I used to think a belief in democracy was one of the qualities that all Americans share. Not these days. I used to think an essential optimism and positive belief in the future was at the core of what defines Americans. That attitude, while still powerful, has become more challenging. I might argue that a commitment to individualism and the right to choose one’s own path is central to what drives and describes Americans. In contrast, collective ideas like the American Dream—work hard and you will have a better life—don’t hold sway the way they once did.
But in an effort to consider what defines Americans, I always return to the fact that almost everyone inhabiting the United States came from somewhere else (with the exception of indigenous populations, which today are estimated at about 2 percent of the total country). When I used to live outside the US, I was always struck by how immigrant stories were so essential for understanding the experience of being in America. That view is surely influenced by my own background since my father was born in Berlin and escaped Nazi Germany when he was 10.
So for this Saturday discussion, I thought we all may have something to share by reflecting on family heritage and answering the question: Where does your family come from? Maybe you’d like to share what that journey from somewhere else looked like or how far back in your family tree you go to recall it. Or maybe your definition of that question takes you to a particular city or town in America where your family has lived for generations. (In my case, that city is Chicago on my mother’s side, my hometown.) With all of our different experiences and histories, with all of our remarkable diversity, a journey from somewhere else (and, embedded in that, a hope for something better) connects us.
My mother’s side of the family goes back to Cherokee Chief John Ross from the “Trail Of Tears”.
As a kid, I remember on rainy afternoons or during the cold weeks of January the family dining room table would be covered with all sorts of papers. There would be clippings from newspapers, a notebook of disparate names and dates, at times some books used as reference. Always there would be one very earnest face with a curious mind about how our family roots traced backward. Mom was determined to find out more concerning where our family came from.
She would write letters to relatives who were not the ones showing up to the annual family reunions. As they were further down the family tree Mom would write in an effort to gain more insight into the past. When someone responded with how a name linked with the family, or where a grave marker was located there was a feeling of success. It was those nuggets that were then shared with others. She always brought these matters up for discussion on ‘sibling days’ when her family gathered to either honor their Mom’s birthday, or in later years as a day to connect, laugh, and share.
One of the questions that always intrigued my Mom was if any of her relatives were on the infamous “Trail Of Tears”. Her ability to research was limited as she was working in the days when ‘to goggle’ was not yet a household term. So when my partner James came into our family and brought his love of genealogy, and knack for researching to the task it was not long before Mom was discovering more parts of the family story at a faster pace.
Still, there were many questions surrounding the story of my Mom’s grandfather, Ether, and his Cherokee background and history that required answers. There were many questions about the Ross family in general that needed clarification and light. In an attempt to assist my Mom, and also to discover more of the story for himself, James made some inquiries in 2005 into the matter. We alerted her to the mission that was underway. She was eager to know whatever we found.
It was not until James six years after his first inquiry was made that he discovered a very well-researched and fact-chocked email about Ether, the Ross line, the Trail of Tears, and more about how early and from where the Ross family came to America. It answered some questions and created yet more. That is the nature of such research. Needless to say, James has already sought more responses.
“If only we could call your Mom” were the words James used as he started to spill the contents of what he had discovered.
Based on the information that came to light in 2011 it means my Grandma Schwarz was 1/12th Cherokee, and I am 1/48th. The research also shows that there was rancor at a most pivotal time for the family as “different sources suggest that there was a rift in the family because of money/assets”.
It is with great pride that I know more about my Native American heritage on my Mom’s side of the family. I am most proud of being the first cousin, 6 times removed, from Chief John Ross. He was also known as Guwisguwi (a mythological or rare migratory bird), and was Principal Chief of the Cherokee Native American Nation from 1828–1866. My Mom’s side of the family always spoke with pride about their heritage.
Much has changed over the years since the dining room table back home would be spread with genealogy material and Mom would study it. Now it all is contained in files on our computer, and a back-up copy in a safe deposit box. What has not changed is the excitement over finding out new parts of the family puzzle.
Recently I have been upset with the negative immigration issue as well. We all come from somewhere and have mixed genetic makeup. I came a cross an interesting article in National Geographic Magazine. It basically said — “ The idea that there were once “pure” populations of ancestral Europeans, there since the days of woolly mammoths, has inspired ideologues since well before the Nazis. It has long nourished white racism, and in recent years it has stoked fears about the impact of immigrants: fears that have threatened to rip apart the European Union and roiled politics in the United States.
Now scientists are delivering new answers to the question of who Europeans really are and where they came from. Their findings suggest that the continent has been a melting pot since the Ice Age. Europeans living today, in whatever country, are a varying mix of ancient bloodlines hailing from Africa, the Middle East, and the Russian steppe.”
Curry, Andrew. "The first Europeans weren't who you might think." National Geographic magazine, August 2019.
Interesting article. Made me laugh! We are all the same! We are all human.
Progressives think of a positive future, Conservatives (Regressive) cannot conceive the world around them and the possibilities of the future in front of them. My paternal grandfather, his father and brothers left my pregnant grandmother in a mud village in Moldavia to come to America. My grandmother followed with my then 2 year old father taking a carriage to Kyiv then a train to St. Petersburg to get a ship to NY. My father grew up in the streets of Harlem, did not speak English until he started school at 6. The neighborhood was Jewish and Italian - his first and second languages. Attended Columbia University, CCNY and graduated President of his class at the Jesuit run Fordham University. THIS COULD ONLY HAPPEN IN AMERICA.
His brothers and sisters where born here. To old for enlistment in WW2 he was a neighborhood watch warden, his middle brother, an Army Engineer, landed at Anzio, fought in the Italian Campaign. (Our obligation).
My maternal family came over about the same time, but from London (where they had migrated to from Poland). My oldest uncle volunteered in WW1 for the US Army Expeditionary Force, injured in battle, became a Treasury Agent, lost his only son a Maritime Cadet Deck Officer torpedoed in the N. Atlantic WW2. (Our obligation). I had an uncle who was a Seabee in the S. Pacific, another US Air Corp mechanic. I volunteered and served Army of Occupation, W. Berlin Intel Spec Ops. (Our obligation).
AMERICA IS OUR OBLIGATION - Our obligation to constantly grow the founding fathers concepts and theories until proven and/or disproven. We cannot assume that we are all intellectually up to the effort. Deal with it. DEMOCRACY BY CLEAN. CLEAR MAJORITY.
