Family origins

My parents and I come from Italy. We moved to Australia in 1972 and have been here ever since. I have never looked at our family tree. In the past it was difficult because we came from overseas but these days thanks to the Internet it may be possible to trace my ancestors quite easily. Your discussion has prompted me to take a look at our family tree; it would be fascinating because I know nothing about our original family name.

My mother's mother's family came from Kent where we can trace them back with certainty to 1630. The name, however, is the same as one of the retainers of Bishop Odo, who was bishop to William the Conqueror, so it is possible that we have Norman blood on that side (it is also possible that Saxon serfs took on the name of their Lord of Manor when surnames became more common and customary in about the 14th Century). My mother's father came from Yorkshire and the name means 'heron' in Norse, so it is very likely that that branch of the family have Viking blood. Since the Normans were also originally Vikings, I seem to have a good chance of being nearly half Viking! My father's side of the family has been more difficult to trace. The earliest record seems to be from the late 18th/early 19th Century and the name seems to have two spellings. It seems most likely that my GGG-grandfather was born in Worcestershire, learnt the weaving trade and then joined the army. When he left the army, he seems to have fetched up in Bethnal Green and to have taken up the trade of silk weaver. His grandson (my great grandfather) became a missionary and moved to Kent (originally for his health) where he founded a school which flourishes to this day. Both of his wives were undoubtedly of Huguenot descent (and also from silk weaving families). As was common in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, several members of both families emigrated to Australia and New Zealand, so we have several fairly distant relations in the Antipodes.

I was born in the United States, but I have many relatives from all over Western Europe, including the UK. My dad is researching our ancestry, but I can list at least eight to ten nationalities in my family tree, at least in very small amounts. I am also Native American, in a very small amount but enough to prove my tribal membership.

Since I'm not native American, obviously, since I'm in the States, my ancestors came here more recently than the Bering land bridge... I can, safely say, that the most recent immigrants in my tree are from my great-grandparent's time, the mid to late 1800's. I don't know too much about my father's side, but on my mother's side, I had a great-grandmother from Ireland, another from Germany and a great-grandfather from England. Those latter 2 were my mother's mother's parents. Her father's parents, besides the Dailey (Daley, Daily) of his mother was from a family that came from my famous ancestress Penelope Van Princes Stout who was coming to settle in New Amsterdam.... On dad's side, if I wanted to find out, I could ask my cousin, but I do know that on that side of the family, besides the name sake coming with William Penn, I actually can hale back to the Mayflower... Unless, as I suspect, his father was actually an alien...

My wife is really into geneology and she has traced my family tree into Devon, England, going back about 4-5 generations.However, we are stuck there as we can find no further records. We even went over to Devon for a short holiday and found some graves, but cannot know whether they are my relatives, or just have the same name. There are no records where my family came from to arrive in Devon either - so it's quite a mystery. She keeps searching on line and hopefully one day we will find a link to further back. _Derek

Hi Karen, As far as I know I am from 100% Irish ancestry. My maternal grandmother was born in Ireland in County Cork and came to the U.S. to Boston when she was 16 or 17. My maternal grandfather was born in the U.S. (Boston), but his parents were both born in Ireland in County Cork also. My fraternal grandparents were both born in Galway in Ireland and came to the U.S. when they were quite young. I would like to know more about the family tree, but haven't researched it much yet. Some other family members have so I should get it from them. A couple of them have been to Ireland. I have never been there.

we are in canada and my anscesters were born in england on my dads side and in hungary on my moms side. my hubbys family is from Germany (both parents came to canada after ww2).

My family is a mixture of Lebanese { my dad side} and English {mum's side}.My sister was the only one who got the nice olive skin , which I would have loved to have.All I got was the dark hair and pale skin with freckles yuk.lol.

I've never researched my family history but I do know that I have Scots-Irish ancestry and also some Commanche Indian ancestry.

My Nana was off he boat Irish, my Gram was conceived in Scotland born here in USA. Both grandfathers born in USA one German one Irish. I never met any of them both my parents where second families being born 18 and 16 years after their siblings. each lost a parent when still children, then the other parents before I was born. I wish I had met them.

I am only second generation here in the US (actually fourth on my mom's side), so my ancestors (from both my mom and my dad's side) are from Japan. And as boring as it is, people either stayed in Japan or migrated here. Although, one sector of my dad's family moved to Canada - and I don't know why, but apparently we have a lot of the family namesake out there. I've never personally tried to create a family tree, but apparently there is a wall in Canada (one of my dad's cousins' home) with a family tree - and I don't know how far it dates back. I am hoping to catch a family member on Facebook and ask them to please send a pic of it - it'd be ashame to lose what's on that wall!!

My ancestors came from Germany, Prussia, Scotland, Ireland, and there is some Canadian French from my Great Great Grandmother. They all came to the United States. They settled in North Dakota and Minnesota. How do I know this? I was very lucky and had some skilled researchers do an Ancestry search back in the seventies. I have gone a little beyond what they did but it's only a winter hobby of mine.

I was born in Los Angeles. Both of my parents were American, but naturally if you go back just a few generations in America your ancestors have to be immigrants unless you are native American. The majority of my Ancestors are Scottish and Norwegian on my mother's side of the family. My father's side was mostly Irish and some Native American. Can you immagine an Irish temper mixed with Apache?

I am from india, my ancestors werefrom india, by husband is also from india, since your ancestors lived 100+, there is every possibility for you to live long, i pray the almighty to grant you atleast 100 years, with 1000 days in a year god bless you happy mylotting, cheers kalyni

My grandparents on my mother side is Spanish. The grandfather of my mother's father was living in Spain, and his son worked here in my country and then met his wife and they had a family which my grandfather came. On my father side, my father said their ancestor was Japanese. So my blood is a mixture of Spanish, Japanese and Filipino.

I think I am a bit of everywhere..lol...Ireland, England, Native American Indian, German,...who knows where else my ancestors are from...I have a huge interest in geneology but I am a little stuck at where to start. I don't have very much family communication.

Well, here in India, we do not need to. Generations after generations have been living within a radius of say max 500 kms and hence keeping track of your ancestors is not difficult at all. By the way, we all have one ancestor and both you and me will be connected to the same. Yes, you got it. Adam and Eve!!!!!

My family is from a lot of different places originally. My father's side of the family is mostly from Ireland and also from Germany. My mother's side of the family is mostly German with some British, Polish and Scottish as well. However, for the last several generations the family has lived in the United States. My parents were both born in Ohio where most of their family still lives but I was born in Atlanta, Georgia and moved to Lexington, Kentucky when I was a toddler. I still live in Kentucky today.

My grandparents came from Russia.

Hi Karen1969!. My ancestor came from North Sumatra, we have family tree so by our family name we can tract to our first ancestor Raja Batak. My family have been lived for many year in West Java because its the most develop part of Indonesia.