I Am a Mutt!

Jun 13th 2009
LoriHandelandLori Handeland & On Writing!

57 Responses to “I Am a Mutt!”

1. LisaK on 13 Jun 2009 at 4:04 am #

   Lori, you’re absolutely right when you talk about Europeans and their ancestors.

   My family is an old German one, my maternal grandmother’s family has even lived in the same town in the Saarland (that’s in western Germany) for centuries. My grandparents still live there. Both my mum and my father come from that town, too, but “emigrated” to Bavaria (southern Germany) where I still live today (I consider myself a Bavarian which sometimes bothers my grandparents *g*).
   But being very accurate, I have to say that my mum was actually born in France because the Saarland was French for over ten years after WWII. But there has always been some kind of push and pull about the Saarland and Alsace-Lorraine on the French side – some time they belonged to Germany and some time they belonged to France.

   My maternal grandfather’s family – before they moved to the Saarland – was an old carpenter-family from the Rhineland, which embraces the Saarland (you see, we’ve never been great movers in my family ).

   cont.

2. LisaK on 13 Jun 2009 at 4:14 am #

   cont.

   And this grandfather was the illegitimate child of a French housekeeper and a German chauffeur. He didn’t know until he was well over 20 who his real mother was, though (although he knew that woman, but considered her to be a friend of the family), and never forgave her for abandoning him. His father adopted him as a child but for a very long time no one knew that he was his real child, too (my grandpa’s grandfather always said: “If I didn’t know it better I would say that boy is one of our own!”; the irony…). It’s a tragic story, actually, my grandfather could be a rich man today but because he was never legally adopted by his own father he didn’t get any money.
   And the people my grandpa’s mother worked for said, long after her death, had they known that their nice houskeeper had had a little boy, both could have lived with them.

   It’s very sad, actually, but it’s part of my family history (and shows me that I have quite some unlikable people in my ancestry!) and taught me that you should never abandon your child and love it, because my grandfather still suffers that, actually, nobody wanted him.

3. AnnaSwede on 13 Jun 2009 at 5:04 am #

   Well, kind of a boring family history here. I’m Swedish and all my ancestors except one are Swedish as far as I know. My great great grandfather on dad’s side was a German who came to Sweden to work. He impregnated my great great grandmother and then returned to Germany. They never married. The rest in the family are Swedes. I probably have some far relations in USA, but none that I actually know.

4. Sabrina Jeffries on 13 Jun 2009 at 5:42 am #

   I’m a mutt, too. On my mom’s side, there’s some Cajun and the rest is an assortment–one day I’ll have to do a family tree to figure out just what. My Paw-Paw always hid the Cajun blood thing, which I found amusing. The family was very Baptist and Cajuns were Catholic, so I think he didn’t want to be associated with those “heathens.” *G*

   Dad always said he was of Scots-Irish descent, but I’m not sure there’s any Scots back there. I only know about the Irish part of the family. I’d like to do the genealogy thing for that part of the family, too.

   But the really interesting thing about Dad’s family is that my grandfather went to prison for HIS father. My great-grandfather got caught up in some bond scandal early in the last century and his son took the rap. I only learned this when my late grandmother had a heart attack a few years before she died. The whole family was together, and they started telling stories. It really explained a lot about why my grandfather was so bitter. He was headed for law school when the whole thing happened, and after prison he became a body shop repairman. My dad had planned to pick up his father’s dream, but then HE got religion and became a minister.

5. LoriHandeland on 13 Jun 2009 at 6:00 am #

   I have heard of Saarland, Lisa. What a sweet, sad story about your grampa.

   Anna– Did your great great grandfather ever come back or learn about his child? Sounds like a book to me!

   Sabrina-Cajun! How cool. No one’s got that background in these parts.

   That’s another interesting thing about the US. Even though we have all these different ethnic combos and are such a melting pot, the immigrants gravitated to one area and the majority of the ancestors are still there.

   For instance, the Norwegians went to Minnesota and South Dakota. That’s where my FIL is originally from. In Wisconsin we have Germans, Germans, Germans–with a smattering of Polish, Irish and Italian.

   Oh, and the Polish immigrants all went to the south side of Milwaukee and many of the last names in the phone book on that side of town to this day end in “ski.”

6. PJ on 13 Jun 2009 at 6:25 am #

   I’m a mutt. My ancestry on my dad’s side of the family is English, Scots and Irish. On my mom’s side, it’s French, Irish and Chippewa Indian. One of her ancestors was an early French explorer in northern Michigan who married into the Chippewa tribe.

   My maiden name was changed during the Civil War when one of my dad’s ancestors mustered out of the army. The army clerk completing the paperwork misspelled my ancestor’s last name then told him if he wanted to get his pay he’d have to change his name to the way the clerk had spelled it. Thus, a “g” became a “m” and my family’s name was changed on the spot.

