RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Annie65115 on Monday 15 February 16 19:41 GMT (UK)
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Having moved around a bit when I was a child and not being "allowed" (by my parents) to "belong" in the place where I eventually grew up, I had felt a bit rootless. Doing FH has helped me ground myself better and I do feel now that I know where I'm from (it also happens to be the place where I was born but that was not a foregone conclusion!)
Looking at this from the point of view of roots -- where are you from?
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Like you - my husband feels 'rootless' --- his father spent his career in the RAF - then my husband was made to join as soon as he was old enough. As a result the family were always on the move -- not only from place to place - but also from country to country.
He has no old 'schoolfriends' -- he was never anywhere long enough to make lasting childhood friendships and envies those of us, like me - who still live in the place they were actually born! He was born in Dublin though - and all his ancestors whom I have been able to find - are from Southern Ireland. However he doesn't seem to have an affinity for Ireland - in that he returned to Ireland for the first time last year. He had been a toddler when he left.
All my ancestors are from the North of England, also Scotland and Ireland. Hence I am definitely a child of the North of UK.
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Sussex born and bred ;D and there's the rub, you're either from East Sussex or West Sussex. The two are not quite the same ;D
I can remember when I was small my Dad saying that his father nearly had a fit when our family moved over the County border from East to West. I was born on the West side of the County, that made me a "furriner" ;D
Looking at the family Granddad's roots are actually in the Western side of the County back to the mid 1750's but I don't think he would have known that. When his father, my great grandpa was born Sussex was still one County, not being administratively divided until 1888/9.
Suey
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I feel rootless too. Although for different reasons. I lived in the same house for the first 23 years of my life. I now live in the same village although on the opposite side. You'd think this would make me feel like I belong but it doesn't.
Neither of my parents grew up in the village, in fact they are from different counties. I spent my childhood being told by my classmates and their parents that as an interlouper I wasn't welcome. It then came to a head at the referendum with a group of people telling me I wasn't welcome in Scotland, that I wasn't a proper Scot because I married an Englishman, death threats included. So I don't even have a country to belong to. The problem is I don't belong anywhere else because I didn't grow up anywhere else and most of my family are from Scotland. Although they are from all over so I can't even say my ancestral roots are from any place in particular.
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I'm from London.
No matter where I live or work, that's what I say when anyone asks me.
(though great grandparents from Belgium, Essex, Rutland, Kent, as well as the great Metrolops, which was where they all ended up)
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Almost all my near ancestors were from London, but it didn't take much research to find most of the families had moved there a generation or two back, from various parts of southern England, in the early years of the Industrial Revolution.
After moving to my present home I was fascinated to discover that ancestors from both my parent's lines had lived in this or neighbouring villages a couple of centuries ago. Talk about a small world :)
So, as an incomer, I'm more 'local' than most of the locals ;D
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I was born in London, but my parents moved to Essex while I was still young. From there I lived in Kent, Surrey, Suffolk and Wiltshire before moving to Scotland almost 20 years ago. Most of the moves were with my husbands job. So I would say I'm rootless too!
I have been asked if I would want to move back to England, and I must say that I have no desire to and when I go 'down' to visit family and friends in the south I need to take a deep breath to face the traffic, busyness etc.
Although my roots are nowhere I know my heart is now in Scotland!
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My initial answer is usually 'Broome'. This often triggers the secondary question: 'Where originally?' to which I reply 'Oxford (England), but I've lived in other places too.'
OH is originally from Liverpool (England). 'So where did you two meet?' 'Felixstowe (England).'
My son gets asked 'Are you really a Pom? You don't sound/act like one!' Reply: 'Not entirely, I'm a Kiwi as well.' ???
OH and I still feel a connection to the towns we grew up in, but home is where the heart is, and the people who matter most to me are here.
Carol
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I'm Australian, so like the song, "from all the lands we come". I was born and bred, and have lived my whole life, in Adelaide. My parents and grandparents were all born in South Australia as well, so I guess my "roots" are here. But my ancestral roots are spread over England, Scotland, Ireland, and Sweden.
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My ancestors are all from the South of England - I have not yet found one born north of Watford. Which probably explains why I always feel uncomfortable when I go 'up North'.
