Heritage

[Mouth]

American mutt. I have Scottish, Native American, Alsace-Lorraine, English, German, and when you consider all the movement that went on in Europe during Roman times, and Vikings spreading their DNA, and invasions and occupations of England, and so forth, I'm probably a world mutt also.

I don't know exactly what the family DNA tests tell vs what they don't tell. I'm not willing to give my DNA to companies that use my info beyond me paying to know something.

I claim all human history as my own.

You're all my cousins. What's up cuz?

Speaking of cousins, I've wondered since every generation doubles the number of your progenitors, in 20 generations, you're around a million individuals if there's no intermarriage. At that rate, we run out of past people on earth pretty quick. This was noted on one of the pages I visited reading up on the testing.

Nothin' says lovin' like marrying your 4th or 5th cousin.

History is fascinating. Did you know that English kings from William the Conquerer to Henry IV spoke French as their first language?

 

[Rustbucket]

Is it only Americans who care about this sort of thing?

From my experience working in Australia and Canada, I would expand that assumption to include most “new world” immigrant based populations.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

From my experience working in Australia and Canada, I would expand that assumption to include most “new world” immigrant based populations.

And again it varies so much. I could have absolute zero, zip, zilch interest in heritage and my brother could be devoting his life to researching the family heritage back to the Garden Of Eden.

 

[Rustbucket]

And again it varies so much. I could have absolute zero, zip, zilch interest in heritage and my brother could be devoting his life to researching the family heritage back to the Garden Of Eden.

Agreed. After re-reading my post, I should have said generalization instead of assumption. Then there’s my Québécoise wife, they seem to detest the French!!

 

[39martind18]

My brother actually did the whole ancestry thing and found out we're scot-irish and our first great great... grandfather came to America late 1700s. He had 17 children, evidently he didn't sleep much.

Or he didn't watch much TV at night!

 

[BigDaddyLH]

Agreed. After re-reading my post, I should have said generalization instead of assumption. Then there’s my Québécoise wife, they seem to detest the French!!

But not as much as the Anglos!

 

[ClashCityTele]

My two older cousins, Maureen (RIP) & Vera, traced my Father's side of the family back to 1610.
A relative, Elizabeth, born in 1766, moved from Britain to Pennsylvania with her 3 children at some point in time.

I also have a family photo looking like the von Trapp family (lol). It looks early 20th Century. On the back it says 'Stella's cousins in Chile'. No other info.
Stella was my maternal Grandmother. Her Uncle was probably in the mining industry. I'd love to trace them.

Going off family names I'm probably a bit English/Scottish/Irish & possibly Jewish (going back centuries). Hopefully no French!!!

Princess Diana was related to Sir Winston Churchill, who was related to George Washington!
We're all just one big happy family.

 

[Knows3Chords]

Wow, 87 posts and no one has made a Genghis Kahn or being the last line of the Habsburg dynasty comment.

 

[Old Plank]

I don't buy that for a second. In the middle east for instance, they have a tradition of being able to trace your family back many, many generations.

Yes I can see I maybe could have worded that more clearly; in referring to previous posts asking if only Americans cared about this, I meant to say that I wouldn't know why non-Americans wouldn't also be interested to do so; as plenty of course are.

 

[Lou Tencodpees]

It's really hard to get the feeling of a family connection when you get past a 2nd cousin. Hell, my girlfriend has some Ukrainian roots (grandfather, I believe) and may actually be my distant cousin .

Early on I downloaded aggregate data for my wife and me and did a match. I found one common relative. I'm sure there are all kinds of overlaps. Some 3rd cousins have relatives in common on both of my parents side. Its all interesting but no compulsion to get obsessive over it.

 

[notmyusualuserid]

Then there’s my Québécoise wife, they seem to detest the French!!

It seems to be mutual.

 

[notmyusualuserid]

History is fascinating. Did you know that English kings from William the Conquerer to Henry IV spoke French as their first language?

That's probably because they were all French.

 

[notmyusualuserid]

Yes I can see I maybe could have worded that more clearly; in referring to previous posts asking if only Americans cared about this, I meant to say that I wouldn't know why non-Americans wouldn't also be interested to do so; as plenty of course are.

