last name was Wolf, but all the Wolf's I find are German.

If you know something about them, let me know.

My family tree? Full of nuts. ;)


Seriously, though, mainland Italian, Sicilian, Spanish and Puerto Rican.

With all the people who stomped through Sicily, who knows what other nationalities there might be in my background? ;)

why? who have you been talking to?

DONT BELIEVE IT, my family tree branches just like any other!

So mixed up that I can only be called American. I'm Irish, Scottish, German, French, English, Italian, Belgin, and apparently viking, oh, an apperently I am a decendant of Sir Issac Newton.

My father's side was with (and deserted) Washington at Valley Forge, crossed the county in a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail (Not the video game), cemented Missouri's stone into the Washington Monument, invented slot car racing, helped devloped the Saturn V Rocket, and went bird watching with the Emperor of Japan. Oh, and has fought in every war the US has been in, including the current one (Though my couisin was let out of the Balkins early after he rolled his tank).

My mother's side counts a civil war child bride and through them I am apparently second cousins with former President Nixon (when he was alive, and I'm still not sure that's something to be proud of).

Right now I just have a very large family and my poor Japanese fiancee is panicked about marrying into this mess and having to figure out who is related to who and how.

Two branches on my mom's side (which is entirely Norwegian) have records that extend back to 8th century Vikings and pick up Harald III Hardrada and a handful of minor kings along the way, not to mention a whole bunch of landowners and bishops and the explorer Jens Bremer. Amusing that if Stamford Bridge had favored the Vikings instead of the Saxons it might have been my family sucking off the English teat instead of the Windors. ;) Then again, since Hastings was fought only a fortnight later it's hard to say what might have happened between his army and William's.

One part of my dad's side emigrated from Prussia in the 1880's and the others from Ireland and Holland around that time as well, but unfortunately I don't know anything about them prior to that.

Two branches on my mom's side (which is entirely Norwegian) have records that extend back to 8th century Vikings and pick up Harald III Hardrada and a handful of minor kings along the way, not to mention a whole bunch of landowners and bishops and the explorer Jens Bremer. Amusing that if Stamford Bridge had favored the Vikings instead of the Saxons it might have been my family sucking off the English teat instead of the Windors. ;) Then again, since Hastings was fought only a fortnight later it's hard to say what might have happened between his army and William's.


hey wow! if my mum is not deluded then my family and your family could have been competing for the english throne 1000 years ago. mental! maybe we'd have split it between us. bagsie the north :P

hey wow! if my mum is not deluded then my family and your family could have been competing for the english throne 1000 years ago. mental! maybe we'd have split it between us. bagsie the north :P
Heh, amusing how history unfolds so that descendents of two of the great Medieval conquerors of northern Europe should chat across an ocean on an internet forum. :)

Why don't we split it lengthwise down the center, and I'll take the western half while you can have the east?

"What is your Family tree like"

Lots of peasants and burghers, a few horse-thieves and gamblers, a handful of scholors and engineers and artists, and a whole bunch of soldiers and sailors. :)

cant say mine is much different

Ok, dadside first. My gradmother, dad's mother, was 100% Irish, family name Kelly I believe. My grandfather was 50/50 German/Austrian family name Wirth. His father had come to the US about three years before WWI aftr having retired from the German cavalry were he was a blacksmith and his mother missed being in stierage on the Titanic by a week due to the carriage she was taking to the port breaking an axel. Besides that we don't know much, we do know that my great-grandfather helped a few people from his home town escape here from Germany after Hitler rose to power by claiming them as realitives although as far we can tell there is no blood relation. I've heard my dad talking about that we might have figured out someone who was a brother or cousin of my geat-grandfather, but we aren't sure. Interesting side story, my grandfather got in trouble in WWII while serving in the Pacific for writing to his mother in German, since that was the only language she read, with a german name, Karl, so inorder to avoid confusion in the futue the navy made him anglinise it to Carl, which they also named my father. For me they finaly switched back to the original spelling of Karl, same as my Great-Grandfather who first immigrated here.

I don't know as much about my mom's side from the top of my head because it was a lot more convoluted. Her father if I remember right was a immigrant from Lichenstein and her mother 50/50 German/Irish family name McAlister.

Well according to my dad, I don't have one.

According to anyone else... well, my dad's side of the family is largely german with a touch of english and scottish. My mom's side goes back in new england a good ways with a few notable semi-important people in it, and then back to england, and ireland, with a few people fleeing from religious persecution in france, via the netherlands, and picking up a few spouses there on the way.

Ironically, my mom's side of the family has a glorious tradition of protestantism... and is largely no longer protestant. My dad's side is sort of a mishmash of religion and not, and is all protestant now.

And on both sides, it's mostly a mixture of craftsmen and artisans with a few professional types and farmers throwin in for good measure. One great-great grandfather was a publisher way back when and did quite well with that. One great grandfather was a glass cutter. Another a farmer. A third a doctor. I know of a blacksmith, too. It'd be interesting to record professions along with names and dates, eh?