My Father's Ancestry

Often times a person lives their life based on how their own family would see it. Whether it disappoints or makes their family proud, it is inevitable; a person’s family will forever remain an important factor in their life, actions and the consequences that come with it. In “The Idea of Ancestry”, the author Etheridge Knight writes a poem where it is obvious that he is guilty of his actions and the shame and hurt it brings to his loved ones. Knight is haunted by the faces of his loved ones in his cell, and it is symbolic of the guilt he feels as he sits in prison and contemplates on his bad choices and addiction to heroin.

William, known as Bill, was born on July 20, 1921 in Minneapolis, MN. He worked in the plaster/stucco business for over 25 years before working at Northwest Airlines. His wife’s maiden name was Lorraine Mulcahy. Lorraine was born on August 13, 1922 in St. Paul, MN. Lorraine went to college at the University of Minnesota where she got her Bachelor of Science degree and became a dental hygienist. My grandma “Lo” is the genealogy nut in our family. She has searched for birthdates, marriage licenses, and other documents of her grandparents. I called grandma Lo to get some information on my great-grandparents and family stories. I found out I was part Norwegian and I never even knew it! Grandma Lo’s parents were Edward Mulcahy and Olga Shermoen. Her father Ed was born on April 15, 1880 in Minneapolis, MN. Ed worked as a claim agent for the Great Northern Railroad in the twin cities. Olga was born on March 15, 1888 in Hawley, MN. She also worked for the Great Northern Railroad as a matron. Edward was 100% Irish while Olga was 100% Norwegian. This makes my grandma Lorraine 50% Irish & 50% Norwegian. My grandpa Bill was adopted in Minneapolis so his genealogy is unknown. He was told by his adopted parents that he was mostly Irish. If we pretended Bill was 100% Irish, this would make my mom 75% Irish and 25% Norwegian.

Together my family tree or Genogram and I see why it is important to know who we are and where we come from. I am an African American and both my parents are of African American decent. In the African American culture, many of our ancestors came to America by capture and not by choice. It is said that many African Americans were slaves and were a part of slave trade that was increased between the 15th and 19th centuries (Bennett, 2003; Van Sertima, 1976). Many African Americans were brought here to make their white or European owners money and cause them to be prosperous in areas of agriculture. There were white indentured servants, who could have worked to till the ground and make the harvest plentiful, but it wasn’t enough, so plantation owners saw it profitable to use African slaves as a solution to

The ethnicity that I consider is Mexican-American. My mother is Mexican, meaning she was born and raised in Mexico, and my father is Mexican-American. Like me, he was also born in the United States. To study my ethnicity further, I only considered my mother’s side of the family. This is due to my father’s mother being adopted at a young age. In addition, the true father of my father is unknown. However, I speculate that my father has an African-American ancestor. On my mother’s side of the family, my great-great grandmother on her

My family of Burrows, Bennet (father) Goodbeer, Littlejohn, (mother) is the mixture of what America is French, German, Irish, Native American, and Black. Origins come from the Atlantic slave trade where most of my family was relocated to Arkansas. Where their condition of slavery with all of the horrors of it like the breeding, whippings, lynching, slave codes. The lack of education and the chance to prosper without being a handicap of being a subordinate which in 2016 is still every true to till this day. As for the Native American and the Irish side of the family, I don’t know much than seeing some pictures and Serval stories that I can’t recall from my childhood.

I am a black man in America with no known ancestral history, the only historian in my family is my 78 year old grandmother, and at times her stories become vague and distorted with little recollection of her own mother. My last name is West, such a simple last name, there is high possibility that I

Both my paternal and material families of origin are Caucasian. Ethnicity is Scotch-Irish. With reasonable accuracy I have been able to determine that my maternal great-great-grandfather (not reflected on this genogram) was living as a young man in Georgia during the Civil War period. In my maternal line I am also told that there is a Cree Indian relative in my great-grandparent line; time and place is unknown.

