Actually, you do have something in common - your names. But I agree, that’s hardly a reason to establish a “relationship”
Well, they were Russia when we lived there, which is what matters. I don’t suppose “Transylvania” still exists either after the late unpleasantness of 1914-18.
Actually, Transylvania hasn’t existed as an independent country since 1683. If your grandfather remembers that far back, it raises some awkward questions.
My mother’s family has been fairly easy to research, and I have ancestors tracked back to the 1300s in Switzerland. The Swiss keep good records. Do not mess with the Swiss.
My father’s family, on the other hand, is the bitch. His father came over from Bohemia in 1910, joined by his father in 1913. My father’s mother came from Vienna as a 16-year-old orphan in 1914, both, I’m sure, in reaction to the late unpleasantness; a hell of a good time to get out of Prague and Vienna.
At the time of my marriage, according to the Social Security office, I was the only person in the United States with my last name. I have since befriended a man in Prague with my name, and have decided that he is my cousin. He doesn’t have any paperwork, but he’s fine with the relationship. So cousin he is.
No.
My paternal great grandparents came from Austria-Hungary, though the region is now part of Poland. My maternal grandmother came over from Romania. My maternal grandfather came from Russia, around Kiev.
I’ve never found any reason to think about the “old country” since it’s so far removed and only my grandmother talked about it much (evidently, they were from a farming family the provided vegetables to the king of Romania, but no one is sure where they came from). Supposedly a granduncle of mine gained some fame for spitting on the Tsar (and getting away with it*), but the story may be fanciful.
I doubt I could find anyone back in any of those areas who’s related. My grandfather had a very unusual last name (it seems to be of Turkish origin), and there are those with that name in Kiev, but I doubt there’s much connection, and it’s hard to find it after over a century. My mother tried to find her mother’s family farm, but no one heard of the name, and the Polish branch is too common a name in the area (and spelled different ways) to track down.
*The Tsar was supposedly passing by when he was working on a roof and he spit to clear his mouth. No one but him noticed.
No. The only descendent of mine that can be reliably traced to a country–Ireland–is distantly related and, well, slaving-owning (though according to the family lore from my grandmother’s mouth, he wasn’t that bad).
I would like to go to West Africa and visit. But I’d like to go to other places too that I don’t have a genetic connection to.
I told you we had our suspicions about him . . .
All of my ancestors that I’m aware of have been in North America since at least the 1820s, so the US is the Old Country for us. That said, there are many places of family origin I’d like to visit, but that’s because I want to travel, not because I want to find cousins or the old home place. (And really, the old home place is more likely to be some shanty or dank cellar than Matata Castle.) However, my brother has traced one line of the family to a specific house (manor? castle?) in NW England. Apparently, some grandfather left there for the Maryland colony in the 1630s. We joke that he was probably the spit boy in the kitchen, not some second son of the gentry. (If I ever get to travel in that region, I’ll visit that house, though. It’s currently used as something like a bed and breakfast or conference center or such.)
I’ve visited some places in France that various people were from, including seeing the list painted on a church wall of the men who left Normandy with William the Conqueror, including an ancestor. But having been here for near enough a thousand years now, I think for that side of things this is, if not the Old Country, certainly a pretty old country.
On the other side, I’m still planning my drive down to the part of Ireland my grandparents were from. I’m looking forward to it, and would definitely say I feel it’s important to me to go there.
I don’t even go back to Oklahoma where I grew up. I’m not going to what ever place was where Oklahoma was considered a dream to go to.
My maternal great-grandparents all immigrated from Norway in the late 19th and early 20th century and settled in central North Dakota. I don’t have any direct contacts with anybody from Norway but some of my older relatives who live in North Dakota and Minnesota do. Visiting Norway (and the area around Lillehammer where my great-grandmother came from) has been one of my future trip plans for years.
Finding out about my father’s ethnic background has been more difficult. It looks as though with perhaps one or two exceptions, all my paternal ancestors have been in North America since at least the late 1700s. Most were English but there are apparently a few German-Swiss, Irish, and Scottish branches.
My uncle passed away recently and had been meaning to send us some items from our grandparents/great grandparents. One of my cousins sent my brother a memory book from when our great grandfather died. It had an envelope in it that had articles about Greatgrandad both from late in his life and from when he died (he was fairly prominent in his community: postmaster - prosecuting attorney - insurance agent - founding investor in the bank and other stuff).
Today was the first that I’d heard that he was actually born in Ontario (near Sarnia). One of the greats on my grandma’s side was also born in Canada as it turns out. Not terribly surprising that they all wound up in Michigan.
Huh. And I’m pretty sure I haven’t been to any of the places in Canada that we hail from.
On my mom’s side, she was the first generation to come to the U.S. and has since gone back (to Mexico), so yeah, I’ve been there and keep in touch and some of my closest family members are there.
On my father’s side, my grandfather (a Yorkshireman) and my grandmother’s parents (Londoners) all came out to South Africa between the two World Wars. We have lots of relatives there, and some South African-born relatives have also moved to the UK. I’ve visited three times in ten years. English-speaking-South-African culture is in general pretty heavy on the British influences, too.
My mother’s family has been in South Africa much longer. She has Afrikaans ancestry that goes back to people known to be here as far back as the 1700s (and possibly even the 1600s) and English ancestry from the 1820 Settlers. On her side we have absolutely no connection with the Netherlands (Afrikaners generally don’t) and the only connection with England is through relatives who recently moved there.
Didn’t go to the old country but I went to Valley Forge where one of my ancestors got his head frozen to the ground (as far as I know, he survived.)
Every time the entire neighborhood is drunk, stoned, and shooting bottle rockets at each other on the 4th of July, I think of him.