Family history.

[Chez Daja]

I dunno if this thread will be very popular, but I thought it was an interesting idea to learn facts about where we came from, what type of backgrounds we have, and what our families are like.

I guess I'll start with my grandparents, since before that is pretty much a mystery!

Well, my dads' side are fully British. And my mothers' side has tints of Polish blood in. My Polish grandfather was an RAF pilot in WWII. He met my grandmother in the army. After the war, my grandfather travelled to many different places, and din't have much time for his family. They lived in a big, expensive three floor house, which one of my uncles unherited after my grandmother died. My grandfather died many years before I was born, so I never met him, nor know much about him at all. My mother doesn't even know much about him, apart from the fact he had many medals from his pilotting job in the RAF all those years ago. After my grandfather died, my grandmother became somewhat unstable. And after she died, she was meant to have left my mother a sum of money, which she never got before my grandmothers' will was supposedly changed just before she died. My grandparents were rich people, as are many of my uncles and aunts.

My dads' side were a typcial British family. My father left school at the age of fourteen or fifteen to begin building motorcycles. He was a part of the Hell's Angels, and he had long dark hair. (I'll post a picture, he looked like a complete douche, with his arms outstretched, running topless in baige trousers along a beach with his hair flying madly). My grandparents were very happy together, until my grandfather died, when my grandmother became unable to fend for herself. Now she could have alhziemers, which is very slowly killing her.

My mother left home when she was fifteen years old, because she disliked her parents. She met a guy named Andy, whom she lived with for a few years, and had a child with at seventeen years old. A year or so later, they split up, after complications with his family, and then my mother was forced to raise my half sister, Jennie alone. A few years after this, my mother met a guy named Chris. (My dad).

My father was a truck driver in the old days, carrying deliveries in his trucks, and apparently "headbanging to Metallica the whole time" ... Unfortunately, he began to drunk a lot of alcohol, which was the beginning of alcoholism, which now destroys my mother and fathers' marriage. He worked in the demolition for years, and even had his own little company. He grew rich, but took a year off work and drank it all away... He met my mother when he was 23, I think. And after a few years of living together, they had my sister, Amy. Four years after that, I was born. And another four years went by when my brother came along. I was born under the Polish last name of Sewerin (pronounced Sever-Rin), which was later changed to Gregory after my parents got married when I was six years old.

The whole time, we had no idea that our sister Jennie was only half related to us.It was years after my half-sister left home, never to give us a phone number or address to where she lived, that we were told about her only being our half-relation.

So...whats your story?

[Strong Bad]

Eh... My Family is big on Family History... We've got crap goin' back to the 15th Century or something along those lines. I'm not going to give you my history other then I'm related to a Danish Prince from way back. And some Mole Catchers.


Yeah... Just thought I'd mention FH is big in my family.

[Chez Daja]

Woah! The 15th century?

Hah. I know nothing further back then my Polish grandparents. And my dads' side? Meh. My grandma can't even remember what her parents were like, thanks to the illness eating away at her brain.

[hellbred]

I don't know very much about my family history, which I suppose is half my fault since I never bothered investigating, then again noone ever bothered telling me either.

My Mom's side is English and Native-American from what I can see. There's 2 generations of people with the last name "Smith" on my Mom's side, and that's an English last name. My great-grandfather was also married to a Native-American Indian, who had my grand-father who married my grand-mother, and they had my Mom. I don't look Native-American though.

My Dad's side of the family is waaaay to confusing to understand. Basically when he was young his Mom and Dad divorced, and both remarried, so I immediately was doomed to have 10,000 more family members than I was suppose to... mainly because the woman my dad's dad remarried (my step-grandmother) had several kids before the marriage, and when they married it created a lot of half-uncles, thus spawning half-cousins as well... It's odd, but regardless I'm not totally sure of their roots. My grand-father is from a Jewish religion, but my step-grand mother was Christian, as is my Father (I think)..... Me and my Mom are dovout Christians, and he celebrates everything we do, so I wouldn't think my dad followed the same Religion his Father did. However, before he died back in February of this year he converted to Christianity before he died.... not sure why, He was in the hospital for about 4 months before he died, and one day decided to do it.

