There are 14 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 3,634 times. The latest Post () was by Rice.
Lots of my clients seeks Italian citizenship by blood, and dig also into familysearch.com, which is owned by the The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Saints. I have read it is very thorough and you can browse most things for free, anyway.
I am mentioning this since you your great grand-father was born in the US, and my clients are also digging vital records in the States.
Curiously, I finally signed up when writing this post, and it has found things I have never found in other forums - worth digging!
I have been unlucky in my searches, as my family area is uncertain and victim of ethnic cleansing. I am also sure that my last name spelling varied according to the location. However, genealogy website have a phonetic advanced search to take into account this issue.
My husband once subscribed to genealogy website to join the family tree his uncle did a few years ago. We also had DNA kits sent over and got our DNA samples results back. However, they were pretty generic and didn't tell anything interesting, except that we both have Ashkenazi Jew origin (just a small percentage). In my case, I can justify this to some extent, but in the case of my husband it is really weird.
I am also 0% Italian and 20% Iberian, which is unheard of.
These are my ethnicities according the the DNA test MyHeritage did on my DNA sample.
This is the second option, the one showing all the possible groups that can be identified. The list is cut out (Asia and Africa are missing), I am just posting this to provide a showing of the various European subgroups.
Anyway, these groups are based on statistical data (sorry, but my knowledge ends here) and can vary over time, as more data are added/studied.
Also, different websites can provide different results. After doing the test I found our that myHeritage is not the most accurate one, unfortunately. Anyway, I wasn't expecting a miracle, so I am happy with what I got.
My DNA results can be exported and uploaded elsewhere, but no website will provide the results for free.
There are some that will show people who share segments of your DNA - the longer the shared segment, the closer the relationship between individuals. I can't remember the name of that site for the sake of me. I am on a deadline - I'll look into that tomorrow!
One has to be ready or careful when looking up ancestry.... especially when you are white. We know somethings about the European part of the family before they came to this side of the pond, that are not necessarily things you want your grandchildren to know about....
I don't have much relationship with my family. I did with my mothers side, but she died when I was young and her parents were also both gone by time I was 19. My fathers side are mostly still all alive by I don't speak often to them, including my father. That all means I have almost no idea where any of my family comes from which includes not even knowing where my grandparents were born.
Anything before the birth of my parents I have no clue and don't really have an idea how my parents lived their lives until they had me.
One has to be ready or careful when looking up ancestry.... especially when you are white. We know somethings about the European part of the family before they came to this side of the pond, that are not necessarily things you want your grandchildren to know about....
Now you have to spill the beans!
My clients have discovered pretty weird stuff, including previous abusive marriages, marriage with huge age gaps (bride 14 y.o. and husband 35 y.o.), families left behind... and some that they were not able to leave behind and brought to the new world their 'bad habits', got jail time and eventually were shot.
My great-grand father from my dad's side went to France to fight during WWI and apparently stayed there long after the war was over. He formed a new family which he later abandoned to come back to my great-grand mother a decade later. She took him back but it was forbidden to talk about his French 'detour' in the family, so there is not much to know. I am pretty confident that I have some relatives in France, though, given the secrecy my GGM wanted to keep on the issue.
serafina , what a colorful figure your GGF was! And it sounds as if your GGM must have ruled with an iron fist, controlling all mention of his “detour,” an expression that cracks me up.
My grandmother did a genealogy search about 50 years ago, of her Scottish ancestors. I have a copy somewhere, and now you’ve made me want to dig it up.
Having dropped such an intriguing hint,
@Mckenna , you really will need to follow the example of GlasgowJohn and fill in the details....
Rice, i just can't, it is way to much by today's standards, but i suppose back then was considered honest work...
Well, you just DO keep dropping these enticing, broad hints, @Mckenna . But that's OK --
serafina , what a colorful figure your GGF was! And it sounds as if your GGM must have ruled with an iron fist, controlling all mention of his “detour,” an expression that cracks me up.
She was a really tough woman, had to go through two wars alone believing she was a widow, raised three kids on her seamstress pay, had to flee her city during WWII. She smoked one packed of Marlboro red without filter until she was well past 90. She died at 96 when I was about 8 years old. Her husband, my great-grand father, I never met.
My grandmother, her daughter, had a veneration for her. After work she went straight to her mother’s home for coffee/tea, and came home in time to make dinner.
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They both sound like admirable women, and strong ones. Lucky you!
I still have my grandma's kitchen knife, that thing has more confirmed kills(chickens) than rambo's knife lol
Glad you have that, @Mckenna !
