I realized in someone's thread that I had a really cool idea for a twist to toss his direction--but it would require me to know something about him, and I couldn't ask him outright without giving away the twist. It occurred to me, too, that I have wanted to know things about players in the past, and not been able to determine them easily. Thus I am starting a new set of sticky threads specifically to get personal details from people.
No you do not have to participate, but doing so will enhance the ability of your referee to run your game. And no, you do not have to answer all of the questions nor all of the threads to participate. I recognize that people do want a certain amount of privacy, and might not be comfortable posting personal details of their lives on the Internet. So post what you want, and leave the rest for guesses.
If you are not playing in a Multiverser game, this thread is not intended for you. If you wish to play, you should start with the threads Yes, You Can Play, But.... and The Character Generation Thread to begin your involvement, then come back to these threads to expand your identity.
This thread is about your ancestry. I am particularly interested in your national origin, or the blending of national origins that comprise your family. It would also be valuable to know if you have specific ancestors who might be well known, or who did something significant. Even trivial details might be useful at some point. Since it is possible for you to find yourself in a historic version of our world, it is possible for you to cross paths with your own ancestors, and that can also be interesting.
Questions to consider:
- What is your national/subracial origin, in general terms, and how does it divide between your parents and grandparents? Where do you get these?
- What is the national origin or your surname, that is, is your name originally English, or does it reflect a thread of your ancestors from some other part of the world?
- Do you have any famous ancestors who might show up in a history book somewhere?
- Do you know what any of your specific ancestors did that was notable, or any of their professions?
- Where did they live, and when did they migrate? Do you know what caused them to move to wherever you are?
I will begin.
--M. J. Young
I am a thoroughbred mutt--well, not quite. My ancestry is all European, as far as can be traced.
A significant chunk comes from the fact that my mother is 5/8s Italian. Her father came to America with his father, at thirteen years of age; his four brothers were all born here. They built a small farm in Schenectady, New York, which remained in the family until sometime in the last twenty years. I have dear memories of the 1212 Raymond Street house. They were looking for economic opportunity at the dawn of the twentieth century. My grandfather's wife was also one quarter Italian, although less is certain about her. For her entire life she was said to be French, but it now appears that her mother lied on immigration papers, that they were actually Austrian but immigration restrictions were not as tight for French immigrants. Thus the 3/16s French I thought I got from her was actually Austrian.
I am still, however, very French, as my father's mother has deep roots in the Louisana Territory and her maiden name, Door, is apparently of French origin. How much French she was, and what else might have been mixed therein, is unclear to me. However, given that Mississippi law in the early twentieth century declared someone to be "black" if they were 1/16th black (and thus had one black great-great grandparent or two black great-great-great grandparents), and neither of my grandparents were so identified, it is likely that they were of pure European extract.
All the English comes with the name, from my father's father, and it is apparently not purely English--it is a mix of British Isles, Irish, Welsh, English, and Scottish, in proportions unknown to me. My father's father's father was a circuit rider in Tennessee and Mississippi, preaching the gospel (I believe Southern Baptist) and serving in several churches. My grandparents on that side were next door neighbors, but seventeen years apart in age. Her four older sisters all married and moved into consecutive addresses on Sycamore Street in Sardis, but one of the conditions in his proposal was that they would not live there. They took a place across town. He was eventually president of the local bank, helped finance the local lumber company, and provided the initial financing for Sardis Luggage, which eventually became Starflight Luggage. He also privately produced a few recordings of himself singing hymns, and his voice was much-praised. They are both rooted in America as far back as we have been able to trace their lines.
My mother's father is somehow connected to the invention of the machine that imprints words on pencils. He was a machinist who could accurately estimate by eye the length of a piece of metal to the nearest sixteenth of an inch. Periodically when something went wrong with someone's pencil printing equipment they would call him to come fix it, and he would bring us boxes of misprinted pencils.
His family came from Napoli.
My father left the southern states and came north because he was hired by a company in New York City after graduating with his electrical engineering degree from Georgia Tech. My mother graduated from City College of New York at nineteen, and worked as an efficiency expert for I think General Electric. Both eventually got graduate degrees. My father holds patents in focusing microwaves with metal lenses, but no one focuses microwaves that way; he worked in the computers field starting in the late 1960s, and is conversant in several machine languages. My mother went into teaching after we were no longer children, mostly as a very busy substitute.
