The Hobbit Hole VII - But not yet weary are our feet...

[JenB]

Huh - oh, well - er, that's illegal and I'd never do such a thing.

Probably. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

[Fedora]

Pretty neat family history! Kinda brings the past to life to realize your direct ancestors were involved in the events.

[Fedora]

Oh good grief, you get my drift. I really should read these posts before I post them, ya know? I am starting to sound a bitlike yoda myself!

Yes, like Yoda your grammatical structure is!--training young Jedis to you this does! :)

[msdrby]

I agree. PE was amazed when we went to my mother's family reunion last year. It never occured to me that this was out of ordinary, but he had never seen any family do this before.

We all sat down, got out our notebooks and pens/pencils and started comparing notes on grandparents, greatgrandparents, and exchanging and identifying old photos.

Of course, he hasn't been to very many of my family's reuinions, only the one.

It just irks me to no end when people don't respect their roots. Who cares that your greatgrandfather was a bootlegger? LOL! It is kinda cool if you ask me, finding out about all the skeletons and whatnot.

On my father's grandfather's side, I found out that the mother was never married to the father, she was his ~MAID~, and he ran away with her and had a whole other family with her. What a scandal!

[Fedora]

Huh - oh, well - er, that's illegal and I'd never do such a thing.

Well, I suppose only an intellectual property lawyer could settle that, so if they have a problem with it they can talk to mine--which would probably cost them more than they'd get out of me if they won anyway, so I'm not too worried.

[Fedora]

You could almost write a historical novel out of that! :)

[JenB]

On the other hand... both my grandfathers have become obsessed with geneaology. Which is neat; I like seeing our family trees all laid out back to William the Conqueror. But at the same time, they don't seem to want to spend any time or attention on the family they have - or when they do, all they'll talk about is the latest ancestor they've tracked down.

I know a lot of people who are so busy looking at their past, they've forgotten about the present.

Oh well. It is interesting to note that on three of the four grandparent lines, our family has been here since before the Revolution. (My paternal grandmother is an immigrant - from England)

[JenB]

On the other hand... both my grandfathers have become obsessed with geneaology. Which is neat; I like seeing our family trees all laid out back to William the Conqueror. But at the same time, they don't seem to want to spend any time or attention on the family they have - or when they do, all they'll talk about is the latest ancestor they've tracked down.

I know a lot of people who are so busy looking at their past, they've forgotten about the present.

Oh well. It is interesting to note that on three of the four grandparent lines, our family has been here since before the Revolution. (My paternal grandmother is an immigrant - from England)

[Fedora]

Jen, why did you spam to get Post #2,128--is that a special number I'm not aware of? :)

[msdrby]

When I started this, I truly believed that my grandfather as first gen. American. His family spoke nothing but German, and I really had no other information on his line. It was strange too that no one in my family could tell me a thing about Granddaddy's family. Seems Grandmother didn't even know. Then, I found a hand written note left by my grandfather more than 15 years after his death. It had his date and place of birth along with those of this parents and siblings. WOW! I thought I had hit the jackpot. I started asking questions and lo and behold, the family was PA Deutsch. Been right there in Northampton/Lehigh County since 1730's.

[Fedora]

But seriously, that is interesting. Your family's traced their ancestry all the way back to William the Conqueror? Are you all English?--reason I'm wondering is because you mentioned your church was Scottish.

[JenB]

It was an accident. FR had a hiccup. Besides, if you convert to binary and invert the sequence, it - er... whatever.

Well, we're getting close on the one line to those dates. Certainly into the 1200s. The family lines are... 90% English, with some Scottish and a German or too for good measure. My great-grandmother was a first-generation Scottish immigrant; we have a tartan, if I ever want one.

The church thing is just random. Presbyterianism came from Scotland, and our church is in a valley settled by the Scottish, so there's that connection to; but my parents 'converted' to Presbyterians when I was 10 or so. Not a family heritage.

[JenB]

Ah, the Pennsylvania Dutch! No wonder they didn't speak English. How neat!

[msdrby]

Hmm, let's see...

Mom's grandfather was either 1/2 or 1/4 Comanche. My direct paternal line is French Hugenot (from Alsace-Lorraine). Both mom's and dad's maternal lines are Scot/Irish.

[stands2reason]

Inconcievable!

I don't think that word means what you think it means. :-)

[Fedora]

It was an accident. FR had a hiccup. Besides, if you convert to binary and invert the sequence, it - er... whatever.

Aha!--you're right! And then if you add the first two numbers, take the sum, and cube the first number, you get the fourth number. . .

That's a pretty neat ancestry! The explanation on the church thing makes sense. Does your family retain close ties with their Scottish relatives? I have a Scottish friend from that area and his family is still pretty close to their roots--even lived over there for a while.

[Fedora]

That's a lot of history when you bring in the Comanche and the Hugenots! In my family, there is a tradition claiming that one of our Irish ancestors trained soldiers during the Middle Ages; haven't verified if it's true or not, but it makes me sometimes wonder if my interest in combat sports is inherited!

[msdrby]

Yeah, it was vey interesting. They were from a small village called Diedendorf, and spoke only German, and were *not* Catholic. They had been roving from town to town fleeing the French Crown ~because of the Edict of Nantes~ for a long time, and finally were threatened with conversion or death. The family immigrated to America in waves, starting abt 1700 and lasting to abt 1750.

[JenB]

No, the only relative we have 'over there' is my great-uncle, he's English. The other lines came over way too long ago. I guess they all just assimilated.

I'm going to bed. It's way too late. See you tomorrow!

[msdrby]

Yikes, is that the time? My boys are both snoring, and I have been kicked out of my bed again. Eh, doesn't matter, cuz at this time of night, I am usually transitioning to the couch anyway. Back aches ya know.