who's your ancestor?

[Deleted]

I found out that one of my ancestors was a captain in the Revolutionary War.  He was out doing something and the British showed up to his house, told his wife to leave and burnt his house down.  My cousin who told me this just needs to verify her great grandfather to have everything in place to claim all back to the War captain.

Who are your ancestors?

[Wisconsin Beth]

Assorted peons and laborers in Poland, Germany and Ireland for the most part.

We did have "Uncle Bishop" in Poland who used his sisters' dowries/marriage portions for his own ends. He was a Bishop in the 1800s, I think.

[haapai]

We're not really sure.  There were two of them, an uncle who emigrated here slightly before the Civil War and his nephew from the same part of war-torn Europe.  The story that we're told is that the younger one got here and was promptly drafted.  We've got his decommissioning papers.  He got a brevet promotion to corporal, so he was probably literate. 

We're not sure which one is our ancestor.  We also seem to be avoiding the term "proxy soldier". 

[MarleyKeezy78]

My uncle is the record keeper so I should ask him. Pretty sure we had some relatives who were sent here from Ireland/England as endentured(sp) servants when they were children. 
My great great grandfather built a hotel in a city in the area which is now a brewery. I have no idea if we are related to anybody cool in history 

[justme]

Don't know if there's more or not, but related to someone who signed the Declaration of Independence and a former president.

[andi9899]

Brown people. Lots of brown people.

[NoNamePerson]

have no clue except maybe my mother. But after finding some papers after she died not even sure she was who she said she was. Can only go by names on birth certificate.   

But that name isn't same name on Certificate of Birth so who knows. It's a mystery.  So ancestor would be hard to trace.  

[alabamagal]

On my Dads side, end entitled servants who came to US in late 1800s. My great grandmother ad a house who was very friendly and had lots of visitors in the 1920s. We figure she had a speakeasy?

On my Moms side my grandfather did lots of genealogy. He is from North Carolina. His ancestor was an overseer on the farm of R. J. Reynolds of tobacco fame.

[wvugurl26]

My dad sent in for that DNA test. Haven't heard the results. One of the cousins did it too I think and got it back. The only surprise was a lack of Indian anything on the grandpa's side.

[justme]

Mar 15, 2016 20:46:30 GMT -5 Ratchets said:

Mar 15, 2016 20:00:26 GMT -5 justme said:

Don't know if there's more or not, but related to someone who signed the Declaration of Independence and a former president.

Well so far you've got the most famous lineage here...neat stuff!

I'm assuming your ancestry was English?  If so, I have some links to free websites ~somewhere~ with census reports and that sort of thing.  If you're interested I can try to find them.

Or if anybody is for that matter.

Yeah, English and probably some other stuff on that side of my family. I'm not actually sure where along the line someone did research? I was just always told that from a little kid. Not sure what all else is mixed in on that side of the family since we've been around so long - though our last surnames on that side were Ward and Smith and that goes back to like 1900. But neither of those names are the two guys I mention - that would be Hart and Taylor. 

[Peace Of Mind]

Mine are Adam and Eve. Or whores and thieves. You pick.

[tskeeter]

Mar 15, 2016 19:13:29 GMT -5 @hickle said:

I found out that one of my ancestors was a captain in the Revolutionary War.  He was out doing something and the British showed up to his house, told his wife to leave and burnt his house down.  My cousin who told me this just needs to verify her great grandfather to have everything in place to claim all back to the War captain.

Who are your ancestors?

Irish insurrectionists.  Found Cousin Pat on a prison ship in Belfast harbor.  About nine months after Uncle Will had led the local rabble in an attack on a British garrison in a town a few miles down the road.

Great Grandpa homesteaded land in MN in the 1870's.

[Wisconsin Beth]

We did the DNA tests around Christmas. No big surprises for either of us. Dh's patents finally sent theirs off a couple weeks ago. Dh is having fun with it on ancestry.com though.