Not that you're of lesser intellect in the minority - just PROVE that you have a more acceptable position.
If you've been in the Army your intellect is recorded on DA FORM 1811 (taken by millions of veterans). The GT score is considered your IQ (Not your level of education, but your ability to understand complex concepts and reduce them to their lowest theoretical denominator.
All my grandparents are from Ukraine, Odessa and Kyiv. My daughter and I were in Russia in 1990 and went to both cities to visit. We were so warmly welcomed by the Jewish community and given a tour of the sole remaining synagogue in Kyiv. In Odessa we went to Friday night services in a small building, yet I felt the presence of my grandmother there. None of my grandparents would ever talk about their lives before they came to the US. It was too painful. They escaped pogroms, the czar’s army, and extreme poverty. How I wish I knew more about their stories.
I found out my family on both sides is 95% British, my mom’s family settled in North Carolina early in the 1700s. The family story is there were some slavers. I don’t know much about my dad’s side other than they are from Texas via Oklahoma. I was born in Nebraska grew up in Denver spent my career in Los Angeles and live in Palm Springs now. I’m planning a trip this fall to see some of the places, Reidsville NC and Elk City OK for a couple.
My family on my mothers side - British immigrants - settled in far Western NC in the 1700s. I recently discovered they were enslavers. I’ve tried to find descendants of the people my family enslaved. It’s difficult to almost impossible. They were “immigrants” too- though by force. Exploring this side of my family has been rewarding and hopeful.
I’m doing that too! I’m going to research county records on my trip this fall. One of my ancestors actually changed his name from Clement Whittemore to Robert E Lee Whittemore, I plan to start there…
My mother’s parents came from Austria-Hungary during the early 1900’s as young children. My mother was born in 1926. Grandpa Smith’s original name was Jozef Smich. He became a citizen in 1934 and his name anglicized.
My family come mostly from Germany, many were here during Civil War times, and others came later but they all gravitated to Pittsburgh, PA. My great, great grandfather served with Gen McClellan. And my great grandfather was named George Britton after him.
Most of my family came to Chicago from County Cork and County Galway, post famine (1880s-1900s). One branch is from Bavaria and Alsace. My parents have always had an interest in genealogy, and they remember their grandparents' brogues quitely clearly and fondly. My Ancestry DNA kit put me squarely in Cork and Galway, with some ancient ties to northern Scotland.
I love genealogy and went looking decades ago for my family history. Both sides of my family came to Virginia in the early 1600s. They came from Scotland, Ireland, England, and France. The set from Scotland were Protestants who had come from France. They left for the colonies to practice their religion. The English came for the land. The Irish and the Scots intermingled in Ireland. The families stayed in the south and moved from Virginia to Texas to Oklahoma. No one famous or infamous.
My mother’s family came from England late in the 19th century and I don’t have much information other than they settled in the Midwest; my mom was born in Kansas and was raised in California. My grandfather, my father’s father, was born in Quebec. The family lore is, as a teenager, he somehow wound up in British Columbia, walked across the border, and got a job working for the railroad in Sprague, Washington. He ultimately ran a grocery store in Spokane, where my dad and his 7 siblings were raised. That seems like a pretty typical immigrant story for the time, one that would certainly not be possible in today’s climate.
England and France, 1635 for the former on one of the Winthrop fleet. Edward Colburn founded Dracut, Mass. and his descendant, my 6th gen great grandfather Major Reuben Colburn founded Pittston, Maine. His story is here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1609495004
My father and my grandparents came from a village called Demevka(not sure of the spelling) outside of Kiev around 1912. My maternal grandmother came from Austria but no one knows when except before 1900. My maternal grandfather came from Texas to New York but none of my cousins know much about him since he died before we were all born.
I often think about my family heritage because it shows how America enables former enemies to join together. Like my husband who was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a Korean father who lived through the Japanese occupation of Korea. And my marriage to him despite being on opposite sides in WWII.
I think about my grandmother’s Jewish Belarusian family who escaped the 1905 pogroms and my grandfather’s Jewish family who escaped from Galicia during the breakup of the AustroHungarian empire and how their daughter, my mother, married my Dad who went to Catholic school because his father was Irish Catholic (grandmother came to the US during 1940s potato famine) and his mother was the product of German Protestant emigration away from Catholic France region of Ardennes and her mother, who resulted from a fleeing Polish count escaping one of the many breakups of Poland to Scotland where he married his wife.
Plus I think of my stepfather, whose Italian speaking family, took in his WWII war bride wife from Australia and my stepmother’s family who has roots in Italy and Ireland.
And I think of my multiple great grandfather and brothers, Shadrack, Meeshak and Abednego fighting for the Union in 1865 and wonder why I have siblings who won’t protect themselves or others from this dreadful virus by getting a proven safe vaccine.
My sister is in the same boat. Doesn’t care at all about her health and safety nor anyone else’s and knows nothing about history to understand it. It’s selfish, willfully ignorant, arrogant and just sad. I don’t know what’s happened to her and so many others like her. They’ve been brainwashed.
I was born and raised in the segregated South. Like most Georgians, my heritage is Scotch/Irish. They were farmers but not plantation owners. Cotton was picked by the kids in the family, not by slaves. Still, when the call came to take up arms and defend the Confederacy, a few male relatives fought joined in. So, obviously, it wasn't only about slavery. Misguided loyalty, perhaps?
My mother was the first person in the family to raise the question of inequality. Why could "colored" shoppers spend money in the stores but not use the restrooms? Why did they only get offered the nasty jobs, the low paying ones? If they had money, why couldn't they buy a nice house in a nice neighborhood?
I haven't lived in Georgia for over 50 years. What's happening there now just makes me sad.
My grandparents came from Norway and Sweden, and found their way to Minnesota and North Dakota. I have met living aunts and uncles in their nineties in Sweden, and some of my cousins have visited us here in California. I met my wife, who came from Italian and Spanish immigrants, in Argentina.
In my research about my father's history, I have found out that I'm the direct descendent of Continental Army Capt. Peter Dickerson. He was the owner and proprietor of the Dickerson Tavern, Morristown NJ. Including related to Thomas Paine (Mary Paine 5th cousin) by marriage. 5th Great Grandfather Philemon Dickerson landed in 1637, through passage from Norfolk UK, as indentured servant to his brother in law on the "Mary Anne".