7. Lisa H on 13 Jun 2009 at 6:39 am #

   I am 100% Italian. My grandmother came to NY when she was only 14 and married my grandfather 2 years later. He was also from the “Old Country”. These would be my mother’s parents who were both from Sicily. On my father’s side, my grandfather was also Sicilian and my granmother was Napolatan (from Naples). I once dated a boy whose parents both came from Naples, he told me not to mention I was mostly Sicilian.

   I married a German and so my kids are 50%/50%.

8. amy1242 on 13 Jun 2009 at 6:52 am #

   From Wisconsin, I’m Polish and German. There was a part of town, where I grew up, that was referred to as Polish Hill. There are tons of stories from the Polish side of the family, since both of my grandparents came to the US on “The Boat”. Only my grandmother is registed as being on the boat because grandpa, at 12, stowed away between two tied together mattresses. When he was found, the captain wanted to toss him overboard, which is what they did to stow aways, but the women on the boat surrounded him and said he was just a child and wouldn’t let him be thrown over. The first records of him being in the US was when he turned 18 and went to register.

9. Freedom Writer on 13 Jun 2009 at 7:00 am #

   On my father’s side I am french (descended from Huguenots who came to America in the 1600’s), scottish, English, and danish. From my mother’s side I have Scot’s Irish, Native American (from the Cherokee tribe I am told), and English. I know there are others in the mix as well since parts of both families have been in the US since well before the Revolutionary War.

   My great great grandparents in my dad’s family were from Denmark. My ggg grandmother worked in the Danish royal household and so gg grandmother and gg grandfather were married in the royal castle. Also, my cousin found a pedigree that traces some of my family roots back to Eleanor of Aquitaine.

   On my mother’s side, I am told that my great great grandmother was full blooded Cherokee who walked back to the area of West Virginia with her kids after the trail of tears took them to Oklahoma. My mother’s mother was 16 when she married my grandpa. He was 18. They had 16 children and at the dinner table they would eat in shifts.

   My husband family comes from German and Polish descent.

10. JudyPatooty on 13 Jun 2009 at 7:03 am #

    Oh, Lori, you’ve hit on one of my passions! Genealogy! I love hearing everyone’s family stories.

    In researching my family tree, though, I’ve found that I’m not nearly the mutt that most Americans are. My ancestry is as English as they come, except for a couple of Frenchmen and one Scot along the way. I had a great-grandfather who swore that his parents’ ancestry was Dutch and Welsh, but I haven’t been able to prove any of that. And I’ve seen just a few surnames that lead me to believe there might be a couple of Irishmen in my tree as well, but that’s yet to be proven.

    My ancestry is so English that my 15-greats-grandfather has a memorial plaque on the in St. Bartholomew the Great Church in London (Francis Anthony, Doctor of Physick!) The story goes that Dr. Anthony (grandson of a goldsmith who minted coins for the Crown) got thrown in jail by the Royal Guild of Physicians because he was marketing his own invention – a cure-all potion that supposedly contained traces of gold. But he got out because he had such a vocal group of supporters. If he were alive Dr. Anthony would have been a late-night infomercial star!

11. Claudia Dain on 13 Jun 2009 at 7:04 am #

    My dad was 100% German (his grandparents immigrated to NY) and my mom was 100% Swedish (her parents immigrated to NY and then moved to CT). It was a Big Deal when my mom didn’t marry a Swede. Horrors! For being born in the 20th century, my parents were oddly ‘pure’ in their ancestry.

    My birth parents were of German, Swedish, English, Welsh origin; they really tried to ‘match’ you in those days, so you’d look like each other. My adoptive sister and I, who look nothing at all alike, did look like our parents to some degree, so that if you saw us as a family, you’d see resemblances. Then again, when you see a family, you tend to *look* for similarities.

    Interesting stories? Well, on my maternal grandfather’s side, way back in the 1600s, one of his ancestors was the court poet to the King of Sweden. Pretty cool.

12. LoriHandeland on 13 Jun 2009 at 7:11 am #

    That name changing thing is interesting, hey, PJ? My DHs grampa who came over from Italy was named Bertolusa. When he got to Ellis Island, they left off the “a.” So in the US the family is known as Bertolus. A completely different name from Bertolusa.

    Lisa H–Very true!! My MIL always says that friends of her fathers were very loyal to their sections of Italy. She’s from northern Italy and she always said that until he got to the US her father would never have been friends with a Sicilian. Too weird.

    Great story, Amy!! I can’t believe how many captains were tossing kids overboard on the way over to the new world. How awful!

13. LoriHandeland on 13 Jun 2009 at 7:17 am #

    You’ve got some great story possibilities there, Free. Danish royalty, castles, Eleanor of Aquataine and the Trail of Tears. I love it!!

    Dr. Anthony sounds like a character, JudyP. Funny about the Irish connection. I once mentioned to my great-aunt that it was strange that with all the Irish in the US that neither me or my DH had any. She rolled her eyes and said, “My dad’s name was Roy KILLLIAN. Where do you think he came from?”

