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Great-Grandma (immigrant from Italy), and Grandma for a while, lived with us when I was a child. They would all cook together, and speak Italian. Poor Dad (Irish and British heritage) was out of luck around them! As a child I could understand Italian, but now only remember some words and phrases. I would identify more with my Italian side given my upbringing, although I do celebrate St. Pat's Day.
My DNA results came back Italian, Irish, British, with single digit percentages of Greek and French (?). I have also done my own genealogical research. I found out recently that I can claim Italian Citizenship. That far back? Caveat? It has to be through a male line and he had to never have renounced his Italian Citizenship.
In doing my research I found out Great-Grandpa was never Naturalized. Census records listed him as Alien. No record of his Naturalization papers. Great-Grandma was Naturalized but not until the 1940's after he had passed away. Read between the lines of that!
Please try to do your own research. You will find out some very interesting things about your ancestors.
All my direct ancestors except one (that I know about, anyway) came to the U.S. before 1875, so I just consider myself to be American, of European descent). If the subject comes up, I can say that I am German, Scottish, Swiss, French and English -- but I don't identify with any of those cultures except English and maybe Scottish (because my husband and I enjoy Celtic music). I identify most with my English ancestry, however, because of the language and all the British traditions I grew up with.
Last edited by katharsis; 06-08-2021 at 09:00 AM..
My most recent immigrant line came to Allegany County in the 1880s. The husband (my great-great grandfather) died of black lung a few short years later. His wife remarried and sent my great-grandmother into foster care, so no connection to that line beyond my great-grandmother herself.
I relate most with my family lines that have been here the longest. I don't have any "old country" traditions, language, or even stories because my relatives have been living in one county for so long, unless you count eating sauerkraut at holiday meals. I never knew a blood relative who wasn't born in Allegany County except for cousins in my generation.
So, the old timers, the old family cemetery, the old plots of lands, and the old stories of life here are what I relate to the most.
Fact is, regardless of who you descended from the ending is always the same for everyone (death). Once the last generation is gone, you are looking at old photos, maybe some old movies or letters to make the "connection" which is just your interpretation of the old stuff.
Lets imagine Petey leaves the old country and goes to America. 75 years later who remembers what happened to him nevermind what he did in America. So grandpa Petey dies and the grandkids show up in the old country asking if anyone knew Petey.
My maternal ancestors were immigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634 & 1635 from England. I have a list of all 12 generations from that time to my mother's time, and it is awesome to know who they were, and how they established themselves in different places over time in what became the USA.
My paternal ancestors are more recent immigrants. My paternal grandfather was from Scotland, whose family arrived in 1893. My paternal grandmother was born 1888 in Chicago to immigrants who arrived from Grabow, Mecklenburg, Germany in the 1870s. My grandmother learned German from her parents while growing up and spoke it most of the time at home. English was of course her first language.
In the 1970s, I was in the US Army and was stationed in West Germany for nearly 4 years. Shortly after I arrived, not knowing more than a couple of words of German, I enrolled in an evening German language class on the Army post. I figured it would help me out since I was going to be there for a long time, and that turned out to be a good decision. I continued studying the language for several years, and got to know a lot of local residents outside the Army post. After nearly 4 years, I had learned German quite well.
After I returned to the US and got out of the Army, I went to visit my grandmother who was still alive. I remember we had a conversation for the first time in German, and she still had not forgotten the language even though she rarely spoke it after WW1. She asked if I was able to visit the town where her parents were from, but I said no, because Grabow was located in what was then East Germany, and as a US soldier, I was not permitted to go there. Ironically, I had driven within a short distance of the town, located not far north of the autobahn that linked West Germany to West Berlin.
Many years later, in 2012, I was on a visit to Berlin and had a chance to go visit Grabow. It is a 90 minute train ride to the town from Berlin, and like a trip back in time to the 1800s. The town looks almost just like it did in the 1800s, full of half-timber buildings and homes. It was pretty emotional walking around the town, knowing that my great grandparents walked down those same streets when they were young. In that sense, I felt closer to them than the much earlier immigrant ancestors that I have. I am certain I have some distant relatives in that area, but it is one of those things that would take a lot of time to figure out.
I am retired now (since late 2017), and have been living in Germany for a good part of the time since retirement. Although I don't feel like a stranger here, and still speak German quite well, I am going to return to the USA at the end of this summer.
About half of the 102 passengers died the first winter.
In my little pod of Pilgrims, one girl was orphaned within a couple months. She married well, into the Winslows. One father and son were entirely unscathed by the illness and his wife and daughters came on the Anne in 1623 and there are many descendants. One came as a servant, stayed a few years and married, had a son that stayed but the parents returned to England and their descendants are on both sides of the Atlantic. The gene pool was pretty small until the next batch arrived on the following few ships: the Fortune (1621 -- 35 passengers), the Anne and Little James (1623 - 90 passengers). Some of those new arrivals were spouses or kids of the original Mayflower passengers. Before 1630, two other colonies were established near Plymouth: Wesseagussett (1622) and Salem (Naumkeag 1626). The first one failed, was reestablished in 1623 as Weymouth and failed again. Some of the survivors joined the Plymouth colony. Salem survived, as we know from the witchcraft trials. The Winthrop fleet of eleven ships arrived in 1630. Another 26 ships arrived in the 1630s.
With regards to the Mayflower, I'm still trying to see if I have a connection or not, if I do it could through William Brewster.
The interesting thing with him and maybe other Mayflower passengers that survived, is that William had older children that didn't come over on the Mayflower and those older children never came to America, but younger generations of those that stayed in England eventually did.
So there could be a case where your 10-G or 12-G grandfather came over on the Mayflower, survived, but it was their grandchild or great-grandchild that came over 30-50 years later where your tree continues in America!
That explains why out of the supposed 35 million descendants of Mayflower passengers, 25 million of the descendants are all over the world and only about 10 million here in the US, if a lot of the older children stayed back in England and didn't go with their parents.
Mostly English (and other British), pre-Revolution, but part Scandinavian from arrivals in the 20th century.
I have a Scandinavian name, speak a few words of one Scandinavian language, have visited Scandinavia and self-identity as British/Scandinavian. And I'd guess that I have second cousins and more there.
But as an American we have so many connections with the UK (language, customers there, etc.).
So I guess I'm more connected with the UK, home of earlier arrivals, just because it is so much like the US and because there are so many day-to-day connections with the UK; it's more familiar.
As a black American with more recent West Indian/African roots (my paternal family has recent ties to West Africa and some other relatives on this side came over from the British West Indies about 100 years ago, while my maternal family is African American with all that is entailed there), I identify more so with the African American ancestry as that is the culture that I was raised in. But I have gotten a lot closer to my African relatives as of late, some of whom live in Africa and others who are in the US and the UK.
I remember you mentioning your African grandmother in a thread I made about my own ancestry. In reality, you likely trace the majority or largest share of your ancestry to your grandmother's national origin, when you take into account what you already get also by having African American and Caribbean heritage. As an African American with all 4 of my grandparents from the American south and were AA also, I have no recent ties to an immigrant ancestor within the last century. However, both Ancestry and 23andme have estimated my ancestry to be around two-fifths Nigerian alone. It makes wonder whether I would be able to get by as passing for a lighter-skinned Yoruba or Igbo if I were to walk around in Lagos.
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