Your immigrant roots...

persistentdonor- sorry I had missed your post. Yes, it is so complicated- and you are so right. DD1 is very interested, and is now in contact with second cousins all over the world and we intend to visit some next year in South AFrica, Tasmania and Australia (last two on both my and his side- some of my Swiss ancestors went to Melbourne/Victoria in 1840s to plant the now famous vineyards- and I have a fascinating book with all the letters sent home, and the demise to Phyloxera in the 1870s).

GD had an unusual form of jaundice called ovalocytes as a baby- and the peadiatrician was totally baffled (very blond and blue eyes, British/Scottish/Irish parents) until DD1 explained she had a great grand mother who was Indonesian, and bingo! Turns out several of the cousins in South Africa have got it too.

There is a Museum in Luzern, with a massive panorama circular painting of the events- if ever you have a chance to go to Luzern- make sure you go and visit- it is fascinating:

www.bourbakipanorama.ch/en/

Terri pm sent- if you could send me copies of those letters, I am member of a Society who is expert in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/71- which ended very near to me. I wonder if he was one of those who sought refuge in Switzerland on Feb1st 1871.

I am lucky enough to have copies of a couple of letters written by my gg grandfather to his son my, great grandfather. I think this part of my family were from Alsace, but also some lived in Prussia. The letters were dated 1867 and 1870, and were written from France somewhere to my great grandfather who was living in London at the time. The letters were written in English and in one line in the 1870 letter my gg grandfather writes "this war has broken me". The Franco Prussian War was going on at the time, I don't even know what side he was on, although their surname was French. I have spent a lot of time pondering on what he meant whether the war had broken him in spirit or financially. I think Alsace was annexed by the Prussians during this brief war and became French again after the 1st World War.

As I believe, all my folks were from central Europe for generations, so it was a surprise when years ago a blood nurse looking at my notes suddenly said, "Gypsy, Indian or Polynesian?" Blankly I asked what kind of Indian, and she said Blackfoot and Crow. :D
Apparently my blood group suggests descent from those ethnic people.
I'm still looking.... haven't come up with an answer yet, though I am assuming it was the former!!
What a story!! I only wish I knew the details.

The landmass way back when was called 'Pangaea' and I would imagine that we all originated from there one way or an other.

Immigrants ... immigration ... what has to be remembered is that this country that was originally part of a larger land mass is but a small Island.

Some of my immigrant ancestors arrived at this Island during the 'Huguenots' periods. They as many immigrants helped to build this Island to what it was and is today.

What can be said of this Island future?

Granjura, have you thought about writing it all down so it won't all get lost in the mists of time??

7 generations of my English ancestors were hereditary rectors of a parish in Leicestershire. They were also the local squires. We believe our Celtic ancestors were members of an outlaw clan who removed the Mac from their name when they migrated to the mainland to disguise the fact that they might have been Jacobites.

Not a mongrel here but a hybrid! best of all bits. I am the family genealogist having done the research, a very rewarding hobby but addictive once you get going. Father's side all English prob back to 'ag lab' for all. Some interesting names though such as Frisby (yes not just a toy) and Utton. The latter is from Norfolk so my mother suggests maybe dutch origin as in Huiton that perhaps came to Norfolk to sort the lowlying land from dutch experience. Another gr grandparent was a workhouse survivor where he ended up as a child but was trained to be a tailor. His son was killed in WW1 age 23 yrs but left a wife and baby. This baby was reared in his grandparents home and was my father.

My mother's side is all Irish back thru many generations tho first gr gr gr parents came to England as a coastguard officer in 1825 (great records for these in National Archives). Another came as a boy in 1830's to train as shipwright in naval dockyard and stayed til retirement when returned to Dublin leaving adult children in UK. Down the years the Irish married other Irish and other Catholics until my mother met my father during WW2 in London and broke the tradition.

Welsh!!!

My mothers grandparents were Jews who fled from Germany at the turn of century and my fathers father was Welch.

I am an immigrant (Canadian living in London). My family (as far as I know) were from Northern Ireland (Protestants originally from Scotland and England but where from before that, I haven't a clue), Germany and the Netherlands. My husband had an English mother but he was born during WW2 and no one knows who his father was or what nationality (if his mother knew, she never said). The mixture has produced fair-skinned, mainly blonde and red hair, blue eyes. There is quite an extensive family tree for my father's side of our family researched by other branches of the family back to the home farm in Northern Ireland. I haven't done any research myself but a project I have started is a sort of memoir of my life growing up on a farm in Ontario that I'm writing for my children/grandson. I wish I had had such stories handed down from my own ancestors, especially of those who left their homes to immigrate to Canada to homestead the newly opened up land in southern Ontario in the mid/late 19th century.

