Friday OT #2 - Upper Crust

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Angie

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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?

The name could not be MORE apt! ;)

Minnesota or Wisconsin! That's awesome. :D Isn't it interesting to see how it traces back? I'm currently far more British than I even knew.
 

coolerifyoudid

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My family is mainly Belgian and German. I have an ancestor that owned a quarry and helped supply explosives to fight Nazis in WWII. He was executed for his acts. There's now a street in Belgium bearing my last name in his honor.
 

Angie

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My family is mainly Belgian and German. I have an ancestor that owned a quarry and helped supply explosives to fight Nazis in WWII. He was executed for his acts. There's now a street in Belgium bearing my last name in his honor.

That is so neat. <3 That's really amazing.
 

ISUCyclones2015

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Father's side, very German from the south west part of Germany and moved to Iowa in the 1800s. They were in that corner of France, Germany, and Lichtenstein and were farmers there and farmers in Iowa. We know the address of the family farm and it still exists in Germany. Had an aunt go there and take pictures. Unfortunately it's owned by like a mega farm company now and the house is gone.

Mother's side, british turned southern.... *ahem* aristocrats? What's the good way of saying slave owners? They actually lost most of their money in the depression but didn't leave the South or their racism behind. I chuckle every time I think about them rolling in their grave about my sister marrying a black man and having biracial children.
 
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Angie

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Father's side, very German from the south west part of Germany and moved to Iowa in the 1800s. They were in that corner of France, Germany, and Lichtenstein and were farmers there and farmers in Iowa. We know the address of the family farm and it still exists in Germany. Had an aunt go there and take pictures. Unfortunately it's owned by like a mega farm company now and the house is gone.

Mother's side, british turned southern.... *ahem* aristocrats? What's the good way of saying slave owners? They actually lost most of their money in the depression but didn't leave the South or their racism behind. I chuckle every time I think about them rolling in their grave about my sister marrying a black man and having biracial children.

That is so amazing about the family farm! It does suck you can't see the house, but even just standing on that land is super-cool!

Good for your sister flipping off those roots! It feels so icky to have those slave owner roots, doesn't it? I mean, we can't do anything about our ancestors, but it's still gross.
 

do4CY

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Father's side, very German from the south west part of Germany and moved to Iowa in the 1800s. They were in that corner of France, Germany, and Lichtenstein and were farmers there and farmers in Iowa. We know the address of the family farm and it still exists in Germany. Had an aunt go there and take pictures. Unfortunately it's owned by like a mega farm company now and the house is gone.

Mother's side, british turned southern.... *ahem* aristocrats? What's the good way of saying slave owners? They actually lost most of their money in the depression but didn't leave the South or their racism behind. I chuckle every time I think about them rolling in their grave about my sister marrying a black man and having biracial children.
Our family farm is still going in Norway and my parents have been over to visit. That is on my bucket list. My dad's cousin goes over there about every 2 years and one of them has been here a few times so its neat to still have a connection.
 

Angie

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I just found this dude in my history. So not everyone is fancy: LINK

"Thomas hade something of a chequered history of legal difficulties. In 1301 he was accused of "breaking" the park of the Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, at Westwell, and the park of the Prior of Michelhamin. Along with his father, he was indicted for stealing property from the Vicar of Ringmer in 1305...
... Thomas himself was taken to Winchelsea, Sussex where he was hanged, drawn and quartered. "

What kind of dumb*** steals from a vicar?
 

ISUCyclones2015

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That is so amazing about the family farm! It does suck you can't see the house, but even just standing on that land is super-cool!

Good for your sister flipping off those roots! It feels so icky to have those slave owner roots, doesn't it? I mean, we can't do anything about our ancestors, but it's still gross.