I have one brother who is 5 years older than me at 28. He lives with me actually. We get a long fine since we're into the same activities. Although since he was older than me when we were kids I'd always follow in his footsteps. I drank cause he did, smoked pot cause he did, did other stupid drugs cause he did... then I quit hanging out with him and found other people to do it with. But these days are a little different, we both don't do drugs anymore and just do our own thing. We both work a lot. And he's expecting a baby soon. He always works for my father's swimming pool design company.

That's about it :/ I told ya I didn't know much!

[Leroy]

Well. Let's see. My family doesn't get along at all. I don't know shit about my family because before I was born, shit happened and my family slit up. Most of my relatives are in New Zealand, and yeah. All I know is I'm straight up gangster, because half my families aboriginal, then the other is Kiwi. That's like... 2 kinds of black, right?

[Chez Daja]

Wow, Jet, that's sad. *hug4jet*
I know about family hating each other though. My Polish side don't get along with us at all. When my mom was pegnant with me, my aunt was pregnant with a son. Well, I was born healthy, and he died at birth. That's why my auntie hates my mother. 'Cause I'm alive and her son died.

Har har.

[Leroy]

'Cause I'm alive and her son died.

Was I supposed to not laugh at that? Well, I did. All I can imagine is an angry Chez kicking some dead baby saying "HAHA I MADE IT, YOU DIDN'T". It's very wrong, I should stop now.

[Taco-Calamitous]

Wow, Jet, that's sad. *hug4jet*
I know about family hating each other though. My Polish side don't get along with us at all. When my mom was pegnant with me, my aunt was pregnant with a son. Well, I was born healthy, and he died at birth. That's why my auntie hates my mother. 'Cause I'm alive and her son died.

Har har.

Stuff like that makes me angry. Mostly your aunt blaming your mother for her child surviving, while your aunt's died. Does she think she's living in medieval times, or something, and we still swear oaths against entire lineages and families for insulting us by picking up the wrong fork at a dinner table? I hate it when people blame someone for something that person had no control over. I'm sorry your aunt is stupid, Chez.

My family lineage... on my father's side, it's all German. From Russia. Like, they lived in Germany first, and then they moved to Russia for either 100 or 200 years. Then, they travelled to America, and settled in North Dakota. Glen Ullin North Dakota, to be exact, where everyone is related to... everyone... My mom's side of the family is also based out there in North Dakota. There's some German in her side too, I think, but also like English, Irish, Scottish, and some other stuff, too. They also have a castle somewhere in Scotland, I think...

My parents met out here in Oregon, however. My Mom was actually born out here; her parents moved out here from ND. Before that, my Dad had been married and had a kid, but they divorced for some reason I've never known (but oh well; I wouldn't have been born if they hadn't, and what would you all do without me?) My half sister lives in Arizona. We see her sometimes. She lived here with us when I was really little, though.

Wuv, Yer Mom

[Chez Daja]

Was I supposed to not laugh at that? Well, I did. All I can imagine is an angry Chez kicking some dead baby saying "HAHA I MADE IT, YOU DIDN'T". It's very wrong, I should stop now.

No, actually I agree.

Taco, yeah I know... It pisses me off that my aunt never even contacts, she just said on day "there are people I don't want in my life"... Meh, that meant my mother and me.

[Maridia]

Well i don't know to much about my family history. but I'll tell what I do know about where my family is from at least as far back as I was told.

On my fathers side I am a couple things. My grandfather is Irish, he's the one that carries our last name O'Neill. I know his grandfather came from Ireland as I was told. My grandmother and her family have been here for a long while. From what I know is Welsh. I know their is more, and I believe she maybe also somewhat Irish but I can't be certain on that

My mothers side there is a bit more I know about. My great grandmother and her family lived here since the Revolutionary War. Her heritage goes back to the Heshins. Who are the German mercanaries that were hired by the British. Many were caught and offered to either fight for the Americans instead or be put to death. So that's the reason why she's been here so long, which is pretty cool. But my grandfather is Swiss and French. He was born in America, but his parents came here from France, the year I'm not certain of. And that's all I really all I know about my family heritage, but I'm happy with what I know too.

