Friday OT #2 - Upper Crust

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Angie

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My mother-in-law got us AncestryDNA kits for Christmas, and I'm waiting for them to process my spit. In the meantime, I've been doing my DNA the long way, and tracing back ancestry using their app. I cannot stop laughing at the winner of "most appropriate ancestor name for Angie ever" entry:

1611322413925.png

But it's been fascinating. I've only got one grandma's side ALMOST done so far after almost a month - she's very, very British and a bit French. Mayflower passengers, Charlemagne. William Randolph Hearst is my second cousin 5x removed. These are all things that mean absolutely nothing in life, but are interesting. I know my grandpa (the one she married) is uber-German, so it'll be interesting to see how the rest shakes out.

What origins are you? Do you have any famous ancestors? Notorious? I'd always heard that Jesse James was in our family - but so many people claim that, he must have been sticking it everywhere.
 

Angie

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Dont let the gf see this thread. She has so many people found on her and my tree.

I wonder if it's more of a female thing to be interested in? Janny hasn't even spit in the tube and sent his back yet.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
I just go with I’m related to all women named Anna. Both my grandmas were Anna. One grandma had a sister named Anna (yes, it’s confusing) 2 great grandmas named Anna. My grandpa had a sister named Anna. Goes on for a bit more bit you get the point. Germans weren’t really creative.
 
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Angie

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I just go with I’m related to all women named Anna. Both my grandmas were Anna. One grandma had a sister named Anna (yes, it’s confusing) 2 great grandmas named Anna. My grandpa had a sister named Anna. Goes on for a bit more bit you get the point. Germans weren’t really creative.

I'm seeing the same with "Mary" with the British in the 1600s and "Elizabeth" pretty well every other time in history. They're consistent! Also a lot of Annes, Alices, and Katherines.

I did have the brother of a Quaker great-grandparent named Barzilla. I'm totally rethinking what we named our son.
 
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cycloner29

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Our son got us kits for Christmas. Pretty cool gift. Wife did hers right away. I waited due to cough and cold. Should see my results in early March. Looking forward to seeing the results.
 
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Al_4_State

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I didn't want to go into the "finding your ancestors" part of 23 and Me, as I don't want to find out that I have some unknown family members out there, and all that drama.

But I did find it odd growing up that my mom's side claimed to be mostly German, even though her paternal grandparents had both been born in Belgrade, and her maternal grandfather was from a small town near Warsaw.

It turns out I'm basically 25-30% Slavic mix with hot spots tracing to both Belgrade and Warsaw. Which isn't really that surprising when you know that's where these people came from, but the weird part is how they claimed to be German. Maybe there was an anti-Slavic sentiment in Canada in the early 1900's (my mom is from Canada originally), when they all settled there, or something.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
We are supposed to spit into the tube.....????.....

Honestly, no desire. I would like to go back further, have a cousin that has but it’s difficult dealing with her so I’m apprehensive about digging into it. Ican trace back to my 2G grands (namesake at Ramsey reformed in German Valley). My moms side namesake is Norwegian and they went and traced back a long ways. Have the book, just haven’t looked too hard. Damn Norwegians who did that son/daughter name crap makes it difficult.
 
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SCNCY

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But it's been fascinating. I've only got one grandma's side ALMOST done so far after almost a month - she's very, very British and a bit French. Mayflower passengers, Charlemagne. William Randolph Hearst is my second cousin 5x removed. These are all things that mean absolutely nothing in life, but are interesting. I know my grandpa (the one she married) is uber-German, so it'll be interesting to see how the rest shakes out.

I think I read somewhere that almost anyone of European decent can trace their linage back to Charlemagne one way or another.
 
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BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
I didn't want to go into the "finding your ancestors" part of 23 and Me, as I don't want to find out that I have some unknown family members out there, and all that drama.

But I did find it odd growing up that my mom's side claimed to be mostly German, even though her paternal grandparents had both been born in Belgrade, and her maternal grandfather was from a small town near Warsaw.

It turns out I'm basically 25-30% Slavic mix with hot spots tracing to both Belgrade and Warsaw. Which isn't really that surprising when you know that's where these people came from, but the weird part is how they claimed to be German. Maybe there was an anti-Slavic sentiment in Canada in the early 1900's (my mom is from Canada originally), when they all settled there, or something.
I’m considered 75% German but one side of my family is from Baden Baden (which is on the French border, and another part was on the NW coast by Holland and such. So with that in mind my ancestry could come back screwy because how do you really differentiate between two sets of people who lived 10 miles apart 600 years ago only separated by an imaginary border.
 
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oldman

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Our kids got us the same thing for Xmas. I haven't done anything with mine yet.
 
