Where are you really from

[Guard Dog]

My brothers wife did our genealogy a few years back. For her side of the family she was able to go a long way back all the way to colonial Boston. My brother and I have family in Ireland apparently where my mothers people came from and James Longstreet of US civil war fame is in our family tree through his daughter on my fathers side. It took her years to work it all out like Indria did 

[ManifestedISO]

My mom did the same thing ... microfiche, birth and death records, hard-copy info at cemeteries ... genealogy is definitely her thing. She's found relatives from before 19th century from across the whole of Britain and Ireland. Also records of relatives from both sides of the American Civil War. Seems like a lot of ancestral military, but that could be because they keep better records, and in English. My mom's dad was Air Force in WWII, my father was a Green Beret, his brother a demo expert for the Navy ... I enlisted as an infantry Marine, and my cousin just graduated boot camp here at MCRD. I wouldn't say it's a tradition, I mean I don't think wearing a uniform is "where we're really from," so to speak, but it's fun to feel a sense of identity with the people you're related to, who came before you.   

[obyknven]

From Russia. History of my family too long to explain, but one of my ancestors participate in Civil War as Red Commissar.   

[Walsingham]

I could use some help tracking down a relative who effectively disappeared in Burma in WW2. Family legend says he's dead. But I haven't been able to find a grave ANYWHERE for him.

 

I've got the strangest gut feeling that we may have a whole branch of the family elsewhere.

[Guard Dog]

My mom did the same thing ... microfiche, birth and death records, hard-copy info at cemeteries ... genealogy is definitely her thing. She's found relatives from before 19th century from across the whole of Britain and Ireland. Also records of relatives from both sides of the American Civil War. Seems like a lot of ancestral military, but that could be because they keep better records, and in English. My mom's dad was Air Force in WWII, my father was a Green Beret, his brother a demo expert for the Navy ... I enlisted as an infantry Marine, and my cousin just graduated boot camp here at MCRD. I wouldn't say it's a tradition, I mean I don't think wearing a uniform is "where we're really from," so to speak, but it's fun to feel a sense of identity with the people you're related to, who came before you.   

OOORAH!

[Guest Slinky]

I could use some help tracking down a relative who effectively disappeared in Burma in WW2. Family legend says he's dead. But I haven't been able to find a grave ANYWHERE for him.

 

I've got the strangest gut feeling that we may have a whole branch of the family elsewhere.

 

The odds can be narrowed down with a simple question; What kind of a woman he was married to?

 

1. Audrey Hepburn look-alike: Died.

2. A woman who was daily mistaken as german tiger tank: "Died".

[Rostere]

My relatives, going back to the 19th century, are almost all thinly spread out in different parts of Sweden, with one person being a Baltic German: he was born in Riga but worked in Saint Petersburg, and later moved to Sweden. His ancestors in turn were from somewhere in Prussia and/or the Baltics (which were a part of Russia at the time). Of course I can't be 100% sure about his ethnicity, but he had a German first name and surname and was buried at a Protestant graveyard.

 

A lot of my ancestors have been engineers, or have worked in some creative field such as architecture, interior design or specialist carpentry.

[Hiro Protagonist]

On my mothers side, have the poet Henry Lawson in my family tree and traced back to the first fleet in 1788 from England and to Ireland. Fathers side has been traced back to 12th century Scotland.

Edited November 25, 2013 by Hiro Protagonist

[Raithe]

On my mother's side, we have a blind albino basketweaver who was invited onto the national chess team - but refused because it would take too much time away from the family, and who had a basket he made actually given to the Queen as a birthday present. So likely tucked away in some nook in the Palace...

[IndiraLightfoot]

Raithe: Ah, but there you are mistaken, my good fellow! His basket is placed on a satin pillow on the main dining table in the castle. It's still a conversation piece, because of its huge size and its intricate wattle-and-daub. You may say it's a hut, really, Jabba the Hut. But that's a story for another time.

Edited November 25, 2013 by IndiraLightfoot

[HoonDing]

One of my earliest ancestors was from Outremer. He had a strange knack for climbing buildings and diving down into a pile of hay.

[Walsingham]

On my mother's side, we have a blind albino basketweaver who was invited onto the national chess team - but refused because it would take too much time away from the family, and who had a basket he made actually given to the Queen as a birthday present. So likely tucked away in some nook in the Palace...

 

...Is the basket that will one day kill the Queen.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Walshingham: It seems you're onto something. A name is repeated in the wattle-n-daub, embroidered with used floss: "Michael Fagan", and a faint scent of red wine covers the whole basket.

[Walsingham]

Walshingham: It seems you're onto something. A name is repeated in the wattle-n-daub, embroidered with used floss: "Michael Fagan", and a faint scent of red wine covers the whole basket.

 

LOL. This would explain Raithe's ancestor's final words.