[Chez Daja]

Wow! Taco and Setzer have really awesome histories... Man, mine sucks with all of the family betrayal and a Polish mystery grandfather... Dammit! Setzer or Fishy Del, I want your parents to adopt me, so that I can add in "well yeah, but I was adopted too, yeah, feel sorry for me and shit 'cause my real parents don't love me."

[Yuki-onna]

...

Somewhere, somehow, I think there was sex involved.

I'm one of those childs without a return address.
The mothership's grandparents came from Sweden, or some cold obscure part of the world. I think my dad is dead, and my twin I know for sure.

I'm pretty certain both my parents were human, never fear.

I could've had a duplicate. To think, all the evil deeds...

[Calvin]

My great great grandfather was A Soldier in the american civil war. I know that much.

[U2Girl1966]

My father's side can be traced back to the Mayflower. I'm a decendant of John Alden, John Howland, William Brewster. My mom can only trace her family back to the Civil War.

My boyfriend's mom traced her family back to Germany, mid 19th century.

[Storm]

My auntie has researched into our family history, and although i'm really intersted in it, I have never researched into it. I know little random bits and pieces, and really should arrange some time to find out more from her. Meh, I shall discuss what little I know.

On my mum's side, her grandad (my great grandad) was in the desert rats in World War 2. He fought in both World Wars, which was quite interesting. I remember a few years back we caught a few minutes of a program of the desert rats, and a dog was mentioned. Apparently this dog my great grandfather always talked about, so it made my mum quite emotional. Unfortunatly I never got to meet him. He died several years before I was born.

My surname, Patterson has Scottish and Irish ancestory, although all the family I know are English. I think my love for Scottish and Irish accents comes from there! I have relatives in each country of the UK, Greece, Turkey, some other Europey places and China. Apparently a Chinese family called the Chinchins got shipwrecked at one of the local harbours and became part of the family. My mum says that my shortness and love of chinese food is probably a random chinese streak in me!

With my family, we either have really pale skin or more mediteraniany features. My mum has the paler characteristics, whereas I have more mediteraneany ones, though I have really similar physical traits to her. Us girlies also tend to be quite small with little feet. Heights range from 5'2'' to 5'6'', me being the shortest. Strangely, at size 4, my feet arent small in comparison to my nana and the aunties.

[Sinister]

My father can trace his particular maternal history only to a Scotish settler during the civil wars, after that there is no documentation. His paternal side is German to the extent of five generations.

My mother's maternal side is Irish for approx. eight generations (if I remember correctly) and her paternal side is from Britain. Where I believe, we can trace our ancesters back to the time of King James...

You see the Aldersons during that time helped James translate the Bible for his version. I believe that a member of a wing of our family now holds the position in Oxford that J.R.R. Tolkien once held.

And as a matter-of-fact a relative of ours began the Alderson West Virginia Women's prison which Martha Stewart once graced.

And If you think we are related to Sandy Alderson, manager of the Padres...(You're wrong!) He's not part of our discernable lineage.

However, as I only knew my Grandmother on my maternal side, my personal culture is Irish. I was raised by tragic Irish lullabys, and once watched my grandmother dance an Irish jig. Lol...good times...

Anywho...that's about it...

[Chez Daja]

Well, I posted about my siblings, I guess I'll finish off my history.

My grandfather, Stanislav Sewerin was a Polish RAF pilot, who had only a sister. His past and his parents are of unknown origins to us, although we know they were Polish, and likely to have strong Russian roots as well.

My grandfather fought in World War II, collecting his mdeals through the war and was known for his great skill as a mathmetician (something that, I unfortunately did not receive. At all. Seriously, ask me a math question, I'm dumb as a ****ing post.)

He was a respected man and many loved him. He was also seen as cold. He was very rich and lived with my grandmother, who was part British. She was originally from Leeds, Northern England, and after the war, she and my grandfather moved to Southern England, setting up home in one of the most expensive and prostegious parts of the country in those days.