    Well duh. But no one ever mentioned it. When I informed my mother that her grandpa was Irish, she’d never heard it. I know a lot of the immigrants and there near relatives were more interested in being seen as AMERICAN. I wonder how much info was lost that way.

    Claudia–DHs gramma’s parents–who didn’t speak English, only German–were a bit horrified when she married an Italian. They insisted the kids would be raised Lutheran not Catholic.
    My MIL says that they were told back then that if they looked into a Catholic church when passing they would go to hell. Can you believe this stuff?

14. Margaret on 13 Jun 2009 at 7:25 am #

    This is so fascinating and fun to read. I’ve been so out of the loop this past week. It’s nice to come “home”.
    I am a mutt also. But a boring one. I’ve tried to do genealogy but got no further back that Arkansas on the maternal side and Mississippi on the paternal. Maiden paternal surname of Shelby is about as English as you can get. My grandfather married 2 women from Louisiana and I’ve always suspected a bit of Cajun/French might flow thru me, but I’m not sure. When the 1st wife died, he married her sister-in-law. A widow. He had 5 children by each wife & outlived them both by many years.

    My mother’s family lived in Arkansas. I tried to trace that line but it seems all the courthouses in that state burned down one time or another and information was lost. My grandfather attend Ouchita College to become a minister. I have his name in an old record. He met my grandmother and they married at 16 (her) & 21 (him). They had 7 children who lived to adulthood.

    My 2 kids have bits of Cherokee blood via their dad. His grandfather married a Cherokee woman. Their dad & his dad really had the Cherokee facial planes. My son somewhat.

    Me? I’m a Texan to the core.

15. Margaret on 13 Jun 2009 at 7:36 am #

    A number of years back there was a wonderful series on language. I think that was even the title of the series. On A&E, I believe. In several episodes, it was shown how our USA accents developed from where our ancestors were born and where they chose to settle in this country.

    Here in PA, the Pennsylvania Dutch Germanic accent can be heard strongly in many people. Including my late husband’s, ex-wife’s current husband. Got that? LOL And the Amish speak PA Dutch to each other. It sounds like a cross between German and their own twist on words.

    The series showed how the Southern accent/drawl came from a remote place in Scotland and spread throughout the American south. And the Cajuns have thick accents, too. In Texas, there are at least 2 towns where there is a strong Germanic community and the people who come from those town have thick accents. The odd thing is that those Germanic accents don’t sound much like the PA Dutch ones.

    BTW, the “Dutch” part came from a corruption of the word “Deutsch”. Or so I’ve always read when studying local history.

    I love history and the study of people. Thank you, Lori.

16. AnnaSwede on 13 Jun 2009 at 8:01 am #

    Lori – no, I don’t think he ever came back. She married someone else. My dad only told me about this a few years ago.

17. Pesky on 13 Jun 2009 at 8:11 am #

    I’m first generation American on both sides.

    My dad and uncle were born in Germany, about 11 months between each of them. Being a stand up kinda guy my Grandfather moved another woman into the house while my Grandmother was out at work one day, so she divorced him. Her family responded to this by sending her to America so she could earn a living with other brothers and sisters who had come here ahead of her. A few years later she was told she needed to come back and get the boys before the borders closed for WWII. Thus the entry of dad into the US. He then went on to become a Brooklyn/Queens boy through and through. In his teens he was the Queens handball champion. Then he went to serve in Korea and came back to get a job at the CBS Comissary at Scrafts in NYC.

    My mom was the oldest of 13 kids born to a southern irish family. At 19 the town held a contest to help one of their kids to a better life by buying a ticket and sponsorship for them here in America. She didn’t win the contest but when the girl who did got pregnant so she could stay with her boyfriend in Ireland, she was next runner up and voila…off to America. (contd.)

18. Jamie on 13 Jun 2009 at 8:12 am #

    I am English and German. Funny you speak about the Pennsylvania Dutch. Where I live, they are about 2 hours way from me, so I always grew up in that type of atomosphere. LOVE some of that food, it is SOOO good! Where my parents are from is a strong British (English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish) and German heritage with a touch of Italian and Polish thrown in for good measure.

    I don’t know much about my German ancestors except to know that the first one came before the revolutionary war. That side of the family never did take good notes to hand down, but I know they were farmers.

    My Mother’s side came from Cornwall, England in the 1880s because the mines went bust. They came right to the Poconos area because they got a job in America before leaving England. As my Mom always said – they were starving! This side of the family had excellent records and I can tell you the mine where my family worked and where they went went they came to America.

    The funny thing is that my Uncle Walter is 100% English ancestry and has a Dutchy (Pennsylvania Dutch) accent. But then I am from Pennsylvania and have a New Jersey accent. I do live along the river between PA and NJ.

19. Pesky on 13 Jun 2009 at 8:18 am #

    (contd) She would rather have stayed in Ireland with her family as well. When she got here to America she got her first job, at the CBS Comissary at Schrafts in NYC. Where…she met my Dad, whom she had no interest in whatsoever. Then they finally dated. (after some clever maneuvering on his part)

    The first date Dad oh so romantically turned to my innocent irish mother and said “So, I didn’t bring any money with me. Do you want to pay for the movie or sit out in the car and neck?” My mom chose the movie and found the money for it in her purse when she went home. (Gotta give Dad credit for the old college try).