--M. J. Young
I am a mutt as well, partially.
My father, Michael, was born Mixali Lambrianos, in Paphos, Cyprus. His father, Arestes, was a soldier in the war to repel the Turks. He is one of two brothers, four sisters in his family, the elder male and third eldest overall. I am likewise the third eldest in my generation, as I have two cousins who are older, though one (Angela) only by a matter of months.
My mother is the mutt.
Her mother is Irish, as her father's family descended from County Cork, and Scottish, as her father was descended from Clan MacGregor, with probably a bit of English mixed in simply due to the English having their way with both countries over the years.
Her father is even more of a mutt. His father was Pennsylvania Dutch and Susquehannock Native American. His mother was pureblood Italian, if I remember correctly.
My maternal grandfather was a teacher of German and a missile engineer, stationed in Germany after WWII. As far as I know, he never saw combat, though his father, who was an artillery commander, did. My great-grandfather, who was also a Harry, spoke and wrote fluent Japanese. My great-grandmother spoke near-fluent Italian and I'm told she sang opera in her younger days.
My maternal grandmother is, sadly, almost wholly unremarkable, having been a housewife all her life.
My paternal grandparents are similarly unremarkable people, the only exceptions being my grandfather's history in the Cypriot military and his lasting gratitude toward Russia, a political affiliation that no doubt caused him some depth of trouble.
My father is currently remarried, living in Kentucky with his new wife and their four adopted children, all very young. I'm told my two eldest brothers are becoming quite adept sportsmen and martial artists, and my eldest brother is a fair hand with an epee.
My mother is currently single, lives alone with her cats, and is an as-yet-unpublished amateur writer.
My family is German. Cross used to Kraus once upon a time. That's about all I know.
As I'm going to start this again, I think it would be fun to share my ancestry, as far as I know of it.
I have a rather dual, contrasted ancestry, as lots of Belgians have. There is no such thing as a long-lasting Belgian bloodline as our country only became independant in 1830. Before we were part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which now isn't as united anymore. Yet our own country is not that united anymore either, being without governement for quite some time now ...
Anyway, what I'm coming at is that in Belgium, most people have Dutch, French or German heritage, and in some regions Italian, because they came to work in the coal-mines. But that's not my region of origin.
As far as I know I have a twofold origin. One part Dutch and one part French.
The Dutch part is from my mother's side. Her parents' parents were Dutch, but my grandmother and grandfather were born in Belgium, more specific in Antwerp. Through that familyline I have distinct Reformed protestant influences. As far as I know that goes untill my grandparents. My mother wasn't as interrested at that, even though she was raised in it and followed it by tradition. Wich wasn't easy in Belgium, a Catholic country. (This has it's origins at the religious purifications that the Duke of Alva, who was Spanish, did for the preservation of the Catholic faith. Interresting history for alot of people I suppose. Certainly interresting times to live in. It was during that time that the Dutch equivalent of the KJV was written, mostly by Belgians, but Belgium didn't exist yet back then ...)
What I was coming to. My grandmother's family was severely opressed for being protestant believers. My great-grandfather (or his father) was banned by the Catholic church, which meant that people wouldn't buy stuff at his place etc..., my grandmother was harrassed at school and even my mother was harrassed at school, by her teachers!
My great-grandfather (whoem I never knew, was a master woodworker, making windowframes and doors and other things. He was very wanted because he could plan or lay-out the entire work that had to be done in a newly built house on a little ruler of about an inch long or something.
The rest of my grandmother's family was fairly simple but loving. A hospitable house, and known in their village (Edegem). Dispite their hospitable and loving appearance and nature, there has been a sequence of suicides in that branch of the family. Maybe they bore the load of the problems of other people togheter with their own.
This is the part of the family I know most about, because I like to hear my grandmother tell about the old days, and she loves to tell about it. There is lots more, but not coherent.