Many non-Americans are, it's just that in Europe declaring that you have,say, a German bloodline doesn't mean much.

 

[1955]

It would do a whole lot of folks some good to go down that rabbit hole, really and truly. I’ve learned a lot about history. If anyone starts looking back far enough, many misconceptions regarding fairly recent mutations don’t matter very much.

I’d go so far as to say that one can learn enough within a few hours of study to make themselves downright unfashionable. Many people are hung up on superficial differences and don’t even realize that we are in essence one big family. Several thousand years is just a blink of an eye.

 

[telestratosonic]

American mutt. I have Scottish, Native American, Alsace-Lorraine, English, German, and when you consider all the movement that went on in Europe during Roman times, and Vikings spreading their DNA, and invasions and occupations of England, and so forth, I'm probably a world mutt also.

I don't know exactly what the family DNA tests tell vs what they don't tell. I'm not willing to give my DNA to companies that use my info beyond me paying to know something.

I claim all human history as my own.

You're all my cousins. What's up cuz?

Speaking of cousins, I've wondered since every generation doubles the number of your progenitors, in 20 generations, you're around a million individuals if there's no intermarriage. At that rate, we run out of past people on earth pretty quick. This was noted on one of the pages I visited reading up on the testing.

Nothin' says lovin' like marrying your 4th or 5th cousin.

History is fascinating. Did you know that English kings from William the Conquerer to Henry IV spoke French as their first language?

My father's side of the family came from the south coast of Devon and were well-settled in the Notre Dame Bay area (northeast coast) of Newfoundland by the 1770s. My surname is a Norman-French name.
My mother's family came to Bonavista Bay (northeast coast) in Newfoundland from Dorset in the 1830s. Her maiden name is a Norman-French name as well.

 

[Oxidao]

Are you really into your ancestral roots?

Not really To the point of DNA research or similar. Coming from a country “visited” by so many different cultures (Iberos, Celtics, Greeks, Romans, Goths, Arabs…) before 800 a.c., I know I probably have a bit of most of them, if not in my blood, surely in my culture.
I just have to take a look at History to know where I come from in the big picture, those mixture of cultures conformed what we all are as Spanish (Españoles).

At a different level, in the short term, there is an strong interest under certain circles on tracing your ancestors, to locate yourself inside the different Regions (States) of Spain, mostly when those have a political separatist attitude (Cataluña, País Vasco/Navarra, Galicia) against our country.
There was a funny Comedy here years ago, named “8 Vasque surnames”, and a sequel “8 Catalan surnames”, making fun of ”blood purity” based on your first 8 surnames. In Spain we take first our Dad’s surname, then Mother’s and so on mixing them alternatively (I got 7 Vasques plus 1 French).

I like knowing myself, who I am, and all this “where I come from” BS just helps a bit on that.

 

[Tricone]

Not really To the point of DNA research or similar. Coming from a country “visited” by so many different cultures (Iberos, Celtics, Greeks, Romans, Goths, Arabs…) before 800 a.c., I know I probably have a bit of most of them, if not in my blood, surely in my culture.
I just have to take a look at History to know where I come from in the big picture, those mixture of cultures conformed what we all are as Spanish (Españoles).

At a different level, in the short term, there is an strong interest under certain circles on tracing your ancestors, to locate yourself inside the different Regions (States) of Spain, mostly when those have a political separatist attitude (Cataluña, País Vasco/Navarra, Galicia) against our country.
There was a funny Comedy here years ago, named “8 Vasque surnames”, and a sequel “8 Catalan surnames”, making fun of ”blood purity” based on your first 8 surnames. In Spain we take first our Dad’s surname, then Mother’s and so on mixing them alternatively (I got 7 Vasques plus 1 French).

I like knowing myself, who I am, and all this “where I come from” BS just helps a bit on that.

Wasn't Pao Casals a Catalan nationalist? He was an interesting person and imho the best cello player ever. Spain is a lovely country with an interesting history.

 

[Oxidao]

Thanks a lot for your words.
I’m equally proud of him, either he felt Nationalist or not.