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Both of my parents were native New Yorker's born to immigrants. Growing up, we'd ask our dad "what are we?" and the reply was always "we're American". That was good enough for me.
While I do know basically where all four of my grandparents are from, I really have no interest in or need for looking deeper.
When my kids ask me about our heritage, I tell them what I know about our ancestry and have them talk to my relatives that do the 'family tree' thing if they want to know more.
1.) Adopted, and the birth parents' records are sealed.
2.) Ancestors escaped a bad situation and didn't talk about it to their descendants.
3.) Name changes due to wanting to sound more "American" or due to an immigration official spelling the name as best as they could.
4.) Illiteracy, meaning a lack of records.
5.) Can't see where it's important to their lives, so therefore, not curious.
I personally enjoy working on the family tree from time to time, but I tend to wait for the 'free breaks' because I'm not interested enough to pay for the information--having it or not doesn't change my life one bit. It's lead to some interesting conversation pieces--for example, one of my relatives traced our family tree to King George III of England (note for future reference: The appropriate response to being told his was apparently, "That is so fascinating!" and *not* "Well, *that* just explained a lot about this family." ) It's a fun fact (though, bizarrely enough, sort of disappointing, because it means the 'fun' of chasing down records is gone, if that makes sense to anybody), and it was made sort of funnier when I found out the first greyhound I ever adopted was a descendent of one of *his* greyhounds....but it changes nothing about my life. I'm still a working-class American, not gonna be in line for any royal goodies or anything.
OTOH, on my dad's side of the family, it's predominantly Irish. And the surname "Murphy" pops up. And most of my dad's Irish ancestors either flat out *couldn't* read or write, or it was uncertain and shaky reading abilities for them, at best. And trying to sort out Murphys in Ireland.....yeah, have fun with that. I pretty much threw up my hands on that one. If a clue comes my way, groovy, if not.....my life will go on.
Outside of my immediate family, I don't really care where my ancestors came from. What matters is we're here right now. I think Americans are too preoccupied with where they have ties to in the old world. I believe this is just used to divide and/or feel superior for some reason. Just my 2 cents
I completely agree...don’t understand the fascination with it. My wife is the same way. I met my grandparents and that’s as far back as my memory of my ancestry goes. I have no reason to go any further than that.
As someone already said, a lot of it is just plain curiousity. Some people don't care. That's fine. Other people get to wondering where they came from. That's fine too.
On my dad's side, I knew my grandparents and even though they never talked about it, they had come from England. (When they never speak of it, often that means something horrible happened. It can make you wonder.) At my dad's funeral, his brother told me he'd like to know where we came from. He said he never even knew his grandfather's name!
That propelled me into a nearly fanatical quest to learn the story. And it was a sad one. You know, sometimes learning the background helps you to understand your current family. Light bulbs go off. So THAT'S why they never spoke of it. So that's why your grandfather loved kids so much (maybe all his brothers and sisters died as kids in the old country.) So that's why your parents were so frugal--they remembered dire poverty or having their land stolen from them. It can explain a lot.
@ oihamad
Brian M is an example of members who post on a subject they have zero interest in instead of participating in posts they can contribute to.
Come again? When the OP asks why some Americans (of which I am) not know their own Ancestry (of which I don't), I seem to be eminently qualified to offer an answer. On the other hand, YOU offered nothing with the quoted post. Not one dang thing that related to the original post and there had not been thread hijack until you posted. So you, sir/ma'am, are a hypocrite by your own demonstration.
to expand further on this. How many of you have intimate knowledge of the construction of a building? Can you repair a dilapidated home built a century ago? I happen to be in possession of both the knowledge and skills for both... if you don't, why not? Ok, how about your vehicles ~ do you require a mechanic to diagnose problems and perform the repair work? If yes, why aren't you in possession of that knowledge as well? Again, this is something which I'm more then capable, and indeed made my living by it for awhile.
There are a Whole lots of things in life that can be learned. No one person could touch even a tiny fraction of a percent of that knowledge. So we all pick and choose what we focus on, based on things that grab our interest. Family has never been important to me, blame my parents for moving me 1000 miles from the closest relatives, who I saw maybe once a year (and some cousins I've only seen 2 or 3 times in my whole life). History has similarly never held my interest, being more of a STEM guy... combine those and I really have zero interest in the history of people long dead that have Zero to do with me beyond procreation and chance (or arranged) meeting. And there is NOTHING WRONG with that position. There's also nothing wrong with being midly curious and only looking back as far as easy records can be found, or being so involved you travel around the globe and do headstone impressions of people you feel a connection to. It's all just the variance that makes life, and people as individuals, interesting.
I’m trained in history and it has been interesting to see how my ancestry fits into the world events since about 1295, which is the oldest date I’ve reached with any confidence. I have some named ancestors who died in the Black Plague and some who sailed with Dutch explorers, a couple heads of state, a Mayflower passenger, a commandant at Ft. Orange, disciples of Anne Hutchinson expelled by Puritans from Boston, Revolutionary soldiers and Civil War soldiers, a couple of Irish gangsters, somebody clad in dark mystery who was running from the Czar, and a bitter old man who was shot by his daughter in law in broad daylight with witnesses (she was acquitted). This is all on my mom’s side. We seem to have a pattern of being religious dissenters over several hundred years. Unlike some families, military service or rank was never a big thing. On my dad’s side we mostly grew barley and waited for the next invasion (Teutonic Knights, Lithuania, Poland , Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France, Prussia, Russia, etc.). Nothing much changed except the religion going back and forth. It is all interesting and with this, and with about $2.00, I can get a cup of coffee.
What great discoveries SunGrins! I have had similar success with my research. Never far back enough though. LOL
My current passion is going forward in a descendant tree, focusing on one particular family. The patriarch at the center was a Civil War veteran from my hometown who married a young woman whose family lived in a house nearby. They had thirteen children together, nine daughters and four sons, all of whom survived to at least middle age and one of whom reached nearly a century. The siblings' lives coincide with a period of rapid development in my hometown, and through them, I have learned so much about the city in which I grew up. I have even built a Google map tracing the siblings and their descendants around town and eventually farther afield, and I absolutely love to haunt Realtor.com, looking for property listings connected to them. A photograph of all of the siblings taken around 1920 hangs over my fireplace. Their descendants now live all over the United States and world, and it's amazing to see where they all ended up.
Last edited by randomparent; 07-08-2018 at 02:09 PM..
I’m trained in history and it has been interesting to see how my ancestry fits into the world events since about 1295, which is the oldest date I’ve reached with any confidence.
confidence that the key word, using family search.org, I got some of the roots back to 700 A.D. There a king of saxon, king of frank, some roman general. But confidence, its fun but i have second thought on anything before 1700
I have a ledger with information . I do so hope my grandkids and their kids inquire. It has some 'time' moments. ..
Heck my family drama puts too shame some of the TV families...you would think I was fabricating in...til you saw the articles.
I care about human lives ..and those that came before. I'm sure they are worthy of some memory or deed. We'd all like to leave a legacy of sorts...
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) It's a fun fact (though, bizarrely enough, sort of disappointing, because it means the 'fun' of chasing down records is gone, if that makes sense to anybody), and it was made sort of funnier when I found out the first greyhound I ever adopted was a descendent of one of *his* greyhounds....but it changes nothing about my life. I'm still a working-class American, not gonna be in line for any royal goodies or anything. 
