# If you had to go back in time, and could pick any area where you had ancestry - **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 24, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-go-back-in-time-and-could-pick-any-area-where-you-had-ancestry/583071 "2011-05-24T21:38:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-go-back-in-time-and-could-pick-any-area-where-you-had-ancestry/583071/1 "2011-05-24T21:38:08Z")
If you had to go back in time (be creative, but reasonable here. Anything from 500 years ago to Classic Antiquity is probably OK, but no legendary time periods), where would you settle? Your restriction is that you are limited to living in an area where you had ancestors (also be reasonable here - if you are ethnically Italian according to the common understanding of it today, assume that your ancestry in Italy goes back to the Ancient Romans unless you have significant evidence that it does not). Also remember migration - so if you are English you can be a Germani barbarian in what is now Germany at the height of the Roman Empire. You can’t be from an area before any of your ancestors came, so you can’t settle in most of North America before the 1600’s unless you have Native American ancestry. E.g. if you have Chinese ancestry, you can select the Warring States Period, Spring and Autumn Period, or any of the other Chinese periods, but you can’t select Joseon since that’s Korean (unless, of course, you have Korean ancestry). If you are multiracial/multiethnic, you can go back looking like your ancestors from that area looked like, and you will be magically gifted with being able to speak the contemporary language(s) that your ancestors spoke so you don’t stand out (unless you WANT to stand out as an outsider). ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-go-back-in-time-and-could-pick-any-area-where-you-had-ancestry/583071/2 "2011-05-24T22:04:37Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > If you had to go back in time (be creative, but reasonable here. Anything from 500 years ago to Classic Antiquity is probably OK, but no legendary time periods), where would you settle? Your restriction is that you are limited to living in an area where you had ancestors (also be reasonable here - if you are ethnically Italian according to the common understanding of it today, assume that your ancestry in Italy goes back to the Ancient Romans unless you have significant evidence that it does not). Also remember migration - so if you are English you can be a Germani barbarian in what is now Germany at the height of the Roman Empire. You can’t be from an area before any of your ancestors came, so you can’t settle in most of North America before the 1600’s unless you have Native American ancestry. > > E.g. if you have Chinese ancestry, you can select the Warring States Period, Spring and Autumn Period, or any of the other Chinese periods, but you can’t select Joseon since that’s Korean (unless, of course, you have Korean ancestry). > > If you are multiracial/multiethnic, you can go back looking like your ancestors from that area looked like, and you will be magically gifted with being able to speak the contemporary language(s) that your ancestors spoke so you don’t stand out (unless you WANT to stand out as an outsider). Oh, and also, if your ancestors were minorities in the area, you will be too. So if you have German Jewish ancestry and you choose that, you will be perceived as a German Jew. Also, for the Bible believers here - no settling in the Antediluvian period, at the Tower of Babel/Plain of Shinar, or in the Garden of Eden. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-go-back-in-time-and-could-pick-any-area-where-you-had-ancestry/583071/3 "2011-05-24T22:15:25Z")
does Africa before humans dispersed onto other continents count as “legendary”? I want to be a hunter-gatherer. If I can’t have that I pick England or Ireland, whichever one’s warmer during the most recent warmish period permitted. Or no…pre-Celtic England (legendary?) because nobody knows what that was like and I want to know. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-go-back-in-time-and-could-pick-any-area-where-you-had-ancestry/583071/4 "2011-05-24T22:16:36Z")
Surely most people would be able to choose a huge portion of the ancient world, even if we restrict it to classical antiquity? You say “remember migration” as if it’s something that we might overlook. People have been migrating all over the place since the dawn of time. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-go-back-in-time-and-could-pick-any-area-where-you-had-ancestry/583071/5 "2011-05-24T22:19:15Z")