My grandfathers' been dead for about 21 years now, and I was born a few years later, so I never was able to meet him.

After his death, my grandmother slowly turned clinically insane and ended up smoking herself to her grave.

They had seven children, my mother being the second youngest. And the youngest suffering from mental retardation.


My dads' side are pure British bred. They are all vast drinkers, and alcoholism is a vastly growing problem in those roots. My grandfather, Jack Gregory used to snuff out lights in World War II at night. However, during the war, he was struck with TB and almost died.
He and my grandmother moved to the Isle of Wite sometime after the war where they began their lives together. Eventually, they moved down South.
They had seven children, my father was the youngest.
After my grandfather died, my grandmother became clinically insane, yep, this one too, and is now living in a home for dying old folks.

My mum and dad met and about nine years later, I was born.

Unfortunately, my mother picked the scum of the Earth to have children with, and so I hate my fathers' side apart from a few of the more decent family members... In short, I despise my father for having his kind side dying -- the point is, he's dying now, so that's good. My mother, I love her dearly. She is like my best friend. ^_^

Now, my father is now suffering the effects of clinical insanity... So yeah, insanity runs in BOTH sides of my family.

Also, depression runs in my mothers' side, which I was unfortunate, the only one out of my mothers' children, to receive.
One of my aunts' used to cut herself. One day, she ran into a church and cutty-cutty. Oops? She didn't die, though. O_o;.

Anyway, most of my family are dead, or millionaires. The same aunt as the above had a son around the same time I was born, but he died.... that's pretty much why she doesn't like me; she was jealous I lived and her son died.

Cor, what a bitch.

[Cloud Strife X]

Oooh, family history! Fun stuff.

On my mom's side, I don't know much, other than that they're 100% German (or close to it), and they emigrated to the U.S. sometime in the late 19th century. Hmmm.

On my dad's side, I know quite a bit more, as my grandpa is an enthusiast about this kind of thing, and he's traced the family line back to sometime in the 16th century. On that side we're Scotch-Irish (from Northern Ireland, I think), and the family came to the U.S. back when it was a British colony, some time in the 17th century. Since then, at least one member of my family has fought in every major American war (minus Vietnam as my dad was in the military but was stationed in Spain instead, the Gulf War, and the current Iraq war) - though not always on the American side. (Most of my family lives in the South, and thus we had a bunch of guys that fought for the Confederacy.) I myself was born in Mississippi, and we (my parents and I) were the first of our family to move somewhere else (Arizona).

I can tell a few stories about some ancestors: One of them on that side was a fairly notorious criminal in Mississippi back in the 1860's, and had organized a 62 member gang known as the Copeland Clan before his capture and hanging. We managed to find detailed records about some of his activities - his first theft occured when he was nine years old; he burned down a courthouse at 17 or 18 to get rid of his being charged with murder; he had a feud with another gang that his gang subsequently won (by killing them all off in a large gunfight). That kind of thing. It's pretty cool.

Another involves a young guy, a direct ancestor of mine, that fought in the Civil War. He was shot through the eye in one of the battles stemming from General Sherman's march to the sea; somehow he lived (good thing, as I wouldn't be around otherwise), was discharged, and lived the rest of his life sporting a badass eyepatch. I have a copy of his discharge papers laying around the house somewhere.

You get the idea... i'll stop.

[Dimi]

Family History eh....lets see, I know that I have a diverse family.

Starting from my parents my mom was born in Miami, Florida. My grandma from her side is Puerto Rican and was born is San Juan, Puerto Rico. My grandpa from this side was born in Chicago, Illinois and he met my grandma after returning from World War II in Florida. My grandpa is Italian and Cuban and has hazel eyes. My grandma loved his eyes so much. She said that they were the most beautiful eyes she's ever seen. My grandpa was a hard-working guy. He was abused as a child and grew up in a family of 12 and worked hard his whole life. He dropped out of school at an early age to help my great grandma because she had some rare disease at the time. She died though and got drafted to World War II. After the war he returned home and he moved out of Chicago to Miami and met my grandma at a restaurant over there. Soon they had seven kids and they moved from Florida to Los Angeles, California.

