heidikins.com

I love this post! It is all so interesting. I don’t think my mom’s side of the family can be traced much past my great-grandparents since both of her parents’ families immigrated over around the turn of the century and their names got changed at Ellis Island. On my dad’s side it’s pure British all the way back and I think it would probably be pretty easy to trace.

I did have to write a paper on my family history in high school and so I know, or at least knew and still have recorded somewhere, the history of my family through great grandparents. But I don’t know where any of my grandparents are buried, much less great grandparents. I think my grandparents were cremated.

Interesting questions!

As you already know, I’m half Chinese, half white.
My mother was born and raised in Taiwan, and her parents are originally from mainland China (Grandma from Beijing, Grandpa from a province called Anhui). My Grandma’s mom escaped to Taiwan from China with only her daughter (my Grandma) and two pieces of luggage. One piece of luggage had all their clothes, etc. in it. The other bag had all their family photos and records in it. When they arrived at the boat they were leaving on, officers only let my great Grandma take one bag, and threw the other one away…sadly that was the bag with all the family photos in it. I do know that further down the line my geneology on my mom’s side can be traced back to an Emporer of China in the Tang Dynasty. Cool, huh?
As for my dad, he is originally from Idaho, born and raised…on a farm. Then his family moved to Utah. Looking back at our geneology I am actually a great, great, great, great (I don’t really know how many “great”s) grand-daughter of Hyrum Smith, Joseph Smith’s brother. I think that is kind of interesting too.
I love thinking about our ancestors. It really reminds me how proud I am to be who I am and to be where I am from. I deeply appreciate the sacrifices and hard work our ancestors gave for us. Great post heidikins!

That’s awesome that your Aunt has traced your genaology so far back. My mom is in charge of the family tree on my side and I don’t think it goes that far back, but it’s still always interesting to look at and know where I’ve come from.

My grandmother immigrated from Austria to escape Jewish persecution (lucky for her, the rest of her family were killed in Auschwitz). Which means I my friend am half Jewish, which thrills Aaron for some reason. Whenever we talk about having kids he says “I just can’t wait to meet our brown curly-haired Jew!”

When I took a Global History class online last semester, I realized that with all the massive, massive immigration that took place in the past, the wars, raping, pillaging, lines crossing, movement from one area of Greece, Europe, Ancient Middle East, Europe, etc., there is a slim chance that anyone is a purebred person. Even royals. Remember how royals often married their children to royals from other kingdoms to solidify the land inheritance? Mixed marriages. Remember the Peloponnesian War? Mixed Greek states. The Ancient Middle east? Lots of moving around and marrying of klans to other klans. Perhaps the Inuits are original because they’ve presumably lived in the same place since Antiquity? Even my husband’s ancestry in SouthEast Asia, where the same people hold the same land for generations…this area probably has less, but there is mixing between Nepalese, Burmese, Hindu-Indians, Muslim-Bengalis, it’s just not that big a change, but it’s still mixing. Also, there is no recorded history, only oral ones. In Africa, there is probably intermarriage between some tribes, but not as much, for example, black and white, per se, although it happens. Still, mixing. It seems like racism has increased over time, not decreased, and people like Hitler don’t know history well. OOPS!

I also am very proud of Aunt S.’s work. Since I moved to NY I have found my family name in prominance here. It turns out my surname has known roots here! There is a girl who lives in this city who is an Assistant DA, who has my same first and last name, we use the same pharmacy, which is confusing, we live in close to the same area, I get Alumni calls for her all the time and once I got a collections call for her when she was late making a payment on a student loan. I had to prove I wasn’t her! A picture of her was in the newspaper last year and my colleagues accused me of moonlighting as a lawyer!

I’m a bit of a mutt too. But mostly a German, English, and Irish mutt. We had info going back maybe to my great-great-great grandparents, but recently I found a website by someone of my name in the States who has information about people going even further back. Which is very cool.

You’re lucky you can call yourself American – NZ is so young that even though we’re all very staunch about our New Zealander-ness it’s still very … well, not important but it is an issue where our roots were. I guess most of us don’t have deep roots in the country yet unless we’re Maori. Hard to explain. I’m not German, I’m not English, I’m not Irish, but I can’t exactly say I’m 100% New Zealander yet.