I haven't traced my ancestry, but a cousin did and all Northumberland or Bridlington going back a few centuries. Except that Dad's side went to sea, and one took his wife with him and she gave birth in some Russian port
OTOH - husband's ancestors were Jews from ?Poland, and yet he doesnt seem to be in the least keen to find out more. His great grandad was said to be one of 12 children, so Husband must have a huge extended family somewhere.

My maternal grandfather came here to find work from Holland after world war 1.

ayse- so interesting. But isn't it strange about the attitude to the past by members of the same family. A bit like 'glass half full or half empty'- some of our family find our mixed heritage as 'skeletons in the cupboard' and try to hide or ignore it and have no sympathy at all for immigrants of today. Others see it as 'jewels' in the cupboard- that make our lives so much richer for it, and have therefore much more sympathy for immigrants or refugees. Some of our families have been both, economic migrants and refugees from awful regimes.

Paternal great grandparents Scottish, grandparents born in Aberdeen and North Yorkshire. Maternal great grandparents both Irish, grandparents both born in North Yorkshire. Late husband's family traced back to 19th Century and come from Russia (believe Lithuania, but so far cannot confirm) on paternal side. Maternal side from Durham area.

As far as I know, my father's family were Irish and in the cotton trade. They came over to England but for some reason lost all their money. My mother's family had some Irish and some Scottish blood, but I don't know more than that.
Just another mongrel.

On all sides I seem to be English for a considerable time, mostly agricultural or artisan (blacksmiths and saddlers). However my maternal line via my maternal great grandmother has been traced back to lower Saxony (Anglo Saxons) living in East Anglia for hundreds of years. I only have one Welsh ancestor and that seems to be about it. I've thoroughly enjoyed finding out about my family's past lives; some skeletons in the cupboard but who hasn't?

Can only go back to 17th century , all sides Welsh

Father Irish so can only go back a few generations due to IRA destruction of public record office. My mother's parents both English with Norman ancestry. So.....who are the immigrants? We all came from the original ancestors who emigrated out of Africa anyway Worth remembering!!

Ana are you not interested, or not bothered? As said, parts of our family just do not want to know and find our mixed heritage past an embarrassment. Others, like us, find it so interesting and enriching- and have got in touch recently with relatives on all sides from all over the world- South AFrica, Indonesia, Tasmania, Australia, Canada and the USA. Our GC will certainly be told all about it when they are older- many of our great nephews will probably never ever know- which I find sad.

Not much idea but a definite mongrel. Great grandmother's maiden name was German so some link there. Sea faring family so who knows.

My father was Dutch and my mother was Irish – a genuine case of orange and green.

The village from where my maternal grandfather came has disappeared completely but I have visited one of my mother's cousins and his daughters in Mayo. Like just about every other ex-pat Irish family/clan, mine can claim a royal connection. Someone even made a romanticised film about this princely figure; he came to an untimely end while rebelling against the English (as they did then). My mother's maternal aunt emigrated to Australia and that branch of the family has been in touch with and some members have met the English family. I think there were other family members, besides me, who emigrated, possibly to Canada and New Zealand.

My father's family left Utrecht at the beginning of World War I when he was about three years old. There are records of people with the same surname, which is unusual in the Netherlands as well as in the UK, going back to the nineteenth century, but there is some suggestion that the family originated further east, perhaps in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic, I think). I have never got round to investigating further although one of my English-Dutch cousins and one of my more distant Dutch-Dutch cousins have an interest in genealogy. The only one of my father's siblings who lived in the Netherlands and whose children and grandchildren do, was born in London.

My ancestors all came over from Russia and Poland in the late 19th/early 20th century. My maternal grandmother had very dark hair and olive skin, and my grandfather had blond hair and blue eyes, and that's how it has continued down the generations since.

It's all very interesting, but I'm really not that bothered. I have no doubt I have immigrant roots, don't we all?

My paternal grandmother was French and her husband, although born and bred in Lancashire, had a Scottish mother.

My first husband was half Polish so my DD has yet another addition to her DNA.