17
Mar
Mar
Top o’ The Morning to You
Filed in That's Life Wednesdays
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you!
Although not a fan of green (on me), I have a fondness for this day each year. My maternal grandparents were straight off the boat (via Ellis Island) many years ago.
My grandmother spoke with a brogue until the day she died and my grandfather marched in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in NYC every year (oh, how I loved to watch him go by).
My eldest daughter has an Irish moniker and, one day, I’d like to travel to Ireland just to see it with my own two eyes.
So what about you? What’s your nationality? Have you ever visited that country? Any cool memories you care to share?
~Elizabeth
March 17th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Never been to Ireland, but I plan to visit, someday.
As for nationality, I think the Richardson and Owens clans (dad and mom respectively) are a wee bit of France, England and Germany, tossed into the melting pot and thoroughly simmered, then dished out over Arkansas, Missouri, the South and Northeast, and left to cool for a couple hundred years.
My mum’s been hitting the family history hard in recent months, and she’s pulled some interesting photos into the light. My favorite to date: A ragtag band of loggers with a mule and wagon team in an Ozark swamp, sometime in the mid 1800s. One of my great-greats is among ‘em. It’s amazing our forefathers survived.
March 17th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Great description, Joe! The Irish side of my family were all pretty much sprinkled out over Manhattan. I sometimes think about the pride they had to be here… It was really special to see.
As for your mom hitting the history hard, that picture sounds awesome!!! It would be cool to go there and take a picture in a similar swamp with your own kids now.
March 17th, 2010 at 10:30 am
LOL Joe, I love your description.
My family is a composite of Irish, Black and Native American. I would love to visit Ireland so I can kiss the Blarney Stone. we don’t really know much about our heritage but the family has roots in North Carolina (mother’s), Alabama and Tennessee (father’s). We really don’t know what area my great-grandmother comes from but we should try to locate her family.
March 17th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Dru, I met a woman in Panera recently who tracked down a cousin via facebook, I believe. She’d done some research on Germany (Holocaust time) and found this name. Sure enough, it was the right person. She flew to meet him a few months ago. Kinda cool, huh?
I think the internet makes locating people so much easier now.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Well, I have not made it to Italy (yet) — it’s on the list. My family is from La Rocca, which is in the Abruzzi region just outside of Rome.
I have a DVD that I had made from a video my grandmother’s cousins took for her when they went to visit ‘cousins’….it’s pretty cool (and funny when you think about a group of 70 somethings trying to use a video camera for the first time!)
It shows the town my grandfather was from, along with a birthday party of one of the cousins, and their home…complete with video and description of the marble, the bathroom and the radiators!!
March 17th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Very cool, Nikki!! Sounds like a neat keepsake!
March 17th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Sorry I’ve been AWOL….crazy busy at work. And I forgot to wear any green this morning. Good thing it’s on my badge…
If you asked me when I was a little girl where my family came from I would have told you South Dakota. Which is true, both my mom and dad grew up in South Dakota. But before that? Not much is verified. It’s claimed that my mom is part Lakota Suoix (and apparently then, so am I) but I can’t even verify that my mom’s maiden name is our real family name. There’s a rumor that my grandfather took on a new name when he broke away as a teen.
I think…from the research I’ve done, I’m part German, English, Norwegien, and Native American.
I think saying South Dakota was easier.
March 18th, 2010 at 8:15 am
Lynn, gotta love those more fuzzy family ties…makes for great stories!!! And no green??? Lynn!