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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: KentishChris on Wednesday 05 September 12 07:23 BST (UK)
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Hi there,
So I've done a lot of research into both sides of my family. On my Mum's side, all roots are nearly back to 1800. On Dad's side it isn't as far back as that.
But ALL of my ancestors so far have been English.
Is this odd, because everyone I know has a foreign-born parent or grandparent, or knows that a far back ancestor is from abroad.
Nobody is 100% English, so I'm still waiting to find my first foreign-born ancestor! Has anyone else come across this? Is my situation more common that I thought, or is it quite rare?
Would be great to know and hear other's stories! ;D
Chris
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I think you will find it is quite common, at least as far back as traceable records are available. I remember a similar post some time ago and a lot of people had only found 'English' ancestors.
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Hi
Think it is going to be common for people away from cosmopolitan hotspots like bigger cities
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I have one Welsh gg grandmother who married a Scotsman in the 1830's
Apart from that all my other branches are totally English --in some cases back into the 1600's
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Every grandparent I've found so far has been English (and that includes the greats and the great greats etc) :)
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Same here. I'm glad to say some of mine seem to stay around the same villages right up to the 1600's
Carol
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My paternal line travelled from Suffolk to Essex to Dorset to Somerset to Devon to Wiltshire and back to Somerset. Still all English!
Mother was born in Wales, to parents from Wiltshire and Kent.
Best "foreigner" is G-G-Grandfather who was born on Jersey.
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I am half scottish and half yorkshire, does that disqualify me on both counts ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
mike
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Most of mine are from Kent or Devon. All but one were from the South of England (Watford being the furthest North) and the exception is an Irishman. Also, I have only found one that emigrated to Oz in the 1950's.
My lot are totally unadventurous. ::)
Rishile
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I have gone back at least five generations on all possible lines and every one of my ancestors is English. In my wife's case the story is similar except we have a possible immigrant from Belgium in the middle of the 17th century.
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All of mine are English (some lines back to 1600's). Same with OH, although one branch does come from the Scilly Isles, does that count as overseas? ;)
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Mostly English, with a bit of Welsh, OH's ancestors are mainly from Yorkshire but with a bit of Norfolk to spice it up. He thinks I'm foreign as I was born in Lancashire ;D
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English on my side, supposedly all Sussex born and bred. My Knapp family begin spelling their surname with a K c1750, by 1780 they are plain Napp until about the mid 1800's when the K re-appears ??? As I'm stuck on Samuel born c1750 who knows ???
My husbands side, has a Portuguese sailor born c1811, not surprising as his future mother in law ran a Thameside tavern, I think he hopped off his ship, took one look at the landlady's daughter and never went home ;D
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All English with the odd Welsh thrown in back to the 1600's. All mine stayed pretty much in the same county for generations.
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Dad's line pure Yorkshire until they came to Canada. Mom's line from London with some contenental mixing. The other foreign born due to fathers in miliatry but still pure English.
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I'm English,Scottish and Welsh! ;D And my stepdad has Irish in him ;D
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All of my ancestors on both sides are English too, going back into the mid 18th Century, except for my great grandfather who was born in Germany in 1860. All I know is that he married my great grandmother in 1893 in Liverpool and retained his German nationality until his death in Liverpool in 1922. I've not had much luck tracing his ancestry so his 'line' remains a mystery - at least for the time being. Apart from him, my ancestors were pretty unadventurous too.
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Most of mine are Welsh but I do have ancestors from Staffordshire as well.I've made more progress with those from Staffordshire too.Two lines well into the 1500's
William Russell Jones.
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Thanks for all the replies! ;D
Maybe it is more common that I first thought!
It's just I see all these stories of ancestors who came from all over the world.
My Mum's side is 90%+ London.
I was actually surprised when I finally found someone outside of London ;D
It's interesting to hear all these stories! They've made who we are today, and we should all be proud of where we come from, wherever it is in the world! :)
If anyone else has any more stories, please feel free to add!
Chris
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Referring to the Isles of Scllly it is over a little part of the sea, more sea than the Isle of Wight I admit, but it is part the constituency of Andrew George, Member of (Westminster) Parliament in his constituency of West Cornwall and the Scilly Islands. In the fairly recent past it has had different taxation than the mainland.
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I have found only 1 Scottish ancestor so far stretching back to 1770, not bad for a family full of McDonald's and Ferguson's...and the one Scottish ancestor isn't even from one of these families! In fact the Ferguson's and McDonald's don't appear to have strayed more than a 10 mile radius for nearly 150 years!
....and they have been pauping for many years too! ;D I am following in the family tradition at the moment too! LOL
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On my father's side - grandfather is all English, grandmother is Irish and Finn.
On my mother's side it's a mishmatch of English and Irish.
Some Ancestors I haven't located records for prior to Australia. (Likely to be English and Irish)
Mick
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I am pure Welsh !! On many lines back to the 1600's.
It would be so much easier if I had some English names or places.
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Referring to the Isles of Scllly it is over a little part of the sea, more sea than the Isle of Wight I admit, but it is part the constituency of Andrew George, Member of (Westminster) Parliament in his constituency of West Cornwall and the Scilly Islands. In the fairly recent past it has had different taxation than the mainland.
And a party to one of the world's longest wars - 335 years!
Apparently, the Isles of Scilly were signatories on the original Declaration of War against The Netherlands (or the United Provinces as it was known at that time).
Nobody included them in the Peace Treaty!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Hundred_and_Thirty_Five_Years%27_War
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Of the 67 direct line ancestors that I can trace they all are English except my father who was born half a mile over the border in Scotland. His brother and sister were both English. The surprising thing is that of the 67, about 85 percent of them were born within ten miles of Scotland -- in Carlisle.
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Its perfectly common.
I have to go back to the twelfth century to find my first known non English-born ancestor (www.genealogy.mallen.org.uk/407390760-AlanLaZouche.html (http://www.genealogy.mallen.org.uk/407390760-AlanLaZouche.html)).
Of course all the lines where I'm stuck in the 16th/17th/18th century may have far more recent ones, but as the majority are all families that have been in the same small villages in the Peak District from then to now (and usually with other people of the same surname living thereabouts much earlier), I don't think its too likely.
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Once you've gone back half a dozen centuries, the definition of 'English' becomes rather vague, considering that parts of France were under English rule, and vice versa ;)
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I have a Scottish born ancestor born in 1738 and a French ancestor born in 1724 and came to England in 1752. His wife was London born to a French father and an English mother of French parentage.
Rest that I know of are English, from Dorset to durham.