    Luckily for us there was a second date. Which my father took my mother to meet his strong willed German mother who greeted her with… “So vat kinda name is dis here Barry now?” and proceeded to grill her for hours while my Dad fell asleep on the couch.

    Dad upped his game after that and they ended up getting married because he made her laugh.

20. LoriHandeland on 13 Jun 2009 at 8:19 am #

    Accents are another interesting topic, Margaret. I am often told I have an accent. In Wisconsin? But I guess in Wisconsin we say “Wis–caaan–sin” not “Wis-CON-sin” and also there’s a lot of “ya” instead of “yeah” I didn’t realize I was doing this until someone pointed it out.

    Oh–we also say “you guys” instead of “y’all” and “going BY ” someone’s house instead of “going TO.” Like–”I’m going by my mom’s later.”

    Anna–too bad for him. He missed out.

21. LoriHandeland on 13 Jun 2009 at 8:23 am #

    A divorce in Germany that long ago–that must have been quite a thing, Pesky. Good for her!!

    Oh-oh!! Tell me about the Pennsylvania Dutch food, Jamie. I love hearing about ethnic food.

    My gramma always made rivels–which were water and flour rolled into tiny bits like rice, then dropped into broth to cook. It was fantastic. I think it might have been Swiss. I don’t know. At any rate, no one learned how to make them and now she’s gone and I am VERY sad. Both about her being gone and the rivels.

22. Karen Hawkins on 13 Jun 2009 at 8:29 am #

    Oh, what great stories you all have! Some of them sound like a terrific basis for a miniseries, too.

    My family has a lot storytellers so the family lore runs thick and it’s hard to tell what’s true or not. One story that has some credibility is this one: One of my long ago relatives was half French and half Iroquoi indian. Her father was a fur trapper and he met and married a beautiful Indian woman in Canada (I’ve seen pictures of her — she was stunning). She became pregnant and he was bringing her down to his two spinster sisters in West Virginia to have the baby when she went into labor early and died in childbirth. So he wrapped the baby in a fur and rode hell-for-leather to West Virginia so his sisters could take care of the baby. They raised her and that was my great great grandmother.

    The family’s original name was Balliet (supposedly they’re listed in the passenger lists of the Mayflower), but they Americanized it to Balyard. Every generation or so, a ‘black Balyard’ is born, a throw back to that Indian blood. In my generation, that’s me. I have dark hair and eyes, while my dad’s blond with blue eyes and my mother has light brown hair and pale green eyes.

23. Pesky on 13 Jun 2009 at 8:30 am #

    My grandmother was 4′10″ of iron will that raised her two, well over 6′ sons to be good men. (Though you wouldn’t know it from Dad’s wooing of Mom stories. He always said, “I knew she was the one from the moment I saw her. I figured if she stuck with me after the first two dates, she’d stick with me through anything. And she did.)

    She was always saying things like: “You think yourself well you will be well.” and “If you put your mind to it, you can do anything.”

    She molded all of her grandchildren and children to that way of thinking.

24. Judy F on 13 Jun 2009 at 8:38 am #

    Great Stories.

    I am mostly german with a tad bit of Irish and French thrown in for fun. Both my grandparents on my mothers side were born in Germany. Grandpa Stocker was a riot, when he got mad at you out came the German. LOL They always had good german hardy food anytime you went over there. Every meal was an event.

25. LoriHandeland on 13 Jun 2009 at 8:51 am #

    Yes, K-Ha! A miniseries. Someone write a script. LOL!!
    Isn’t it interesting how strong some genes are? My oldest looks SO Italian. We used to say his photo should be on a jar of Gerber Baby Spaghetti. But my other one . . . Blue eyed blond when he was a baby.

    Your grandma sounds like such a great woman, Pesky. I love it.

    I would have loved to hear your grampa lecture in German, Judy F. That’s a great memory.

26. elsiehogarth on 13 Jun 2009 at 9:08 am #

    Mutt, all the way around. When asked our nationality my cousins and I always answered that we were Mutts. On my Dad’s side-My Granddad was English all the way but with an Italian Grandmother, from Berkshire, with family, in shipping, in Scotland and then due to that traveling to Queensland, Australia. My Grandmother was from France. Also a Catholic. When they met and married, in France, my GrandDad had to sign paperwork that he would bring up all and any children, in the Catholic religion, not “Church of England”. After my Dad was about , the youngest of 10, they migrated to Haiti–back in the 1930’s they were giving families homes and properties to migrate to the islands. My Dad never says he’s a Frenchmen but a Haitian. He’s very proud of being raised in what once was a beautiful island that is still trying to fight poverty, hunger, political problems etc.

