Your Heritage

[Ormond]

My Wife is absolutely obsessed with her ancestry, as are most Yanks(understandably). It's something that I don't have the great desire to do myself. As far as I know, all of my known relatives are of Scottish heritage except my Grandmother who is Irish. My surname is a Scottish name but I think it may have French connections too.
The question is, where is your ancestry from and do you feel any great pull towards that place?

[wanderer]

Almost all my family is of Scottish roots (some Irish links on my grandmothers side as a Great Grandfather came from Cork way, but upon investigation it was found that he was Scottish and went out to Ireland before WW1 and returned to Scotland afterwards) with my mum the only one not born in Scotland (she is was born in Ghana after my grandfather worked for Tate & Lyle after the war and they lived in Ghana for most of the 1950's).

My uncle (mums brother) who grew up in Ghana has often talked about going back out there to see where they lived, but seems like only me and him are the ones interested in doing this and just never got around to doing it.

Would say a interest at best, but no great pull towards it.

Edited December 26, 2015 by wanderer

[neil r]

Spot of Irish way back when. Means diddly squat though.

[newtownards]

It's the sort of thing folk find interesting about the own personal family history. .....

But are bored shitless on others!

[munroskh]

My Mum's side are from Norn Ireland, my Dad was meant to have a granny from Portugal, but I have still to do my family tree.

Went on business years ago to Lugano in Ticino Switzerland, and the area felt 'right', I even enquired about getting a transfer there, but the company got sold.

My ex ( from an Eire heritage), developed a medical condition, and there were concerns that my kids could develop it, so they were given genetic screening.

My Son was told by his doctor that he had a very unusual gene, which was usually found in a small area of Southern Switzerland/Northern Italy, which encompasses Lugano, go figure!

[Toepoke]

Several generations of Kintyre folk on my dad's.

Mix of ancestry from Ayrshire, Cornwall and County Kerry on mum's.

[tangerinetartan]

Mums from Maryhill dad from govan ,thank phuk I was born in dundee

[Squirrelhumper]

My grandads family immigrated from Italy in 1902. He was one of 9 children. First 5 were Italian born, last 4 were born in Saltcoats.

My grans family were of irish heritage although she was born here.

Other side are all Scottish born although my dad was born in Toronto as my grandparents emigrated there. They returned when he was 2 as my gran was homesick.

[aaid]

I've been doing genealogical research for around 10 years now and have had some real success in tracing back my family tree on my father's side.

I've a real interest in social history so I find putting the two together, using your own ancestors history to get an idea of the sort of lives ordinary people lived fascinating.

For anyone interested in doing so it's really easy to get started but I'd caution that it can get expensive and quite frustrating as you will hit brick walls that you can't get past for months, years or ever. Then again, you pick up one piece of information and follow that thread and suddenly a whole load of new people suddenly appear.

It's also possible that you may find out things about ancestors including people you know that are not what you originally believed. Expect skeletons to come out of the closet and be prepared to handle that, once you start looking at birth certificates all,sorts of hidden secrets are revealed.

7 of my fathers 8 grandparents were first or second generation Irish immigrants, the other i've back to Fife in the 16th century. They all ended up moving to Glasgow in the second half of the 19th Century.

There's a real mix of "Southern" Irish Catholics, Church of Ireland Anglo-Irish and Ulster Scots Presbyterians - who originated in Galloway.

Through that line, it looks like I'm descended from this guy.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fergus_of_Galloway

[Toepoke]

Apparently some of my great great etc. uncles were Irish Republicans, among the original Fenians. They were also Protestants!

[aaid]

Apparently some of my great great etc. uncles were Irish Republicans, among the original Fenians. They were also Protestants!

I have the same. Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (Catholics) and Ulster Scots Protestants who fought at the Boyne and the siege of Derry - including one of the 13 apprentice boys.

Edited December 27, 2015 by aaid

[ErsatzThistle]

Apparently some of my great great etc. uncles were Irish Republicans, among the original Fenians. They were also Protestants!

They were brave and bold enough to take a stand against the British Empire with it's powerful landowners, army and police - a fight against overwhelming odds. You should be very proud of them.

Many of the original Irish republicans were Protestants including: Theobold Wolfe Tone, Thomas Davis, William Smith O'Brien, James Napper Tandy, Henry Joy McCracken and Robert Emmett. And not forgetting Charles Parnell.