My father's line moved around quite a lot from Kent, Essex, London, Watford and Devon. My mother's line stayed in Devon for as far back as I have gone so far then my grandfather moved to Kent. Strangely, both lines lived in a small village in Devon for a couple of generations. Maybe they knew each other.
I find it incredible that my parents managed to meet each other.
Rishile
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My mother was born in Dublin, my dad in Kerry, they met and married in London and emigrated to Melbourne, Australia where there was no family at all. I am a Melburnian...Australian born and bred, and proudly so. Yet, when I was 21 and went to Ireland for the first time, and got to meet my grandmothers and assorted rellies for the first time, it felt like I was home. Two have two such beautiful 'homes' makes me doubly blessed.
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Edinburgh born and bred although I always feel at home in Dundee as that was where my dad was from and I spent a lot of my childhood there with family.
My mother's line were all from Fife (just over the water from Edinburgh) and I love to holiday there.
My dad's line came originally from various parts of Ireland - and I feel an affinity with that country.
Oh and there is a little English too I believe on my mum's side.
I am from all those places but home is where I was brought up and my family are now - Edinburgh.
Dorrie
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I'm a 1st generation Kiwi! My parents came to NZ from Scotland in 1924 and 1927, with their respective families. I grew up in a newly formed little community just out of Wellington, in the Hutt Valley, the same suburb that my Mum had lived in with her parents and sister, and also some brothers and sisters of my Grandmother, and their children, from when they had all arrived in NZ.
MY dad lived not far away from there, with his parents and family, and a few years later he had a little cobblers shop there! When Mum and Dad eventually met and married, they moved into their first home (apart from a little flat they had rented) in the same suburb. My 2 brothers and I were born, raised and married from that same house! The housing development had been for the workers, was Govt, State Rental Housing. Later, when my Dad came home from WW2, he used his post war grant to put a deposit on the house, and bought it!
Most of my Mum's cousins, and my Dad's siblings did much the same, stayed in the area and built their lives and families! My brothers and I grew up with lots of family always gathering together for as long as I can remember!
I still live only a short drive, about 20 minutes, from where my Mum and Dad, my brothers, and myself all grew up, as well as our many cousins! That little place was called Moera, and that's what I call home!
When I visited Ayrshire in Scotland, (where my grandparents had been born and bred), in 2003, 2013, and again last year, I met lots of family descendants still there! Hearing them speak in the same broad Ayrshire dialect as my Grandparents had, showing me letters and photos which had been sent to them (or their parents) by my Grandparents, even my own wedding photo was brought out! I was made very much one of them! Being fed lots of lovely shortbread and steak pie, felt just like home as well.
Meeting all these people, visiting the cemetery and seeing graves of more ancestors, and other family, made me feel part of that place as well, and I felt very much at home there too. So Scotland is very deeply imbedded in me, and Scotland is home to me too! Everything seemed so familiar to me, it was as if I had always been there, and when I went back for a second AND a third time it was no different, it was still like going home!
Oh dear, I've done another ramble! But that can serve as another chapter in my life story!
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Born in Essex (top right-hand corner of the Underground map), grew up in Cambridge, lived for more that quarter of a century now in and around Bedford. My family lines are ALL from London and the South East for pretty much two centuries. Cambridgshire, Suffolk, Essex, Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey, Sussex (both East and West), Hampshire, Norfolk, Gloucestershire ... pretty solid Anglo-Saxon stock there. The Irish lines have to have come from Ireland at some point (obviously!) and the Martindales came from the North West originally, but I have yet to find the migrant.
As to where I'm "from" ... well, it's where I grew up, isn't it? And that's Cambridge.
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I like to give a different answer every time I'm asked, particularly in census returns and on my children's birth certificates. Carrying on a family tradition.
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Born in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, grew up in Rollesby, so see myself as a Rollesbyyer. Parents from Essex. I am a Londoner by heritage as my maternal line great gran was from Islington, her family from Soho, Shoreditch, France, Kent and Sussex. Rest of mums ancestors were from Durham, Scotland and Essex as far as I know. I feel like an Oxfordian as my dads maternal nan was from there, her husband was Essex. My paternal grandad has Essex and Suffolk ancestry mainly with a great gran from Oxfordshire.