    On my Mom’s side, My Grandmother’s family all came from Spain. My GrandDad-a Frenchman that had the mix of Spain and France. They also experienced the island migration, when they married,-they went from Martinique to the Dominican Republic where they had all their children.

27. Judy F on 13 Jun 2009 at 9:53 am #

    It was Lori. I can still hear it in my head sometimes. I used to know a lot of german words but most of that is gone now.

    My sisters kids all pretty much look like her husbands side of the family except for the oldest two are blonde hair and blue eyes. Her younges is still blonde but has brown eyes from his side. Strange.

    There is a picture my mom has of my grandma when she was 16. I look so much like it its comforting.

28. Sarah on 13 Jun 2009 at 10:28 am #

    My Mother’s side would make a fabulous back drops for a romance novel. Actually my Grandad wrote a book about one of the adventures of My great-great-greats .
    My mom’s maiden name is Banks… she descends from a son of a Sir William Bankes who went to Virginia in the 1630s. Well, with research my Grandmom found this Sir William and his wife Mary. Mary held Corfe Castle against Cromwell for well over a month while her husband was out fighting. Rock On!
    Then there are the Erskine and MacAlaistairs on that side who back the wrong side in the ‘45. The Erskines fled to Italy, and the MacAlaistairs to Ireland and then both later to the US.
    Then the story that is actually in the book my Grandpa wrote… My great great great great great Grandmother (I think I put enough greats in there) was captured by Shawnee indians. She had a son while in captivity, and they were there for about 6 years.
    I know there are more stories but I can’t think of them right now.

    My dad’s side is nowhere near as fun. His German ancestors came from Schleswig-Holstein region, and the 3 brothers separated. No one knows exactly why, but they were forced to leave their home. They were the black sheep I guess

29. dbrown3400 on 13 Jun 2009 at 11:12 am #

    Mother’s side of the family is pretty much Czech and Swedish. Grandfather emigrated from Sweden in 1917 and changed his name from Gustafson to Mandeen. His claim to fame was supervising building of the bell tower on the University of Texas campus where Charles Whitman killed 14 people in 1966. Grandmother was mostly Czech with some French and Italian thrown in. According to the family tree my great-aunt had done, we had a member in the court of Louis XIV.

    Dad’s side was mostly Scots-English. Our name Logan was derived from MacLogan and we have a family crest. I don’t know much about the Russell side of the family, Dad’s mother, except there was a Russell gang of outlaws in Kentucky back in the early 1800s. We did have three Russell cousins who lived to be over 100.

30. Julia London on 13 Jun 2009 at 11:14 am #

    We have determined, based on last names, that we are of French and English descent. But the family lore goes back only to Texas. I am fifth generation Texan on both sides. So all the family tales are about great grandparents settling in West Texas and fighting off Indians (embellished) and living in dugouts (not so embellished), etc. We really don’t know anything about our European heritage other than what we can glean from researching the last names.

31. Becky on 13 Jun 2009 at 11:28 am #

    Well, I’m mostly Irish, but there’s a strong Hungarian side in there as well. And a whole schlew of British, French, Scottish, Welsh, whatever.
    There’s a really fun family story about a man whose pregnant wife and three children were kidnapped by Indians and taken north to Canada and he got a group of men together and went after them and after a long and dangerous trek, got them back and headed back to New York, only to have his wife go into labor and have the baby before they ever left Canada. So I have an ancestor named Canada Waite.
    There’s another quite romantic one about this girl whose uncle stole her from her mother in Scotland and took her to America, only to leave her to her own devices until she met this dashing British immigrant who swept her off of her feet and the journals say she never regretted leaving Scotland ever again.

32. Jamie on 13 Jun 2009 at 11:46 am #

    Lori – The PA Dutch foods I love the most are dessert type foods. Shoo-Fly pie, funnel cake (I don’t like a lot of powdered sugar on top – that stuff is so messy and on the sickeningly sweet side) and there is this coffee style cake that is really moist and wonderful. I also love ring baloney. Different places make it differently and up where my parents are from they debate on whose is better. It is almost like the debate over who makes the better cheesesteak in Philly — Pat’s or Geno’s. I like Pat’s better.

    I have heard people say how bland English food is. Mom and I don’t think so, maybe that is because we were brought up on an Americanized version of it. When we were in England, we found that the pubs had the best food and for a very good price. The only thing I really didn’t like was that you had to go to the bar to order. They didn’t come to your table.

    And to those stories – both sides of my family were dirt poor. People sometimes say how their family was from nobility. I would like to say that some of the members in my family were their servants, but I am sure they were working the farm and waiting for the men to come home from the mines.

33. LoriHandeland on 13 Jun 2009 at 11:59 am #

    I did a lot of research into Haiti, Elsie, as you know, and it’s really sad what the deforestation did to the country. It had to have been so gorgeous and lush before that.

    Judy F-My DHs gramma always understood German because her parents spoke only that. But they would only allow her to speak English, so she could never speak it. She could also read it but not write it.

    You’ve got a bunch of great stories there, Sarah. And all so different!