[swamp]

A bunch of people who fled the Irish potato famine, and a bunch of for trappers who left France to go live in Canada.

[happyhoix]

No one famous.

On my mom's side, the first one to immigrate was an Irish Quaker married to an English Quaker who left England due to religious persecution. That was in 1670. Their family eventually owned a large farm, textile mill and sawmill, so they were the only quasi well to do people we had.

On my Dad's side, one relative got kicked out of England for poaching the King's deer, another got shanghaied at a bar in Glasgow and forced to serve in the British navy, until he went AWOL in the States and ended up as a volunteer for the American army. (At the same time, someone who married into the Quaker side of the family was also serving in the revolutionary war).

A little after the revolutionary war, a Welsh girl who was an indentured servant in central PA got lost when she was sent to look for the family cow. She spent 3 days wandering around. The person she worked for promised the local young men that whoever found her could marry her, and that grand children from that couple ended up marrying into my Mom's (Quaker) side of the family.

Then on my dad's side there were five brothers who lived on a farm near Gettysburg and, when the Southerners advanced, rushed to join the militia. All five ended up dead at the battle of Gettysburg, so I guess we are crappy soldiers. Fortunately the family had one young son left at home who survived.

Mostly, we're a bunch of cranky farmers, miners, and later on, grocery store owners and railroad workers. My Quaker grandmother did, however, shock her town by being the first woman who road a horse with a split skirt (rather than sidesaddle) so I guess we also have a lot of rabble rousing women.

 

[gregintenn]

I'm a descendant of John Adams.

[mroped]

1475, January, is the first mention of one of my ancestors.
In fact that was when the family name was given and the individual was raised from the state of serf to the state of free man and been given a chunk of land.
The reward was given for "participation" in a decisive battle against the invading Otoman Empire. 
January 10th 1475, the Battle of Podul Inalt(High Bridge), Vaslui, one of the bloodiest in Romanian history and a decisive point in stopping the expansion of Islam in Europe.

My children are the first ones since that time to have mixed blood. I am the first one to settle outside and have children. Everybody else is just 100% pure blood Moldovian(eastern Romania)

[daisy]

Both of my parent's great-grandparents emigrated thru Ellis Island around 1900 from Czechoslovakia and settled in the Chicago area.  They were farmers in the home country and for the most part they got regular jobs and kept chickens in the back yard.    

Like Mroped, my brother, sister and I all managed to marry non-Slovaks, so the purity ends with our kids.  No one famous, although apparently my mother's family is considered 'better' because they are from Prague and had more land/ nicer chickens.     My dad's side hailed from the 'country' and thus less noteworthy.  

My mom went with my sister to visit Prague last year but didn't look up any of the family since my grandmother was the last to actually keep in touch with anyone.  I have some beautiful colored pencil drawings of the town and my great-grandmother's house that a cousin did back in the communist days when getting an American dollar in the mail meant you were wealthy.  I think he charged maybe $10 for each of them and they are the first things I'd grab if the house was ever on fire.  

[ArchietheDragon]

I think someone named Vinny the Neck and Enzo the Rat. 

[Deleted]

Mar 16, 2016 8:24:33 GMT -5 gregintenn said:

I'm a descendant of John Adams.

The son or the father?

[gregintenn]

Mar 16, 2016 10:00:59 GMT -5 @hickle said:

Mar 16, 2016 8:24:33 GMT -5 gregintenn said:

I'm a descendant of John Adams.

The son or the father?

I'm not quite sure.

[mroped]

Mar 16, 2016 10:00:59 GMT -5 @hickle said:

Mar 16, 2016 8:24:33 GMT -5 gregintenn said:

I'm a descendant of John Adams.

The son or the father?

Does it make any difference? I would assume that since JQ Adams is John Adams's son then from the father it is!

[NoNamePerson]

Mar 16, 2016 9:36:20 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

I think someone named Vinny the Neck and Enzo the Rat. 

