Aimless wrote:
Taupey wrote:
Aimless wrote:
Thanks Taupey. My mother is an ardent genealogist.
Did you know that if you are of Western European origin, you are the descendant of one of only 7 women? They figured that out from mitochondrial DNA, which is passed from mother to daughter and only mutates every 20,000 years or so.
I love genealogy. I believe that I have heard something about that or it might be something different I heard. Either way, it's still fascinating to me. I know I have ancestors who are listed as Plymouth Pilgrims. In the mid 1600's, one of my ancestors was ship wrecked between Cape Henry (South Hampton Rds area) and Cape Charles (Virginia's Eastern Shore) in the narrows here in Southeastern Virginia (where I live now) and had to swim to shore. I also had ancestors who fought in the American Revolution and other ancestors who were both rebel and union soldiers during the American Civil War.
Cool. My father's ancestors were brothers that came to Rowley,Mass on a land deal. One on my mom's side was a guy who was on the second Jamestown expedition, the one that got blown off course by a hurricane and had to rebuild the ship in the islands. In the 1700's an ancestor of mine was a doctor in Barbados who was a randy bastard (most of my ancestors were imperialist pricks actually)and many of the population of Barbados are his descendants. I have any number of African American distant half cousins. Genealogy is interesting. It's not about finding anyone famous, although that's fun. it's just neat to find all the pieces. Oh, I know I'm rambling but here's a semi celebrity tidbit. remember Annie Potts,from Designing Women and Ghostbusters? She and I apparently share a Great x(?)Grandfather.
What do you know about your Rom ancestry?
Ooo... That's really cool. I always liked Annie Potts.
Their name is Hungarian but they looked Rom. People use to call my great-grandfather Diego in the town we are from because he was darker skinned and his family had told people that they were Spanish but they weren't. Years ago, when I was a teen, I had asked him why they told people they were Spanish when they weren't and he said he didn't know. But it was weird because he paused so long before answering me and I remember thinking that it was really strange that he did that. The memory of him doing that stuck with me because he really took his time to consider what to say to me. I think he might of known but didn't want to say. Years later, after I found out that their name was Hungarian, I was reading about Rom/Gypsies and I read something that said it was common for them to tell people that they were Spanish instead of Gypsies to avoid prejudice/discrimination. I had a "wow moment" because of what I knew about my great-grandfather. And that's why I believe they probably are. I still want to do some more research in person to see what else I can find out about them and see if I can find something that will actually confirm that they were Rom. You know, it's like a giant puzzle, I'm trying to find the pieces to put it all together, I love it, it fascinates me.
I know someone who's father is Iranian and mother is from Central America. He used to tell people his father was Persian for the same reason. His father left Iran before the Shah that was deposed in the late 70's was in power.