I am 1/128th Cherokee I have my CDBI card and receive all my native benefits. I discovered that I also have French in my blood line. So I call myself a French Indian. I am not sure where my family came from I was unable to locate some of the family history, but I am not giving up on tracing my family tree. I know that I have Choctaw blood line as well, my mother and I are tracing that back as well. All of my Indian blood line comes from my mother’s side of the family. I am not sure what blood line my father has, I just haven’t had the desire to look that side of my family up and do the

Back long ago in the 18th century, my distant relatives were very hard working people; most were farmers. And as they migrated to central Kentucky from West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, some became land owners, farmers, and breeding horses. Some families settled in Lexington, Louisville, Danville, and as far as West as Bowling Green Kentucky.

On my father’s side of the family, we know my grandfather’s family history. My great-grandfather, Michael Carr, was from Ballina in County Mayo, Ireland. In 1920, he decided to leave Ireland because of poverty and trying to live a better life. He left Ireland and on August 2nd, 1920, he arrived by means of a direct journey by boat. He entered the United States through Ellis Island and went to Park

My mother 's heritages are Chinese and Portuguese and Puerto Rican. She gets the Chinese from her father and her Portuguese and Puerto Rican from her mother. As far as my mother 's Chinese heritage they did not really practice it because she has grown up on Maui her whole life. Her Puerto Rican and Portuguese heritage was kept alive through different Puerto Rican and Portuguese foods. We also got our faith from that side of the family because catholicism is very popular in Puerto Rico and Portugal. My father 's heritage is Hawaiian and Caucasian. His mother was a full blooded Hawaiian. She was born in 1935 during the time where speaking Hawaiian and doing Hawaiian things were not allowed. So my dad is not really familiar with his Hawaiian heritage but my siblings and I are lucky enough to go to a Hawaiian school where we can learn about our Hawaiian heritage. My dad was 19 when his father passed away so that Caucasian heritage was noreally even talked about. My father is not even exactly sure what kind of Caucasian they were because he grew up being told they were Irish, Scottish, and Native American but his father 's certificates only say Caucasian. That heritage has not been kept alive.

As an African American woman, I have always been curious as to where in Africa my family came from. I would look at my friends, whose families come from all around the world, in envy because they have cultural traditions that they are able to celebrate. I have always felt as if I have no culture. Hearing about the different parties and celebrations that my Nigerian friends attend make me feel as if I was robbed of a vital part of my identity. One of the items on my bucket list is to get my DNA tested by Ancestry.com. Thus, if I could have a 30-minute conversation with any person in human history I would choose one of my ancestors from Africa. I feel that it is important that everyone knows their roots and where they come from. That is my reasoning

What I am today is the reflection of my family's history. History of endeavors, pains, failures and growth. One evening, I was talking to my grandma and she started telling about our family. At first, it seemed quite boring, but ended up in tears and made me learn the most important lesson of my life. It was quite a deep thing to realize for a kid but fortunately and eventually I understood.

For this project I interviewed my parents of three different generations about how they communicated. I interviewed them about how they communicated in their generations to tell on how times have changed during each generation on communicating and listening to family. The three family members I interviewed was my great-grandmother, my grandmother and my mother which each were of different generations. Each with 5 to 6 questions about how they communicated and listened to their family back in their day. I also asked them on how much time they spent communicating and listening to family.

I only know my history through pictures of what I have seen. The only picture that I did not know was my father’s dad. My father’s dad pasted away before I was born. My mom as a kid went to church and so did my aunt. I haven’t really been in a church other than Christmas and Easter or when I used to visit my Aunt Karen. But she passed away too soon. Most are from family members I know. I grew up really close to my family. They helped me be who I am today because of how we interacted together and how happy they made me. I liked that we had dinner with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins a lot. At least see once a week. I liked that we did stuff outside of the house. Sometimes as a child I thought they were mini adventures. My family and friends