My dad was born in Torrance, CA. He's Mexican and he grew up being poor in a family of eight. My grandpa from my dad's side was born in Chihuahua Mexico and my Grandma was born in El Paso, Texas. My dad dropped out of school early an started a family and got married at a young age to his ex-wife.

Anyways after my Dad got his divorce and my mom moved out to Riverside, CA, my parents met through their friends at the time. Soon they fell in love and got married and was planning to have kids. My mom had problems getting pregnant. She couldn't have kids easily. She tried for years and years and had 5 miscarriages at the time. Luckily she was pregnant and she was able to give birth to me. I came out fine with no problems or any health problems, but my sister on the other hand almost died. My sister is a premature baby. She was born 6 1/2 months early and nearly died. She ended up in the hospital for a long time and survived but has ADHD. She weighed 1 pound and seven ounces. She's tiny even today.

However, the difference between my sister and I is I was different then most of my family and my sister. I was born with colored eyes. They were blue to be exact. And I was dark-skinned like tan a little bit. Anyhoo my relatives were just disgusted by my eyes. They though that I was the ugliest baby in the world and I was a mistake. They said that my parent's should've threw me in the trash can or just have me aborted at the time. They said that I was a mutt in other words. Its not common where I live for a Mexican since that what I mainly consider myself instead of Puerto Rican, Cuban, Italian around where I live since a majority of the people are Mexican. And honestly it hurts that my family can't accept the way I look. Sometimes I wish I never had blue eyes because my family hate me for it. The only person that ever had colored eyes was my grandpa and my other cousin John. Anyways I'm proud of what I am and its sad that my own family can't accept me of who I am....

[MiwaMiwa]

My family history is almost impossible to trace.
On my mother's side I am French, French-canadian, and Scandanavian I recently found out (I always thought my last name was English...but I guess I have no english in me at all.) On my father's side, I am mainly Cherokee Indian from the Kentucky region, Scottish, and Greek. I really couldn't tell you much about my family history, other than the fact that my mother's side owned a lot of land. Well, I guess I know more recent events in my father's side so I'll elaborate.

First, about the Native American in me. I have a decent amount, hence the dark eyes and very dark hair you see in my avatar/siggy. That could be the Greek too, but I'll say it's the Cherokee. Hah. Anyways, I have no card stating that I am Cherokee, and neither do my siblings, my father, or my grandparents, both of whom are Cherokee. The reason is this: In Kentucky, during the time of the trail of tears, my "Tribe" I guess you could say, was very VERY extremely discriminated against. They weren't considered human by the white folk, and were tortured and killed and what-not. Anyways, long story short, since they were not considered human, no record of Native American tribes, specifically the Cherokee since that's all I am 100% sure about, was kept in Kentucky. Therefore, I have no record of my ancestory. I am white on that side too, so obviously on both my grandmother and my grandfather's side, someone married out of the tribe. I also know that my great-grandfather was orphaned, and left with his two grandfather's, Nicholas Combs and Alex Deaton. Both were very rich, and when one of them died, he left all his money and his land and what-not to my great-grandfather. However, his other grand father (and I can't remember which is which) took all the land from my great-grandfather since he was his guardian, and sold it. My great-grandfather then became very poor and homeless, I heard. Well, eventually his grandfather died, and my great-grandfather went to court and got some of the land back, still a great amount. It turned out though, that his grandfather sold his land to the state, and they made courthouses, stores, etc. on the land, so he could never get it back. My father told me that most of Hazard, Kentucky is my family's land, or was a long time ago. There is even a huge street running through Hazard named "Combs" that, no joke, my entire family lived on, including my great grandfather, and all of his children. They have big houses for a place like Hazard (yes, as in the Dukes.), and a ton of land. It must've been all the land that he got back after his grandfather died.