    Dbrown–How did your grampa go from Gustafson to Mandeen? That’s quite a change.

    Fifth generation Texan, Julia! Wow. That’s amazing. I can’t imagine.

34. LoriHandeland on 13 Jun 2009 at 12:03 pm #

    Canada Waite. That’s great, Becky. I can use that in a book! Isn’t Waite an Indian name? Cherokee maybe?

    What’s in Shoo-fly pie? We have funnel cake here. I’ve never been a fan, though I know people love it. Sometimes they put fruit on top, which might help.

    I don’t think I have any royalty in my line either. Farmers and painters and horse trainers for me.

35. Janae on 13 Jun 2009 at 12:08 pm #

    I can only be described as a mutt since my first ancestors came here 389 years ago on a little boat called the Mayflower. I’m English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Swedish, French, and Danish. Because of the red hair people assume that I’m more Irish than I am, but my most recent ancestors came from Sweden and Denmark about 120-130 years ago. Hello – ever hear of Eric the Red? The highest concentration of redheads in Ireland or Scotland, are in areas of known Viking settlements. I’ve done a ton of genealogy. I’m descended from Thomas Cromwell, who was the 1st Earl of Essex and beheaded by Henry VIII because of the Anne of Cleves marriage fiasco.

    Sabrina – Scots-Irish refers to the Protestant Scottish crofters who went to Northern Ireland to convert the Irish. They really aren’t Irish, unless, they’ve intermarried with the Irish.

36. Aly on 13 Jun 2009 at 12:44 pm #

    I am German and Hungarian on my mom’s side and Polish and Russian on my dad’s side. I am what I call a very “young” American b/c I am only 2nd generation on my mom’s side and 3rd on my dad’s side.

    Lori, your last sentences made me laugh! My married name is Hackett thanks to my husband’s Irish heritage. I happen to be Jewish. When my religion comes up in conversation, I get the comment “But Hackett isn’t a Jewish name!!” And my reply is “No it is an Irish name that belongs to the Irish Catholic that I married!” That of course produces some confused looks! LOL! And then it gets better when we describe our children are Irish Jews

    I love reading about the history of families. It is so interesting! Great topic!

37. Louisa Cornell on 13 Jun 2009 at 12:49 pm #

    Some great mutts here! My father was three fourths Welsh and one fourth English. His Mom’s parents immigrated from Wales in 1892 and his Dad’s family immigrated from England in 1890. We are distantly related to the Earl of Bolton (on the wrong side of the blanket actually!)

    His Mom’s family came over to work in the Pennsylvania coal mines. His Mom’s father died in the mines when he was 36 and left his widow with 12 children to raise.

    My Mom is FBI (Full-blooded Indian) Her father was Cherokee and her mother was Creek. Her great great grandparents were forced to walk the Trail of Tears out to Oklahoma. They didn’t like it out there so they walked back to Alabama. My Mom’s Great Uncle Tip enlisted in the Confederate Army. He told about coming home from the war and being so thirsty he drank water from a hoof print in the road.

    My grandmother was the oldest of 12 children her Creek father had with his Creek wife. His Creek wife died, he moved to another county, passed himself off as white, married a white woman. He gave all of his Creek children away to relatives and had 11 children with his white wife. My grandmother was raised by one of the first Native American doctors in Bama.

38. Jamie on 13 Jun 2009 at 1:30 pm #

    I’m putting a link about shoo-fly pie, so you can see a pic of it and a recipe, too.

    They say it is called shoo-fly because people would put the pies in the window to cool and the flies would swarm over it because of the molasses in it. Literally the Amish ladies would go “shoo fly”. LOL!!!

    The Amish don’t use corn syrup and only use molasses. When my Mom would make it, she would put 1/2 cup molasses and 1/2 cup corn syrup. The recipe link I am sending is all corn syrup. But the reason I am sending this link is because it has more than just shoo-fly pie attached to the link.

    http://www.maplesprings.com/shoofly.html

39. LoriHandeland on 13 Jun 2009 at 1:52 pm #

    Jamie–I want Funny Cake pie!! And the shoo fly pie doesn’t look bad either. MMMMMM!!!!!

    Thomas Cromwell. Very cool, Janae.

    It’s always been very interesting to me, Aly, to hear my DHs family tales since his parents were second generation too. My family has been here forever, which seemed kind of boring at first, but the more I think about it–that’s pretty interesting too.

    GREAT stuff, Louisa. Sad about your great grandad giving away his kids.

    My paternal gramma used to drop off her kids at the orphanage whenever she needed a new husband. She went through quite a few. Had 8 kids with different men. Married my grampa twice. And her aunt was a madam in Missouri and got run out of town on a rail. Love that story too.

40. dbrown3400 on 13 Jun 2009 at 2:10 pm #

    Lori, I never heard why Grandfather changed his name to Mandeen. I’m the oldest surviving member of the family, so it’s too late to ask anyone questions about our heritage. Almost no memorabilia is left. Such a shame.