Well, on one side, my ancestors ran a country. OTOH, it was a tiny, backwards nation, where even the nobility had crappy food and drafty homes- it’s just that \*their \*homes had thick stone walls. And sure, they coudl have any peasant girl they wanted, but the serfs were dirty, smelly and had diseases. And, everyone was cruel (Vlad was a distant relative, and remember his own people thought he was a patriot) savage and violent. Nasty, brutish and short. I’ll pass. The other side was likely commoners all the way back. A famous pyschic said that I had been reincarnated from a Roman Senator\* (but no one of any great importance) and so, yes, I’ll take that. It’s a stretch from the OP, but not much. Plumbing, literacy, civilization, baths… and orgies. - and a Doctor in the German army in WWII, etc. Oddly- a series of modestly important footnotes in history. Describes my own current life. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-go-back-in-time-and-could-pick-any-area-where-you-had-ancestry/583071/6 "2011-05-24T22:50:57Z")
Lessee…I could either stay here (Choctaw), or go to England, Germany or Norway. I’ll stay here. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-go-back-in-time-and-could-pick-any-area-where-you-had-ancestry/583071/7 "2011-05-24T23:05:35Z")
Being British, I’m sure to have Roman ancestry somewhere along the line, so I’ll go for Roman Italy in the Augustan period. About 10 BC. If you won’t allow that, I’ll go for Roman Britain during the reign of Hadrian or Trajan. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-go-back-in-time-and-could-pick-any-area-where-you-had-ancestry/583071/8 "2011-05-24T23:59:01Z")
I’ll stick to Ireland; not sure which part, though. I’ll avoid the German/Austrian and Serbo/Croation parts because the inability of my dad’s family to designate EXACTLY where they’re from \<“Germany, but before Austria, or AFTER Austria or…//Yugoslavia, but don’t mention Croatia to me! Oh wait, don’t mention Serbia either!!”\> well…fark it. I couldn’t tell you much about that side of the family’s world ‘homeplace’, 'cause apparantly they can’t figure it out either. At least I know where Ireland is, and I wouldn’t be unhappy in any part of it. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-go-back-in-time-and-could-pick-any-area-where-you-had-ancestry/583071/9 "2011-05-25T00:06:59Z")
Hm, Welsh, Manx, Scots, English, German and Dutch. Go back as someone in our actual family or just in the area, and as what class? I suppose Dutch merchant class wouldn’t be too bad, 1600s or maybe a bit later. As long as I can avoid the whole tulip crap. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-go-back-in-time-and-could-pick-any-area-where-you-had-ancestry/583071/10 "2011-05-25T00:09:55Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Being British, I’m sure to have Roman ancestry somewhere along the line, so I’ll go for Roman Italy in the Augustan period. About 10 BC. If you won’t allow that, I’ll go for Roman Britain during the reign of Hadrian or Trajan. Sure, I’ll allow that. I actually thought of it, but didn’t mention it. > [@aruvqan](#): > > Hm, Welsh, Manx, Scots, English, German and Dutch. > > Go back as someone in our actual family or just in the area, and as what class? > > I suppose Dutch merchant class wouldn’t be too bad, 1600s or maybe a bit later. As long as I can avoid the whole tulip crap. I actually thought about the class thing, but eventually decided not to bog you down with it. Also, it may not be as easy to tell what class your ancestors were. In my ancestry, I can find a few rather well-off people as well as a few clearly poor people. If you want to be one of your known ancestors, sure. If you know you have Irish ancestry and want to run a distillery, fine. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-go-back-in-time-and-could-pick-any-area-where-you-had-ancestry/583071/11 "2011-05-25T00:14:31Z")
Great idea, Mr. “I’m My Own Grandpa”. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-go-back-in-time-and-could-pick-any-area-where-you-had-ancestry/583071/12 "2011-05-25T00:15:31Z")
> [@carlotta](#): > > does Africa before humans dispersed onto other continents count as “legendary”? I want to be a hunter-gatherer. > > If I can’t have that I pick England or Ireland, whichever one’s warmer during the most recent warmish period permitted. > > Or no…pre-Celtic England (legendary?) because nobody knows what that was like and I want to know. Pre-dispersal hunter-gatherers is kinda pushing it. Same thing with pre-Celtic England, but I’ll allow them. In terms of the “legendary” category, I may have been thinking more about Atlantis and legendary epics than real cultures and times that we know most likely existed in real life, but that we don’t know a lot about.