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I am 'from' Newark, because that's where I live now. However, my roots are Lancashire (the Taylor/Butterworth/Whittaker families on my father's side) and Derbyshire/Northumberland/Scotland (on my mother's side). Himself was in the RAF so I travelled around Europe and the UK for 25 years, then 20 years in Canada before coming back to being reasonably local to where I spent 15 years as a child/young adult. Like most people, I am a regular 'mixed bag' - and feel mighty proud to be so!!
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Like so many here I have also felt for most of my life that there was no where to call "home".
Born in the Northeast of the UK (Tynemouth), but move frequently (almost 15 schools) so never developed lasting friendships. Ended up in Lilliput (Dorset) via Bere Regis and then back to Newcastle.
Now I live in Canada and have continued my "nomad" ways, from Ontario to Prince Edward Island.
So it's no wonder that "ancestry" has become a hobby for me.
My roots are from Germany (prior to WW1), from Scotland, Essex and Cumberland. So it seems this wondering has been in my family for a long time.
Even my DNA comes from other places (2 Jewish markers, some Scottish and a marker from North American aboriginals..can't find the actual link but it must have been since the 1600's ::) ).
Makes me understand the phrase " we are all related"
Richard
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I was born here in South Africa as were my parents. I am a mix of Russian Jewish ancestors, who moved to Wales in the 1880's, which is where my paternal grandfather was born before coming here. Early Dutch settlers and 1820 Settlers are there in the mix as well. I was born in Johannesburg but moved to Durban at 17 which is where I am today.
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I feel like an Oxfordian as my dads maternal nan was from there ...............
Ahem - excuse me, I think that would be Oxonian ;)
Carol
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I feel like an Oxfordian as my dads maternal nan was from there ...............
Ahem - excuse me, I think that would be Oxonian ;)
Carol
Lol yes. Seems my Oxonian lot liked Essex as two of them moved to Essex via Lambeth in London and Bexhill in Sussex respectively. I went to Oxford and Bletchingdon a few months ago and you get a much clearer picture of your ancestors lives when you visit where they live.
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I never felt much affinity with my hometown, even though I spent my entire childhood there, and so did my parents. But only one grandparent was born anywhere near here, only one great-grandparent, and nobody prior to that. A large chunk of my family come from Essex, lots from the fens, and the black country, rural Shropshire and the westcountry also feature. All a ling way from my "native" Sussex.
Oh, and my grandfather was born in Peru (to English parents) so I could compete for Peru in most competitive sports!
Right now, if anyone asks, I pretend I've always lived in Brighton. It's much cooler than admitting I'm from Eastbourne ;D
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I'm from Lexington, Massachusetts - birthplace of American liberty.
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London ......... a big city ......... specifically Paddington Green where 'pretty Polly Perkins' who was as as "beautiful as butterfly and as prahd as a queen" lived.
Whole lineage from London as far as I have traced.
Joe
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I'm from Lexington, Massachusetts - birthplace of American liberty.
One of my grandfathers was born in Massachusetts, Dedham in Boston! Howdy!
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I still call Australia home.
Its interesting when putting information into your family tree and you put down a place eg Whitechapel London England - yet when people ask me where I was born I say Adelaide- yet its technically Woodville as that is where the hospital is.
I have a polyglot of nationalities. Cornish, Scottish , English Prussian but no Welsh yet.
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"Dedham in Boston!"
Dedham is a bit south of Boston, down in Norfolk County
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;D ;D ;D ;D
Funny, I have several records for him and his sisters
Some say Boston Mass
Some say Dedham Boston Mass
Another says Dedham Boston Suffolk Mass
All born in East Fourth Street
Interesting, and they're all registered in the City of Boston Registers
And my grandfather spoke with a broad Scottish accent 😄 He married my Gm in Scotland
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Living in Tamworth (UK). Family from Aldridge, Staffordshire and another branch from the East End of London (they seem to have moved there from Exeter in the late 19thC)
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My great, great gran grew up in Bow, London from 1865 to 1876 and her future hubbys mother, my 3xgreat gran was born in Shoreditch, so I do feel a Cockney if only by blood.
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I still call Australia home.