 

"Avon Calling"

[Walsingham]

 

Walshingham: It seems you're onto something. A name is repeated in the wattle-n-daub, embroidered with used floss: "Michael Fagan", and a faint scent of red wine covers the whole basket.

 

LOL. This would explain Raithe's ancestor's final words.

 

"Avon Calling"

 

 

I totally stole this from 2000AD's Tyranny Rex

 

[Orogun01]

 

 

 

Walshingham: It seems you're onto something. A name is repeated in the wattle-n-daub, embroidered with used floss: "Michael Fagan", and a faint scent of red wine covers the whole basket.

 

LOL. This would explain Raithe's ancestor's final words.

 

"Avon Calling"

 

 

I totally stole this from 2000AD's Tyranny Rex

 

 

Plagiarism! 3 months on the Cubes!

Edited November 25, 2013 by Orogun01

[Tale]

According to what I was told as a youngster, I've got quite the family history. Various ethnic and cultural backgrounds, though I'd say the American with some native tracing back to an English indentured servant with a penchant for petty thievery is probably the dominant one.

 

Mostly though, I just like to pretend I'm a robot over the internet. Beep boop.

[Labadal]

I've been told we're Russian if we look back a couple hundred years. Unfortunately, most of my ancestors were wiped out in something that we call Farman. So I guess we'll never know.

[Kroney]

Genetically I'm a mongrel Brit, Scottish, Welsh and English blooded with nothing interesting going on at all. Personally, I'm from Surrey and living in London.

 

Wow, I'm really dull.

[Walsingham]

Boring isn't what's in your blood. Boring is what you're blood's into.

[Humanoid]

It's something I've both never really thought about, nor am particularly curious about. Probably partly due to the fact that I barely even knew my grandparents - by the time I was eight I had lost three of them already (and never really had much contact with the last one, being overseas and all). I don't know the slightest thing about my great-grandparents, not what they looked like, what they did, or even their names. And my parents aren't much help in this regard as they didn't really know their grandparents either.

 

So uh, my knowledge of family history barely goes back fifty years. But I find I don't mind not knowing.

[Malau]

I'm a Malaysian Chinese.

 

Grandparents left China to seek new opportunities in Southeast Asia. They ended up in Malaysia. Used to be a heaven but recently racial themes are being played around along with an increased Islamic fundamentalism. The Malays blame the Chinese for not being grateful for what our government has done for the country: We have one political coalition ruling our country since its independence from the British Monarchy in 1957, after world war 2.

 

During the 1969 May 13 general elections, there were disputes that the Chinese opposition party won in the election. Much confusion and rioting commenced in the next few days. Both sides blamed each other for starting the riots. Every since, a new economic plan was implemented whereby Malays who call themselves "prince of the earth" or "Bumiputera" have special privileges such as a quota in the tertiary education system (government universities could only accept number of new students base on the percentage make up of the different races of Malaysia); all private enterprises must have a percentage of bumiputera shareholders; all bumiputera receive special rates for loans; property that are earmarked only for bumis along with plenty of other differential treatment.

 

Yet, Malaysians as a whole are still largely peaceful and tolerant of one another. It is only the ruling political party that are driving racial sentiments up.

During the recent general elections (may 5th) the ruling coalition has lost more seats to the oppositon than ever before due to growing discontent as well alleged corruption and poor management.

 

Again, the politicians played the racial card and called it the "Chinese Tsunami"  (google it). We have been demonised, depicted as unloyal and worse. Recently when the 2014 budget was announced, a GST/VAT is to be implemented soon to overcome the growing disparity between our GDP and growing debt along with plenty of cuts on subsidies and increase in utilities, tolls etc. All of this are just tip of the iceberg.

 

I worry about my future; I love this country but it is becoming more and more difficult for me to see it in a positive manner. To the outsider or foreign investors, Malaysia is a sea of calm and a beauty of the southeast but if you peer deeper, you'll see that there are schisms everywhere.

[LadyCrimson]

I am supposedly South Korean, since that's where I was found and adopted from. But since I was abandoned at age of 2 or so, I have no information other than that. I could be some kind of Asian mixture for all I know. Not that I think they actually got it wrong. Just never know. heh

Upbringing and mentality wise, I'm in the lower range middle-class "white" American, I suppose.

 

It's interesting growing up that way tho. When I was growing up people were always asking me if I felt a sense of loss of self-identity or something. Not knowing one's roots/wanting to find my roots and all of that. Can't say that I have, since I was just a wee kid and my adoptive family/country is all I know. But it does cause occasional discomfort/misunderstanding/humor from people assuming I have a different culture perspective, based on my physical appearance alone.

[Woldan]

Genetically I'm part Austrian, part German, and two parts eastern European. Black hair, green eyes with brown features, tall, go figure. 

Edited December 14, 2013 by Woldan