The 1914 purchase of old German rifles eventually used by the heroes of Easter 1916 was partly financed by a Protestant nationalist from Belfast called F. J. Biggar.

[Bristolhibby]

Scottish as far as I know. My Nanas dad was Irish, and I know very little about him (them). Surname was Harper.

J

[Louch]

I am adopted by my birth mum. First one to solve it gets a swizzle stick or half a Freddo

[giblet]

Have done quite a bit of research. My Dad was told we came fro Orkney stock however that was blown away by what I found. Got us back to the start of the 18 the century to a wee village called Pettinain near Carnwath.

I visited there and saw a wee cottage that still stands where my ancestors lived. Worst part was seeing that they moved to Gorgie later on in that Century.

On my mums side, found out I had a link to the Quintesshill rail disaster. William McEwan died in that fire. He was the father of my Grandads sister. My Grandad was born 12 months later and my great aunt in her later years ( she died aged 99 last Boxing Day) talked of her mother being close with an Italian priest in High school yards, Edinburgh.

We have often joked how Italian my Grandad looked. Definitely going to do that gene test one day!

[Scunnered]

My mum done a lot of research on our family a few years back but I've never really shown much interest.

My mums side she could trace back to the 18th century and Clan Kincaid. Interestingly every generation of her family right up to her own brother has contained a "David" who she believes was the chief of the clan Kincaid during the Jacobite rising. It's also my middle name.

My dads side of the family she could only trace back to my great great grandad who was a French naval sailor who retired as a fisherman on the Isle of Lewis. Continuing with the theme of family traits, I'm the only male in that side of the family traceable who hasn't served in the French or British Navy.

[teecee-]

Traced fathers side back to IOM in the 1840s then on to Galloway.

On mothers side no birth dates available for Irish migration in late 19th century.

Also discovered a Great Grandmother who died in labour at 23 [ her 3rd child].

[fishcumnock]

Traced mine years ago , last one I got was a pirate called red MacPherson.

I like that .

[Fairbairn]

I'm led to believe that their is Irish heritage on my Mum's maternal grandparents side and Spanish on the paternal side. My old man never knew his so not much information I can glean from there.

[min]

I've been working on my family genealogy for about five years now and have about 2000 names in the tree.

All 16 of my Gt. Gt. Grandparents were born within a 30 mile radius of Aberden. Further back, there are links to Caithness cave dwellers, travellers from Northumbria and servants in the royal household in London. Sections of my mother's DNA also closely resembles people from the Balkans.

I find the subject fascinating and feel like I've hardly scratched the surface.

[hunchy]

I am adopted by my birth mum. First one to solve it gets a swizzle stick or half a Freddo

Your mum remarried and your stepdad adopted you as a result your birthmum would have to adopt you as well

[Huddersfield]

I did a bit of digging around a while ago & the whole thing is interesting. I've got one part of my family that never moved out of the little Pennine village where my dad grew up (Honley). Mainly farmers but some obvious scandals & difficulties show up down the years.

On other sides though lots of itinerant workers born all over the place. My granny on my dad's side seems to not exist...I knew she was abandoned as a baby & grew up in Liverpool; my dad thought she was originally from Belfast (maiden name McGuinness) but not a trace of her exists (as far as I could find anyway) up until her marriage.

My wife's family are Irish (she was the first one born in England) & there's also a very long tradition of Republicanism which is still strong in the family; I remember her Granny talking about the Black & Tan days in Co. Wexford as a small child & at least one of my wife's great-grandparents was arrested for IRA membership around the Civil War times.

I'd love to get time to go down both sides of our family properly one of these days.

[mariokempes56]

I was knitted.

[Ormond]

As far as i know most if not all my ancestry comes from scotland, my surname buchan comes from the northeast of scotland going back to the 11th century, a school teacher once told me it is one of the oldest documented surnames in scotland but have never found evidence to back that up,,, i have mclean,cruickshank,forbes,gatt,cameron in my heritage, the only one im not sure of is porter on my fathers side, could be scottish or irish,,,i believe as i think its a break off of the mcnaughting clan but not too sure

A quick Google says Porter is English in origin.

[fishcumnock]

As English as morris dancing .