Kiss me I'm Irish

[GoldenRivet]

I've been messing around with ancestry.com for a while now... i have traced my family tree back to the mid 1700s when Lawrence Kelly came to what would become the United States.

He passed away in 1761.

Using census data, and family photographs, oral history etc i was able to trace the Kelly's from the mid 1700s all the way up to as recently as my maternal Great Grandfather.

At one point in time it would appear - though it required further research - that I had a Confederate Soldier relative and a Union Soldier relative from the same family.

Additionally, it seems that my paternal great great great grandfather surrendered with the 5th Florida Infantry Regiment at Appomattox

would be so interesting to know the details of their lives and experiences.

anyone dabble in this stuff?

[DarkFish]

I can trace my family back to about 1670, to one Joost Ratstaeck. Traces go back even further: in 1588 a piece of land behind the "Radtstaicken" was leased, insinuating there was a farm there named after our family.
Then again I guess my family isn't too difficult to trace. We've lived as farmers in the same part of the Netherlands (the "Achterhoek" in Eastern Gelderland) for ages. I guess it was my grandpa who broke the family tradition by moving to the Southern province of Brabant:O:

As far as warfare goes, none of the members of that side of my family (my mother's side) has ever been a soldier AFAIK. We've always been farmers, what would it have mattered for us if it was Duke X, Earl Y or King Z ruling our lands?


My granddad from my father's side did fight in WW2 though, at the Battle of the Grebbeberg in may 1940. My dad never got much out of him about it, but it surely must have been one hell of a traumatizing experience.

There was (still is) a zoo located right on top of the hill. With the Germans approaching, the zookeeper was ordered to kill the animals. They would have likely been killed in the upcoming battle and chaos anyway, and the Dutch high command didn't exactly like the prospect of panicking rhinos rampaging through the defense lines. The zookeeper however simply had not the heart to kill all the animals, so instead of shooting them he set the monkeys free. As the Grebbeberg is covered with woods, they were having quite some fun jumping from tree to tree.
But as the sun set the evening before the battle, it soon turned out not everyone could appreciate the monkeys.
Because of the German troops marching closer with every minute, most of the soldiers couldn't sleep, instead nervously waiting for the smallest sign of an enemy soldier sneaking through the woods. Only few knew the monkeys had been set loose, so the fear grew pretty strong when suddenly loads of shrieking sounds were heard coming from the trees above.
I can't imagine it was a pleasant night.

[FIREWALL]

My ancestors were Entrepreneurs. The law called them Rum Runners. :DL

[GoldenRivet]

That's where those in Europe are lucky.

In the U.S. In most cases when a family immigrated to the USA especially the colonies, it's like hitting a brick wall because the records tend to stop. No listed parents, no accurate or recorded birth dates etc.

[Tribesman]

That's where those in Europe are lucky.



It depends, Europe has had a turbulent history.
Look at Ireland for example, it just took two events in Dublin and most of the past 700 years of records were simply gone for ever.

[frau kaleun]

I went to one of the big genealogical sites a few years back and punched in a couple names - was surprised to find out that there was a "line" already in place from my paternal grandmother back to Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. I'm assuming that someone else's ancestry intersected with ours at some point, because even though one of my much older cousins had been doing some research, what she had at the time didn't include the stuff I was looking at.

However my cousin was able to trace from my paternal grandfather back to the Cherokee ancestor we always knew we had, having been told that our granddad was "part Indian" all along but not knowing any of the details. I know she was born in Chattanooga as part of the Cherokee Nation but how she (or her children) ended up in Virginia, I don't know.

It was also surprising to find out that my father had more siblings than I suspect even he knew about - there was one that had died very young, either before my father was born or when he was just an infant himself, and I'd never heard of his existence before seeing him listed there as one of my grandparents' known offspring.