Anyways, I know the story sounds akward. I went back to Hazard in the fall of '05 when my grandpa died, and that was when my dad and my great-aunts told me the story about my great grandpa. It was really shocking, and kind of cool at the same time, to know that my family owned a lot of Hazard.

[Rocky]

Well, my mom's parents are both full-blooded Dutch, and my grandparent's both have aunts/uncles/cousins that still live in the Netherlands to this day. They got married right out of high school and became farmers, and had seven kids, 4 boys and 3 girls, with my mom being the second-youngest. So that makes me at least 50 percent dutch. Yes, my mom does own wooden clogs, and yes she has a very funny maiden name.

My dad's side of the family, sadly, I know very little about. What I do know his my grandfather on my dad's side was born in Chicago, IL. He was adopted as an infant and he did not know what nationality he was. My grandmother's side is a mix of some European descents, like German, Austrian, and some Belgium. However, I did not inherent any of this, as my biological dad was adopted as well, and I am not sure what nationality he is. By looks though, he had dark hair with blue eyes and more of a dark olive-colored skin, so I think he might be partially Italian, with some other traits.

[Morik the Rogue]

Wow, old thread.

Oh well, might as well post considering how cool my history is.

My dad's really into this whole geneology thing so we've traced our history back quite a ways. I'll cover the highlights.

Going back to the Dark Ages, our ancestors were a scottish clan. The interesting thing about this is that our clan had a bounty placed on it by the British Crown. Apparently the Crown found our warlike nature threatening and decided we needed to be wiped out. Cool, huh?

Now, at some point our ancestors found their way to America. These would be ancestors on my fathers side. On my mothers side we don't know quite as much. What we do know is that my great great grandparents were german. To the point that they never did learn to speak english living here in america.

Now, I believe it was my great grandfather who fought in the civil war. While we are not entirely certain, it would seem that he fought on the side of the north. I am undecided as to whether or not to hold this against him. It also appears that he fought at Vicksburg which was a rather important battle in the progression of the war.

An interesting anecdote about him is that one day, presumably after the civil war though I am not certain, he left his wife and kids at home and went for a walk. Three years later he walked back up the road whistling a tune and resumed life as if nothing had happened.

To this day no one knows where he was all that time. We would assume he told his wife, but she never told anyone. It remains, and most probably will remain, a complete mystery.

Let's see...what else...ah, yes! I'm related to Jesse James. Can't remember exactly how I'm related, but I am. Fear me.

Now, there used to be a bomber base here. My grandfather worked there during WWII. Don't know much else to say about him, or any of my other grandparents for that matter.

My father was born in Alabama. He was in the army. Fourth Infantry Division. He was a combat medic and worked in army recon. They sent him to desert warfare school and then shipped him to Vietnam.

He served two tours and was twice wounded. One of those times involved a hand grenade exploding next to his head. He was engaged when they sent him over there. His bride-to-be sent him a Dear John letter and married some other guy. When he came back he moved here to Texas, met my mom and, well, you can guess what happened next.

Let's see, I am the third of three brothers. One lives out of state, has a son and daughter. The other lives here and will be having his first kid later this year. (I just found out about that a couple days ago.)

Me? I'm no one important.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Not really a history so much as a smattering of interesting anecdotes.

[Crazy Chocobo]

Yeah, old thread alright but I haven't replied here yet. I never knew much about my family overall but recently I started a family tree and found out some interesting stuff. My Mum's Father's Father is from Germany and so on. The first generation of my Grandfather's side is very German. My great, great grandfather came over in the late 1800's which is pretty cool. I don't know a lot about my Nanna's side which is a shame.

My Dad's Father's side are from Scotland I believe, my last name is Scottish and yeah. Overall I don't know much about their side but I'm still trying to research about it. My grandmother I don't know much about either, both of these grand parents died before I was born. I did find out that my great grand mother was in a mental institution for a while and unfortunately died in there from mental illnesses and such. My grand father never really mentioned her to my Dad I don't think. It's interesting though.. I have a copy of some of these people's birth certificates and yep.

I don't know anything about the 15th century or whatever but I am researching so we shall see.