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Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

bostonewe

bostonewe

Short/Round
Does anyone know about the records from Ellis Island having family names on them? My great-grandparents came from Russia through there, however, their name was changed from it's Russian original to a German last name with no connection to my relatives. There are no living relatives from that generation or the subsequent one are alive/available to ask about this.
 
Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

You'd need shipping lists. I THINK Ellis Island has what boat your ancestors came in on. Then you have to cross reference.

My cousin has them when my maternal great grandfather and his bride came on the boat from Hamburg. Maltz was not anglicized when they got here. Other maternal grandparents came from Mountcharles, Ireland. I'm not sure when they got here but grandfather was born in Philly and ggf was born in Ireland.

Paternal side - gf NYC born and died. ggf was a member of 14th New Jersey in the Civil War. Before that and grandmothers side, no idea.
 
Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

No one made a list with both old and new names when people arrived. If there is a list when the ship embarked (and if I remember most Hamburg lists were mostly destroyed and Bremen exists) it should have the original name but it would be difficult to compare with the arriving list.


Edit: it was the Bremen ones which were destroyed. :o
 
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Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

bostonewe said:
Does anyone know about the records from Ellis Island having family names on them? My great-grandparents came from Russia through there, however, their name was changed from it's Russian original to a German last name with no connection to my relatives. There are no living relatives from that generation or the subsequent one are alive/available to ask about this.
Click to expand...

When this happened in my family line (names changing from German to Hungarian to Slovak as the political functionaries changed), people used to use all the names simultaneously for different purposes. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't revert to the old names in some record (Census, marriage, obituary), and of course in their correspondence.
 
Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

Ralph Baer said:
No one made a list with both old and new names when people arrived. If there is a list when the ship embarked (and if I remember most Hamburg lists were mostly destroyed and Bremen exists) it should have the original name but it would be difficult to compare with the arriving list.
Click to expand...

If you can find the ship records it might actually be pretty straightforward, because typically the names are grouped in families (and the families are pretty big). So if the Westpreuß family with Albrecht, Kersten, Wilfired and Ottokar got on the boat and the West family with Albert, Christine, Fred and Otto got off...
 
Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

Kepler said:
If you can find the ship records it might actually be pretty straightforward, because typically the names are grouped in families (and the families are pretty big). So if the Westpreuß family with Albrecht, Kersten, Wilfired and Ottokar got on the boat and the West family with Albert, Christine, Fred and Otto got off...
Click to expand...

Ellis Island has the manifests. To view the log, either make the trip to NJ or pay for the manifest online.
 
Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

joecct said:
Ellis Island has the manifests. To view the log, either make the trip to NJ or pay for the manifest online.
Click to expand...

It looks like there are departure lists at other country's sites, too.

Although thinking about it, even that might not help, since many (most?) immigrants embarked from a port far from home, perhaps after several hops. For example, my Czech ancestors left from Liverpool, my Italians from Le Havre. The Norwegians OTOH only had to make it to Bergen.
 
Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

I got a Facebook message a couple years back from a guy in Sweden who was way too excited to tell me he was a distant relative. I was really skeptical, because while I'm 1/8 Swedish, I had only ever heard of it coming from my dad's side, and this guy was talking about people from my mom's side. Decided to respond anyway. Turns out he's just a dude in a pub band who really likes genealogy. Sent me this huge tale that ended with the fact that I'm related to Cleopatra, but I think everyone is in some way. Then he started to get into stuff that was more relevant to my family.

It ended up we were very distant, like only due to marriage a couple generations back, so nothing that would show up on a blood test I believe. Gave another story about how another distant relative (this one blood related) was in the Revolutionary War. Then he said he was coming to visit some 2nd and 3rd cousins of mine in Michigan in a few months. It still seemed really weird, but I never heard anything about a mass murder and he's still posting on Facebook so I figure it must be legit.

I'd like to get into it sometime, but it seems pretty arduous and can get pretty costly if you wanna find a lot of info, although the DNA test is only like $99 so I guess that's not terrible.
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
I got a Facebook message a couple years back from a guy in Sweden who was way too excited to tell me he was a distant relative. I was really skeptical, because while I'm 1/8 Swedish, I had only ever heard of it coming from my dad's side, and this guy was talking about people from my mom's side. Decided to respond anyway. Turns out he's just a dude in a pub band who really likes genealogy. Sent me this huge tale that ended with the fact that I'm related to Cleopatra, but I think everyone is in some way. Then he started to get into stuff that was more relevant to my family.