Its interesting when putting information into your family tree and you put down a place eg Whitechapel London England - yet when people ask me where I was born I say Adelaide- yet its technically Woodville as that is where the hospital is.
I have a polyglot of nationalities. Cornish, Scottish , English Prussian but no Welsh yet.
That's very true, David. I'm the same; when asked where I was born, I always say Adelaide, yet technically North Adelaide. I wonder why we go into more detail for our ancestors?
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Born in and lived all my life in a small town close to Bristol. Maternal ancestors mainly from a small village a few miles away, with the odd import from elsewhere to refresh the gene pool. Paternal ancestors started off even closer, then moved to Bristol outskirts and spread a bit further afield.
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I was raised in the east midlands but never thought of it as home. In my teens I moved to London and one day visited a different area where I burst into tears and my immediate thought was I've come home. So I moved there and have no idea to this day why I knew it was home. As far as I know there are no ancestral connections. I no longer live there but it will always be home to me.
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I was raised in the east midlands but never thought of it as home. In my teens I moved to London and one day visited a different area where I burst into tears and my immediate thought was I've come home. So I moved there and have no idea to this day why I knew it was home. As far as I know there are no ancestral connections. I no longer live there but it will always be home to me.
Which bit of London was it a-l?
I was born in Leytonstone, and feel comfortable all round North East London and also in Central London. West London isn't so good, and I'm afraid - as a North of the Thames person - that I am completely lost South of the River, despite a lot of my rellies coming from Kent and Greenwich.
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Igor it was High St. Kensington during the '70s.
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Igor it was High St. Kensington during the '70s.
Oh that forms part of my 'Central London areas I feel very at home in' .....lovely houses and shops and parks all round :D
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My 2xgreat gran was born in Sussex, her parents moved to Stoke Newington when she was a few months old. Inbetween April and Sep 1865 (her sisters birth cert in Stoke Newington and baptism in Bow) she moved to Bow with her family. Lived in Bow until 1876, spent 2 years in Lambeth and Walworth, then lived in Holborn from late 1878 to her marriage in Pancras in 1886 and settled in Pancras and Islington. Growing up in various parts of London makes up for not being born there, but birthplace is not the only qualification, growing up somewhere is just as relevant. She was a Londoner.
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Born in Essex but lived in Cardiff for nearly 50 years, parents both from Cardiff. But mum's dad was from Pembrokeshire, her mum from Staffordshire, dad's mum from Ireland and his dad from Gloucestershire via Suffolk and Essex.....
My husband and his parents were born in Pontypridd but his mother's ancestors were from north Wales, Cheshire, Isle of Man, Gloucestershire and Pembrokeshire, and his dad's from north Wales, Cheshire, Somerset, Hampshire and Surrey...
::)
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I loved it Igor and often yearn to return.
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The Scottish Lowlands just about covers the majority of my recent ancestors. Or 99% European when you take into account my DNA. But I'm from Auld Reekie!
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My siblings and I are country Queensland born and our brother owns the house there that our grandparents built c 1920 and were we lived as young children. But because the family broke up when we were small that place isn't home to me. :(
Went to England when I was in my 20's, as you do, and I married a Londoner. :*
And he (OH) loves Australia/dislikes London so much now that when we are almost at Heathrow he is panicking and teary for Brisbane. ;)
I do call Australia home but my heart is in the Devon Somerset border parishes, M5 divides my black hill downs from my Exmoor. This is 1/4 of my roots and my province to research at will, while my sister has our 3/4 all-Ireland roots and has almost no affinity with Devon !! And me likewise with Fermanagh and Tyrone, haha.
Familiarity v fear of the unknown.
Salute,
Janelle
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i have yet to find my home.
mothers family- father from iford dorset but i never knew any of them execpt my grandad when he came back into my mums life when she was in her 20's but sadly he died young. mothers family from dorset area and i do feel a little connection to the bournemouth area but my mum did all that family research so i dont really feel any connection there. going back further on this line mums family were from ireland on her maternal side and i do feel like this is where i should be. ive never been to ireland but when im researching this family i feel the most connected. shame that they were thieves and rouges! on mums paternal side further back the family is researched extensively and i could read everything i wanted about them but i dont feel like im from surrey at all.
