My aunt has decided to dig back and do a bunch of geneology and come to find out I have Jewish ancestory on both sides of my family (which could be the cause of my Ulcerative Colitis). Come to find out, on my dads side of the family in order to flea Germany during hitlers reign, my Grandpa's family denied their Jew affiliations. To this day, he has denied that they were Jewish. In fact, when my younger brother was born with blue eyes he was ecstatic, no one understood why at the time. Then on my moms side, her dad's dad (my great grandfather) was a Polish jew. Come to find out, after doing a lot of research about my disease I found out that people with Jewish ancestory have a much greater chance to develop Ulcerative Colitis than those without. So, whats your ancestory and has anybody learned anything cool about your familys past?
fam used to be rich as fuck in the Philippines way long ago, until some relative gambled it all away.
I'm not heavy into geneology but a second cousin is, which is how I discovered she's my second cousin. My grandfather was one of 3 brothers who came to the US. A third went to Palestine. We all stayed in touch for a time after discovery but honestly I have little in common with these cousins, we just happen to be related, so we've pretty much stopped corresponding. That, though, is how I discovered my cousin Lola was an illegal immigrant. She was 2 when the Nazis invaded Poland. Her parents smuggled her out. Some smugglers were Quakers and other honorable people who risked their lives to save others, but some were cheats who then turned in the people they'd said they'd help to the Nazis for the reward. Lola's family all died never knowing if she was safe. But she was, she was taken illegally to Britain and placed with relatives, in violation of British law. After the war she emigrated to the U.S. But it does give me a somewhat different take on so called "illegal immigrants". And BTW I do not have ulcerative colitis.
I'm a mutt, several indian tribes, Swedish, English, German, French Canadian, and probably some more than that. The English side includes puritans that fled to Massachusetts and massacred indians, awkward.
We're all Africans with the same original ancestors. And we're all who we are through a million accidents of birth we had nothing to do with. There is nothing honorable to be gained from trying to obscure that fact by taking "pride" in who your ancestors mated and traveled with since then.
Mt wife has an amazing genealogy story I will cut short: She is Hispanic and was raised Catholic. But all of her fiends growing up were Jewish, her best friend today is Jewish, she married a Jewish man, (me) and she has raised our kids Jewish. 10 years ago she saw a Passover recipe in the paper that was the exact same recipe her Catholic mom taught her. We did a little research and most of her great uncles are named Benjamin, Abraham, etc. Turns out they were something called "Crypto Jews" These are the decedents of Sephardic Jews who were kicked out of Spain, eventually made their way to the New World, and many of whom went to the American Southwest - New Mexico, etc. They would pretend to be Catholic upstairs for fear of persecution, but still were practicing Jews in the basement. After many years, the Judaism faded for many. My wife's family is from New Mexico, and yes, they were in fact crypto-Jews we learned. I married a Jewish girl after all! Here is an L.A. Times story on the phenomena.
Interesting. I think a lot of us have Jewish at some point in our ancestory whether we admit it, or not. For some reason, my dad is in denial and it cracks me up. He has as Jewish of a nose as you'll find. I had never heard of "crypto-Jews" that was an interesting read.
I'm primarily German and Polish, but my grandma on my dad's side is half irish-half cherokee from N. Dakota. Which explains why me and my brothers get so dark we look like a brotha in the summer. I have literally never experienced a sun burn.
English and Irish on my Dad's side. Mom is Norwegian, born and raised. Swedish roots from my Grandfathers side.
Amazing story, Stevenson. Of course we are all African originally, but humans migrated and changed over the millenia. In fact all life forms on Earth, if you go back far enough, have a common ancestor.
I'm German and Finnish. My great grandfather was Mayor of Folsom, Ca. He was a cabinet maker, but transitioned to owning a funeral home (hey, a coffin is just a dead people cabinet.) My wife is a native of Britain, but she recently found out a lot of her ancestry is Jewish. Not a huge shock--her mom, her aunt, she and her sister have the distinctive nose. In three hundred years every single person on this planet will be a medium tan, and they'll all wonder at what "races" were.
Funny, mook, mystepmother was a mayor too, of West Hollywood (wealthy, liberal, and Jewish). A good friend of mine who lives in LA, hey, we all have faults, mentors recent immigrants from Latin America. He always comes to my Thanksgiving and sometimes brings a friend or two. One year he brought a young Guatemalan, indigenous, not Mestizo. Hair, skin and cheekbones were typical of indigenous American populations, but his eyes and nose were strkingly Middle Eastern. I know that both Jews and Muslims came to the Americas to escape religious persecution in Spain, mixed with the local population, and in one of those ironic twists life is so fond of, gradually many became Catholic. I asked my guest if he knew of any Jewish or Muslim ancestry in his family. He said he didn't, but really did not know the family history prior to his grandparents. Mook, your prediction has already partially come true. What we think of as "English" or "German" for example were once separate and sometimes warring tribes and clans. Does any English person know if he/she is of Norman or Saxon descent? They are all pretty well blended, although the English language still has distinctively Saxon and distinctively Norman words.
I am half English and half Irish. Born in England, son of an Irish woman. My mother's ancestors were part of the ConmhaÃcne Celtic tribe and owned a lot of land in Ireland. We also believe there is a castle in co. Wexford that was owned by one of her ancestor's. I don't know much about my father's side of the family but I always get the feeling we are descendants of people who lived near the Mediterranean -- olive skin, dark eyes, dark hair.