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Al_4_State

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I’m considered 75% German but one side of my family is from Baden Baden (which is on the French border, and another part was on the NW coast by Holland and such. So with that in mind my ancestry could come back screwy because how do you really differentiate between two sets of people who lived 10 miles apart 600 years ago only separated by an imaginary border.

There was a lot of that on my dad's side. Western German/French mixture. They know the people came from western Germany (it was only 4 generations back), but it would be hard to differentiate all the mingling across a close border like that.
 
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ISUAlum2002

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I did the Ancestry DNA thing a few years ago. Came back mostly Scottish with some German. However, my mother has believed her entire life that she is mostly Italian, has acted it, followed the history and heritage....all of that. So she was shocked when my results came back with only 2% Northern Italy. My wife and I got my parents Ancestry DNA kits a couple of years ago for Christmas. My dad did his right away......my mom still hasn't. We think she's scared of finding out she isn't what she thought she's been for her entire life.
 
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BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
There was a lot of that on my dad's side. Western German/French mixture. They know the people came from western Germany (it was only 4 generations back), but it would be hard to differentiate all the mingling across a close border like that.
Agreed, I’m sure they heard the same stories about those French women and thought an hour horse ride was worth it. :). Baden Baden is supposed to be a spa town so I’m kinda curious to go there sometime and see it.
 
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Angie

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Our son got us kits for Christmas. Pretty cool gift. Wife did hers right away. I waited due to cough and cold. Should see my results in early March. Looking forward to seeing the results.

It takes a while to process! Mine was just received (after some slooooow shipping) earlier this week, and they said it can take 6-8 weeks to process. So I figure I'll just do the ancestry hunt in the meantime, and then it can tell me if I followed the wrong trails!

I didn't want to go into the "finding your ancestors" part of 23 and Me, as I don't want to find out that I have some unknown family members out there, and all that drama.

But I did find it odd growing up that my mom's side claimed to be mostly German, even though her paternal grandparents had both been born in Belgrade, and her maternal grandfather was from a small town near Warsaw.

It turns out I'm basically 25-30% Slavic mix with hot spots tracing to both Belgrade and Warsaw. Which isn't really that surprising when you know that's where these people came from, but the weird part is how they claimed to be German. Maybe there was an anti-Slavic sentiment in Canada in the early 1900's (my mom is from Canada originally), when they all settled there, or something.

Yeah, so I found out that we had some ancestors who owned plantations in Virgina, which doesn't excite me, as it essentially boils down to "you owned people." Which I do not find cool at all. Like that episode of The Office where Andy finds it out. There's definitely weirdness - and that isn't counting looking for family who is still alive.

I'm really interested to get to my German side. I'm VERY British. VERY, with a lot of German and some French, some Irish, from what I've told. A lot of mixing around during the Norman Invasion. But I'm curious if all of that is true - will be interesting to see the German origins, now that you say this.

We are supposed to spit into the tube.....????.....

Honestly, no desire. I would like to go back further, have a cousin that has but it’s difficult dealing with her so I’m apprehensive about digging into it. Ican trace back to my 2G grands (namesake at Ramsey reformed in German Valley). My moms side namesake is Norwegian and they went and traced back a long ways. Have the book, just haven’t looked too hard. Damn Norwegians who did that son/daughter name crap makes it difficult.

My stepdad is Norwegian, and we can only really get as far back as the old country, and then we lose it. It's SO hard to follow.

I think I read somewhere that almost anyone of European decent can trace their linage back to Charlemagne one way or another.

That's EXACTLY what I told Janny. Dude was pumping out kids in hopes of an heir, he's got most of Europe. Same if you're British - you probably had someone either on the Mayflower or one of the accompanying ships.
 

do4CY

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My dad has a cousin who is big into this stuff, he has traced it back several centuries. I am mostly Norwegian but one of my grandpas was adopted so there is a whole side there that we know nothing about. I am a descendant of a Thor though, unfortunately mjolnir (thats his hammer) must have got passed down a different part of the tree.
 
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Angie

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My dad has a cousin who is big into this stuff, he has traced it back several centuries. I am mostly Norwegian but one of my grandpas was adopted so there is a whole side there that we know nothing about. I am a descendant of a Thor though, unfortunately mjolnir (thats his hammer) must have got passed down a different part of the tree.

That's amazing!
 

carvers4math

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Not as cool as Thor, but my sister has done the family tree software and we are distantly related to President Kennedy. Not surprising I guess, whole thing is pretty much Irish except someone that went and married a French woman.
 

SCyclone

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Just LOL thinking about @Angie as "Whitebread". Classic!

We did Ancestry.com, too.....I always thought my ethnic background was mostly German, turns out it's mostly Norwegian, with some Eastern European and German sprinkled in. So maybe I should be living in Minnesota?
 
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