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I am a people watcher and enjoy differences also, but do you have any close friendships with these other people?
Um, yes, I've been able to have close friendships with these other people.
I've never seen it as an issue and normally how long someone's family has been in the U.S. isn't something that comes up much when getting to know someone. Though I can honestly say that if I met someone new, and they made quite a point of telling me that their family was here since the 1700's or something, it would put me off, particularly if it seemed out of context to the conversation.
I did have a friend once who was always yapping about how her mother was in the DAR or some such and some other stuff about the MayFlower. I could have made similar claims myself but didn't quite see the point in doing so.
In my family there is no one predominant ethnicity though--there are those on my grandmother's side who came over on the first wave of European immigration and those on other sides who came in the 1930's, just in time. My father's family is Canadian.
Last edited by Rosa canina; 08-17-2007 at 05:41 PM..
Rosa canina that is interesting. I really had never thought about what background my family was until we were given the asignment to check on this in a civics class in high school. I had just always thought of myself as American, since I am. I knew my great, great grandmother was a full blooded American Indian, but my great grandfather was always considered white since his father was Irish. I always wondered what his childhood had been like, but the only thing I knew about him was his name. A member of my mother's family traced their family back to England. Her family was in the forefront of helping to colonize America. Both of my parents have ancestors from Germany. There is a gap on the Blue Ridge Parkway that is the same as my maiden name, but I have discovered that the family it was named after is actually on my mothers side of the family. These family names distantly crisscross a long way back.
My husband was googling his name one day and came up with a website that someone else had done on his family that went back to Williamsburg. He had always been told that two brothers came over on the Mayflower, but we have found no evidence of that. If they did, they then came down and helped build Williamsburg, then came to Old Salem, etc. They are all over America from New York to Texas and New Mexico and Virginia and North Carolina to California. There are streets and towns named after them all over America. They were very politically active in the Southern part of the Civil War. There have been books written about family members and pictures of their homes in books.
I am in the process of documenting our families histories for our grandchildren. My daughter and I were discussing one day how we felt more in common politically and socially with those who had relatives going back to America's beginning and then another thread mentioned that someone else had found this also, so I just started this thread to see if this was a common thing that happens. I am really open to anyone's ideas on this subject. I am not trying to prove any point, just wondering if anyone else has found this to be true or not. It just makes sense to me that if your families had led similar lives that they may have developed common interests. I would love to hear anyones input on this. This is not a "my family came over on the Mayflower thing." Considering that I have American Indian ancestry, I am very senitive to problems that prejudice may cause. American Indians were not the most loved people in America. I was not brought up to be prejudiced against any ethnic group. I do have some political views that were developed in the past few years. Sorry this was so long, I just don't want to be misunderstood.
My sister and nephew have also been doing that, North Carolina. It's been really interesting. Back in the American Revolution, a segment of my father's family were loyalists and migrated to Canada. Another segment ended up in Buck's County in PA and eventually migrated west to Oregon.
What you said in your second paragraph is really interesting because it reminds me of a conversation I had a few months ago on another board. It revolved around whether your ancestral roots had much impact on your life even if the beliefs et al of your ancestors haven't been practiced for a generation or two--sounds dumb stated that way--don't know how else to put it.
There is a strong Quaker heritage on part of my father's side of the family. We haven't really been practicing Quakers since my grandfather's time, except for my sister, and I've had an emerging interest in that myself. But the principles inherent in the Quaker religion are very much present in my son, without him ever being exposed to the
Friends Church.
On my dad's side, my family traces back to 1635. My ancestor's grave is in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
My mom's side is more recent, they came from Ireland in the 19th century.
I can find kindred spirits in all sorts of ages and ethnic groups, from preppies to youngsters to elderly folks.
I dunno, sometimes I think I am still growing up and figuring all this stuff out.
There is a strong Quaker heritage on part of my father's side of the family. We haven't really been practicing Quakers since my grandfather's time, except for my sister, and I've had an emerging interest in that myself. But the principles inherent in the Quaker religion are very much present in my son, without him ever being exposed to the Friends Church.
Makes you wonder, doesn't it.
That's incredible. I started reading one of the books about an officer in the Civil War who was a personal friend of Robert E. Lee and had my husband's last name. He had no descendents because he was killed, but several of his characteristics were very much like my son. His picture was on the book and he even looks like my son. His political and religious beliefs were very much like my son. My son bought the book at one of the Civil War sights and upon learning that my son had the same name as this officer, the attendant at that sight asked my son if he could take his picture with the book. I guess it was almost like having that Southern gentlemen standing right in front of him.
My children are very independent in what they think. I brought them up to think for themselves. They have chosen different political parties, which is not unusual in my family. My husband and I have different political parties and my mother and father had different political parties. Makes for an interesting election time. We have a rule. Say anything you want until after the election, then give the person elected the respect of the office.
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