I may look back into this stuff if I can find the time - I never knew any of my grandparents, the last surviving one died before I was a year old - so there was a lot of info that was just never passed on, or that survived only in bits and pieces and none of us have all the bits and pieces. I really think it would be fascinating because I already know that my paternal grandfather was born in the 1870s... which is quite something, considering that I was born almost a century later. Go back one more generation and we're already talking Civil War times and before.

[Spike88]

I've thought about trying it. Might give in and try the 14 day trial, just don't want to accidentally forget about it and end up getting a subscription. :haha:

Although I doubt I'd be able to trace my Father's side of the family as he was born in Argentina. I know the family Originated in Germany and then moved to Russia. Eventually they moved to Uruguay(although no one was born here) and then finally Argentina. My dad came over in 86, and I was born in 88. As they don't have records for South America, this side of the family is a dead end.


My mom's family is Irish/Scottish. And according to my grand mother we had Confederate(or maybe it was Union :hmmm:) soldiers in the family. I do know almost every male on her side of the family was in the Military at one point. Would be interested in what Ancestory could show me for them.
I've heard some family members say we're related to Davy Crockett, but I'm unsure if this is true.

[bookworm_020]

My family did some background checking and found plenty. From the First Woman to get a science degree in Australia, a fly by night Frenchman, a channel islander who left the islands in a "mutually beneficial" parting!:DL, two generations who didn't know their marriages were technically void and after much searching, a convict! (very distant relative, most were clean skins or never got caught!)

From high and low places, what an interesting web we weave!:03:

[Sailor Steve]

My ancestors were Entrepreneurs. The law called them Rum Runners. :DL
Ah, a Kennedy then. So you're Irish too. :O:

My dad was the second youngest of 10 siblings - seven brothers and three sisters. My great-grandfather and his brother fought for the South in the Civil War, and our line has been traced to a James Bradfield who came to the US in 1780. That was the middle of the revolution, so his purpose is a mystery, at least so far. Our family line is said to be traceable to the Saxon invasions of England in the 400s. True? I don't know.

[JokerOfFate]

I know most of my family history, my family dates all the way back to independence day. I found out that alot of my family fought in WW1 and WW2(Both for Russia and the US). My dad was in Nam.

This is all from the stories my grandad told my dad who told me.

I can go back a lot further but I'm a little sleepy at the minute

[papa_smurf]

I traced my mothers side, for a school project, back to the late 1600's to the derbyshire/staffordshire area where I still live.

The family history on my fathers side is a bit more interesting, as that has Irish connections and need to do more research on that.

[CaptainMattJ.]

just see how bad they made us irish look like in The Departed

[nikimcbee]

My ancestors were Entrepreneurs. The law called them Rum Runners. :DL

:haha:

[nikimcbee]

So are you going to join the IRA/ Sinn Fein now?

[nikimcbee]

...and regarding the kiss, I'll have to pass.

[nikimcbee]

So are you going to join the IRA/ Sinn Fein now?

Of course, if you sign up with these guys, you'll now be on these guys radar.

https://www.mi5.gov.uk/

[nikimcbee]

...and now we can write Irish ballad songs about you:haha:

example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbPXGOHKAvc

GoldenMcRivet

[Sledgehammer427]

Daniel Boone is a distant cousin to our family on my father's side, which is completely irish, I have a record but it's really not that interesting.

My mother's side...my grandmother is full-blooded swedish, and my grandfather was full-blooded italian, from what I know, my italian last name (marciorato) goes back to the 16th century as a group of traveling musicians. my great-great grandmother sailed here during the first world war from far northern italy, they were forced into the lifeboats because they thought they were going to be attacked by a u-boat, and that's actually what started my interest in submarines. my grandfather stayed in italy and lived in Venice until he too emigrated to the Rockford, IL area, which is where he met my grandmother and they had my mom.

[Platapus]

I think it is great that people have the ability to trace back their families.

Personally, I have never had any interest in my family history, but I know a lot of people who do enjoy learning about their past families.

[Takeda Shingen]

Personally, I have never had any interest in my family history, but I know a lot of people who do enjoy learning about their past families.