It ended up we were very distant, like only due to marriage a couple generations back, so nothing that would show up on a blood test I believe. Gave another story about how another distant relative (this one blood related) was in the Revolutionary War. Then he said he was coming to visit some 2nd and 3rd cousins of mine in Michigan in a few months. It still seemed really weird, but I never heard anything about a mass murder and he's still posting on Facebook so I figure it must be legit.

I'd like to get into it sometime, but it seems pretty arduous and can get pretty costly if you wanna find a lot of info, although the DNA test is only like $99 so I guess that's not terrible.
Click to expand...

When the Nigerians call.......
 
Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

I would consider doing the DNA test just to finally try and nail down the issue of what Northern/Eastern European ethnic groups my dad's side of the family are.
 
Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

Thanks! At least I have a few jumping off points to start, I suppose. Will have to see what I can find, but am not hopeful. Paternal great-grandparents are from Kiev, not sure where maternal great -grandparents are from and any information is gone.
 
Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

Spartanforlife4 said:
I got a Facebook message a couple years back from a guy in Sweden who was way too excited to tell me he was a distant relative. I was really skeptical, because while I'm 1/8 Swedish, I had only ever heard of it coming from my dad's side, and this guy was talking about people from my mom's side. Decided to respond anyway. Turns out he's just a dude in a pub band who really likes genealogy. Sent me this huge tale that ended with the fact that I'm related to Cleopatra, but I think everyone is in some way. Then he started to get into stuff that was more relevant to my family.

It ended up we were very distant, like only due to marriage a couple generations back, so nothing that would show up on a blood test I believe. Gave another story about how another distant relative (this one blood related) was in the Revolutionary War. Then he said he was coming to visit some 2nd and 3rd cousins of mine in Michigan in a few months. It still seemed really weird, but I never heard anything about a mass murder and he's still posting on Facebook so I figure it must be legit.

I'd like to get into it sometime, but it seems pretty arduous and can get pretty costly if you wanna find a lot of info, although the DNA test is only like $99 so I guess that's not terrible.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure the family folklore is true, and I'd rather believe that than find out something bad.

Maternal great-grandparents on my grandma's side came over on the boat from Oslo (that is actually fact) in the early 1900s. Enoch and Lenorah. Yeah.

Paternal grandparents were Irish/English (dad, mom). Great grandparents were off the boat from Ireland, both sides (lore handed down verbally).

So, I'm mostly Irish, secondary Norwegian, and some other minor heritages (Gypsy [not the Romanian people, btw], English, a touch of Swedish).
 
Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

I've had an ancestry membership for a while. Pretty cool stuff. I splurged for the world explorer when I started to run into dead ends.

I always keep two trees. One verified tree and one unverified tree. The unverified is usually when I can only find one piece of evidence or sources conflict or someone else has done the research.
 
Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

I'm both lucky and cursed with my actual last name. For the longest time I was the only person with my last name on Facebook. Even now there aren't many. Makes searching easy for semi-modern records (1860s+). I do know that as far back as I can find, 1700s for most but some go back further, I and my paternal ancestors were the first born males going all the way back. I found that kind of interesting.

But I know for a fact that my mother's maiden name was a phonetic interpretation. Basically makes searching impossible. Especially since there were a lot of James in that line over the years. Sad trombone.

There was one person who did some research (backed up with notes and sources) that linked my Norwegian great grandmother all the way back to this guy:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Æthelwulf
I saved it in my unverified tree but hope to get that far back eventually :D
 
Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

Being 100% Norwegian, two characteristics have pretty much dominated my line of descent. 1) After the good old days of raping and pillaging passed, we've been predominantly a bunch of head-slappers and shoulder-shruggers. Our brains have not gotten us far. 2) We've mostly stayed in Minnesota.
 
Re: Geneology Thread: Where did we come from?

I'm a mutt.

25% Swedish, 25% Scottish, 25% Slovakian. The other quarter is split evenly between German, Danish, French, and Irish. Three of my grandparents were 100%, the other split between the other quarter.

The Scot in me didn't arrive in this country until 1947, oddly enough. My grandfather that was is the Navy brought her back after WWII. She was from Brisbane, Australia.

To the day she died she never said she was "Scottish." She was 50% highlander and 50% lowlander.
 
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