Ancestry

[Deleted]

Okay, just go back as far as your great grandparents, no farther. That means 8 people. What was their birth nationality, if you know it?

Me:

4 Swiss
3 French
1 German (born in Alsace after 1871 but before 1918)

[bixaorellana]

4 Sicilian
3 US
1 Canadian

[Deleted]

So that makes

4 Italian
3 United States
1 Canadian

Is that right?

[bixaorellana]

Yes, correct.

I modified my post to follow your format. So you can delete this & your query if you wish, in order to keep the thread flowing smoothly.

[Deleted]

Well, unless they were born before 1860, that makes them Italian.

[spindrift]

4 English
4 Irish (southern and not anglo-irish)

[bixaorellana]

May 3, 2010 21:01:11 GMT kerouac2 said:

Well, unless they were born before 1860, that makes them Italian.

Actually, that was 1861. And besides, like Spindrift with her Irish antecedents, I want to be specific. They were Sicilian.
b. 1851
b. 1860
b. 1856
b. 1865

[Jazz]

3 German
1 French
2 Irish
2 Scots

[cristina]

So, let me get this right. If I go back to my great-grandparents, I get 14 people, not 8. Am I misunderstanding the question?

I have or had:
2 parents
4 grandparents
8 great grandparents


Anyway, for me, whether its 8 or 14, my results are split evenly down the middle. 4 or 7 Spaniards, and 4 or 7 Brits (all of the Newfoundlanders were born before Newfoundland's acceptance into Canada).

[onlymark]

Kerouac wants the nationalities of just your great grandparents, not all in between.

I have -
6 English
1 French
1 Greek

[fumobici]

8 American (USA)

I do have a grandmother born in Florence while her parents were on vacation, hence her name- Florence.

My father's side are Californians going back to Gold Rush days and my mother's side are old East Coasters.

[cristina]

May 4, 2010 3:39:10 GMT onlyMark said:

Kerouac wants the nationalities of just your great grandparents, not all in between.

Thank you Mark. Even though it doesn't really change my answer, it emphasizes my slowness to grasp the question.

My answer is still evenly split. 4 Spaniards and 4 Brits.

[Deleted]

It would be interesting to compare the answers of people on a travel site such as this one with a group of people on, say, a hunting & fishing site. I bet most of our ancestors have moved around more.

[bjd]

7 Polish, 1 German

Actually, for the Poles, I'm not sure what their "birth citizenship" was since the country had been partitioned. Several were born in the Russian empire, but would probably have been registered as Poles anyway.

[Deleted]

I was wondering about that for Spindrift as well -- was there anything on British passports before Irish independence to distinguish the persons as having 'Irish nationality'?

[spindrift]

Circa 1921 I doubt that many native Irish travelled abroad simply because they were downtrodden by the English and most of them were not even well educated; during the previous centuries they were not allowed to speak their own language (gaelic) and 'schools' were situated in hegerows, priests were persecuted and the native population were kept on semi-starvation rations of potatoes, milk and eggs if they were lucky. The British used Ireland as their breadbasket but despised the natives...so I doubt if many had Passports of any kind..
In spite of all the above my Irish grandfather (who died when he was 30 and left 6 children) was an artist in mosaic and his work can still be seen in Rathmines church, Dublin.

I know that most people had large families and they died young. It was a dreadfully hard life and that's why the Troubles/Occupation has not really been forgotten, even now.


I'm going to Dublin soon and I'll look into this interesting question.

[hwinpp]

4 Germans
2 Chinese Hong Kongers (British?)
1 Chinese
1 Vietnamese (French? Born 1870, Hanoi)

[Deleted]

8 Poles. Like BJD though,some lived so close to the Russian border there may well be some crossover of Russian.

[tillystar]

2 Scottish
3 Irish
1 English
2 Romany (lived in UK but weren't registered at birth but show on later census will need to check what they are registered as)

[patricklondon]

All British; two born in Edinburgh, one born in Lincolnshire, one born of an Army family in Ireland, one born in Suffolk, the rest born in London.

To pick up a point above: you didn't need passports until World War One, except to travel to benightedly authoritarian regimes like Russia. Formal citizenship/nationality was less important in an age where not that many people had the vote, taxes were mostly indirect (on good bought and sold, rather than on one's income or capital) and welfare benefits few and far between and mostly dependent on local charity rather than the state. What was far more important (in Britain and Ireland, at least) was the parish you were born in, since that was the only "belonging" that had any practical implications. If you turned up indigent in one places, the local authorities would try to get you back to your home parish for support.

[Deleted]

Yes, when I visited Ellis Island, I saw a lot of 'travel references' to replace passports. How elaborately they were written and how nice the paper was and the golden or wax seals were the most important elements. WW1 changed everything.

[bixaorellana]

Thought you all might like to see the passport of my grandfather's older sister. Whoever filled out the passport reversed the ages of the children. Vincent was born in 1899 and and Rose in 1902, meaning that they were added to the passport @1905-6.
There's no signature and no photo, & it's printed on regular paper. Times have changed!

And here she is, with her husband and little Vincent.
Can you tell from the photo that she was "piccola"?

[Deleted]

Very, very cool Bixa.

[spindrift]

Very interesting indeed. Very cool

[fumobici]

This is my great-grandmother from her yearbook the year she graduated from Stanford- 1897.

[bjd]

I'm impressed, fumobici. Not many women went to university in those days.

[bixaorellana]

Thanks! I see I made a mistake. Looking at the passport again, the ages of the kids weren't reversed. Rather, over Vincent's age it says "anni", and over Rose's "mesi". So Vincent was three years old and Rose eight months. The passport was issued June 8, 1903.

[Deleted]

That is impressive, fumobibi. We have women in our family who also had University degrees, but not until later on in the century.

[bixaorellana]

Apologies, Fumobici! I was posting at the same time you did, and did not see the wonderful photo of your great-grandmother. Wow -- a woman graduating from Stanford in 1897! Do you have any diaries or other records of that time from her?

[fumobici]

Not much written Bixa but my Uncle had my grandmother Edna, who was her daughter, tell quite a few wonderful and funny stories about her and videotaped them. Edna was another Stanford grad, as was my mother. Very smart women in the family, we men aren't as lucky! ;D