Where did your ancestors come from?

[Banyanpan]

I don't know much about my ancestry, but apparently my father is German and Polish, and my mother is African American with a little Native American. There's probably more in there somewhere, but I don't know what.

So basically I'm a mutt.

[Endyr_Serifi]

Well, I'm Scottish and Irish and English from my dads side and Native American and German from my moms side.

 

 

Edit: I'm basically an American mutt too

Edited August 15, 2016 by Jsward322

[Saami]

I'm not very clear on my family history. I know my ancestors came to America on slave ships, but I don't know what part of Africa they were from. I'm also fairly certain there's Native American in my family too, but I don't know how much or what tribe. My surname is apparently English, but I don't know when it was applied to my family.

 

I really want to do that DNA testing ancestry.com offers, just to know who I am and where I come from.

[SlyFox]

I'm a mut.

 

Sioux Indian, Welsh and English from my mother's side (Sioux from her father and English and Welsh from her mother, going back to the man who planted the first apple tree - Johnny Appleseed was the nickname)

 

Scottish, Irish, Cherokee, Apache and Italian from my father's side (Scottish, Irish and Italian from his mother and Cherokee and Apache from his father)

 

I wasn't able to follow my father's line past his parents because there was bad blood in the family and he literally had nothing to do with them, so much so that we don't know where to find them. We only know that his mother's side went back to some Douglas clan in Scotland where the family has their own castle.

[Mupen64 Man]

Tbh, Im not quite sure what I am. My grandmother says she has some native american, but I don't see it, so I don't claim it. Apparently my dad is of Polish descent.

[beefcake]

Dutch, Aruban, St. Martin, Bajan. Further back I have south American and Arawak ancestors.

[Earth Gurl]

I am 50% Dutch. My dad is from Holland. Like yes, Holland. Cruquius to be exact. And we go way back. My dad has traced our family back to the 17th century or earlier in the same area. I was just there visiting my family actually. I'm pretty Dutch, ngl.

 

My mom was adopted, but she's from Kentucky around Greenup. We are EXTREMELY Appalachian. She is mainly Scottish, but we have like 14% Irish or something like that.

 

Our Scottish ancestors came from Kintyre; they were the Fergusons. My grandmother's family were Stephens's from Ireland. I think my great-grandfather was first generation American. My adoptive family is from Ireland and were the MacQuillens who occupied Dunlace Castle until all but one guy were wiped out by the MacDonells.

 

I have something like 2% Cherokee from one woman who married into our family. Other than that, I'm 98% European. It's pretty funny, actually.

 

In other words, I can drink whiskey like water, and I grew up with Chocolate Hagelslag, Nijntje, wooden shoes, Nasi Goreng, and toasties. I'm a weird mutt.

[Esko]

German, Irish, Norwegian, Scottist, Polish, French, Dutch...I might be forgetting some. I don't know percentages or history, but I remember those enthicities. I'm an American mutt.

 

(It's funny how my ancestry comes from several European nations, but no other nations outside Europe.)

Edited August 18, 2016 by Esko_the_Wolf

[halfsourpickle]

well if we're getting *really* technical here, i think we all came from africa or smthg? my family's been chinese their whole lives, tho. as far as i know.

[sara4cows]

My heritage is Irish, British, German, Norwegian, French, Iberian Peninsula, Greek, African, Native American and Scottish.

 

[Lionthrush]

25 Mexican. 2000th Cherokee. Unknown amount of chumash. Mostly American. I'm a mystery.

Edited August 22, 2016 by Lionthrush

[PurpleKirby]

They came from Sweden, Germany, England, France, and Canada.

[greenglassesgal]

Probably Han Chinese all the way, since my dad's Taiwanese and my mom's Filipino Chinese with ancestors from Fujian.

[Deblob167]

My Dad is from around Naples, Italy; my grandmother is from Germany; and my grandfather is from Ireland.

 

My paternal grandfather was a soldier in Mussolini's army (even though he was Connecticut-born he moved to Italy due to family). Apparently, he might have been a generation or two from the founders of a well-known dairy industry in the New England area.

Edited August 31, 2016 by Deblob167

[Indigo_Dragon]

My mom's mother is from Finland but she was born here even if her family was entirely born and bred in Finland. My mom's father has a nice mix of Irish, Welsh, English, and Northern Germanic.

 

My dad is a mix of Irish, Welsh, English, Scottish, and Northern Germanic.

 

*looks at map* Holy frack no wonder I'm the whitest person I know! I come from a highly white ancestry. -p-;; How dreary and dull. (But unfortunately extremely useful in not dying for my skin color and appearances in my suckish native country of USA :/ )

[sroo]

I'm all Finnish. Even if you look 10 gen back I'm all Finnish. If you go 15 gen on my father's side it's still, surprise surprise, all Finnish.. And usually being Finnish means you aren't connected to "old money" or anything even remotely royal (Royal? In Finland?? Hah!) There isn't any interesting forefathers either :/

 

But like in all families, there is (or/and has been) drama in my family! There's a humorous saying in Finland "mitä serkumpi, sen herkumpi" which translates roughly to "the more related the better" (ie incest isn't that bad.. Plus I think all Finns might be relates to each other). There are few cases of cousins and step-siblings (same mother different father) marrying each other in my family tree. My great-great-grandfather went to jail because he killed his sister's molestor. And one of my (first)cousins from my father' side is a nephew to my other (first)cousin from my father's side. So they are (first)cousins and uncle and nephew to each other. So you don't have to look all that far back to get some Days of Our Lives vibe.

