What's Your Heritage?

Do you all know of any good websites for looking up family records?

My heritage is Irish & Italian or Gaelic & Garlic as we sometimes refer to it. My Dad's Father was from Palermo. His Mother was from Sicily. My Mom's family hailed from Ireland. County Cork & County Kerry.

AveMariaMag7-Well thanks! I have always been interested in genealogy. I am (not a white supremacist) very proud of my Norse ancestors, the brave and folly LOL.

Another Mary-With all of my Dutch, German, and English descent, it's safe to say German since all of them are Germanic.

The Holy War 11
I second Another Mary's opinion. It was a great idea. So many stories to tell, so many heritages to share. I'm glad you started this group.

l may have Spanish roots, but I, too, love the Irish and their heritage. I even married an Irishman! (second generation).

Hi Pa Newman
My parents were actually born in Mexico but their ancestors came from Spain and except on my fathers side (which I'm not that sure of) all intermarried with Spaniards.
A couple of areas or towns (I'm not sure of the geographical description) called Arizcun and Garzain seems to be the place of my ancestors in Spain. I believe it is in the Basque area. Near the French border. I've never been there but my niece has been in contact with people from there. That's how she got further information and was directed to finding Baptismal records.

I speak Spanish, too. It was in fact my first language. My brother wanted to tape my father's experiences but my dad passed away before he got around to it. Now my brother, too, is gone. My dad used to talk about the past but we never got around to recording all the details. Once, he was kidnapped by Apaches and taken blindfolded to their camp when he was mayor of a small town. Because one Indian recognized him as the man who had given them sacks of seeds for planting, he was released at the edge of town. One small good deed saved his life.

Yes, I agree, The past is part of our heritage. and as one family member from the past once put it. "The past makes us part of who we are" He said it more poetically but I can't find the original letter off-hand.

LOL what I meant to say in my previous post and got sidetracked is that Germany's fluid borders have changed enough over the years that some Germans are actually something else. I guess that can be said about other countries, too.

Mary Virginia--You bring up an interesting point regarding your Dutch German. My "German" GGfather actually considered himself Prussian but spoke German. He was the Catholic and when he married my Irish GGmother shr converted. Actually, HER mother was Irish Catholic and her father was an Irish anti -Catholic Protestant. Oh there are some interesting stories in our pasts!

Holy War 11-- Creating this group was a good idea. I think there are a lot of interesting bits we can share concerning our heritages!

From what I know I'm Russian.

Do you know from what part of Spain? My roots are also Spanish in our case from the province of Caceres in Estremadura.It sounds like your family has been here a long time.I'm second generation,but still speak Spanish.My grandparents were from the "old country" they came here (to California) by way of Hawaii. At that time laborers were needed for the cane fields and recruiters were sent to Spain. There was a large group of Spaniards that immigrated to CA by way of Hawaii.Most of them settled in farming regions of the state. I went back to the village my family is from several years back, met people who remembered my family and heard stories etc from the past. I hope to go back some day and take my now adult children.
I enjoy family history it 's sad when I meet people who really don't know much about their ancestry. It's part of one's heritage it is a shame to lose it.

My total roots are from Spain.
My niece has been big on genealogy and has traced as far back as Adam and Eve (kidding). Actually she has gone to 1645 with a birthdate but has gone further from there (relative #204) way beyond to relative #1022 & #1023 (husband and wife)

Nos. 1022 and 1023 would be my Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great- (count of 7 Greats) Grandfather and Grandmother. Their names were Juan Garcia and Maria Teresa Lopez. We have no dates only the names.

The last one we had the date for (1645)(#204) would be my Great-Great-Great-Great-Great- (count of 5 Greats) grandfather. Martin de Yriarte Oriar.

On my Mother's side our most famous ancestor was St. Francis Xavier.
On my Father's side our most famous ancestor was Joaquin Murrieta. (California's Robin Hood of El Dorado) (But he has been called by more ignoble names.)

There is a way of calculating the #'s on relatives to make family tree lists.
That in itself is interesting

For instance I would be #1. (one always starts from # 1/ourselves)
My parents would be Father #2 and Mother #3
From then on you double the number for THEIR father plus 1 for THEIR mother.
The parents of #2 would be Father #4 and Mother #5
I believe that's the way professional genealogists number their findings.
I bought a book on how to set up the family tree books, but have passed on the job to my niece. She's a real detective and has gotten old baptismal records from Churches Those are the best sources because governments from long ago were not that keen on records as the Churches were.

Genealogy is so much fun and so interesting.
I would recommend that you converse much with your grandparents.
After they are gone (as we all must go someday) you will never get the opportunity to dig further into family history and interesting tidbits of your past.

Good luck and enjoy your travel into the past.