41. Suzanne Enoch on 13 Jun 2009 at 2:19 pm #

    I’m a mutt, too!

    We have two family legends: one, that on my mom’s side we’re related Stephen Austin (not the 6 million dollar man), the first, last, and only president of Texas and namesake of Austin, TX.

    Two, that my great, great, great uncles, a pair of buffalo hunters named Causey, once met Billy the Kid at their campfire, and then told the nice fellow who came looking for the kid that he was heading over to Fort Sumpter and not Mexico as that fellow had thought. And yep, that fellow was Pat Garrett.

    Oh, and there’s another one: that my great grandfather once rode with the Hole in the Wall gang in his youth. He apparently had an unexplained bullet hole in one leg.

42. Paula on 13 Jun 2009 at 3:23 pm #

    I’m a mut too! I have English, Irish and Welsh blood in me. My mum’s dad was born to welsh parents in India. One of my Mum’s cousin is none other than Julie Christie.

    My dad’s family originate from Devon, the family tree goes back to 1656. I know that my Mum has a copy of her family tree but I’m not sure how far it goes back.

43. Solveig on 13 Jun 2009 at 3:58 pm #

    Hija :Ö)
    So interesting to see where everyone is from. I´m a mut too. I´m English/Danish/Icelandic. My great-great-great something grandfather was English. His last name was Long and he hailed from the north of England, to be specific from the village Belby near Howden by the Humber river. He was born in 1783. :Ö) He used to work as a cabin boy on a British merchant ship but when he was about twelve the ship was pirated by french pirates who spared him and he was a part of their crew for a while until it was shiprecked before the shores of Jótland (Denmark). There he was adopted by a sheriff in Lemvig, Hans Jacob Lindahl, who raised him and educated him. When he grew up he became a merchant and moved eventually to Iceland. There he married and had five children (two illegitimate) with his icelandic wife (and icelandic mistress) and died in 1837 very poor. :Ö) Very exciting. His daughter Elizabeth later married a danish fellow by the name of Beck (my last name) and I´m their descendant. :Ö) The ending is not very romantic but the beginning had definite romance potential :Ö)

44. Lorena on 13 Jun 2009 at 4:05 pm #

    Mom’s side: Irish, Welsh, Scots.

    Dad’s side: English, German.

    My I-don’t-know-how-many-great grandfather emigrated from Kent, England, in 1642 to Massachusetts. Married Ursula Adams, a great-great-something or other times aunt to John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Two centuries later it got more interesting–by then a chunk of the family (my chunk) had gone west to Missouri/Nebraska. So a bunch of early settlers of Ohio, Missouri, and Nebraska are among my ancestors. Family legend: one such ancestor was thrown in jail in Texas because he refused to fight for the south in the Civil War. Died there–they forgot about him, apparently. Of course, the story would be far sadder if he hadn’t gone to Texas to avoid fighting for the north LOL.

    My first cousin 8 times removed was Abraham Lincoln. A few years ago, while chatting with my history-major boss, he let slip that his wife was cousin to John Wilkes Booth…

45. TinaLouiseF on 13 Jun 2009 at 5:40 pm #

    Paternal: 1/2 German (Grandpa) 1/2 Polish (Grandma)
    Maternal: 100% Swede

    My mom was so thrilled to be able to join her brother and sister-in-law in visiting relatives in Sweden back in 06.

    Dad’s maternal side of the family did a big book on genealogy. Some information was in the book 3 times. The really stupid part is that whoever was gathering the information knew enough to ask dad’s uncle if he wanted a copy of the book, but never asked him for any family information. All of the siblings were mentioned and maybe the last name of a spouse, but nothing more. They did go back to 1700 in Poland.

    Last year at the reunion, I was able to get some information on mom’s maternal family.

    Between both sources of information, I made over 1000 entries into my family tree program.

46. Cail on 13 Jun 2009 at 5:52 pm #

    wow. quite the sampling here!!! Janae, which family on the mayflower, i’ve got one too- Richard Warren… are we distant cousins?

    English, Irish, Scottish, German, Greek, Polish and Russian over here.

    Cute immigration story comes from my grandma. Her grandparents, when they came over to the states registered under her grandmothers maiden name instead of her grandfathers so that the russian army wouldn’t try to find him. they kept that name when they came over.

    the greeks had an interesting story getting to greece… apparently, a slave ship headed to rome, full of romanite jews shipwrecked there and the survivors eventually made it to this town in northern greece. my grandpas fam moved here before WWI. Most of the jews there didn’t survive.

47. Karen on 13 Jun 2009 at 6:16 pm #

    On my maternal side, I’m Pennsylvania Dutch. The Americanized surname is Graybill which is found in the areas surrounding Lancaster, PA. The Swiss name is not easily spelled and a lot longer but was shortened to Graybill. I’m also French, from Brittany and Irish on the paternal side. The story floating about is that the French side came up the St. Lawrence via ship, didn’t like the captain, was then put off the ship for causing a mutiny near Detroit, MI. Another story is that some of Detroit was owned by my ancestors (don’t know if this was by the mutinious group) but the deed was lost/stolen/misplaced and since it couldn’t be proven, the powers that be didn’t have to pay to take the land it wanted. Me thinks this is how public domain came into law. After having lived in Michigan, Texas, Ohio, West Virgina, I’ve returned to my roots of Pennsylvania.