My Dad's history is quite the romp of a lifetime. Chauffeur/ Mechanic 1910-14, US Naval Reserve 1915, Active US Navy 1917-1946. Douglas Aircraft, CWO5 Naval Aircraft Inspector for R4Ds, and Dakotas. Here's an article I wrote for my friend in Ireland, about some of his timeline in the Navy:
When strangers walk up to me and ask “where are you from?” I usually say Chicago. If I’m feeling sporty, when they ask the usual follow-up question, I say “Wesley Memorial Hospital.” Please take a moment to think about how many times someone asks you where you are from. For me, it’s generally once a month, but I’m retired so I don’t have that much contact with strangers. In terms of immigration, my great-great-grandparents immigrated from southern China in the 1880s, while my father’s parents immigrated from Nagoya, Japan, around 1916.
It has been a journey of great discovery for me... My Dad served in the US Navy from 1917 -1946. Including working for Douglas Aircraft as a CWO5 aircraft inspection engineer for Naval versions of DC3s and Hughes Aircraft post war 1946 -1957. A very interesting part of his history is that he was the Naval Chief in charge of the US Embassy in Paris during the Versailles Peace Treaty Conference working as a embassy staff driver. These are just a few parts of his history. I'm writing a book and have written an article for my historian friend which is posted on his blog: https://midletonheritage.com/2019/08/18/the-experiences-photographs-of-a-us-navy-chief-in-usnas-aghada-1918-1919/
My mom's family came from Poland/Germany...they were Buskupskis, 10 of them and came thru Ellis Island. Many changed their names to more Americanized names because of discrimination against Poles. They settled in Milwaukee. My mom's grandmother married a Zielinski from that union My grandmother was born. My grandmother married 3 times, the last one she migrated to Ohio. My dad's family, all we know at this time, is Sookie the was sold by Thomas Jefferson to Girthon Epps in Georgia. She was found on among a list of slaves on his bread n butter list. She had a son with her master, John Cannon Epps he and his wife had 10 children. Many of the Epps's are still living in Georgia. My grandfather migrated to Ohio where we are today. My mom who is white married my dad who is black in 1954, which in some states was against the law. Our last name is Mobley..but it should be Epps. (We did a DNA on my dad and he was 68% west African)
I was born and raised in LA (yes, we do exist), the valley to be more specific. Both my parents were born in NY, my mom on Long Island, my dad in Manhattan. On both sides of my family, at least one of my parents’ grandparents, came from Ukraine. My grandmother on my dad’s side was born in Eastborne, England and was in London during the blitz. She left for Canada during the war and eventually they ended up in the US and NYC where she met my grandad. My mom tells me fond stories of her grandparents and how her grandad spoke with an accent, no matter how long he lived in the US, but her grandmother learned and spoke English like a native. How she learned Yiddish from them and picked up little words in their private conversations. We both laugh as we recount funny Yiddish words she learned from her grandparents. I feel very blessed to have a family from all over, mainly eastern and Western Europe, with all the traditions & history and also be an American. We ALL came from somewhere else and that’s what makes this country so incredible!
My grandparents came from Russia and Poland before WWII. Life was not good back then. As Jews they were worried about persecution. My dad and three of his siblings were born there. My youngest uncle was born in the US.
My husband and I started looking into our genealogy a few years ago. What startled us the most as we researched was finding out we have many ancestors in common and we also have ancestors that, although they weren’t related, knew each other well.
Both of us are mostly English, Scottish & German. My husband has a sizable amount of Jewish ancestry, but I have a very small amount. Interestingly, while my husband was going through my mother in law’s papers after her death he found letters from a distant relative who was part of the brand new Israeli government, whose last name was the same name of my Jewish ancestors on my mother’s side-Propes or Probst.
Also on my mother’s side of the family, we found out my ancestor Edward Coke was Solicitor General in Queen Elizabeth I’s Court, became Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and eventually Attorney General. My husband’s ancestor was also a solicitor who worked with my ancestor and eventually held many of the same titles my ancestor held.
We both have ancestors who came to America on the Mayflower and wound up
founding a new town together in Connecticut.
At some point I counted over 20 sets of ancestors my husband and I have in common, spread out over several hundred years. Neither of us had any idea we had any of these ancestors.
My father knew very little about his family because his mother died when he was little.
It was during the Great Depression so getting enough food to eat was difficult and apparently his mother’s family weren’t thrilled about taking him in. All he knew was his grandfather had worked for years driving cattle from somewhere in Oklahoma all the way to a town in New Mexico where they eventually settled & opened a feed store. After researching it I realized they drove cattle on the Santa Fe Trail to Las Vegas, New Mexico, which was known to be a gambling town that attracted all kinds of shady people.
I found out my father’s maternal grandmother’s family lived in Tombstone, AZ while growing up. I found a letter on the internet written by my great grandmother’s sister. In the letter she wrote that they lived next door to Wyatt Earp who often helped her & her sister(my great grandmother) with their homework. And by the way, my great grandmother named one of her sons Wyatt.
My great, great grandfather Andrew Neff and Wyatt Earp were partners in a mining business. Interestingly, my mother has some ancestors a couple of generations back by the name of Holiday. Whether they were related to Doc Holiday I don’t know, but my mother’s Holiday ancestors lived in Georgia, maybe 50 miles from where Doc Holiday’s family lived.
Finding all of this information about ancestors has been an adventure, and since I’m an attorney it was doubly fascinating to know I descended from a rather famous Elizabethan solicitor who’s most well known cases are still studied in present day law schools.
My family came from England, France and Germany. My ancestors from England came to America when it was a colony and landed in Virginia. They moved West and landed in Ohio before my Great Grandparents moved to Indiana. Not sure when my German ancestors came to America but they settled in Ohio also and then some came to Indiana. This was before World War 1.
The French side went through England and married into the Smith family which were the ones that came to America and settled in Virginia.
