Average Jane’s Ancestors

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When I talked about kid-safe cuss words last week, Rozanne pointed out that some of the ones I picked up from my grandparents are more commonly heard in Great Britain. Thanks to my maternal grandmother’s faithful recording of family history, I know that her paternal grandparents were from Pancras, England, so I suppose it’s possible that the family has carried forward some words and phrases from them all these generations. How else would you explain the prevalence of the phrase "…and Bob’s your uncle" within an American family?

On my father’s side of the family, the biggest geneaology buff is a monk in Luxembourg who has traced many branches of the family tree all over Scandinavia and across to the United States. My paternal grandfather and grandmother (whom I never met), emigrated to the United States from Sweden in the early part of the last century.

Of course, when you take two sides of the family into account, it can be difficult to tell where various influences come into play. You’d think that my excessively round pronunciation of the letter "o" might come from the Swedes on my dad’s side, but I think it’s really from all of my mother’s folks who settled in South Dakota.

I’m always surprised when someone I meet doesn’t know the origin of his or her last name or ancestors. I’m pleased to know little tidbits about the various English, Dutch, Swedish and German people whose genes I share.

Do you know much about your geneaology? What have you carried forward from your ancestors’ traditions, speech patterns, etc.?

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6 responses to “Average Jane’s Ancestors”

June 16, 2005

Huts

German, Austrian, Irish and Swedish. Mostly German an Austrian. They migrated here a long time ago (1850’s), so most of that history is gone forever.

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June 16, 2005

Pharmgirl

I’m sure I’m just mucking up matters by giving BOTH of my kids Irish names when I don’t think there’s an Irish bone in my body!

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June 16, 2005

cagey

Mostly Scot, Irish, English origin. I come from a long line of geneaology buffs and storytellers (my great-grandma had TONS of Civil War tales that SHE heard growing up).
For the most part, we have been in America for so long that I don’t think much has survived in the way of traditions or speech patterns that may have originally crossed the ocean.
The most interesting part is that Irish heritage was virtually hidden – my grandma wouldn’t admit we were Irish until I joined the Catholic church, THEN all of sudden she started telling stories. I think she must have learned to hide it because of the discrimination and stereotyping that the Irish faced.

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June 17, 2005

Kelli

It just so happens that both my father and I are big genealogy buffs (he moreso than I because he seems to have more freetime than I). We’ve been able to trace his father’s family back about 4 generations to Bohemia (today is the Czech Republic) and we have traced his mother’s grandmother’s family back TEN generations to Germany in the 1590s.
We’ve also met a lot of our family that we had never known about before. Just recently, we began researching my mother’s side of the family. We know they originated from Ireland and Germany but we can’t seem to get much farther than her grandparents. It’s a lot of fun though. Attached to my blog I have a page dedicated to genealogy research (originally that was my blog’s purpose). If you have any questions I would be glad to help as much as I can!

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June 17, 2005

Kelli

I almost forgot, there are some traditions that have been kept and carried on from the Old Country (Bohemia). One of the big ones that I remember is homemade apple pie with a slab of cheddar cheese. I know, it sounds wierd but it is really really good! Each year there is a Czech Fest in Hillsboro, WI.

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June 20, 2005

mojokittycat

I’m mostly German, with a little English thrown in for good measure. I think the only ethnic heritage I ended up with is my grandmother’s excessively stubborn, pronounced German chin.

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