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David G

Well-known Member
I am tracking my lineage and have come upon some surprises:

My mother is half from Luxembourg and half from Germany, I have four Nicholas grand.... fathers.

My Father is half German and 1/4 Welsh, and 1/4 I do not know, that is the surprise because a fire destroyed all the county records for his maternal grandmother. That town is Benton PA, which is right near Scranton. It looks like I will have to check out headstones. I had thought my great grandmother was native american, but it is looking like that may be false.
 
Ancestry is fascinating.

My father was half English, from the Isle of Mann, and half German. My mother was Austrian. Other than a mutt, what does that make me? A fourth English and three fourths Germanic?
 
(quoted from post at 04:53:45 04/05/16) I am tracking my lineage and have come upon some surprises:

My mother is half from Luxembourg and half from Germany, I have four Nicholas grand.... fathers.

My Father is half German and 1/4 Welsh, and 1/4 I do not know, that is the surprise because a fire destroyed all the county records for his maternal grandmother. That town is Benton PA, which is right near Scranton. It looks like I will have to check out headstones. I had thought my great grandmother was native american, but it is looking like that may be false.
Click to expand...
ou may want to look at the census records for some help as well.
 
Mom was 100% Scotch; Dad claimed to be German; his Grandpa had immigrated from Schleswig-Holstein, which is on the Danish border. Someone in the family did an ancestry search and found that Dad's Grandma was Danish! Quite possible as Great-Grandpa could walk to the Danish border from his village. Some of my uncles married into families that their Grandparents had known each other back in Germany.
 


I found out I have at least 3 ancestors that fought at Lexington as Minute Men and my wife has ancestors that fought in the Revolution too. I also found out the farm next to mine belonged to a distant cousin. I moved 150 miles from home only to find out I have more relatives here than there!
 
I've done a bit of research on my family, Scots/Irish with a dribble of English. Some stories are true, some are not. One thing that fascinates me is the handwriting on documents. Many of these people had limited formal education but their handwriting is almost artistic.
 
Luxembourg is a country of either french or Germans some towns actually have 3 names . My family is from Luxembourg grandpa came over 1st in late 1800's he went back after 1900 he's first wife had died and he married the one raising his first child. My dad was born there in 1910 they came over shortly afterward. I checked through Ellis and that showed a lot of information one thing is these were german but they had french names the official language is french my dad's name was john but spelled jean.
Also digging through and never had an explanation there was a man there who said his cousin was my grandfather but he was from central Germany. So if you go to Ellis Web site look up your family name in French it might get interesting
 
We are English on my fathers side and Scottish on my mothers. My first ancestor arrived in Milton Ma. at 17 years old in 1634 as indentured to the colony. he became a Freeman in 1641 and sold hay and forage. He was also appointed "Fence Watcher" for the town.
 

I have a ancestor that came here as a Hessian mercenary, deserted, joined the Continental Army. The Brits really must hate guys like that. ! My mothers side is from the NE area, a lot from NY. My dads side is French Canadian and English. So I gues I am a mutt!
 
I was surprised that I spent a couple of nights in Scranton, only to find out my great great grandparents are buried there, would have visited their graves if I knew then.
 
My ancestors were German and 1/4 Swiss, but then the German borders moved around a lot back in the day, might be a different country right now. Still German heratige. It kinda shines through on personality anyhow...... ;)

Paul
 
We are going to take a road trip out East soon and hope to visit some great grandparents graves near Florence Ontario. It's ironic my wife also has great grandparents buried at Wallaceburg ON, 24 miles away. We have found a lot of this information on findagrave.com, a very interesting website. I see there is a YT'er in that area, mattwillson. We are mostly English ancestry, although some of my wife's ancestors were French Catholics, and got kicked out of Canada and sent to Louisiana, the Cajuns.
 
Am 100% Swede my mother came from Sweden when she was 2 years old my dads father came from Sweden in the 1880s.My wife is not a pure breed she is 1/2 swede an the other sadly is Norwegian.
 
I have traced 7 lines of my ancestry back to Europe. They arrived here between 1630 and 1752. I figure I am about 1/4 German, 1/4 Dutch and half English. My g-g-g-g-g-grandfather served in the Tryon County Militia and was wounded at the Battle of Oriskany during the Revolutionary War.
 
my mothers family came from Alsace lorain region around 1815..my dads family came from same area around 1858,,,, family folklore says that we were neighbors and perhaps even relatives in the old country .this is the fertile region much fought over between france and Germany ,.. consequently many lives were lost defending the turf nearly every generation ..they did not care whose flag was over them , they justwanted to be left alone
 
Do any of them look like this? The two older gals in the front row center were my Great Grandmother and her twin sister. They,and my Great Grandfather came over from Sweden in 1881. He had passed away by the time this picture was taken in 1923.
a222704.jpg
 
Both sides of my family can trace roots back to before 1700, with that amount of time in the new world I'm pretty much what ever was dipped out of the melting pot. That being said the most recent arrivals to the new world from my family tree are from Italy and Scotland. We know some of my family fought in the revolutionary war, but had to go to Canada when it was over (fought for the wrong side) but my Great Grandfather claimed we are also related to Thomas Stone, signer of the Declaration of independence, and Great Grandpa used the Stone family crest on his stationary. Incidentally old Thomas lived about 40 miles from where the other side of my family settled and raised tobacco but went to school where the Bakers I am descended from lived. Up north where my Mom's side of the family first landed one of his daughters married a Baker so I might not have as many forks in the old family tree as one would assume. Dad claimed we were of German descent but English is looking more probable, the German would only be what we picked up living in Ohio and Illinois for years and marrying others from those communities.
 