My family on both sides is from Ukraine, the Settlement of the Pale. My mother’s family came through Ellis Island and ended up in rural Wisconsin before moving to Chicago where my mother, her sister were born. My father’s father came through Ellis Island as well and ended up in Chicago, working in the Fish Markets. HIs mother was from Baltimore and met my grandfather in Chicago where they married; my father and his brother were born there. My brother and I were born there as well. Our extended family was large. Slowly family began to move away - to California mostly. All of my children were born in California as well as my grandchildren. So my great-grandparents escaped Eastern Europe before the Russian Revolution and the Holocaust which allowed the family to proliferate and prosper.
I'm a European mix: French, English, Irish and German. I've searched the German line back to a ship from Hamburg that arrived in NYC in 1885, dispersing the family to upstate New York and Connecticut. The English line arrived here in 1639 when the Pease family from Great Baddow, England decided to settle in Salem, MA and then helped found Enfield, CT. A descendent fought in the Revolutionary War, joining a unit in Springfield, MA. The strands came together when my French-Irish grandmother (an orphan raised by an aunt) met a handsome business machine tech from Burlington, VT, while both were living and working in New Haven, CT. As far as religions, there seems to be a mix of Protestant denominations and Roman Catholicism. My Roman Catholic grandmother was poorly treated by the aunt that took her in as a child and her in-laws, who didn't respect her background or faith. She talked about it in the last weeks of her life. (She died at 79.) I've lived a charmed life in comparison. Although I was raised by a single parent after my parent's divorce when I was 14, I managed to get through college and law school and have two reasonably successful careers in journalism and then law. I've lived most of my life within a single county in Connecticut, New Haven. My husband and I recently decided that we would remain here, instead of retiring to New Hampshire, which was the plan for a while.
Mom: German and Swiss filtered through Shanghai to North Texas; and Dad: Tennessee/Oklahoma before landing in the Texas panhandle. WW2 caused a chance meeting in Dallas.
My maternal immigrant ancestors were the Cyr's from France. Landed in Acadia (Nova Scotia) in 1626. But the original ancestor Pierre's grandfather (also named Pierre Cyr) first saw and landed along the NE coast of America exploring with Champlain 1605. Pierre's descendants later escaped the British expulsion from Acadia hiding out with the Mic Mac, later settling in Madawaska, ME. Paternal immigrants were from Sweden thru Ellis Island in 1920 & 1924.
Mostly Scots on both sides, with a bit of Irish and English thrown in for good measure. On my father's side, they landed near Wilmington, N.C. in the early 1700s, likely as indentured servants or prisoners. My mother's family traces their roots to the late 1600s, also in North Carolina, but they appear to have been farmers/landholders, though not slave holders. My great-great grandfather on my father's side had two families, one white (of which I am the descendant), and the other with a Black woman "down the road apiece." When my aunt discovered the birth and death records of this second family, my grandmother was furious -- apparently this had been a well-kept secret in the family. It is my understanding that this was not an uncommon story.
According to Ancestry.com, 71% of me comes from England,Wales,NW Europe; 17%Germany; 12% Ireland & Scotland. The latter is my mother's side. Her maiden name was Scott, her father was a coal miner and lived in Glasgow, PA.The Irish part is misleading. At the behest of Henry VIII who did away with the Catholic church in England so he could marry against its laws,Scottish families were encouraged to move to Ireland to attempt to counter that country's Catholicism. Her lineage traces back to the 1300s-Sir John Pelham II which makes me think of the movie, The Taking of Pelham 123.Prominent was Sir John Scott, a lawyer & writer,knighted by King James VI, made a Privy Councillor to James and King Charles I, served in the Scottish Parliament, served on the war committee when fought with England. He was relieved of duties by Cromwell and personally fined 1,500 pounds for his part in the war. There were lots of Sirs and Ladies. Writing in Latin, one of John's poems was Who would not one of these two offers try-Not to be born, or, being born, to die.
My father handed down the Welsh, English DNA. Able to trace back to the 1500s. With names like Steele, Williams, & Richards, they settled in central PA around Martha Furnace when it was the frontier. For the most part, they were farmers. PopPop's house was up a hill from the barn and was guarded by a big grey goose who would chase after everyone and peck at them. Every summer, hundreds of Monarch butterflies settled on their dirt road. Milk was put into silver colored metal cans, taken to Altoona, PA, a railroad hub, then shipped to Pittsburgh. I have one with his name engraved on it. Some silly painted it black.Every year I resolve to restore it. It awaits.
His ancestors erected a Methodist church which still holds services to this day. Mother donated a picture of Christ behind the altar, Daddy the pew cushions, my cousin, a music major, her organ when she died. A couple of miles away is the cemetery where everyone is buried and where I will be planted some day. It's a country cemetery, 2 dirt car ruts lead into it with wild flowers on each side and a field of corn beside it. It is peaceful with bunnies, crickets & old dogs chasing each other over the graves.
With Wales and Richards in the picture, I wonder if Keith is in the line somewhere. ; )
Dad's mother was a Wagner and what one generalizes about being German-stiff and straight, the boss. I used to giggle on the phone with friends when she was visiting, and after, she would let me know that proper young ladies said Ha Ha. She never thought my mother was good enough for her son. So, poor Mother, first 3 years of marriage, she and Daddy lived with her and Pop.
Grandma traced her ancestors waaaaaaay back to Egfred, a king of the Anglo Saxons, whose daughter married an Ardery tho spelled a little differently. That was her mother's maiden name.
The church is on Ardery Hollow Rd. I believe Grandma thought she was related to the composer.
Grandfathers on both sides fought in the Revolutionary War and Civil War.
Funny thing is, they were all Republicans (when there were "Republicans." ) I am the only Democrat in the bunch.Think they were against FDR entering the war. When Mother went to the rest room, she always said she was going to see Roosevelt !
Depends upon which side. One side fairly WASP (albeit with gravely embarrassing southern roots and behavior), the other, French, German and Italian. Your ancestors probably knew some of mine in Chicago. I had a gggrandparent who was at one point (according to an article in the Tribune that covered about THREE whole pages) the oldest living native Chicagoan. Fun fact: My husband, my late business partner's families and mine came from the same 5 square mile area in Alsace-Lorraine.
