Does anyone really know their "heritage"?

Name is obviously only the paternal line but mine is scotch Irish. Have the history of the couple and their sevearal young adult children that brought the name in the decade before the revoulutionary war. Small land grants records as well pre and post war. I find the older I get the more interesting heritage becomes.
 
I haven't the slightest idea of my heritage. I was left on a doorstep as a few day old baby. I've thought about trying one of those mail away DNA tests though, to see if it might turn up some useful information.
 
StuntDouble said:
I haven't the slightest idea of my heritage. I was left on a doorstep as a few day old baby. I've thought about trying one of those mail away DNA tests though, to see if it might turn up some useful information.
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Dude i highly recommend you try it. Part of the problem with adoptions where the child has no family history known to them is when you go to the doctor and he asks “does your family have a history of heart attack and stroke” you can’t answer.

Dna tests like 23 and me tell you about your genetic profile’s suseptibility to many of the major diseases and ailments. Plus it gives you some idea where your roots are from.
 
GWashington1732 said:
The Native American is the only thing I'd do it for. Just to see if my family's full of crap.
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For decades my family has been told we are German on my father's side and with my mother, it's English and French Canadian.
Then, we find out the French Canadian story is all garbage because my grandmother was ashamed of her Native American heritage.

What happened when one of my sisters did the ancestry DNA test? The results state that we have zero Native American DNA. None. So, where did the Native American concept come from? Ends up that my great-grandfather remarried in Indian territory and that his daughter did not like it; so, she made up the French Canadian bit.

The funny part is this. From what we can tell, her stepmother is not even Indian and besides; it would not have made any difference because she's not a blood relative. I guess it's just the idea.

To top it all off, one of my siblings really likes the belief of a Native American heritage so she wants to ignore the DNA test results and family history documents. Go figure.
 
Stelth said:
It's ludicrous to me that anyone would trust a company to have their genetic profile.
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Im not sure, Id put it in those words but I do question the validity and the handing out of DNA.

There is how ever a market and a good one in a major country with a short history and loads of people being obsessed by being anything else than from that country.
 
My mom did the family thing many years ago, she really did a lot of research herself when we were back home in Hungary. See it's easy for me to check my heritage because my family's only been in things country for 60 years give or take a year. Plus my family name goes back over 500 years, actually farther than that.

My Old Man up in a castle on the edge of the Carpathian mountains, the foothills more precisely. If you look up the Hungarian old maps of Transylvania you'll see where my name comes from. You could just look up what the Hungarian/English dictionary says when you type in Transylvania and see what comes up or you could look up an old map like this...

3mZrySG.jpg


JaWulyr.jpg


My mother's family were Farmers and Mason's who worked and lived on the Danube within a stones throw of the Austro/Hungarian border for as long as my faher 's family were in Hungary. Yep, I'm Hungarian and pretty sure that's all. :)
 
My dad grew up in Pecs, Hungary. His dad worked in the coal mines. I've not yet gotten through any ancestry stuff with that side of the family, but Dorn is obviously of German origin, so I'm sure there's some interesting stuff there, if I care to dig.

My mom was born in Puerto Rico. Her mom is from there, but my grandad on that side grew up as a first gen. American with German heritage, with a decidedly German name. Not going to mention my mother's maiden name in a public forum, though. :) No use getting my security words out there.

So, I claim to be half Hungarian, 1/4 Puerto Rican, and 1/4 German. I may go back and to a DNA test some day to nail it down a little more, but I'm happy with what I know as of now.
 
Latino/Western European What a lethal combination, Passionate people whole love to do everything to excess, eat, drink, love... and they're great at at all that stuff too.

I have a hard time bein' all Hungarian, I give you major props for keepin' harmony and sanity while doin' it. :thumbsup:
 
An interesting thing I learned about my parents' surnames, both originated from the northeastern Spanish regions of Catalonia and Basque country. The paths their ancestors took to get to America are both quite different though.
 
My mother is Norwegian all the way, with a Portuguese or Italian stallion exception 2-300 years ago . Don't know any further.

My dad is also Norwegian as far back as we know.
So I'll say I'm Norwegian.
I've got a metric shit-ton of relatives all over the US though, from Minnesota to Hawaii.
 
As a Brit in the USA, first Georgia now Texas I get asked about the accent a lot and then heritage often enough.

