Genealogy
Posted By: sm on 2008-08-23
In Reply to: Anyone into family genealogy - Historian
I come from all over the place, but on my father's side, I have dated him back to the House of Geradini(forgot spelling)in Italy; filthy rich baron that owned vineyards, etc., but his two sons chose different paths. One fought with William the Conqueror, the other went to France and in France is where name spelling begin to change as well as England. One of my cousins was a godson of Queen Elizabeth (Fitzgerald)(can't rememer right off which one). One of the sons helped invade Ireland and as the Irish say, we became more Irish than the Irish, BUT even more ironic, the same man and his son stood up to England later and fought them to take back Ireland from England (now that family history is a doozy) and that history is still taught in Ireland and England and the Irish consider him nobility. I wish I could put down everything on this because it is something else. I couldn't stop researching when I got my hands on this. Some eventually made their way to the US with the early settlers and strange enough, my son-in-law just found out his ancestor was also in the same settlement as my daughter's ancestor. They were both leaders of this settlement and were good friends. They were killed by native Americans who raided their village. His wife was still in England, heard of this, and came over with her children to help the settlement.
Now, further down the line on my maternal grandmother's side, her ancestors (Welch descendants) married Cherokee woman in the Carolinas before the Trail of Tears and they have documented names of my cousins with native American names, which they were given at birth but also given other names so they could attend school and buy land.
On my maternal grandfather's side, two sons came to this country, one married a French-Canadian and one a German descendant. One lineage went south and the other spread across the NE and midwest. Many of these fought in the civil war on both sides, brother against brother basically. One story was documented that a northern ancestor was killed down here and buried, but no northerner was going to be laid on southern soil, so they came years later, dug him up, and buried him up north. One of their sons was commissioned by President Roosevelt to draw up the social security system and to read the basic draft, it was never intended to be used as it is now.
My paternal grandmother was from Greek descendants, which answered why my father had such a strange middle name. Never made since to us as my grandparents passed away long ago. They had over 20 children (my GF's first wife died after 11 or so children and his second wife, my GM, had 10 children, my father and twin sister being the next to the youngest, so lots of folks I still would like to find out about. I have managed to go way back to when my Italian relatives passed through Macedonia and settled in Italy.
So I have Italian, Irish, Welch, German, French, native American and still adding to that. It is fun to research but you're right, 2 am comes fast. I like Ancestry.com where I can find ship passenger lists and those that came over earlier in settlements. Really blows my mind some of the stories I have documented about some relatives. One great, great, great uncle was documented as being a very well-educated smart man but nortorious for hanging out with floozies(sp?). That was hilarious!!! Aren't well-educated smart politicans still hanging out with floozies? Nothing has changed really. Well, actually a well known politician from up north is in my family tree (well known for running around with floozies, big Irish drinker, long family history up there). You look around enough and you can find some very colorful characters/nuts hanging out in that tree.
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Genealogy
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Anyone into family genealogy
Is anyone into family genealogy and if so, how far back have you been able to go and what is your heritage.
I am puerto rican, canadian french, irish & english. My grandmother was born in puerto rico and came to the US at 15. Could not speak a word of English in the beginning. My grandfather was born in Canada and could not speak a word of English when he first came. Somehow (is a long story) he met my grandmother and fell in love at first site - I can see that...my grandmother was a real beauty (looked like a movie star) and my grandfather was very dashing (is that a word used anymore?). The both learned English and married but still spoke mostly their own languages. On the french side I have been able to date relatives back to the 1500s, but unfortunately in puerto rico I can only go back to great great grandparents. English I have been able to date back to mid 1800s and Irish late 1800s.
I think genealogy is fascinating and love love love researching (2am comes awfully fast when I'm in the midst of searching though). One of the highlights is a month ago I met a distant cousin. Her great great grandfather was the sister to my great grandmothers grandmother. Was truly exciting.
I'm also into the history of my relatives. Where they came from, where they worked, what they did for fun, what was their personalities like, what was life like for them. It's so sad I couldn't have known them in person.
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