I never got into the geneology thing either. Some people are very interested in those things and travel the world to see the graves of relatives. It seems cool, but I spend enough time poring over old books.

[FIREWALL]

I never got into the geneology thing either. Some people are very interested in those things and travel the world to see the graves of relatives. It seems cool, but I spend enough time poring over old books.

I run along the same line TS. :yep: I'm more concerned where I'm headed than, what a relative did or didn't do at this time of my life. :DL

I want to break my own trail as to follow some unknown relative's path.

[Happy Times]

We have gone back to the 1600s in Finland from both mothers and fathers side but research is needed in Sweden and Germany about the lines that come from there. Sweden, Västergötland, could be easy as its the same countrys records at that time. Germany, could be a more difficult project.

Farmers, soldiers, traders and priests mostly but from mothers side were three brothers that made a fortune during prohibition, two where shot in turf wars or by police.:D

[CCIP]

While the largest portion of my blood, 37.5%, is Russian, it's hard to get much history on it - one of my grandfathers came from a village near Demyansk where his family probably lived for hundreds of years, but little if any records exist of it.

More is known about my other ancestors - 25% are Karel-Pomor, more or less Finnish blood, from the White Sea coast; 25% are German and Nordic nobles of various breeds; and the rest are a mish-mash of everyone else possible, notably including Ukrainians, Tartars, Gypsies, Jews and Turks. The oldest ancestors we'd managed to track down were from 10th century sweden; and much of the German nobility is easily traced to the 16th century at least.

[Tchocky]

It depends, Europe has had a turbulent history.
Look at Ireland for example, it just took two events in Dublin and most of the past 700 years of records were simply gone for ever.

My family history suffers from this. There's not much to go on except for a few listings in southern Scotland a few hundred years back.

Close relation on my father's side was a merchant gunner, torpedoed in 1918 by U-90, ship was the SS Normandie. Same sub that sank the SS President Lincoln, over 30,000 GRT.

[Oberon]

I've got links back to Hungarian gypsies apparently, but also to Scandinavia (thank you Vikings), Scotland, and Lithuania. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there were some Irish in there too. :hmmm: It's all rather sketchy though, research done by my grandfather and we're not one hundred percent sure he was right, but if he was...then there's some interesting bits in my family.

[Buddahaid]

Gee, and I thought everybody was related to the Wright brothers.

[Sailor Steve]

Not me, but I'm told that my grandfather, who was a furniture maker, once supplied a load of lumber to Glenn Curtiss.

[Rilder]

Don't know anyone past my father and mother, Grandparents died either before I was born or when I was too young to remember them much. All I know is something about the Mayflower.

Miller is such a common last name anyways I can't wait till I get married and can get rid of it. :O:

[I-25]

i can trace my family genealogy on my fathers side only to about the early 1800s. just a bunch of farmers on the Rhine. my great grandfather served in both WWI and WWII on the German side. lucky for him he was an electrician so they pulled him off the front right after the polish campaign and had him putting up power lines soon after. and survived the war also had an uncle in the U-286. he was a OMechMt. sunk 2 weeks before the war ended off Murmansk...:shifty: got lucky enough to get some pics of him from relatives in germany on his sub.
my grandfather was only 9 years old when the war ended so he didn't do much except watch a B-17 crash and see the local police running around looking for the crew and he also tells meabout how he and a friend got shot at by US soldiers while walking home from school after taking a shortcut tough a field (and this was a few days after VE day)
on my grandfathers mothers side i had one uncle on the east front who lost an arm and another in the afrikakorps who was attached to Rommel's HQ and knew him personal. both survived.

On my mothers fathers side of the family i can trace linage back to about the 1600's
turns out i'm family of the arch duke of Osuna in Spain. somehow he got kicked-out of spain on accounts of adultery;) and ended up in mexico. One of the key defenders of Mexico during the french intervention was my Great-great grandfather
on my mothers mother i am somehow related to a cherokee princesses