The side of my grandfather on my mother's side was more 'dignified'. They were learned and serious. My grandfather was an office clerk when he met my grandmother, who worked as either a seamstress or in the factory that made 'Bakeliet' (the predessor of plastic). His mother didn't approve of their love. She didn't approve of much, being a hard-core reformed protestant I believe that she probably didn't even believe in the concept of grace either. :-s
On my father's side my origin would be French, or rather Bourgondy. I have a bit of Nobility in me (or at least in my surname 'Bourguignon'). They have an interresting history of their own, partly in the city were I was raised (Mechelen) as Margereth of Austria would have been a far removed aunt of me as she raised the young Charles the Fifth (I think), who is the least favored by children as he was the ruler who made schooling obligated.
As to my grandparents, they sure lived the Bourgondy way. Wine and greasy food. That's the part of the family I know little about because they didn't let us visit there often because of alcoholism. What I do know is that my grandfather on that side had 6 brothers and a sister or something. One of them is a barber, one of them a Catholic priest, one of them has a restaurand "The court of Burgoundy") and about the others I don't know.
My father is a barber and runs his own business. My aunt (his sister) and my sister as well as my stephmother work there. His other brothers are out of a job, one an alcoholic and the second one a recovering alcoholic with a body thus far damaged by drinking that he isn't able to work. My fathers parents ran a liquor store.
That should be it. It has potential for stories I think.
Nikolaj Bourguignon
I'm a mix of European ancestries, Italian and Irish on my dad's side (Italian from my grandfather, who died when my dad was a kid, and Irish from my grandmother). A bunch of different ones on my mom's, since one set of ancestors, the Reeses (maternal grandmother's side), have been in America since the 1600s. Thomas Rees came to PA from Wales, with William Penn, in 1686, and settled in Chester County. Five generations later, Ely Rees took his family west, and eventually ended up in Potter County, PA. (I chuckle at the idea of western PA being part of the great untamed frontier, but it was at the time.) There's also Swedish on my maternal grandfather's side, and German in there somewhere.
Nothing necessarily notable, except the ancestor who probably knew William Penn. The thing about this that I find particularly neat, but wouldn't mean much to verser Kelly is that my husband also has ancestors who came over with William Penn. I get a kick out of the idea that our ancestors might even have known each other, and find it neat that I both married into a family of Quakers and have Quaker ancestors. Verser Kelly didn't date Matt long enough to know any of the family history. She knows her family history, of course, but the fact that she has Quaker ancestors didn't occur to her. When Matt's dad was showing him some family records and mentioned an ancestor who'd come over with William Penn, that sparked a renewed interest in my own family tree, since I knew I had an ancestor who'd done the same, and I started looking a few more things up.
My last name, Tessena, is Italian, but having learned a little something about languages, I think that either the spelling or the pronunciation got screwed up somewhere, but I don't know enough about that side of the family (or about Italian for that matter) to know for sure. It's pronounced "tuh-SEE-nuh," even though that doesn't quite work with continental vowels (should be more like tay-say-nah, I think, though I don't know where the stresses would fall). I've seen people misspell it as Tacina, which probably matches the pronunciation better.
The Anonymous one is mine, there was a problem with my account back then...
Well mine is simple as I don't know much about my family ancestry, I will put what I know down.
My mothers side is Irish 100%, Keller, Irish name, long line of cops, military guys, etc.
Father's: Romanian 50%, Lithuanian 50%. Know nothing of that family history, cept a lot of military and my father mouthing off to a drill Sargent and getting punched in the jaw so hard, that it needed to be wired back together :P.
Notable family members, grandfather George F, installed the antennae on the Empire State Building. Was one of the first 20 people in the US to have a color TV, as he worked as an engineer installing TV antennas'. Cousin John, lifelong PA State Trooper, His father owned a 200 acre farm near Harrisburg. That's all I know concrete.
It seems part of my family seemed always to live in and around Mechelen (Mechelin in English), where I am also living right now. If I can believe my father and his father, that family was part of the nobility of those days. Some of the big names in the Wikipedia article about Mechelen would be family, ar Margeret of Austria and Charles Quint and the court of Burgundy.
The wikipedia link is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechelen