Where Is Your Family From?

[whydontu]

The discussion on Canada got me thinking. Curious how our members ended up in Canada?

I’ll start. Mothers mother emigrated from Poland in late 1800s, settled in Toronto. Mothers father from England. Fathers father from small vilkage in Ukraine or Russia (depending on where the border was at any given moment). He arrived at Ellis Island in 1906, ended up in Toronto. Some family remained in USA, so relatives in New York. SWMBO family: father is from Quebec, mothers family run a dairy farm in Nova Scotia.

I‘m really hoping someone on the board us going to say “my family crossed the Bering Straits about 15,000 years ago”

 

[Susquatch]

I‘m really hoping someone on the board us going to say “my family crossed the Bering Straits about 15,000 years ago”

I crossed the bearing straits myself in a sealskin kayak 70 years ago.......

No? Well, that's the best I can do for your hopes.

Seriously, I have a similar story to yours. Great grandparents on dads side were invited to come from Germany. They settled in Sask.

Mom's side are Scottish Danes who came before the first world war.

My DNA says I'm mostly Germanic Viking. The Danes, northern Germanic tribes, Scotts, and Vikings regularly passed their genes around. Both by choice and otherwise.

My bride moved to Canada as a young girl from Italy after the war. Her DNA says she is mostly Italian with some French mixed in there. We think that came from her dad's mother. We have no history for her but her maiden name was French so it make some sense.

 

[Doggggboy]

I‘m really hoping someone on the board us going to say “my family crossed the Bering Straits about 15,000 years ago

Maybe a bit??
Dad's parents both came from England. Questionable family history says there was some German, Prussian and black.
Mom's side was much more interesting.

Other Side of Rebellion, The: The Remarkable Story of Charles Bremner and his Furs: Stobie, Margaret R.: 9780920897089: Books - Amazon.ca

Other Side of Rebellion, The: The Remarkable Story of Charles Bremner and his Furs: Stobie, Margaret R.: 9780920897089: Books - Amazon.ca

www.amazon.ca

The Charles Bremner in this book was mom's grandfather.
I believe his wife was Metis.
Cousins of my generation were regularly asked for Treaty cards due to their dark skin and straight black hair.
I made the mistake one census of marking aboriginal in the listing of ancestry.
Because I was also a business owner I became a "person of interest" to Stats Can and was obliged for years to fill out extra forms relating to being an Aboriginal Business Owner. While I acknowledge my ancestry, it has never been a part of my life, just a quirk in the family history. I'm just another curly blonde haired white dude so it was a little weird being asked every 6 months how much of my income was derived from trapping, hunting and beadwork.

 

[Canadium]

My parents were both Polish. My ancestors were all deeply involved in WWII. At the end of the war they found themselves in England. My Grandfather was invited to Canada on account of his DSO while fighting for the Brits(Lieutenant colonel commanding armored division). My Dad was a Captain in the Polish navy when hostilities broke out and ended the war as a decorated Lieutenant Commander with the British navy. My parents were married in England before emigrating to Canada. My mother has genealogical links to European royalty which means squat today but its fun to imagine that I can in some sense lay claim to an ancient coat of arms.

In any case they were rather well off before the war but lost everything on account of the war and came to Canada as the nouveau poor. My surname actually has more Germanic linguistic origins than the typical Polish surname likely because my Dad came from a part of Poland that was once a part of Prussia and the region had heavy Germanic influences.

 

[boilerhouse]

Fathers side arrived in the Quebec City area (from France) around 1630. Mothers side arrived in Plymouth, Mass (also from France) a bit later, around 1690. During the lockdowns, Ancestry.com was available for free through the local library, with no time limits. So it was a good opportunity to trace the family trees.

 

[jcdammeyer]

I like to tell people made there, born here. In my case my parents came from The Netherlands and because my Dad was Dutch I've been able to claim a Dutch Passport in addition to my Canadian. That made it easier to move to The Netherlands, claim a social security number and get a job without a visa.

Go back further late 1700's and there were 3 brothers from what I believe was East Germany. One went to Scotland and no trace. One went to the USA and one went to the Netherlands. Of the one in the USA what's interesting is so many of the first born males followed the John Christopher or Henry William pattern. So I imagine if I did one of those family tree tests we'd find we were related.

Anyway, parents moved to Edmonton because the job in California might come with the draft if they had a son. Never met my grandfather/grandmother on my Dad's side because they both died in the Indonesian camps during WW-II. Well actually my grandfather and father were working on the Burma railroad when my grandfather died.

And my wife was made and born here in Smoky Lake Alberta. Her Dad from Ukraine, her mom to Ukrainian immigrants.

 

[Tom Kitta]

My parents are both Polish and I was born in Poland as well. Came to Canada as a child. My last name is Germanic due to link to Prussia. My grandfather on fathers side was born in Berlin, but in 1939 fought as professional soldier on Polish side.

My great grandfather on father's side died in WWI. My grandfather on mother's side got a lot of medals for his service as an educator during WWII (secret) and after WWII. My other grandfather was not so luck as he was part of Polish home army which was not liked by communists. My grandmother on father side spend few years as a German slave during WWII. She managed to live long enough to get compensation - which in typical German fashion was paid less to her than any western European slaves.

 

[Susquatch]

My surname actually has more Germanic linguistic origins than the typical Polish surname likely because my Dad came from a part of Poland that was once a part of Prussia and the region had heavy Germanic influences.

It might be more than that. This is the story I was told by my great grandfather and great grandmother:

Catherine the great was a German princess who was deliberately married into the Russian Monarchy to keep the peace. She was married off to 17 year old Peter who was heir to the Russian throne when she was 16. But she was a promiscuous young lady with many lovers and didn't much like Peter. One of her lovers connived with her to overthrow her husband shortly after he became King. Peter died in mysterious circumstances falling through the ice and she assumed control. At any rate, I was told she wasn't a bad queen. She needed to settle various wilderness areas in west Russia and invited German farmers to come and do that for her by promising them free land, free religion, free language, no taxes, and no mandatory military service. Several generations of Germans lived that way in East Russia and Poland quite happily. But in the years after Catherine died, her son Paul took over and slowly withdrew all those promises from the farmers and sometimes even took their farms from them by force. Many Germans stayed and learned Polish or Russian, many returned to Germany, and many went to north america to start over. Thus the language and heritage of those peoples are often confused between Russian, German, and Polish. But I am told that their names reveal their real roots. Of course, that assumes you can find out what their names were. The wars wiped out many of the records when the churches and government buildings were destroyed, and many people changed (or modified) their names to either hide their past or to fit in better in their new communities. Most of my own family records are passed down by word of mouth and personal records as opposed to official written records.

 

[slow-poke]

Grandparents:
The German/Polish/Russian border was fairly fluid when my grandparents departed for Canada. On my moms side from Prussia, they spoke and considered themselves German. On my dads side, one German, one Russian.

 

[Chicken lights]

I'm about a quarter of the way through the book Bloodlands. It's not a quick read. I can't fully grasp how borders changed so much years ago, in Europe. But Europe has many centuries of that happening

It's startling how many people were killed by orders from a government when you start researching this stuff

I'm Croatian, German and English. My Croatian and German went to the USA then Canada (I know on my grandmas side at least). I'm pretty sure my English went straight to Canada. My English side tried to cling to English customs but my USA side didn't

 

[trevj]

My Great Grandfather was a newly hatched Surgeon, in Wales, circa late 1800's. His mentor suggested that the Royal Navy might be a place that suited him, so he applied, was hired on, and was posted to a ship, HMS Warspite, which was then the Fleet Flagship off the West Coast of North America.
He travelled across the Atlantic, then across the entirety of the US of A, to the West Coast, where he met his ship.

After serving his time, he retired in Victoria, and had a surgical practice there. He was head of, essentially the BC Medical Assn., for two terms. https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ASSET$002f0$002fSD_ASSET:374565/one?qu="rcs:+E002382"&rt=false|||IDENTIFIER|||Resource+Identifier
FWIW, James Brady, father of my Great Grandfather's Bride, was participant in the Fenian Raids, and was awarded a medal stating such, though long after the act. He was a member of the Victoria's Volunteer Rifles, a Regiment that was essentially formed up out of the membership of a Tennis Club!

He was a fond investor in dirt, as he did not believe there was more going to be made. One of the properties he bought, I still live upon. Said to have been bought as a potential location for a sanitarium for TB patients, as the summers are hot and mostly dry here, and that was thought good for TB patients to work outdoors in.

After his death in 1918, his wife decided that since my grandfather was showing signs of having too much fun chasing girls around the Victoria area, it might do him some good to go somewhere...quieter. So he was sent up to the summer property in Lillooet, where he eventually met and married the daughter of an Anglican Minister, who was my Grandmother!
Their Youngest son, was my father.

On my mother's side, her grandmother came across under unknown terms. Supposedly, great grandmother's husband had died on the crossing, and she hitched up with a fellow whose wife had passed. So. Norwegians, loggers, and Farmers, on that side, apparently.