Not quite half German on the father's side and a mix of Irish, English, Scottish, and Dutch on my mother's. A little more English and a little less Irish than what I knew when I was young.
 
Big surprise for Dad's side of the family was that our ancestors can be traced to 1742, no idea where his father came from and when however. We think Germany based on the name. Also found out that the spelling of the name is different from his father and his siblings, we believe that it is the phonetic spelling of the father's name Seyfried. I tell people that the actress Amanda Seyfried is a cousin (she probably is!), she comes from an area of PA where our family settled also, until some with our spelling of the name moved to the Ravenswood, WV area. Dad named our farm Ravenswood Farm in honor of that branch of the family.

On Mom's side her parents were Hungarian immigrants in the late 1800s, her mother came her first then and her dad was a later immigrant in early 20th century.

My sister came across an interesting news article about our great grandfather... he worked in a coal mine in southern Ohio and got crushed by a coal cart. He did finish his shift and then went home and died. My grandmother and her mother and sisters had to move in with an uncle, no workers' comp then. Some people think they have it tough these days!
 
My cousin has traced our Fathers Belgian roots back to at least the 1500's and my moms ancestors came from Finland. The story I have heard is that my great grandfather was sold into slavery in Helsinki, Finland.
 
David G You might check church records in the area where they died.
My late wife researched her mother's side of the family as her mother was adopted. She found the family was from Wisconsin. We met one sister from Rhode Island and one from Arizona. We have a little contact from them. I got a nice note from a cousin in AZ last month. There are people that will help with genealogy projects. My wife was fortunate that a local group met in the Library and they were helpful.
 
The better half is interested in genealogy. I coulden't care less as they are folks I never knew. Way back when she ran across something and told Pop some of his folks came from France. Don't think I ever seen him more ticked off in my life. I don't think it would have bothered him half as much if she had said Japan and they were the ones that shot him, busted his skull, bayoneted his stomach open and left him for dead during the war. I told her she might want to keep any other tid bits to herself. lol
 
Keep poking around on the internet. Eventually you will bump into someone else researching the family. ancestry.com is a good place to go.
 
My brothers FIL was from the region and the family had a German name and a French name and used the one best suited to whoever was in power at the time.
 
I was always told that we were shanty Irish and not related to any one at least not any one that would admit it.....Jack.
 
Regarding ancestors: I think it would be interesting to know, but...My Grandfather told me not to look too far... as I might not like what I found.
Whatever is there, it doesn't make me a better or a worse person.
To paraphrase Popeye: I am, who I am.
 
David, if you haven't already, check out the website FindAGrave. You may be able to visit their graves right there from the comfort of your easy chair. Also - if you DO visit their graves - be sure and take pictures! It's very easy to post them to FindAGrave, and it helps others who are researching the same family. I've posted over 17,000 grave marker photos to FindAGrave. I haven't decided whether it's an obsession or an illness.
 
My Dad's side has a pretty impressive pedigree and (according to one family member) can be traced back to the 1500's in Scotland. One of the ancestors was at the Boston tea party.
My mother's side is a little less impressive. One branch was related to Danial Boone but was the black sheep. He was chased out of Kentucky for stealing a horse. Most of her families records were burned during the Civil War.
 
I was on ancestry.com. Found out a few things I was told were not true. Grandma on mothers side was not the nice little country girl. She let everyone believe.Dad and his brother were dropped off at a house in Roosevelt Texas. Father never came back to get them.
 
David........according to some great aunt, I'm related to some king of England. (wrong side of the mattress I suspect) That and $5 will gitt me a cuppa KAUPHY (coffee) at Starbucks. Every summer, they have the Highland games. I go to watch the little girlies dance around the swords inna their KILTS, eh? I visited a "trace yer ancestor" tent. The guy (watta brogue) showed me a picture of the GOLIGHTLY family castle on the firth of Perth. Justa bundle of stones. I stop by the HARPERS and listen to the strings. Some harps are even home made. Then I wander down to the beer garden. Have some DARK STOUT and watch the clans march by. KILTS a flyin'. Some of the drummers are really good. Now why am I thirsty???.......Dell
 
I'm pretty sure some of my ancestors shot at some of your ancestors. I'm just saying.
Ron
 

Ancestry.com has some errors too. They had one of my Dad's 1st cousins listed as a brother. On my Mom's side they had a great uncle listed as my grandfather.
 
I was always told my last name was German, my son now lives in HI. He was buying food at a convenience store and was using his credit card. Cashier asked for another form of ID he ask why and said he had never seen a Caucasian with that last name seems it is fairly common Polynesian name. My great aunt researched our ancestry, seems we were whalers back in the day, and sought out as navigators on whaling ships.
 
Dave, I Know there are several Benton's in PA. I am close to the Benton in Columbia County. Matter of fact I have relatives that live in the Columbia County Benton. There is also a Benton above Scranton just off of interstate 81.
 
My Father's side is easy to track back to Germany. My Great Great grandfather came over in 1830.

My Mother's family was German and came over in the 1850s.

We have traced the families back to Germany. There it get hard because of the translation of our name is the German equitant to Smith. So once you get looking your need know which towns in Germany to find any reliable information. We can go back further on my Father's side as his family kept in contact with relatives until current times. I have visited some cousins in Germany and they have come here. On my Mother's side we went back one town in Germany and then could not find where the family had came from.

It is interesting. Church records really help.
 
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