[Miss Sally]

My Father's family side were farmers and bandits from Mexico, Mexican and Spanish ancestry. I know the Spanish side were some of the first conquistadors there. My Mother is Dutch Jewish, Jewish from my Grandmothers side, Dutch from my Grandpas side. They came here about/after WWII, Iunno much of my grandmother's side but my Grandfathers side were mostly poor Soldiers and Mercenaries.

 

[SKYE-BLUE-SHIVVY]

My father's family came from England in the 1600's. My mother's side hails from Germany, but that is the extent of my knowledge on that front.

 

[Loudon Wainwright]

I don't know very much about my family history. All I know is I'm German on my father's side and Norwegian on my mother's side.

 

[sarnobat]

I've been maintaining a GEDCOM file for the laset 8 years. The other day I created a family tree pdf diagram from it using MyHeritage Family Tree Builder and it's huge. I'm originally from India and in my parents' generation it was common to have 5 siblings so I've got dozens of cousins. Facebook has helped me connect with a lot of them.

MacFamilyTree also shows a beautiful 3D rendering of a GEDCOM file. yEd can also import them. GenalogyJ is good for editing it.

 

[CJ]

Most of my ancestors on both sides originate from Scotland. With the only deviation from that being some French Huguenot ancestors on my mother's side.

 

[StompKing]

all i know is on my father's side its scottish through and through going back hundreds of years. my mother's has a odd mix of german irish..german father irish mother. not sure how far back the irish or german goes back though

 

[Captain Edd]

Mothers side goes back to Denmark, her ancestors came here around 1800. Fathers ancestors came from Russia in 1870, they used to be wealthy but had to leave the country for some reason. We used to be a rather large family and had a lot of money (my grandparents used that money to support the Nazis during WW2 and were highly regarded for it :renee2 ) but almost everyone was killed before 1945. They lost all their money after the war and had to live in a barn for some time, eventually they kinda got back on their feet and turned the barn into a proper house (that I now live in :sansa)

 

[GothicBohemian]

One side was professionally traced. I have some rather wealthy relatives from Boston who paid to have the family line followed and written up for them and all of us received a copy. There are two distinct paths happening on that side; one clearly traceable right back to the originating towns in Scotland and Ireland, the other French Canadian settlers who split between the American south and Northern New Brunswick, Canada. A family rumour, that there was slave ownership on that side, did come up in the report, as did the other related rumour - that one of the sons in the line, who I'm directly descended from, married and fathered kids with a former slave and they started a new life in Canada, disowned by his kin.

The other half of the family is a bit harder to follow. It's mainly First Nations, with a smattering of Acadian here and there, but birth, death, marriage and employment records for both groups are difficult to trace. As the majority of NB Natives, non-deported French and Irish immigrants from any period before the 1940s tended to be registered by small Catholic dioceses in rural towns it can get tricky when trying to piece together a paper trail. Many times French names were mangled into something unrecognizable, Aboriginal names were Christianized and all three groups might be registered multiple times in different towns, under slightly altered name spelling, or never officially registered at all. A lot of what I know about this side of my heritage is based on family photos, stories and travelling myself to talk with elders responsible for maintaining oral and written band history.

Because I had few living relatives older than one generation back on my parent's sides left by the time I was born I thought I should make an effort to know who they were from a genetic and cultural standpoint. I combed through boat passenger records, local census papers and suchlike but found I don't have enough interest or patience for the task. At this point, I'm satisfied with what I know about who I come from. It really doesn't matter all that much to me.

 

[Punkhead]

My ancestors are from Samogitia region of Lithuania on mother's side and from Belarus on father's side.

 

[FITZ]

I don't know much at all. My mom was adopted so on my mom's side I know my mom, the city she was born in, and that's it. I'm assuming some type of European since I'm wait and have red hair (so she at least had some recessive genes to allow that to happen). Other than that I don't know anything. I've considered doing one of those DNA tests to figure some things out but I'm hesitant because it's really more her decision to look into her biological family than it is mine. Her real family (adopted) are also kind of weird about it and I feel like my grandparents would be upset if they ever found out. To this day they've never once mentioned to me that my mom was adopted.

On my dad's side I know he's a mix of German, Polish, Russian, and Irish so I get all 4 of those just from him. I'm most interested in the family line where I get my last name from (so the Irish part) and all I know about that is that I had a great grandfather who was a drunk and had his kids grown up in orphanages.

 

[★Th0t Patr0L★]

One of my aunts did genetic testing, so I know some of what's on my mom's side which includes the basic Irish and German, but actually majority is Laplanders that were apparently known for herding reindeer. Also some Sicilian.

Have fuck all to know what my dad's side is, but he is black and has some Native mixed in.

 

[southrnbygrace]

It's always interesting for me to read about where folks come from. My grandmother got pregnant at 16 in 1923 and my dad was born in 1924. The guy who was his father, once his family found out, packed up and moved out of state. My dad never laid eyes on his father. In my research I've found out who his dad was and a few ancestors, but still not much about his actual father. I mean, my dad could have had other siblings and I may have aunts and uncles and cousins I've never met.

I've also thought about the DNA testing, especially for my mom's side. Since she's still living I keep thinking about having hers done and then mine, but so far I've haven't asked her.

Thanks for all the responses. I enjoyed reading about ya'll's families.

 

[spikingspud]

Mother's side is mostly Irish & furthest traced back so far was when the Irish immigrants left for America while my Father's side is a mix of German/English from a WWII romance though never fully checked my fathers side beyond that.

 

[Gandhi]

Nah, I don't understand why others would care tbh.

 

[Reaper]

Sabzwari is not my last name, but it is part of the huge family I hail from. There's probably millions of Sabzvari's in the world now and not all of them are related nor claim relation to each other since a lot of people were simply named Sabzwari just because they came from a place called Sabzwar.

http://lastnames.myheritage.com/last-name/Sabzwari

My father claims that his original ancestors hail from Iran that moved to India 500 years or so ago and have always been Muslims (hailing from the original line of Sayyids but I dispute that claim personally because there's no recorded history or proof). I think we're Afghans - but given how the world views Afghans now he probably is trying to distance himself from his family's origins.

A lot of Sayyids are fake sayyids because claiming lineage from Mohammad got them relatively better treatment during the early years of Islam and there weren't proper methods in place to make sure the claims were fake or real.

My grand dad broke away from the Sabzwar family and was a self-made man which is why I don't carry on the traditions or knowledge of my family (I would like to), but that's the extent of all I know.

I'm part Irani (disputed), part Afghani and part Indian. A lot of my cousins to this day look like Afghanis. Fair-skinned, tall, colored eyes and light hair.