Edited October 12, 2016 by sroo

[Daydreamer09]

100% German (unless you count a tiny small bit of Hollander). As far as I know, my family originally came from the northern part of the country, or the low lands (Oldenburg being one town I know of). My grandfather is the last member to have learned to speak low german.

 

My ancestors migrated to the states back before the US civil war, 1820-ish I think. Many Germans at that time migrated to the states because the eldest son often inherited land from the father, leaving the younger brothers to venture off in pursuit of land of their own. My uncolorful ancestry is the result of ethnic groups clumping together. Technically, my parents are distant cousins to one another.

It's been years since I've originally posted this, and well, I've done a lot of family digging since then.

 

The farthest back I've been able to trace my family is to the early 1600s in northern Germany with a marriage year of two individuals. Through a very distant German cousin's geneology site and the aid of google translate, I've found out that this ancestor owned land, farmed and owed taxes to the king to help pay for the crusades. This branch of the family gets pretty confusing because 'Von', "Zu' and 'Tho" (German surname prefixes that help designate town origin) get swapped around between generations.

 

Majority of my migrating ancestors are from Lower Saxony area of Germany. However, there's one branch that's from Bavaria Germany and another from Holland. That's really the extent to which I can claim any diversity in my heritage. (So very little at all). I'm probably also descended mainly from Saxons if you go back to the era of Germanic tribes which is pretty cool considering they conquered England and had a strong influence on early English.

 

My ancestors came over to the United States in the early 1830s and I've been able to find the exact ship and year one ancestor came on. He came over and then sent letters to his sisters who followed in a year or two after. The town they settled in and were buried at also was the same town I was raised in during part of my childhood. My family didn't really move at all.

I'm related to myself. Twice. Back during that same century with siblings marrying off to different families and oddly enough their lines converge with me.

 

I'm not related to royalty and only descended from farmers, but finding all this out is pretty amazing. My mom's said that supposedly the Bavarian ancestors got kicked out of Germany for practicing witchcraft. So maybe I can boast about being part witch, but who knows?

 

eta: My Bavarian ancestors actually left Germany to escape being drafted into a war. Funny enough a decade later that same many-greats grandfather was drafted into the American Civil War. I even found a transcript of him trying to get out of the war for having gout in his foot.

Edited October 19, 2016 by Daydreamer09

[JavaTigress]

As for me... I am sort of a mix of things.

 

The big three'd be German, French and Finnish.

[Sinine]

as far as I know back, I am 100% Estonian. I do not think there's any other nationalities in my family. My grand parent used to tell me stories of their grand-parent and further back sometimes, and they have always been Estonian even through the Russian invades and the German invade in world war 2. I have proudness to be from Estonia.

 

 

[Sunlexor]

I am 100% Russian. While I do not speak my native language fluently nor reside in Russia anymore I searched for my biological family and was pretty surprised as to how far back my lineage went.

[Redds]

Likely purebred Chinese. Possibly a twinge of Japanese, but we don't talk about that.

 

EDIT: I say likely and pure but. While my ancestry stretches back about 24 generations according to the family namebook, our actual surname died out in the 4th or 5th generation, jokingly because someone offended someone else or another of power. From that generation onward bore only daughters or if they had sons died of illness, accidents or were not able to produce offspring for any reason. Either distant cousins were adopted as sons or matriarchy of some sort was adapted. Up till my paternal grandfather (21st generation, also adopted), who bore all 6 sons who then went on to bear 10 sons and then all my nephews I can't even count anymore.

 

So in essence our lineage is the equivalent of that 10gen egg on the AP that no one wants and who's to say some other blood or another isn't mixed in with the whole silk road world trade economic uprising revolution thing happening then.

Edited November 1, 2016 by Redds

[LikeTwoPancakes]

I only positively know that my mother's side is from Canada.

[SoulFox]

Father: While Germany is the strongest part of his bloodline, there is also a mixture of other European characteristics, including Russian and Czech.

 

Mother: Italian mostly, but she is part Slovakian and other bloodlines mixed in there. My family mostly originated from Europe, although I've never gone back too far on our family tree.

[Sesshomaru]

50ish% Celtic (Irish, Welsh, possibly some Scottish), 20ish% Latin (Italian and Portuguese), 20ish% Scandinavian/Germanic (Norwegian, Swedish, German, French, a tiny dash of Anglo-Saxon), and 10% unaccounted for, probably more Celtic. There's a chance I might not be purely Caucasian (possible connection to a tribe in the Blackfoot Confederacy), but I highly doubt it. Nobody offline seems able to guess my ethnicity, though, which is flattering.

 

I've got the Fair Folk as well as royal illegitimates and English gentry on my record, not to mention medieval constables, a Mayflower passenger, the founders of Yale University, Revolutionary and Civil War veterans (Yankee bluecoats and abolitionists all the way, I'm proud to say), suffragettes, female schoolteachers and bluestockings, a classically-trained actress, a famous cowboy, the Walton family, and many other colorful characters not as well-known. I'm eligible for DAR, and quite probably Irish citizenship if I decided to stop procrastinating and find the documentation. (What's more of a priority is legally getting rid of the Norman name my Irish relatives have been hiding behind since 1918 when they came to America to escape the prelude to revolution - I'm not even genetically connected to it, and I'd much rather celebrate the part of my heritage I'm most proud of.) It's true what they say - all the interesting people end up in California.

Edited January 17, 2018 by Sesshomaru

[The Dragoness]

Mom: German, Swedish, Irish, possibly a very small percent Native American

Dad: German, Dutch

 

As far as I know (which isn't much), that's it. My family has strong northern European roots, which explains my confusing last name and fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes.