How did you or your family ended up in the country you are living now?
Jul 11th, 2005, 06:08 PM
#61
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Unfortunately, little is known about how my family ended up here. I'd love to know more. I'm Jewish. My grandfather came here at 4 years old in the early 1900's from the Ukraine. He came first class, not steerage, presumably to flee from anti-semitism and to find a better life. All other grandparents were born here. Some of my great-grandparents were also born here, the rest in Russia. All family settled in NYC (the Bronx). Names were changed and we don't know the original.
My husband came here at 7 years old from the Dominican Republic with his mother and sister. They settled in the Bronx. He is now living the American dream with a great job, a house, two cars, a son, a daughter and a beautiful wife.
After reading this you would think that we live in the NYC area. Well, most of both our families are now in Southeast Florida!
My husband came here at 7 years old from the Dominican Republic with his mother and sister. They settled in the Bronx. He is now living the American dream with a great job, a house, two cars, a son, a daughter and a beautiful wife.
After reading this you would think that we live in the NYC area. Well, most of both our families are now in Southeast Florida!
Jul 11th, 2005, 06:24 PM
#62
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..rather boring..Dad's family Mass bay colony..Mom's family..Dad"s side just as old..her mother"s side Irish 19th century..almost certainly some Am Indian (or whatever the politically corect term is) on Dad's side..have some Victorian ancestors that went back to England and brought money to sagging aristocratic families
Jul 11th, 2005, 07:33 PM
#63
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Met my sufer dude husband by business chance on the internet in 1996. Me true Parisian, he true Californian. I eventually moved to California in 1998, have been incredibly happy since, though I miss my French lifebig time! Yet, as I read on a bumper sticker: "My karma ran over my dogman" 
Meanwhile, I've built up my little France in L.A., enjoy the freedom of culture and even play petanque on weekends!
Meanwhile, I've built up my little France in L.A., enjoy the freedom of culture and even play petanque on weekends!
Jul 11th, 2005, 07:34 PM
#64
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Met my sufer dude husband by business chance on the internet in 1996. Me true Parisian, he true Californian. I eventually moved to California in 1998, have been incredibly happy since, though I miss my French life big time! Yet, as I read on a bumper sticker: "My karma ran over my dogma"!
Meanwhile, I've built up my little France in L.A., enjoy the freedom of culture, and even play petanque on weekends!
Meanwhile, I've built up my little France in L.A., enjoy the freedom of culture, and even play petanque on weekends!
Jul 12th, 2005, 12:28 AM
#65
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My father was a young man when Czechoslovakia was invaded and rather than work in a German work camp, he a some friends escaped over the border into Poland and eventualy ended up in France. As war had not officially been declared, his only option to stay there, was to join the Foreign Legion - I have a photograph of him and 3 friends in Legionaires uniform that I believe was taken in Algiers. From the little he told us of that time, it realy was as bad as all those old films.
When war was declared, he was able to join the Free Czech forces in the west and was stationed in the UK.
My mother was the daughter of a cotton mill worker and was 17 when war broke out. She had her choice of many young, handsome servicemen but chose my father. They were married a couple of days before VE day. After the war was over they returned to Czechoslovakia, my mother being sent as a "refugee" in a converted Lancaster bomber. My elder sister was born there and they may well have stayed but for the rise of communism. My father saw what was happening, didn't like it and decided they had better leave while they could.
I was born in the UK 10 years later and am the only one of our direct family still living within a few miles of the cotton mill that my English grandfather worked in for 60 years!
When war was declared, he was able to join the Free Czech forces in the west and was stationed in the UK.
My mother was the daughter of a cotton mill worker and was 17 when war broke out. She had her choice of many young, handsome servicemen but chose my father. They were married a couple of days before VE day. After the war was over they returned to Czechoslovakia, my mother being sent as a "refugee" in a converted Lancaster bomber. My elder sister was born there and they may well have stayed but for the rise of communism. My father saw what was happening, didn't like it and decided they had better leave while they could.
I was born in the UK 10 years later and am the only one of our direct family still living within a few miles of the cotton mill that my English grandfather worked in for 60 years!
Jul 12th, 2005, 03:30 AM
#66
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I was born in São Paulo, Brazil, but now live in the Northeast region, in Salvador, Capital city of the State of Bahia.
On my father's side, by ancestors came from Switzerland (Vallais region) in the early 1800's and founded the city of Nova Friburgo (New Freiburg) in the State of Rio de Janeiro (our family name also suffered a lot of changes - from Schurtenberg to Sardenberg).
On my mother's side, it is more "multicultural" - Portuguese, African, and Native Brazilian - as most Brazilians, anyway.
I was married to an American and lived for many years in the US - in Illinois, South Carolina, and Massachusetts. I do love the Boston area, lived there for a few years working on my PhD at Boston University.
On my father's side, by ancestors came from Switzerland (Vallais region) in the early 1800's and founded the city of Nova Friburgo (New Freiburg) in the State of Rio de Janeiro (our family name also suffered a lot of changes - from Schurtenberg to Sardenberg).
On my mother's side, it is more "multicultural" - Portuguese, African, and Native Brazilian - as most Brazilians, anyway.
I was married to an American and lived for many years in the US - in Illinois, South Carolina, and Massachusetts. I do love the Boston area, lived there for a few years working on my PhD at Boston University.
Jul 12th, 2005, 04:04 AM
#67
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Both sides of my family were Germans who emigrated to Pennsylvania about 250 years ago, before U.S. independence. We have an 18th century Lutheran song book printed in "Germantaun" that lists some of the early arrivals (complete with fraktur drawings)--it's now at the Peter Harrington bookshop in London being restored. For 200 years, my family more or less stayed in the PA Dutch country. Many of my relatives are still there.
How my husband and I got to the UK is more related to his family history. The Tilke family almost died out in the Middle Ages--they were a merchant family in Wurttemberg. Somewhere in all the fighting of that period, everyone in the family died except for one daughter-in-law. She was pregnant, had a son, and so the German Tilkes carried on. My father-in-law's family lived in East Prussia. Near the end of the WW II, my father-in-law, a 15 yo schoolboy was pulled out of school and trained to be a Luftwaffe glider pilot. He was captured by the Russians, taken to a Russian prison camp, where he had some mild adventures like being forced to dig his own grave. A cook was sympathetic and helped him escape. After that, he was captured by the Americans, spent time in another POW camp, then eventually released. Germany being in the state it was after the war, he emigrated to Canada, where he worked at odd jobs until he found steady employment as a surveyor, working in the wilds of northern British Columbia and northern Quebec.
Mother-in-law was from Newcastle. After the war, she too emigrated to Canada and met my father-in-law while working as the camp secretary in northern British Columbia. They married, my father-in-law ended up managing international construction projects (the Citibank Tower in Hong Kong, the Equitable Center in NYC, the Charlotte Coliseum, etc.) so my husband grew up in several different countries. We met in Philadelphia at a Learning Annex course on how to get a job overseas.
In the height of the IT boom, he was offered a job in Brussels, we moved there, and eventually his work took us to the UK. So here we are!
How my husband and I got to the UK is more related to his family history. The Tilke family almost died out in the Middle Ages--they were a merchant family in Wurttemberg. Somewhere in all the fighting of that period, everyone in the family died except for one daughter-in-law. She was pregnant, had a son, and so the German Tilkes carried on. My father-in-law's family lived in East Prussia. Near the end of the WW II, my father-in-law, a 15 yo schoolboy was pulled out of school and trained to be a Luftwaffe glider pilot. He was captured by the Russians, taken to a Russian prison camp, where he had some mild adventures like being forced to dig his own grave. A cook was sympathetic and helped him escape. After that, he was captured by the Americans, spent time in another POW camp, then eventually released. Germany being in the state it was after the war, he emigrated to Canada, where he worked at odd jobs until he found steady employment as a surveyor, working in the wilds of northern British Columbia and northern Quebec.
Mother-in-law was from Newcastle. After the war, she too emigrated to Canada and met my father-in-law while working as the camp secretary in northern British Columbia. They married, my father-in-law ended up managing international construction projects (the Citibank Tower in Hong Kong, the Equitable Center in NYC, the Charlotte Coliseum, etc.) so my husband grew up in several different countries. We met in Philadelphia at a Learning Annex course on how to get a job overseas.
In the height of the IT boom, he was offered a job in Brussels, we moved there, and eventually his work took us to the UK. So here we are!
Jul 12th, 2005, 05:23 AM
#68
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I have no idea how my family ended up in what a former Prime Minister here described as the "arse end" of the world. But unlike Neil, I was born in the "respectable" part of Australia, the convict-less experimental colony of South Australia. What happened next was as unlikely and felicitous as many of your terrific stories. Relinquished as a newborn (for being decidedly UNrespectable), I grew up without any kind of identity but desperately craved one - then at 27 I found my birth mother (miraculous); together we traced my birth father (unbelievable); then some kind of old magic clicked - they left their respective spouses and for the last 15 years or so have been living together deeply in love....and it's all my fault! Not exactly a Fodor tale but some kind of remarkable journey!
Jul 12th, 2005, 05:56 AM
#69
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THere were twin boys in trouble in Ireland. King Charles' II's judges offered the two to be hanged or to go to Mary's Land in the New World.
I like that story of my line - but its just one of many that makes me
Irish - English - Scots - Native American - African...
Heinz 57 varieties? Yep and proud of it.
I like that story of my line - but its just one of many that makes me
Irish - English - Scots - Native American - African...
Heinz 57 varieties? Yep and proud of it.
Jul 12th, 2005, 07:58 AM
#71
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Wow, what interesting stories.
I'm also close to 400 years of American 'mutt'. I'm probably mostly English mutt, but love the following anecdotes from the family histories:
two Irishmen who left Ireland in the 1700's for France and ultimately came over to fight in the Revolutionary War,
two men (bearing my maiden name) who came in 1774 from the Alsace Lorraine,
a family from Switzerland (with a German-sounding name) in the very early 1600's for religious reasons
another family from Switzerland (with a French-sounding name) in the 1700's
an Englishman in the 1800's with 23 children by two wives. Descendants of his two families still have reunions,
the forty-niners who came by mule back to Oregon in the early 1850's to raise cattle
my homesteading great grandfather who brought a freighter wagon to Oregon in the 1850's
and lastly, the stories in the 1840's about covered wagons turning over in rivers and people drowning, but the rest going on to Oregon.
I'm married to someone even more English whose family pioneered in Seattle in the late 1800's.
I recently read 23% of today's Americans have a foreign born mother--the highest since 1911. Let's hope America can still assimilate and inspire a love of country.
I'm also close to 400 years of American 'mutt'. I'm probably mostly English mutt, but love the following anecdotes from the family histories:
two Irishmen who left Ireland in the 1700's for France and ultimately came over to fight in the Revolutionary War,
two men (bearing my maiden name) who came in 1774 from the Alsace Lorraine,
a family from Switzerland (with a German-sounding name) in the very early 1600's for religious reasons
another family from Switzerland (with a French-sounding name) in the 1700's
an Englishman in the 1800's with 23 children by two wives. Descendants of his two families still have reunions,
the forty-niners who came by mule back to Oregon in the early 1850's to raise cattle
my homesteading great grandfather who brought a freighter wagon to Oregon in the 1850's
and lastly, the stories in the 1840's about covered wagons turning over in rivers and people drowning, but the rest going on to Oregon.
I'm married to someone even more English whose family pioneered in Seattle in the late 1800's.
I recently read 23% of today's Americans have a foreign born mother--the highest since 1911. Let's hope America can still assimilate and inspire a love of country.
Jul 12th, 2005, 08:29 AM
#72
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Wow -- great stories!
Most of my dad's side of the family (on his father's side) has been here in the USA since the 1600's -- they were Puritans who came over from England. Haven't been able to trace back any farther than that ancestor b/c apparently Puritans weren't very well loved within their families back then and his family either eliminated all records of him -- as if he didn't exist -- or he changed his name to protect them from embarrassment (not sure which).
Also on dad's side is a mixture of Irish, Native American and Swedish but I have very little info on them unfortunately.
On my mom's side -- her mother's parents are Jews who emigrated from the Ukraine at the turn of the century during the time of the pogroms; her father and his family were Jews who lived in a small Eastern European country and came over via Austria during Hitler's rise to power. In fact my grandmother's family helped members of his family come over but were unable to get everyone over in time so some of them died in concentration camps.
Most of my dad's side of the family (on his father's side) has been here in the USA since the 1600's -- they were Puritans who came over from England. Haven't been able to trace back any farther than that ancestor b/c apparently Puritans weren't very well loved within their families back then and his family either eliminated all records of him -- as if he didn't exist -- or he changed his name to protect them from embarrassment (not sure which).
Also on dad's side is a mixture of Irish, Native American and Swedish but I have very little info on them unfortunately.
On my mom's side -- her mother's parents are Jews who emigrated from the Ukraine at the turn of the century during the time of the pogroms; her father and his family were Jews who lived in a small Eastern European country and came over via Austria during Hitler's rise to power. In fact my grandmother's family helped members of his family come over but were unable to get everyone over in time so some of them died in concentration camps.
Jul 12th, 2005, 09:58 AM
#73
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What wonderful stories!
It's been very difficult to trace my family history. I wassn't raised in Greece with my grandparents. And the little time I spent with them while they were living, they didn't talk about the past at all.
What I do know from my parents and relatives.
My grandfather on my mothers side is from Istanbul. He is Greek and I guess his family lived there since it was a part of Greece. When all hell broke loose, his family tried to leave for Greece. His father was believed killed by the Turks since he never arrived in Greece. The family searched for him for many years with the help of the red cross, he never turned up. His mother had been raped and even had her nipples cut off by the Turks. She ended up hiding my grandfather as a girl and escaped to Thessaloniki,Greece. My grandmother on my mothers side was from northern Greece. From what I understand, they were fairly wealthy land owners. They were opposed to my grandparents marriage because my gradfather was very poor and disowned my grandmother. That's why I don't know much at all about her side.
My grandfather on my fathers side was from an area of Asia Minor called Pontos. It was an area near the Black Sea with all Greek residents. From what I know, his father was a horse doctor. In the early 20th century the Turks began coming in and killing Greeks, burning their homes, and claiming the land, my grandfather ran to Greece. He met my grandmother whose family I know nothing about except for they were originally from Greece.
My parents met in my mothers village in northern Greece, Zaglaveri. They married and made plans to come to the states. It had always been my mothers dream to come to America. My fathers sister lived in Chicago with her husband and children. Soon after all the paperwork was in place, my parents found out my mother was pregnant. They had me and then came to the states with only $250. My aunt had told my mother that it wasn't that cold in Chicago so my mother left her heavy coats in Greece and spent her first winter here with only a sweater. Through hard work and determination, they raised 3 children(all college grads).
It's been very difficult to trace my family history. I wassn't raised in Greece with my grandparents. And the little time I spent with them while they were living, they didn't talk about the past at all.
What I do know from my parents and relatives.
My grandfather on my mothers side is from Istanbul. He is Greek and I guess his family lived there since it was a part of Greece. When all hell broke loose, his family tried to leave for Greece. His father was believed killed by the Turks since he never arrived in Greece. The family searched for him for many years with the help of the red cross, he never turned up. His mother had been raped and even had her nipples cut off by the Turks. She ended up hiding my grandfather as a girl and escaped to Thessaloniki,Greece. My grandmother on my mothers side was from northern Greece. From what I understand, they were fairly wealthy land owners. They were opposed to my grandparents marriage because my gradfather was very poor and disowned my grandmother. That's why I don't know much at all about her side.
My grandfather on my fathers side was from an area of Asia Minor called Pontos. It was an area near the Black Sea with all Greek residents. From what I know, his father was a horse doctor. In the early 20th century the Turks began coming in and killing Greeks, burning their homes, and claiming the land, my grandfather ran to Greece. He met my grandmother whose family I know nothing about except for they were originally from Greece.
My parents met in my mothers village in northern Greece, Zaglaveri. They married and made plans to come to the states. It had always been my mothers dream to come to America. My fathers sister lived in Chicago with her husband and children. Soon after all the paperwork was in place, my parents found out my mother was pregnant. They had me and then came to the states with only $250. My aunt had told my mother that it wasn't that cold in Chicago so my mother left her heavy coats in Greece and spent her first winter here with only a sweater. Through hard work and determination, they raised 3 children(all college grads).
Jul 12th, 2005, 11:21 AM
#74
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We have traced my mothers fathers family as far back as the late 1700s to a small town in Szfalary (not sure on the spelling, geneology is more my moms thing), Poland. In 1890 my great grandfather came through Ellis Island on a boat when he was 16 all by himself. He then moved to Chicago for job opportunities and married another Polish lady. We still live today just outside of Chicago.
Jul 12th, 2005, 11:23 AM
#75
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Also about 4 years ago my mother and I went to New York City to visit Ellis Island and sure enough his name was on the immigrant panels on the island. We took a picture with his name. My mother loved it!
Jul 12th, 2005, 11:25 AM
#76
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Fun thread!
My poor great-grandmother left her village in Austria to marry my great-grandfather, who had left that same village as a boy approximately 10-15 years previously. This must have been an arranged marriage because GGM thought she was going to America to marry my GGF's older brother. When she arrived in America, she found out she was not marrying the older brother, she was marrying my GGF! She was NOT happy, as she didn't particularly like him in the first place. Family lore has it that if she would have been able to, she would have turned around and went back to Austria. She and my GGF ended up marrying and had seven children, but sadly it was not a happy marriage.
Another great-grandmother left Germany for the same reason as RufusTFirefly's ancestor(s). Someday I want to find out exactly where she came from. She and I look almost exactly alike, and for that reason I feel a special connection with her.
My poor great-grandmother left her village in Austria to marry my great-grandfather, who had left that same village as a boy approximately 10-15 years previously. This must have been an arranged marriage because GGM thought she was going to America to marry my GGF's older brother. When she arrived in America, she found out she was not marrying the older brother, she was marrying my GGF! She was NOT happy, as she didn't particularly like him in the first place. Family lore has it that if she would have been able to, she would have turned around and went back to Austria. She and my GGF ended up marrying and had seven children, but sadly it was not a happy marriage.
Another great-grandmother left Germany for the same reason as RufusTFirefly's ancestor(s). Someday I want to find out exactly where she came from. She and I look almost exactly alike, and for that reason I feel a special connection with her.
Jul 12th, 2005, 06:54 PM
#79
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I have lost my original reply and am unable to retrieve it so I will begin again.
On my maternal side my ancesters arrived in Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620. My generation is the 12th from John Howland, a passenger on the Mayflower. My mother's mother was a down Maine Yankee school teacher who joined a missionary group to Angola in about 1880. The head of the mission was a young English minister who was to become her husband, and my grandfather. He was born in London and educated in Germany. They evenually came to Massachusetts where he served in several churches.
On my father's side they came from England to settle in New Hampshire in the late 1700s. I am still living within 50 miles of Plymouth Rock, and on Cape Cod I am known as a "Washashore".
Jimjim
On my maternal side my ancesters arrived in Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620. My generation is the 12th from John Howland, a passenger on the Mayflower. My mother's mother was a down Maine Yankee school teacher who joined a missionary group to Angola in about 1880. The head of the mission was a young English minister who was to become her husband, and my grandfather. He was born in London and educated in Germany. They evenually came to Massachusetts where he served in several churches.
On my father's side they came from England to settle in New Hampshire in the late 1700s. I am still living within 50 miles of Plymouth Rock, and on Cape Cod I am known as a "Washashore".
Jimjim
Jul 13th, 2005, 06:55 AM
#80
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Last summer my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and to mark the occasion, they gave each of us a notebook in which they had complied their geneological research.
My dad's first American ancestor traveled from England to the Jamestown, Virginia settlement in 1617. We visited Jamestown a few years ago and saw reproductions of the ships they came over in back then...goodness...all I can say is that things must not have been going very well in England if he was willing to cross the Atlantic in one of those tiny, crowded ships!
My dad's first American ancestor traveled from England to the Jamestown, Virginia settlement in 1617. We visited Jamestown a few years ago and saw reproductions of the ships they came over in back then...goodness...all I can say is that things must not have been going very well in England if he was willing to cross the Atlantic in one of those tiny, crowded ships!