It's interesting that the test someone posted the results of listed Great Britain, one of the most hodge podge genetic areas, just like eastern Europe. So many times the borders move, invasions and such.

The family tree for me goes back about 4 generations then gets tricky, not one of those who can trace it back to the magna Carta era for example. North of England, home to Romans, Celts, Scandinavians, Norman (France today), the scots etc. Well just the Roman influence in the area since the first century means it could be anywhere in Europe lol.

I just go with northern English, about as far north without being Scottish.
 
My 4X Great Grandfather joined the Continental Army on July 22, 1776. (They say it took him so long after July 4th because that's how long the line was to join up ;) )

The genealogy folks who traced out the family have no idea from where he hailed, just figured it someplace in Britain.

We care not, we simply say that we are Americans, and had a hand in making it so.
 
In one of those Ancestry DNA commercials, one guy says he grew up always being told he was German, and he demonstrates some German dancing he learned. Then he says he found out he isn't German at all, but is mostly Scottish. So he gave up German dancing and now 'wears a kilt'.

I find it a bit puzzling as to how or why a family would claim, or be led to believe, that they're German when they're mostly Scottish or Scots-Irish(?). Why? For self-protection during WWII, or shame? I would have thought it would be safer to claim Scottish heritage back then. How hard would it have been to look back a generation or two to find out the truth?

If he grew up doing German dancing and always enjoyed it, why drop it all of a sudden because a DNA test says he isn't really German? That would be like me saying that I can't enjoy training in a Chinese or Westernized martial art because I happen to be of Japanese descent.

I know that the guy's choices really aren't my business, but he sort of made it easy to wonder these things by putting his story out there in the first place.

Jim
 
James Y said:
In one of those Ancestry DNA commercials, one guy says he grew up always being told he was German, and he demonstrates some German dancing he learned. Then he says he found out he isn't German at all, but is mostly Scottish. So he gave up German dancing and now 'wears a kilt'.

I find it a bit puzzling as to how or why a family would claim, or be led to believe, that they're German when they're mostly Scottish or Scots-Irish(?). Why? For self-protection during WWII, or shame? I would have thought it would be safer to claim Scottish heritage back then. How hard would it have been to look back a generation or two to find out the truth?

If he grew up doing German dancing and always enjoyed it, why drop it all of a sudden because a DNA test says he isn't really German? That would be like me saying that I can't enjoy training in a Chinese or Westernized martial art because I happen to be of Japanese descent.

I know that the guy's choices really aren't my business, but he sort of made it easy to wonder these things by putting his story out there in the first place.

Jim
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Well he's just an actor. It's all marketing for these companies to entice you to buy their product. They have no reason to track down real people whose stories they like.

On your other point about Scots thinking they're German, not everyone keeps with their heritage. It could be the Scots married into some Germans and left their culture behind. I mentioned in this thread I was thought to be two ethnicities myself, only to learn that both my ancestors were immigrants themselves. They took up the culture they were raised in, which was not their genetic heritage.
 
Vanished Kingdoms.
A book you would find interesting I think.
Certainly in terms of Northern Europe which in terms of nationhood was far different in the days of our Grandmothers and Great grandparents....
The sad tale of Queen Victoria's youngest grandson Carl Eduard is quite appalling.
Also as far as the British royal family is concerned...the first person of English descent to get a anywhere near the crown for 300 years was Diana Spencer..
 
Looks like quite a few other Hungarians here. My mom's parents were born in Hungary and came here just before WW I.
My Dad's side is a mix of German and Irish. I can trace his father's side back to about 1820 with an orphan so that is now a dead end but his mother's side came to Maryland from Ireland in 1650 and we can trace back even further over there. We are lucky having much documented family history but I have never done any DNA testing.
 
Mine ends 300yrs ago.....at least the bread crumbs end.

My wife on the other hand....her family thought it important enough that they have books of the entire family heritage giving recollection of farms, locals....trips....migration...back as far as 1544....which is were the beginning of "here" started with the ship manifest from Norway listing out everyone in her family that came over.

At some point one of her distant cousins went back to Norway and interviewed living family members and wrote a book about the family which I was able to purchase a copy of.

We can still google earth her original farm in Norway and it shows up.....and her last name is a derivative of the farm. Pretty cool stuff.
 
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