48. LoriHandeland on 13 Jun 2009 at 6:42 pm #

    Dbrown–I have the same issue. Most of the people who would know the answers to my questions are gone. And I never thought to ask when they were here.

    Oh my gosh, Suzie!! I’m so jealous. I love all that Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy stuff!!

    That’s so great that you know so much of your family tree, Paula. I wish I knew more.

    Solveig–I can’t imagine knowing so much and such specific info on your family that far back. Terrific info.

    Lorena–Related to John Adams and Abe Lincoln-you’re American royalty!

    There’s a book by Lorraine Heath about a conscientious objector in the Civil War who I think was imprisoned. I loved that book, but can’t recall the title Anyone?

49. LoriHandeland on 13 Jun 2009 at 6:45 pm #

    TinaLouise–What’s the name of your family tree program? I keep saying I’ll get one (thought I don’t know when I’ll work on it).

    Cail–There are so many little bits of history in family stories. Like the info about the shipwreck in Greece. probably not a huge blip on the historical radar but it would explain some things.

    Land always seemed to be at the root of a lot of issues back then, Karen. I suppose without registers and deeds they had chaos.

50. TinaLouiseF on 13 Jun 2009 at 8:25 pm #

    I use Family Tree Maker. When I got the laptop in 2003, I upgraded to version 11.
    I’m sure it has been upgraded a lot since then, but the version I have is very user friendly.

51. Janae on 13 Jun 2009 at 10:53 pm #

    Cail – I’m a descendant of John Tilley, Joan Hurst, Elizabeth Tilley, and John Howland. I know of at least 3 presidents (none of whom I’d ever vote for) who are descendants of Elizabeth Tilley and John Howland, who had 10 children who made it to adulthood. I’m related to one of my dh’s best friends, too.

52. Janae on 13 Jun 2009 at 10:54 pm #

    Cail – I’m a descendant of John Tilley, Joan Hurst, Elizabeth Tilley, and John Howland. I know of at least 3 presidents (none of whom I’d ever vote for) who are descendants of Elizabeth Tilley and John Howland, who had 10 children who made it to adulthood. I’m related to one of my dh’s best friends, too. Oh, and if you’re ever in Plymouth and go to the Jabez Howland house, they give you the AAA discount if you say that you’re a John Howland descendant.

53. ladydawgfan on 14 Jun 2009 at 12:27 am #

    Boy, did I join this thread late!! My heritage on my fathers side (pure Swedish) goes waaay back. Janae mentioned Erik the Red. Yeah, I know of him. I am almost certainly a direct decendent, although it is not known 100%. My aunt followed our family tree back (Swedish villages apparently keep AMAZING records!) and finally stopped when, as she reached somewhere around the dark ages, every branch and every path she followed led directly to Erik the Red. She didn’t really want to know. I, however, DO, but I don’t know where to take up where she left off, and can’t really afford the trip to Sweden.

    On my mothers side, we are English, Irish, and German. My mom’s second cousin is the construction worker in the Village People. There is also an entire town not too far from Nashville, KY that is filled with kin.

    One other close relation of sorts – both of my sister’s daughters share a famous great uncle – pencil impressionist Edward Hopper. My youngest niece is an artist as well, nearly as talented with a pencil as he was.

54. hvitveis on 14 Jun 2009 at 1:44 am #

    I am from Norway, and yes, it says kiss me I am a norwegian..As far as my ancestors, most of the ones traced are farmers, allthough they have moved around a bit inside norway. But my maternal grandfather was from holland, that has been a big caserole of tribes, wars and travelers..

55. Solveig on 14 Jun 2009 at 6:02 am #

    Lori :Ö)
    My father is a great fan of geniology, and really Icelanders don´t begin a conversation with strangers without asking where they are from and who their parents are in case they know them. I have three thick volumes that contain pictures and family trees of him and his life story, all his children and their descendants (including a very bad pic of me :Ö)

56. Lorena on 15 Jun 2009 at 7:45 am #

    My appalling knowledge of the details of history…was that what Thoreau was imprisoned for? Or was that a tax/objector thing?

    Of course, at this point no one knows if my cousin was a pacifist or just a wimp….

57. LoriHandeland on 15 Jun 2009 at 8:13 am #

    Thanks, Tina!

    Ouch. 10 kids. Can you imagine, Janae?

    Seriously, LadyD? The Village People? How fun!

    Thanks, Jvotveis. I need to get my DH one of those shirts. He’d get a kick out of it.

    I have heard this about certain European cultures, Solveig. Here when we ask where someone is from it’s by state. Kind of an interesting difference.

    I think Thoreau was imprisoned for tax evasion, but I might be wrong.