I would feel a lot more icky if I had money from it or if it had any bearing on my life. Maybe it was karma they lost it in the depression. But my parents divorced when I was 5 and I didn't talk with my mother or her side pretty much after that. And her father/my grandfather was a bad ass war veteran in WWII (though at the very very end) and the Korean war. The racists were my grandmother's ancestors and she herself was a proud member of the Daughters of the Confederacy.

It is what it is, can't change history. That's why I am much more proud of my humble German roots of my father's side :D
 
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BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
I just found this dude in my history. So not everyone is fancy: LINK

"Thomas hade something of a chequered history of legal difficulties. In 1301 he was accused of "breaking" the park of the Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, at Westwell, and the park of the Prior of Michelhamin. Along with his father, he was indicted for stealing property from the Vicar of Ringmer in 1305...
... Thomas himself was taken to Winchelsea, Sussex where he was hanged, drawn and quartered. "

What kind of dumb*** steals from a vicar?
I may have before, because not that I would have stolen from clergy, I just had not idea what a vicar was before I googled it.
 
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Angie

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I may have before, because not that I would have stolen from clergy, I just had not idea what a vicar was before I googled it.

I'm familiar with it just from, like, Jane Austen novels. Not for any reason that actually matters.
 

jsb

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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.

There were several John and Anna’s in my family tree. My great grandparents, both of their parents, and I think at least one set of the next generation.
 

MeanDean

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I just found this dude in my history. So not everyone is fancy: LINK

"Thomas hade something of a chequered history of legal difficulties. In 1301 he was accused of "breaking" the park of the Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, at Westwell, and the park of the Prior of Michelhamin. Along with his father, he was indicted for stealing property from the Vicar of Ringmer in 1305...
... Thomas himself was taken to Winchelsea, Sussex where he was hanged, drawn and quartered. "

What kind of dumb*** steals from a vicar?
Poverty was rampant. Probably in desperation. (Just a theory...)
 
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MeanDean

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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.
Are we related? My grandmother's family is from Baden. Migrated in the late 1800's. My brother did an ancestry thing and it came back Austria or Swiss I think - the genetics that close to the border can be quite intermingled I suppose.
 
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NWICY

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I may have before, because not that I would have stolen from clergy, I just had not idea what a vicar was before I googled it.
I'm familiar with it just from, like, Jane Austen novels. Not for any reason that actually matters.

Now BC I can forgive, but Angie with your love of British television how have you never seen the Vicar of Dibley starring Dawn French. It's pretty darn funny.
 

CYdTracked

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Never been interested in the DNA ancestry tracing and probably would decline if a family member asked me to participate in one. We uncovered a family artifact a few decades ago on my dad's side that was some kind of family tree or something and was in German and had someone we knew that knew German translate it so was kind of cool to retrace some history that far back. Will be a pretty cool piece for whoever between my brother and I wind up inheriting it some day. I know my dad and aunt at one time did some ancestry tracing with my grandmother before she passed by going through some old photographs and documents she had and even cemetery records from the family plot. They had found at least 1 or 2 other relatives a few generations before them had been married previously that they didn't originally know about at first because they only remembered them with the spouse they were married to at the time so I think they were able to trace a few more relatives once they discovered that too.
 

SCNCY

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My grandpa on my dads side immigrated from Sicily, so I probably have some mafia in my history. May be interesting to check out sometime, my family history.
 

Angie

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Now BC I can forgive, but Angie with your love of British television how have you never seen the Vicar of Dibley starring Dawn French. It's pretty darn funny.

I'm looking it up now, and adding it to my to-do list! You rock!
 
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diaclone

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Intriguing thread for sure......I've never done the DNA stuff. But the most famous person I'm related to (that I know of) is Lucretia Mott, a famous abolitionist.

.
 
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CascadeClone

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Luxembourg anyone? Maternal grandfather's family came over from Lux and settled south of Dubuque -- St Donatus, LaMotte, Tete-des-Morts area.

Crazy to see black and white 100+ year old pics of my great-great(?) grandfather and he is the SPITTING image of my moms brother.
 
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