It's what I think I know!

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Scotland, Ireland, Norway, France. A mix of a few others in there too. My Maternal Grandmother did quite a bit of genealogy research back in the 80's/90's, and has us traced back quite a ways. I forget how far, but I have dotmatrix printout of it all somewhere. None of it online, as she was quite pissed that the geneology sites had the nerve to charge her a registration fee for her to upload all the history and research she did lol. From what I gather there are a few notable splits in there, where we're descendants of the black sheep of a prominent family (Westons being one), and some Scottish royalty (Stewarts) where we took off to northern Ireland for a while and banged out a few generations (or so the story goes) before coming to Canada. My Dad's Brother did a bunch of tracing also, but not as far. Also a split where we're descendants of the black sheep of a prominent family....... I can't help but notice a trend here......

My Maternal Grandmothers Great Grandfather (I think?, I'd have to double check, could be great, great) came across on the Hannah (not the ill fated voyage) from Ireland, and he settled in Ecum Secum, Ns as a fisherman for a few generations before they moved to Burks Falls, on. My Maternal Grandfathers line came from Ireland and settled on a land grant in Magnetawan On. There are quite a few around the area, as the winters are very cold up there.... Paternal Grandmothers family moved from Norway to a french speaking area of AB (whose name escapes me atm) when she was a young girl. She met my French Grandfather during the WW2 when he was traveling out west, on his way up to Alaska. He enlisted near the end of the war while underage, but they didn't send him to active fighting on account a few of his older brothers already being over there. He was smitten with the beautiful blonde haired, Scandinavian girl that spoke french he met on a beach in BC, and came back for her on his way back through when the war ended. They came back to On and made a lot of kids right away with Dad being #3....

Wife's Fathers side came from Germany and settled in Sk. Her Grandmothers side settled in the same little northern on town (Burks Falls) mine did....Small world. There were a few years difference (mine being older), but my Grandmother remembers my Wife's, Great Grandfather being the town Cobbler when she was a little girl. Her side is British, Polish, German.

That's the gist of my history as it was told to me, and how I remember it. I don't really have a heritage that I "identify" with. Canadian really. A mix of everything. Good and bad.

Me, I'm not well traveled. Been to the east coast a few times, wandering everywhere but the rock, but have never been west of Blind River On. I know the first time I see the mountains I'll never come back. I was planning to pull up anchor and head out west for a summer on my motorcycle to wander for a while and see what happened, but reconnected with a cute girl I went to highschool with that was WAY out of my league one night at a local bar, and well, I never did saddle up for that trip......Best trip I never took 17 years ago.

 

[Aliva]

My parents were born and raised on the farm in rural Manitoba, my father from Gilbert Plains my mother from St. Cloud. My mothers parents emigrated to Canada from Poland my fathers side from Ukraine. My fathers side came to Canada in the 1900,s had some relatives left in Ukraine in and around Liviv. I tried tracking these relatives down but it all ended when I found the remaining relatives were caught up in Stalin's purges and were shipped off to a Siberian gulag, never to be heard from again.
My father was on the run from the RCMP during the beginning of WWII They wanted to conscript him into the army and he did want to go. The RCMP chased him all over Northern Manitoba lumber camps. He made it to Northern Ontario and got a job in the mines here in Sudbury. RCMP finally found him but since the mines were part of the war effort they couldn't touch him. Here's were my fathers story gets fuzzy, I haven't been able to prove or disprove these events. Because my father worked in various lumber and mining camps he became quite fluent in a few languages. He was fluent in English, Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian. He could get by in French, Finn, and German. Apparently he was recruited into the Canadian version of the SAS. I understand they had a training camp in Whitby Ontario called camp X.
It was only after my father passed away in early 1982 that I was told, by my uncle, of these events. My mother did say that he kind of dropped off the map for a year and half during the later part of WWII. So there maybe some truth to this. Might make a good movie.

 

[a smile]

I think I can better understand Canada and friends from all over the world here. I am from China, and I am still in China, but I am planning to go to you who are free, wait for me!!

 

[historicalarms]

Fathers side arrived in the Quebec City area (from France) around 1630. Mothers side arrived in Plymouth, Mass (also from France) a bit later, around 1690. During the lockdowns, Ancestry.com was available for free through the local library, with no time limits. So it was a good opportunity to trace the family trees.