Or possibly Ratso Rizzo from Midnight Cowboy?  Have no clue why that popped into my mind at this time!!!

[ArchietheDragon]

Mar 16, 2016 10:39:28 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

Mar 16, 2016 9:36:20 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

I think someone named Vinny the Neck and Enzo the Rat. 

Or possibly Ratso Rizzo from Midnight Cowboy?  Have no clue why that popped into my mind at this time!!!

I'm walking here!

[Lizard Queen]

I can only go back to the early 1900's.  I suspect a lot of records were lost in WW2, but I haven't looked very hard.  My mother's father was a shoemaker in northeastern Poland (now Lithuania), and my other grandfather was a farmer in eastern Poland (now Ukraine).  I've read somewhere that the ending on my mother's maiden name indicates nobility, but I really have no idea.

[kittensaver]

We are immigrants on both sides. 1st generation on my father's side and about 4th generation on my mother's.

My paternal ancestors are central and southern Europeans - mostly Italians with a few Swiss nationals tossed in there. And many of them were (in their day) noted working artists - they carved cathedral doors and confessionals, sculpted statues and other altar pieces, took commissions from wealthy families to make art for their homes, that sort of thing.

My maternal ancestors are Scott-Irish. They were mostly teachers and farmers. My mother can trace her immediate heritage to the Campbell clan in Scotland (I'm technically entitled to wear the Dress Campbell plaid), and she can trace waaaaaay back to Robert the Bruce. 

[gregintenn]

Mar 16, 2016 10:33:18 GMT -5 mroped said:

Mar 16, 2016 10:00:59 GMT -5 @hickle said:

The son or the father?

Does it make any difference? I would assume that since JQ Adams is John Adams's son then from the father it is!

I believe this was what we here call a joke.

[mcsangel2]

Got a great uncle that was a conductor on Lincoln's funeral train.

One direct ancestor came over on the Mayflower. Well, two. Stephen Hopkins and his daughter, Constance.

Descended from the Scottish Stuart kings, through James IV.

Lots of other English royalty through medieval times.

Mom's side is German, no one of note, but have been able to trace her dad's lineage back to the 1300's, which is impressive for there not being anyone famous in it.

I love genealogy.

[teen persuasion]

Mar 16, 2016 9:35:29 GMT -5 daisy said:

Both of my parent's great-grandparents emigrated thru Ellis Island around 1900 from Czechoslovakia and settled in the Chicago area.  They were farmers in the home country and for the most part they got regular jobs and kept chickens in the back yard.    

Like Mroped, my brother, sister and I all managed to marry non-Slovaks, so the purity ends with our kids.  No one famous, although apparently my mother's family is considered 'better' because they are from Prague and had more land/ nicer chickens.     My dad's side hailed from the 'country' and thus less noteworthy.  

My mom went with my sister to visit Prague last year but didn't look up any of the family since my grandmother was the last to actually keep in touch with anyone.  I have some beautiful colored pencil drawings of the town and my great-grandmother's house that a cousin did back in the communist days when getting an American dollar in the mail meant you were wealthy.  I think he charged maybe $10 for each of them and they are the first things I'd grab if the house was ever on fire.  

My paternal grandparents emigrated prior to WWI from Czechoslovakia, my grandfather as a child with his family, my grandmother as a teen sent by her brothers to escape the war.  There is a family story that she is related to  an early president of Czechoslovakia, we are guessing Thomas Masaryk, but have no proof at all.

My mom is mostly Irish, just a bit of English.  My husband is adopted so no real idea of his genetic background, but his adoptive parents are Pennsylvania Deutsche, and French Canadian/English, so our kids are well blended.

[violagirl]

I'm having lots of fun with DNA testing. I'm genetically way more Irish than I thought I"d be. Nobody of note yet though. :^(

I have also discovered if you are related to one Acadian, you are related to them all so I have so many matches I can't even go through them all on Ancestry. A few cousins I am related to 11 different ways.