According to Ancestry.com and other research my family on my mother’s father’s side were Swiss Mennonite, persecuted and migrated to Germany, persecuted and immigrated to the US in the 1700’s to Penn. Then moved to Nebraska where my grandfather married my grandmother whose family came from Scotland. My mother’s family had a deep seated belief in Democracy. My father’s family on his father’s side came from Sweden, his mother came from England, my paternal grandparents were staunch Democrats and faithful to Democratic principles. These principles live on through the generations to this day.
My mother’s side of the family goes back to Cherokee Chief John Ross from the “Trail Of Tears”.
As a kid, I remember on rainy afternoons or during the cold weeks of January the family dining room table would be covered with all sorts of papers. There would be clippings from newspapers, a notebook of disparate names and dates, at times some books used as reference. Always there would be one very earnest face with a curious mind about how our family roots traced backward. Mom was determined to find out more concerning where our family came from.
She would write letters to relatives who were not the ones showing up to the annual family reunions. As they were further down the family tree Mom would write in an effort to gain more insight into the past. When someone responded with how a name linked with the family, or where a grave marker was located there was a feeling of success. It was those nuggets that were then shared with others. She always brought these matters up for discussion on ‘sibling days’ when her family gathered to either honor their Mom’s birthday, or in later years as a day to connect, laugh, and share.
One of the questions that always intrigued my Mom was if any of her relatives were on the infamous “Trail Of Tears”. Her ability to research was limited as she was working in the days when ‘to goggle’ was not yet a household term. So when my partner James came into our family and brought his love of genealogy, and knack for researching to the task it was not long before Mom was discovering more parts of the family story at a faster pace.
Still, there were many questions surrounding the story of my Mom’s grandfather, Ether, and his Cherokee background and history that required answers. There were many questions about the Ross family in general that needed clarification and light. In an attempt to assist my Mom, and also to discover more of the story for himself, James made some inquiries in 2005 into the matter. We alerted her to the mission that was underway. She was eager to know whatever we found.
It was not until James six years after his first inquiry was made that he discovered a very well-researched and fact-chocked email about Ether, the Ross line, the Trail of Tears, and more about how early and from where the Ross family came to America. It answered some questions and created yet more. That is the nature of such research. Needless to say, James has already sought more responses.
“If only we could call your Mom” were the words James used as he started to spill the contents of what he had discovered.
Based on the information that came to light in 2011 it means my Grandma Schwarz was 1/12th Cherokee, and I am 1/48th. The research also shows that there was rancor at a most pivotal time for the family as “different sources suggest that there was a rift in the family because of money/assets”.
It is with great pride that I know more about my Native American heritage on my Mom’s side of the family. I am most proud of being the first cousin, 6 times removed, from Chief John Ross. He was also known as Guwisguwi (a mythological or rare migratory bird), and was Principal Chief of the Cherokee Native American Nation from 1828–1866. My Mom’s side of the family always spoke with pride about their heritage.
Much has changed over the years since the dining room table back home would be spread with genealogy material and Mom would study it. Now it all is contained in files on our computer, and a back-up copy in a safe deposit box. What has not changed is the excitement over finding out new parts of the family puzzle.
Thanks for sharing your interesting family story, Gregory.
As a child, I played on the banks of Big Cedar Creek in northwest Georgia. We frequently found arrowheads left by the Cherokees.
You were playing on land touched by history.
I am a mutt. What’s more American than that?
Recently I have been upset with the negative immigration issue as well. We all come from somewhere and have mixed genetic makeup. I came a cross an interesting article in National Geographic Magazine. It basically said — “ The idea that there were once “pure” populations of ancestral Europeans, there since the days of woolly mammoths, has inspired ideologues since well before the Nazis. It has long nourished white racism, and in recent years it has stoked fears about the impact of immigrants: fears that have threatened to rip apart the European Union and roiled politics in the United States.
Now scientists are delivering new answers to the question of who Europeans really are and where they came from. Their findings suggest that the continent has been a melting pot since the Ice Age. Europeans living today, in whatever country, are a varying mix of ancient bloodlines hailing from Africa, the Middle East, and the Russian steppe.”
Curry, Andrew. "The first Europeans weren't who you might think." National Geographic magazine, August 2019.
Interesting article. Made me laugh! We are all the same! We are all human.
Thanks for this good note, Wendy. Useful info.
Progressives think of a positive future, Conservatives (Regressive) cannot conceive the world around them and the possibilities of the future in front of them. My paternal grandfather, his father and brothers left my pregnant grandmother in a mud village in Moldavia to come to America. My grandmother followed with my then 2 year old father taking a carriage to Kyiv then a train to St. Petersburg to get a ship to NY. My father grew up in the streets of Harlem, did not speak English until he started school at 6. The neighborhood was Jewish and Italian - his first and second languages. Attended Columbia University, CCNY and graduated President of his class at the Jesuit run Fordham University. THIS COULD ONLY HAPPEN IN AMERICA.
His brothers and sisters where born here. To old for enlistment in WW2 he was a neighborhood watch warden, his middle brother, an Army Engineer, landed at Anzio, fought in the Italian Campaign. (Our obligation).
My maternal family came over about the same time, but from London (where they had migrated to from Poland). My oldest uncle volunteered in WW1 for the US Army Expeditionary Force, injured in battle, became a Treasury Agent, lost his only son a Maritime Cadet Deck Officer torpedoed in the N. Atlantic WW2. (Our obligation). I had an uncle who was a Seabee in the S. Pacific, another US Air Corp mechanic. I volunteered and served Army of Occupation, W. Berlin Intel Spec Ops. (Our obligation).
AMERICA IS OUR OBLIGATION - Our obligation to constantly grow the founding fathers concepts and theories until proven and/or disproven. We cannot assume that we are all intellectually up to the effort. Deal with it. DEMOCRACY BY CLEAN. CLEAR MAJORITY.
Not that you're of lesser intellect in the minority - just PROVE that you have a more acceptable position.
If you've been in the Army your intellect is recorded on DA FORM 1811 (taken by millions of veterans). The GT score is considered your IQ (Not your level of education, but your ability to understand complex concepts and reduce them to their lowest theoretical denominator.
All my grandparents are from Ukraine, Odessa and Kyiv. My daughter and I were in Russia in 1990 and went to both cities to visit. We were so warmly welcomed by the Jewish community and given a tour of the sole remaining synagogue in Kyiv. In Odessa we went to Friday night services in a small building, yet I felt the presence of my grandmother there. None of my grandparents would ever talk about their lives before they came to the US. It was too painful. They escaped pogroms, the czar’s army, and extreme poverty. How I wish I knew more about their stories.