My ancestry on mothers side pob. knew your ancestry. My mothers great grandfather several times over was a stone mason that built the second French settlement in the new world for Samuel de Champlain. The surname of Martine' was one of the seven original French names to land here I have a 40 page or so family tree document put together by a crazy french aunt that claims the Martine' family split early on, my mothers part fallowed a french preacher to help settle the wild natives of the west and that is how they formed a settlement at Mayerthorpe AB. Interesting story on the other half that went to NY to what is now called Manhattan Island. The crazy aunt claims her side owned the Island and it was stolen from them by 'merican pirates so she still should own the Manhattan Island.....even took it to U.S. courts, they supposedly acknowledged the early Martine' settlement but claimed the ownership would remain as it stands today so I gues she was right in a sence....still bat$hit crazy notion tho.
My mothers father, also a WWI vet died at an early age from the side effects of being gassed at Vimy.

My Fathers side emigrated to Canada from England . His grandfather & 3 sons ( one of who was my grandfather) were to cross on the Titanic. Had passage paid for & boarding tickets for Titanic but when it became a prestige thing for the wealthy Brits to go on the maiden voyage the commoners (my ancestry) go bounced to cross later on another White Lines ship. One of the sons (my fathers uncle) still had those cancelled passage tickets in his possession until he died. Those tickets disappeared into the possession of friends of his from Roleu Sask. ( he was the last resident of the hotel there, the hotel that eventually became the "Dog River" hotel in the Sask. TV show) that rummaged through his stuff before any family got there.
After being raised in depression era Sask., my old man moved to Ab. to work in a lumber camp and then build highways for most of his life but turned to farming for the last of it.

 

[Bandit]

It seems I am a "European mix" on my mothers side, English, French, Spanish, Sottish, Irish, possible Scanish, not real sure, as a large amount of records were destroyed in Ireland in Six Days War time, pre and after to prevent tracing who was who. Anyway, that grandfather, grandmother, brothers, sisters, came from Ireland to Canada, pre World War One? I think. Seemed to have been around Red Deer and area awhile. This grandfather was a machinist for C.P. and was in Golden for a while too.
Father's side, great grandfather came from England in 1880's? Known to have been in Ontario, then in Gleshion Alta. May have relatives there. Maybe a bit of a bad one. Then to the west coast, in and around Quarda Island area. Along the way, some sons born, 4 I know of. My grandfather, and some of his brothers went overseas for the war, 1 didn't came back.
Grandfather met my grandmother in Vancouver, grandfather was logging up coast after the war with some of his brothers, Campbell River country,my father born Vancouver, one of his brothers born in Rock Bay hospital.
Grandmother on fathers sides family came from eastern Canada, via the States, seemed they were fairly well off in the states as some are still there in the east. Not sure when they came over from England? LOL, maybe the Mayflower? Said to be native blood there somewhere.
So I'am aCanadian, 3rd gen. on 1/2 my fathers side, and a guess on the other 1/2 of my fathers side, 2nd gen. on my mother's side. Very possibly native blood X2 on my fathers mothers side and once on my fathers fathers side.
I don't know a lot of my family history/tree and never will, all are gone that knew, I have a little bit of info from my mothers one sister. Some of this points to times of hardship, war, and hard actions.
I guess this makes me Canadian!
I've had little most of my life, and still have a lot of it left, but more then many others have ever had.
I am a Canadian!

 

[Susquatch]

I am a Canadian!

Here is to that from all the rest of us log chewing heathens too!

Consider joining Ancestry.ca, enter what you know, then get your DNA tested. You might be surprised at what you find and what you would have never guessed. It only takes a few here and there to do it and the tree grows fast.

 

[whydontu]

I think I can better understand Canada and friends from all over the world here. I am from China, and I am still in China, but I am planning to go to you who are free, wait for me!!

Love to have you here!

 

[DPittman]

Here is to that from all the rest of us log chewing heathens too!

Consider joining Ancestry.ca, enter what you know, then get your DNA tested. You might be surprised at what you find and what you would have never guessed. It only takes a few here and there to do it and the tree grows fast.

I wonder what the "vetting" process of the info is? I know with my family there has been slight variations of the who's who and where they fit on the family tree. Apparently with some geanolgy sites they have the birthplace of my grandfather wrong.

 

[Tomc938]

Germanish background, but way back. My great, great grandparents immigrated to Minnesota, and my folks immigrated to Canada.

Guess that makes me the first generation Canadian of immigrant parents. Funny, never thought about myself that way before.

I remember hearing a First Nations comic telling the following joke, "So I'm standing in line at the deli counter and the little machine that gives out the numbers was broken. The lady behind the counter asked, "Who was here first" and I said, "Well, technically...me!" Great comedian, wish I could remember his name.