dads side- his mum is scottish but lived in mansfield nottinghamshire for over 40 years and its where my dad and i were born, but researching my grans robertson family from scotland is proving hard. my dads dad was just a name on a certificate and when dad was 2 years old his mum remarried and the new husband adopted him. i tried to do this line of the tree and it was very interesting but i still didnt feel it was home. tried to do my dads biological tree but it didnt feel right.
and im now back in mansfield notts, but my dad was a soldier and ive lived a lot of my life abroad in europe so i still dont feel i come from anywhere. locally i have a strange accent and im often asked 'where you from' i always say i dont know. often i get asked if im from london, like anywhere further south than nottingham is london?! and the age old is it mam as in ham or marm as in arm gets argued over daily!
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Inspired by this thread, yesterday I sketched out my tree with the locations only to help me picture my ancestor's movements. My Grt grt grandparents came from 14 different towns and villages, 290 miles apart at the furthest points. Only 6 of them had a child in the same town or village that they were born in.
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My Maternal family are all Gloucestershire with the exception of one of Gt Gradparents who came from South Yorkshire . Paternal from Berkshire, some moving to Feltham, my Father moved to Gloucestershire the rest is history. His Mother from Ealing lived in Glamorgan.
I also live in Gloucestershire, always lived in same town.
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Liverpool born and bred but roots in Cheshire, Cumberland, Isle of Man, Ireland and no doubt the further I go back the further my roots will spread.
My grandfather was the first person in his family, as far as I know, to leave North Wales and set forth to Liverpool in about 1920 or so where he later married my grandmother. I have always felt a strong connection with Wales and although I always knew my grandfather was Welsh, I never knew him as he died in WW2, so when I started this "game" I was very surprised just to see how Welsh I can lay claim to be. :D
Bore da ;)
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Grew up in the Westcountry now live in the south east, but have never felt at home or comfortable here.
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West Yorks born and bred.
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East Yorkshire born and bred.
Carol
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West Sussex born and bred, still here! My paternal sides have been here since the year dot. They didnt move far if at all. Kent was the limit. This makes for easy research. My maternal side is from Southern Ireland, that's not easy for research, although I am also proud of my Irish roots, I belong in Sussex. No desire to live anywhere else. I have coast and country within 5 minutes of each other.
Jane :)
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Born in the Midlands,lived in Kidderminster, moved to The West Country where I am home.
Barb
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Born in Clapham, moved to Galloway when I was 6. After school, travelled around to college/university/working, met my now ex-husband in the Outer Hebrides and moved south to Dorset for 27 years. Never settled, never felt accepted, told I was too wild and feisty lol
Divorced in 2014, and have come home to the village I was brought up in - can see my old house from the bottom of my garden :)
Grandparents on one side were Scottish, and moved about due to the nature of their work - shepherds, agricultural labourers, domestic service, gardeners - ancestors as far north as Rannoch Moor, Applecross, Assynt, as well as Dumfries and Galloway. Other side were Cornish and Irish, settled in Woolwich, London eventually, via India where my father was born.
I never gave up hope I'd get back here one day - I'm from Scotland, although I wasn't born here. It's my home, it's where my heart is; feisty Celt ;)
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Born in County Durham. Live in USA. Traveled the world from Singapore to San Francisco the long way (but not the short way). Worked in England, South Africa, USA and if you won't tell Harold Wilson, in Rhodesia. Hopefully will make it over to the Mother Country at some time but lost my wife and I would not be able work out how to use the London and South Western Railway's ticket machine to head me from Southampton and all points north. Give me the Booking Office and the clunk of the machine putting the date on the ticket. Never lived in Clapham but from time to time I travelled on the Clapham Omnibus. That has given me a great perspective on life.
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Somehow I feel there is something good about people being born in London. I was not born there but I feel anyone born there has this uniqueness, maybe it is because London is the capital city. Dont know if anyone agrees with this. My great gran was born in Islington, near Pentonville Road. Her paternal gran was born in Shoreditch so I have ancestors from the East End.
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Born in Lancashire, so was a bit miffed to discover that one set of maternal gt-gt-grandparents were Yorkshire folk who had crossed the Pennines looking for work. (The Wars of the Roses lingers on in people's memories, and not just in those of cricket lovers! ::) And how dare Tony Blair and his cronies hi-jack our red rose for his party? >:() My paternal ancestors came from Huntingdonshire, but moved to Lancashire, also looking for work in the 19th century. I have a tiny bit of Scot in me - a gt-gt-gt-grandfather who came from a hop, skip and a jump over the border in Gretna.
I certainly don't feel Scottish, unlike my cousin who moved from Lancs to Scotland and wore the kilt on formal occasions. I would never even admit to being slightly Yorkshire, despite my ancestors, and am a proud Lancastrian through and through, though I haven't lived there for over 30 years. Both my children were also born in Lancashire, so my husband, a West Londoner, sometimes feels a bit left out.
A return visit to my old home town a few years ago was depressing - the town had gone downhill and the places in my childhood memory had changed, and not for the better. Recent unpleasant history makes me reluctant to mention the town's name and I certainly don't want to return. However, I'm still a lassie from Lancashire at heart. Eee, by gum, I'm a champion! ;)
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That really made me laugh Gill..I am from East Yorkshire and my DIL is from Rochdale...her Father insisted that their first child...a son...would be a Lancastrian so he was born in Oldham...although he never lived there.
My son is an avid Liverpool fan and he was so pleased to learned that some of our ancestors originated from there ;D
Carol
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Carol
I have to confess that my home town is Rochdale. Even somewhere so close to the border with Yorkshire had strong anti-Yorkshire feelings. Was DIL's father hoping that his grandson would become a cricketer, maybe?
Gill :)
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No he's a footballer for Sleaford Juniors in Lincolnshire ;D....quite distance from Rochdale ;D
I think he is just happy his Grandson won't be a Yorkshireman ::) ;D ;D ;D
Carol
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I feel rootless too. Although for different reasons. I lived in the same house for the first 23 years of my life. I now live in the same village although on the opposite side. You'd think this would make me feel like I belong but it doesn't.
Neither of my parents grew up in the village, in fact they are from different counties. I spent my childhood being told by my classmates and their parents that as an interlouper I wasn't welcome. It then came to a head at the referendum with a group of people telling me I wasn't welcome in Scotland, that I wasn't a proper Scot because I married an Englishman, death threats included. So I don't even have a country to belong to. The problem is I don't belong anywhere else because I didn't grow up anywhere else and most of my family are from Scotland. Although they are from all over so I can't even say my ancestral roots are from any place in particular.
Hi pharma,
I haven't read any further posts yet but were you born in Scotland?
Your story is horrendous, some narrow minded/shallow people on this planet with no intellect.
Scotland is full of a multitude of races (as is anywhere in the UK), all born & bred here, regardless where their parents came from or indeed who they married.
Personally, I am not a racist whether colour or creed & I think everyone should be the same unless someone does you wrong.
Annie
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I feel rootless too. Although for different reasons. I lived in the same house for the first 23 years of my life. I now live in the same village although on the opposite side. You'd think this would make me feel like I belong but it doesn't.
Neither of my parents grew up in the village, in fact they are from different counties. I spent my childhood being told by my classmates and their parents that as an interlouper I wasn't welcome. It then came to a head at the referendum with a group of people telling me I wasn't welcome in Scotland, that I wasn't a proper Scot because I married an Englishman, death threats included. So I don't even have a country to belong to. The problem is I don't belong anywhere else because I didn't grow up anywhere else and most of my family are from Scotland. Although they are from all over so I can't even say my ancestral roots are from any place in particular.
Hi pharma,
I haven't read any further posts yet but were you born in Scotland?
Your story is horrendous, some narrow minded/shallow people on this planet with no intellect.
Scotland is full of a multitude of races (as is anywhere in the UK), all born & bred here, regardless where their parents came from or indeed who they married.
Personally, I am not a racist whether colour or creed & I think everyone should be the same unless someone does you wrong.
Annie
Yes, I was born in Scotland, as were my parents but not in the same county. My grandparents, great grandparents and 15 of my great great grandparents were born in various places in Scotland.
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Yes, I was born in Scotland, as were my parents but not in the same county. My grandparents, great grandparents and 15 of my great great grandparents were born in various places in Scotland.
So probably more of a "proper" Scot than your doubters ;D
Annie