County Cork, Ireland According to the latest DNA report, I am 100%, Irish born in Detroit. 🤷♀️
I found out my family on both sides is 95% British, my mom’s family settled in North Carolina early in the 1700s. The family story is there were some slavers. I don’t know much about my dad’s side other than they are from Texas via Oklahoma. I was born in Nebraska grew up in Denver spent my career in Los Angeles and live in Palm Springs now. I’m planning a trip this fall to see some of the places, Reidsville NC and Elk City OK for a couple.
My family on my mothers side - British immigrants - settled in far Western NC in the 1700s. I recently discovered they were enslavers. I’ve tried to find descendants of the people my family enslaved. It’s difficult to almost impossible. They were “immigrants” too- though by force. Exploring this side of my family has been rewarding and hopeful.
I’m doing that too! I’m going to research county records on my trip this fall. One of my ancestors actually changed his name from Clement Whittemore to Robert E Lee Whittemore, I plan to start there…
Have fun! So many records have been digitized. It’s a hard but important search and reckoning. ❤️
My mother’s parents came from Austria-Hungary during the early 1900’s as young children. My mother was born in 1926. Grandpa Smith’s original name was Jozef Smich. He became a citizen in 1934 and his name anglicized.
My family come mostly from Germany, many were here during Civil War times, and others came later but they all gravitated to Pittsburgh, PA. My great, great grandfather served with Gen McClellan. And my great grandfather was named George Britton after him.
Most of my family came to Chicago from County Cork and County Galway, post famine (1880s-1900s). One branch is from Bavaria and Alsace. My parents have always had an interest in genealogy, and they remember their grandparents' brogues quitely clearly and fondly. My Ancestry DNA kit put me squarely in Cork and Galway, with some ancient ties to northern Scotland.
I love genealogy and went looking decades ago for my family history. Both sides of my family came to Virginia in the early 1600s. They came from Scotland, Ireland, England, and France. The set from Scotland were Protestants who had come from France. They left for the colonies to practice their religion. The English came for the land. The Irish and the Scots intermingled in Ireland. The families stayed in the south and moved from Virginia to Texas to Oklahoma. No one famous or infamous.
My mother’s family came from England late in the 19th century and I don’t have much information other than they settled in the Midwest; my mom was born in Kansas and was raised in California. My grandfather, my father’s father, was born in Quebec. The family lore is, as a teenager, he somehow wound up in British Columbia, walked across the border, and got a job working for the railroad in Sprague, Washington. He ultimately ran a grocery store in Spokane, where my dad and his 7 siblings were raised. That seems like a pretty typical immigrant story for the time, one that would certainly not be possible in today’s climate.
England and France, 1635 for the former on one of the Winthrop fleet. Edward Colburn founded Dracut, Mass. and his descendant, my 6th gen great grandfather Major Reuben Colburn founded Pittston, Maine. His story is here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1609495004
My father and my grandparents came from a village called Demevka(not sure of the spelling) outside of Kiev around 1912. My maternal grandmother came from Austria but no one knows when except before 1900. My maternal grandfather came from Texas to New York but none of my cousins know much about him since he died before we were all born.
I often think about my family heritage because it shows how America enables former enemies to join together. Like my husband who was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a Korean father who lived through the Japanese occupation of Korea. And my marriage to him despite being on opposite sides in WWII.
I think about my grandmother’s Jewish Belarusian family who escaped the 1905 pogroms and my grandfather’s Jewish family who escaped from Galicia during the breakup of the AustroHungarian empire and how their daughter, my mother, married my Dad who went to Catholic school because his father was Irish Catholic (grandmother came to the US during 1940s potato famine) and his mother was the product of German Protestant emigration away from Catholic France region of Ardennes and her mother, who resulted from a fleeing Polish count escaping one of the many breakups of Poland to Scotland where he married his wife.
Plus I think of my stepfather, whose Italian speaking family, took in his WWII war bride wife from Australia and my stepmother’s family who has roots in Italy and Ireland.
And I think of my multiple great grandfather and brothers, Shadrack, Meeshak and Abednego fighting for the Union in 1865 and wonder why I have siblings who won’t protect themselves or others from this dreadful virus by getting a proven safe vaccine.
What are we becoming as Americans?
My sister is in the same boat. Doesn’t care at all about her health and safety nor anyone else’s and knows nothing about history to understand it. It’s selfish, willfully ignorant, arrogant and just sad. I don’t know what’s happened to her and so many others like her. They’ve been brainwashed.
I was born and raised in the segregated South. Like most Georgians, my heritage is Scotch/Irish. They were farmers but not plantation owners. Cotton was picked by the kids in the family, not by slaves. Still, when the call came to take up arms and defend the Confederacy, a few male relatives fought joined in. So, obviously, it wasn't only about slavery. Misguided loyalty, perhaps?
My mother was the first person in the family to raise the question of inequality. Why could "colored" shoppers spend money in the stores but not use the restrooms? Why did they only get offered the nasty jobs, the low paying ones? If they had money, why couldn't they buy a nice house in a nice neighborhood?
I haven't lived in Georgia for over 50 years. What's happening there now just makes me sad.
My grandparents came from Norway and Sweden, and found their way to Minnesota and North Dakota. I have met living aunts and uncles in their nineties in Sweden, and some of my cousins have visited us here in California. I met my wife, who came from Italian and Spanish immigrants, in Argentina.
In my research about my father's history, I have found out that I'm the direct descendent of Continental Army Capt. Peter Dickerson. He was the owner and proprietor of the Dickerson Tavern, Morristown NJ. Including related to Thomas Paine (Mary Paine 5th cousin) by marriage. 5th Great Grandfather Philemon Dickerson landed in 1637, through passage from Norfolk UK, as indentured servant to his brother in law on the "Mary Anne".
My Dad's history is quite the romp of a lifetime. Chauffeur/ Mechanic 1910-14, US Naval Reserve 1915, Active US Navy 1917-1946. Douglas Aircraft, CWO5 Naval Aircraft Inspector for R4Ds, and Dakotas. Here's an article I wrote for my friend in Ireland, about some of his timeline in the Navy:
https://midletonheritage.com/2019/08/18/the-experiences-photographs-of-a-us-navy-chief-in-usnas-aghada-1918-1919/
When strangers walk up to me and ask “where are you from?” I usually say Chicago. If I’m feeling sporty, when they ask the usual follow-up question, I say “Wesley Memorial Hospital.” Please take a moment to think about how many times someone asks you where you are from. For me, it’s generally once a month, but I’m retired so I don’t have that much contact with strangers. In terms of immigration, my great-great-grandparents immigrated from southern China in the 1880s, while my father’s parents immigrated from Nagoya, Japan, around 1916.
It has been a journey of great discovery for me... My Dad served in the US Navy from 1917 -1946. Including working for Douglas Aircraft as a CWO5 aircraft inspection engineer for Naval versions of DC3s and Hughes Aircraft post war 1946 -1957. A very interesting part of his history is that he was the Naval Chief in charge of the US Embassy in Paris during the Versailles Peace Treaty Conference working as a embassy staff driver. These are just a few parts of his history. I'm writing a book and have written an article for my historian friend which is posted on his blog: https://midletonheritage.com/2019/08/18/the-experiences-photographs-of-a-us-navy-chief-in-usnas-aghada-1918-1919/
My mom's family came from Poland/Germany...they were Buskupskis, 10 of them and came thru Ellis Island. Many changed their names to more Americanized names because of discrimination against Poles. They settled in Milwaukee. My mom's grandmother married a Zielinski from that union My grandmother was born. My grandmother married 3 times, the last one she migrated to Ohio. My dad's family, all we know at this time, is Sookie the was sold by Thomas Jefferson to Girthon Epps in Georgia. She was found on among a list of slaves on his bread n butter list. She had a son with her master, John Cannon Epps he and his wife had 10 children. Many of the Epps's are still living in Georgia. My grandfather migrated to Ohio where we are today. My mom who is white married my dad who is black in 1954, which in some states was against the law. Our last name is Mobley..but it should be Epps. (We did a DNA on my dad and he was 68% west African)
I was born and raised in LA (yes, we do exist), the valley to be more specific. Both my parents were born in NY, my mom on Long Island, my dad in Manhattan. On both sides of my family, at least one of my parents’ grandparents, came from Ukraine. My grandmother on my dad’s side was born in Eastborne, England and was in London during the blitz. She left for Canada during the war and eventually they ended up in the US and NYC where she met my grandad. My mom tells me fond stories of her grandparents and how her grandad spoke with an accent, no matter how long he lived in the US, but her grandmother learned and spoke English like a native. How she learned Yiddish from them and picked up little words in their private conversations. We both laugh as we recount funny Yiddish words she learned from her grandparents. I feel very blessed to have a family from all over, mainly eastern and Western Europe, with all the traditions & history and also be an American. We ALL came from somewhere else and that’s what makes this country so incredible!
My grandparents came from Russia and Poland before WWII. Life was not good back then. As Jews they were worried about persecution. My dad and three of his siblings were born there. My youngest uncle was born in the US.
My husband and I started looking into our genealogy a few years ago. What startled us the most as we researched was finding out we have many ancestors in common and we also have ancestors that, although they weren’t related, knew each other well.
Both of us are mostly English, Scottish & German. My husband has a sizable amount of Jewish ancestry, but I have a very small amount. Interestingly, while my husband was going through my mother in law’s papers after her death he found letters from a distant relative who was part of the brand new Israeli government, whose last name was the same name of my Jewish ancestors on my mother’s side-Propes or Probst.
Also on my mother’s side of the family, we found out my ancestor Edward Coke was Solicitor General in Queen Elizabeth I’s Court, became Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and eventually Attorney General. My husband’s ancestor was also a solicitor who worked with my ancestor and eventually held many of the same titles my ancestor held.
We both have ancestors who came to America on the Mayflower and wound up
founding a new town together in Connecticut.
At some point I counted over 20 sets of ancestors my husband and I have in common, spread out over several hundred years. Neither of us had any idea we had any of these ancestors.
My father knew very little about his family because his mother died when he was little.
It was during the Great Depression so getting enough food to eat was difficult and apparently his mother’s family weren’t thrilled about taking him in. All he knew was his grandfather had worked for years driving cattle from somewhere in Oklahoma all the way to a town in New Mexico where they eventually settled & opened a feed store. After researching it I realized they drove cattle on the Santa Fe Trail to Las Vegas, New Mexico, which was known to be a gambling town that attracted all kinds of shady people.
I found out my father’s maternal grandmother’s family lived in Tombstone, AZ while growing up. I found a letter on the internet written by my great grandmother’s sister. In the letter she wrote that they lived next door to Wyatt Earp who often helped her & her sister(my great grandmother) with their homework. And by the way, my great grandmother named one of her sons Wyatt.
My great, great grandfather Andrew Neff and Wyatt Earp were partners in a mining business. Interestingly, my mother has some ancestors a couple of generations back by the name of Holiday. Whether they were related to Doc Holiday I don’t know, but my mother’s Holiday ancestors lived in Georgia, maybe 50 miles from where Doc Holiday’s family lived.
Finding all of this information about ancestors has been an adventure, and since I’m an attorney it was doubly fascinating to know I descended from a rather famous Elizabethan solicitor who’s most well known cases are still studied in present day law schools.
My family came from England, France and Germany. My ancestors from England came to America when it was a colony and landed in Virginia. They moved West and landed in Ohio before my Great Grandparents moved to Indiana. Not sure when my German ancestors came to America but they settled in Ohio also and then some came to Indiana. This was before World War 1.
The French side went through England and married into the Smith family which were the ones that came to America and settled in Virginia.
My family on both sides is from Ukraine, the Settlement of the Pale. My mother’s family came through Ellis Island and ended up in rural Wisconsin before moving to Chicago where my mother, her sister were born. My father’s father came through Ellis Island as well and ended up in Chicago, working in the Fish Markets. HIs mother was from Baltimore and met my grandfather in Chicago where they married; my father and his brother were born there. My brother and I were born there as well. Our extended family was large. Slowly family began to move away - to California mostly. All of my children were born in California as well as my grandchildren. So my great-grandparents escaped Eastern Europe before the Russian Revolution and the Holocaust which allowed the family to proliferate and prosper.
I'm a European mix: French, English, Irish and German. I've searched the German line back to a ship from Hamburg that arrived in NYC in 1885, dispersing the family to upstate New York and Connecticut. The English line arrived here in 1639 when the Pease family from Great Baddow, England decided to settle in Salem, MA and then helped found Enfield, CT. A descendent fought in the Revolutionary War, joining a unit in Springfield, MA. The strands came together when my French-Irish grandmother (an orphan raised by an aunt) met a handsome business machine tech from Burlington, VT, while both were living and working in New Haven, CT. As far as religions, there seems to be a mix of Protestant denominations and Roman Catholicism. My Roman Catholic grandmother was poorly treated by the aunt that took her in as a child and her in-laws, who didn't respect her background or faith. She talked about it in the last weeks of her life. (She died at 79.) I've lived a charmed life in comparison. Although I was raised by a single parent after my parent's divorce when I was 14, I managed to get through college and law school and have two reasonably successful careers in journalism and then law. I've lived most of my life within a single county in Connecticut, New Haven. My husband and I recently decided that we would remain here, instead of retiring to New Hampshire, which was the plan for a while.
Mom: German and Swiss filtered through Shanghai to North Texas; and Dad: Tennessee/Oklahoma before landing in the Texas panhandle. WW2 caused a chance meeting in Dallas.
My maternal immigrant ancestors were the Cyr's from France. Landed in Acadia (Nova Scotia) in 1626. But the original ancestor Pierre's grandfather (also named Pierre Cyr) first saw and landed along the NE coast of America exploring with Champlain 1605. Pierre's descendants later escaped the British expulsion from Acadia hiding out with the Mic Mac, later settling in Madawaska, ME. Paternal immigrants were from Sweden thru Ellis Island in 1920 & 1924.
Mostly Scots on both sides, with a bit of Irish and English thrown in for good measure. On my father's side, they landed near Wilmington, N.C. in the early 1700s, likely as indentured servants or prisoners. My mother's family traces their roots to the late 1600s, also in North Carolina, but they appear to have been farmers/landholders, though not slave holders. My great-great grandfather on my father's side had two families, one white (of which I am the descendant), and the other with a Black woman "down the road apiece." When my aunt discovered the birth and death records of this second family, my grandmother was furious -- apparently this had been a well-kept secret in the family. It is my understanding that this was not an uncommon story.
According to Ancestry.com, 71% of me comes from England,Wales,NW Europe; 17%Germany; 12% Ireland & Scotland. The latter is my mother's side. Her maiden name was Scott, her father was a coal miner and lived in Glasgow, PA.The Irish part is misleading. At the behest of Henry VIII who did away with the Catholic church in England so he could marry against its laws,Scottish families were encouraged to move to Ireland to attempt to counter that country's Catholicism. Her lineage traces back to the 1300s-Sir John Pelham II which makes me think of the movie, The Taking of Pelham 123.Prominent was Sir John Scott, a lawyer & writer,knighted by King James VI, made a Privy Councillor to James and King Charles I, served in the Scottish Parliament, served on the war committee when fought with England. He was relieved of duties by Cromwell and personally fined 1,500 pounds for his part in the war. There were lots of Sirs and Ladies. Writing in Latin, one of John's poems was Who would not one of these two offers try-Not to be born, or, being born, to die.
My father handed down the Welsh, English DNA. Able to trace back to the 1500s. With names like Steele, Williams, & Richards, they settled in central PA around Martha Furnace when it was the frontier. For the most part, they were farmers. PopPop's house was up a hill from the barn and was guarded by a big grey goose who would chase after everyone and peck at them. Every summer, hundreds of Monarch butterflies settled on their dirt road. Milk was put into silver colored metal cans, taken to Altoona, PA, a railroad hub, then shipped to Pittsburgh. I have one with his name engraved on it. Some silly painted it black.Every year I resolve to restore it. It awaits.
His ancestors erected a Methodist church which still holds services to this day. Mother donated a picture of Christ behind the altar, Daddy the pew cushions, my cousin, a music major, her organ when she died. A couple of miles away is the cemetery where everyone is buried and where I will be planted some day. It's a country cemetery, 2 dirt car ruts lead into it with wild flowers on each side and a field of corn beside it. It is peaceful with bunnies, crickets & old dogs chasing each other over the graves.
With Wales and Richards in the picture, I wonder if Keith is in the line somewhere. ; )
Dad's mother was a Wagner and what one generalizes about being German-stiff and straight, the boss. I used to giggle on the phone with friends when she was visiting, and after, she would let me know that proper young ladies said Ha Ha. She never thought my mother was good enough for her son. So, poor Mother, first 3 years of marriage, she and Daddy lived with her and Pop.
Grandma traced her ancestors waaaaaaay back to Egfred, a king of the Anglo Saxons, whose daughter married an Ardery tho spelled a little differently. That was her mother's maiden name.
The church is on Ardery Hollow Rd. I believe Grandma thought she was related to the composer.
Grandfathers on both sides fought in the Revolutionary War and Civil War.
Funny thing is, they were all Republicans (when there were "Republicans." ) I am the only Democrat in the bunch.Think they were against FDR entering the war. When Mother went to the rest room, she always said she was going to see Roosevelt !
Depends upon which side. One side fairly WASP (albeit with gravely embarrassing southern roots and behavior), the other, French, German and Italian. Your ancestors probably knew some of mine in Chicago. I had a gggrandparent who was at one point (according to an article in the Tribune that covered about THREE whole pages) the oldest living native Chicagoan. Fun fact: My husband, my late business partner's families and mine came from the same 5 square mile area in Alsace-Lorraine.
Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, Belgium and a wee Finn mixed in.
According to Ancestry.com and other research my family on my mother’s father’s side were Swiss Mennonite, persecuted and migrated to Germany, persecuted and immigrated to the US in the 1700’s to Penn. Then moved to Nebraska where my grandfather married my grandmother whose family came from Scotland. My mother’s family had a deep seated belief in Democracy. My father’s family on his father’s side came from Sweden, his mother came from England, my paternal grandparents were staunch Democrats and faithful to Democratic principles. These principles live on through the generations to this day.