Thread: Ancestors

This first question applies mainly to Americans/Canadians/Mexicans/Brazilians/etc...

Who was the first person in your family to immigrate over to your country and what country is it or are you completely native to your country?

My answer to that---In 1700 my great grandpa of seven generations, Pierre Chasteen, on my mom's side, came over from France and settled in Indiana, USA. He was a surgeon and had a son named Peter.

This question applies to everyone...

Has anybody in your family ever accomplished anything even remotely significant or been apart of something significant?

My answer to that---Pierre's son, Peter, established the very first Baptist Church in Virginia. Both of my grandpas fought in WW2 and one of my great grandpas fought in WW1.

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In my block class of English/history we had to do a huge project about our family heritage. I spent about 8 hours in a row working on my project last night, because it had to be turned in by today. I thought this would be an interesting disccusion to have.

I haven't traced my ancestry as thoroughly as you; but, according to family lore, an ancestor who came from Westphalia, Germany, at about 1830 or earlier to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was part of a group that decided to buy some land in some new state called Missouri by the Missouri River, which reminded them of the Rhine River back in Germany, and found a new town there. Other ancestors have apparently donated land or money for schools, helped create a company that's still around, developed unsuccessful patents for steam engines (registering the patent in both the United States and pre-WW1 Germany, "the next great industrial power," or so he thought), etc.

Maternal ancestors include an Englishman who fought against Britain in the American Revolutionary War and possibly a Cherokee chief, whose descendents moved to the Missouri-Arkansas region before the Trail of Tears when the rest of the Cherokees were forced to Oklahoma.

My great grandmother was extremely wealthy. But she drank & gambled the lot.

I am of english descent for many generations. The amount of times we have been invaded though, who knows what blood I have in me.

My Great grandpa fought and lived through WWI and my great grandma lived to 106 (she died when i was 6 and got a letter from the queen on her 100th B'day). All my family are from London and my dad's parent's house was flattened by a doodlebug in WWII (Nazi B*******). They lived though(Anderson shelters, great stuff!!). My parents were born during the war, dad at the start, mum at the end, but neither were evacuated from London. My grandpa was high up in Barclay's bank so didn't go to the battlefields of WWII. However he was part of the warden service that patrolled London putting out fires from the bombs and ensuring people observed the blackout etc.

I guess that is about what sums up the significant things my family has done, other than of course having me