Origins – Where Did My Ancestors Come From?

One of the reasons people begin genealogy research is to discover their family’s origins. This often entails discovering which foreign countries their ancestors arrived from. For some families, their arrival was recent enough that the information is known. Or others, the arrival was far in the past, perhaps even in American Colonial times. This can be more difficult if there are not many records to help determine this.

My father’s family
My father’s family is easy. His father’s line was from German states in Europe and they arrived in the 19^th Century. I have found church records in the U.S. that named their birthplaces and have found church records in their German hometowns. His mother’s line was from Ireland. These, too, were easy, as they also arrived in the 19^th Century, one group stopping off in Canada first. I don’t have ship arrival for these lines and can only trace them back to their country of origin.

My mother’s family
My mother’s side is far from easy. They have been in the U.S. since Colonial times. DNA suggests they were of English and Scottish ancestry and their surnames support that. However, I have not been able to research back to the immigrant ancestors. I can barely get back into the late 1700s on most lines as there are few records in the southern states they lived in. Online trees give me clues, but I want to find sources to help support those suppositions.

I created this chart from a Facebook meme suggested by J. Paul Hawthorne. While it doesn’t go back to the country of origin for all my ancestors, it suggests that by the mid-1800s, I know where my ancestors were living.

My husband’s father’s family
His father’s lines are English and German. He has some colonial ancestors from German states who arrived in the 1700s but I do not know their origins. His Davey English line came from Cornwall and I can trace them back to the late 1700s using parish records. I think I found part of the family arriving in the U.S. on a ship. The more recent German immigrants came from the Pfalz (Bavaria) and Württemberg in the mid-to-late 1800s.

My husband’s mother’s family
His mother’s lines are entirely Swedish. One line arrived in the mid-1800s and the other line came in the late 1800s. I can trace them back to their hometown. Because of the wonderful Swedish records, these lines have mostly been traced back several generations.

#52Ancestors-Week 2: Origins

This is my seventh year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

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