GMG Classical Music Forum

The Back Room => The Diner => Topic started by: XB-70 Valkyrie on September 11, 2017, 08:17:43 PM

Title: Family ancestry research, Polish surnames, Poles in Ireland...
Post by: XB-70 Valkyrie on September 11, 2017, 08:17:43 PM
..and the kitchen sink.

Just returned from a great three week trip in Ireland. My family ancestry is mostly Irish on both mother's and father's side, so this trip was long overdue. We were in Dublin for six nights, then rented a car and went on to Kilkenny, Cork, Dingle, Kenmare, and Ennis. We will visit the north on a future trip.

We even had the pleasure of meeting GMG's own Aligreto over a very nice brunch at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin!

On our last stop at Ennis, the Innkeeper of the B&B where we stayed is an Irish genealogy expert and offered to do some research on my family. It turns out that my great, great grandfather on my mother's side was born in Poland, and had the surname Fishman (Fisheman on some documents apparently). This does not sound very Polish to me, but maybe the name was changed at some point (or maybe I know squat about Polish surnames). When he told me this, I replied that I know there are many Polish people in Dublin; I believe it is the second-most spoken language in the country after English (with Irish way down the list). "Yes, now, but back then it was very unusual!", he replied. All the rest of these characters in my family tree were apparently born in Ireland.  He also traced my ancestry back to my great, great, great grandfather, likely born around 1800.

On my father's side we have the O'Sullivan and the Nash names. Some emigrated to Canada (not related to the famine, I believe), then on to Montana, where my great grandfather homesteaded a ranch...

Do any of you get into your family's genealogy? What about that surname Fishman? What else do ya got for me??  :laugh:
Title: Re: Family ancestry research, Polish surnames, Poles in Ireland...
Post by: Hollywood on September 11, 2017, 11:25:57 PM
Quote from: XB-70 Valkyrie on September 11, 2017, 08:17:43 PM

Do any of you get into your family's genealogy? What about that surname Fishman? What else do ya got for me??  :laugh:

I have worked on my maternal grandmother's family Hunt. This is where I discovered all of my royal ancestors ranging from Charlemagne, King Henry II of England (the first Plantagent king) and King Louis IX of France (who is a catholic saint as well as St. Louis, MO and Louisiana are named for him).

The surname Fishman is a Saxon name as well as a Jewish (Ashkenazic) name (variant of Fischman). You can check out a little about the  name Fishman here: https://www.houseofnames.com/fishman-family-crest

Title: Re: Family ancestry research, Polish surnames, Poles in Ireland...
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on September 12, 2017, 05:41:38 AM
Quote from: XB-70 Valkyrie on September 11, 2017, 08:17:43 PM


Do any of you get into your family's genealogy?

I recently did the Ancestry.com test. It pretty much confirmed what I expected (I'm about an even split between Celtic and Germanic). However, it provided no evidence for a long-standing family rumor that we had some Native American (likely Choctaw) ancestry. My sister did the 23andme test, and no Indian showed up there, either. So I guess he never existed.

As for Ireland, we have been able to pinpoint an ancestor, a certain John Barry, who migrated from Cork to Virginia Colony around 1750. As an interesting side point, someone told me that Irish migrants used to say they were from Cork because that's the port where they left from. In fact, they might have come from anywhere in Ireland. But as I understand it, Barry is a common Cork name, so he may well have been from there.
Title: Re: Family ancestry research, Polish surnames, Poles in Ireland...
Post by: bwv 1080 on September 12, 2017, 05:48:40 AM
Genealogy going back more than a few hundred years is meaningless, one  geneticist estimated 25% of the British population has Plantagenet 'royal blood'.  Genghis Khan is estimated to have 16 million living decedents.  Probably most everyone of European decent has some great medieval king in their ancestry.  Without intermarriage (a big assumption) at 20 generations (600 years or so) you have a million 20x grandparents and by 30 generations over a billion (larger than the world population at the time).

My wife got me to do the Ancestry DNA thing, which was interesting as my background is simple and there was a good existing genealogy compiled by my parents and grandparents - my father is New England WASP with relatives on the Mayflower and one maternal grandparent was German - all mostly from Mecklenburg and the other from Eastern Norway.  My ex ante guess on the test was roughtly 1/3 each Norwegian, German and British, figuring that Western England where my puritan ancestors were from was the more heavily Anglo Saxon / Scandinavian area.  The DNA test pegged me correctly as 25% Norwegian and even got the region of Norway correct, but the German was gone - it listed me as 70% English with trace amounts of Finnish and Eastern European.
Title: Re: Family ancestry research, Polish surnames, Poles in Ireland...
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on September 12, 2017, 09:12:52 AM
Quote from: bwv 1080 on September 12, 2017, 05:48:40 AM
Genealogy going back more than a few hundred years is meaningless, one  geneticist estimated 25% of the British population has Plantagenet 'royal blood'. 

I have some sort of relation to America's least significant and shortest-serving president, William Henry Harrison. Also, one of my ancestors was George Washington's translator for his German troops.
Title: Re: Family ancestry research, Polish surnames, Poles in Ireland...
Post by: Ghost Sonata on September 12, 2017, 09:40:54 AM
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on September 12, 2017, 05:41:38 AM
I recently did the Ancestry.com test. It pretty much confirmed what I expected (I'm about an even split between Celtic and Germanic). However, it provided no evidence for a long-standing family rumor that we had some Native American (likely Choctaw) ancestry. My sister did the 23andme test, and no Indian showed up there, either. So I guess he never existed.

As for Ireland, we have been able to pinpoint an ancestor, a certain John Barry, who migrated from Cork to Virginia Colony around 1750. As an interesting side point, someone told me that Irish migrants used to say they were from Cork because that's the port where they left from. In fact, they might have come from anywhere in Ireland. But as I understand it, Barry is a common Cork name, so he may well have been from there.

I gave my parents that test as a gift and was fully expecting Indian (Iroquois) to show up in my father - esp. as a dentist of mine once told me I have several dental and oral characteristics of the Native American and the family has always maintained that heritage not as speculation but certainty.  But none showed-up whatsoever in my Dad's test.  There goes my gambling casino income...
Title: Re: Family ancestry research, Polish surnames, Poles in Ireland...
Post by: Hollywood on September 12, 2017, 10:09:16 AM
I love genealogy. I discovered that I have quite a few notable cousins who are also descended from my 9 times great grand parents Elder John Strong and his second wife Abagail Ford.  Some of these cousins include 23 U.S. Presidents and 15 First Ladies, as well as people ranging from Walt Disney to Winston Churchill...Ernest Hemingway to  Orson Welles... J.P. Morgan to Princess Diana Spencer...the Wright Brothers to Wild Bill Hickock. It's mind boggling.

I have been trying to find out what grade of cousin that these famous people are to me and I have had some success. For example President FDR is my 6th cousin, 3 X removed. J.P.Morgan is my 7th cousin, 3 X removed. Princess Diana Spencer is my 10th cousin which makes her sons Prince William and Harry my 10th cousins, once removed. There are so many famous cousins for me to check out which will keep me pretty busy for years to come.  ;D