Among Friends

[hckynut]

@Laura14

My grandparents came from Italy with my mother and 6 siblings in tow. Where she met my dad(?), deserted us before I knew him. Never cared to ask my mother as he meant less than **** to me.  What I do know is her wealthy family disowned her when she married him. Think you know where I was born and lived most of my first 14 years.

Interesting thread you started!

hckynut(john)

[Catiele]

My grandparents came from Italy. All four of them. I have loved being Italian because family’s are close. Have Irish uncles and they were the best. 

[DrakesMomma]

My parents came to Ohio for my Daddy to work in the rubber industry.  The were both from Nowherevilles in TN.  Even though I've done the Ancestry DNA test I still think of myself as a hillbilly one generation removed.  And that is typed with pride and love!   

[kittymomNC]

So many here talk about such romantic countries and stories and backgrounds!  I hail from the "country" in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. My Mom had a boyfriend when she was about 17, but her family had to move away to West Virginia.  When she came back, I think he was married, and she met and married my Dad.  We moved from there when I was 5 but still have lots of family there. We later got some geneology information (because of our last name which was prevalent in that area) indicating that we were probably Pennsylvania Dutch, which wasn't Dutch, it was actually German and many of them originally settled in southwestern Virginia.

An additional note: My Mom apparently never forgot the boy she left behind... she had a picture of him and spoke of him several times.  She and my Dad were married until he died at age 56.  About 12 years later, she had been diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor, and I was with her after a month in the hospital and brain surgery, which had affected her thinking.  We had ladies lined up for 24/7 care at home the following week - it was luck that I was there at the right time... the phone rang, and over 50 years later, her old boyfriend had found her and called just to talk to her again.  I told him I knew who he was, but I had to break the news to him that her prognosis was dire, and she could not come to the phone. I told her he called, and I've never known whether she actually understood that he must have loved her a lot to call all those years later..... it still makes me tear up thinking about it.

[proudlyfromNJ]

My four sets of great grandparents came to America in the 1800's. From Germany, Ireland and 2 from England. They all came to New Jersey but some of their kids and grandkids moved to other states.

[feline groovy]

My parents met in the waiting room of a doctor's office, LOL.  

My mom was 100% German (born in Berlin), and although my dad was born in the U.S. his parents were from Austria and Russia.

Have no idea about the rest, but would like to be able to afford an international genealogy search someday.

[catwhisperer]

I think I came from a pack of wolves in the wilderness.

[roeroe1005]

Laura14 - what a great discussion!

I am ALL Italian - first generation.

My mom's dad was already here, called for my grandmother (who I never met) and her 4 daughters (mom & 3 sisters).  That was in the 1930's.  Their brother, my uncle Aneil, came over on a ship also but as a stowaway.  He was caught in NYC and returned back home.  He never set foot in the US again.

My dad came here after WWII.  He fought against us and had to "sneak" in thru Canada.  

To make it confusing - my mom's stepbrother, Tony, and my dad's sister, Viola, were husband and wife.  My dad lived with them until he married mom.

My family settled in Westchester County, NY.

[Laura14]

@catwhisperer  LOL!

Lots of fellow Paisans on this post!  I can tell immediately we are all a good looking group of people.   

[Preds]

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@DrakesMomma wrote:

My parents came to Ohio for my Daddy to work in the rubber industry.  The were both from Nowherevilles in TN.  Even though I've done the Ancestry DNA test I still think of myself as a hillbilly one generation removed.  And that is typed with pride and love!   

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I had to laugh when I read this @DrakesMomma.  My mom from the same part of TN.  Dad from a hollar' in WV and they met in Ohio as factory workers.  She was engaged to someone else and he got her a wedding gift.  Well, that stole her heart and I was born in Cleveland.  LOL