So this thread is all about family trees and ancestry. (See what I did with the thread title there? ) Mostly sparked off through a skype chat and boredom, this thread is where you can tell all about your ancestors and family history. My last name's Howell fyi. So here's the gist of mine from what I can gather: In Wales, a descendant of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn (just some random guy I guess) was named Howel Sele, which started off the family name. He became a Lord in Merionethshire and had some kids. Howel Sele was killed by Madog and his body was hidden in an oak tree, where 40 years later some people found his skeleton clutching a sword. His descendant, Howel Dda, was also known as Howell, from which the name has now derived. He became King of Wales in 926 (all hail Prince Poetic!). He died and his descendant Sir Howell y Twyall fought the Black Prince at The Battle of Poitiers in 1356. He defeated the Black Prince and was knighted "Sir Howell of the Battle Axe". The family then began to train as bards in later years and performed for Lords in castles. The family migrated to England in the late 1500s where not much happened in that time. In the First World War, a handful of Howells (of whom I can't name all of them) fought in France. In the Second World War, I know there were three Howell brothers: Samuel, Young and James who fought for England. And so here we are with me, Thomas Samuel Howell, brony and poet Coat of Arms: The motto means: "The Power in Difficulty"
Your family has it's own coat of arms? And Howel Sele was so badass that he died clutching a sword? Lucky.
I'm afraid to dig into my family's past too much. I think they might have been slave owners and I know for sure my grandfather was in the KKK.
My uncle's been doing some rooting around and he's unearthed a lot of stuff. I'm descended from Volga Germans on my dad's side (poor German peasants who immigrated to Russia). My uncle recently found a bunch of letters that my great great grandfather, Sylvester Glatt who was a farmer in Minnesota, wrote in Der Statts-Anzeiger a newspaper that a lot of German Americans used to keep in touch with their relatives in Germany and Russia. On my mom's side its a bit more vague I think I have Irish on my maternal grandmother's side and English on my maternal grandfather's side.
Honestly, I feel somewhat dirty/tainted for having been his favorite grandchild when I was a baby. I've grown up around racism, religious zealotry, and intolerance all my life. I've never really agreed with them, but when I got to high school, some friends got me to starting thinking for myself, and now I almost actively strive to be the opposite of my family. How beautiful and ironic it is that out of the cesspool of bigotry and hatred that is my family, a brony rose with the message of love and tolerance, and that brony is me.
Really? Now I'm less inclined than before. But I suppose they need to pay to keep up whatever they use to search and find stuff related to your family.
I guess I can talk to my grandparents about their family history when I go visit them at the end of the month. Even though my mom was adopted, hence them being white, and me being black, I still wanna know.
I would do this but my name is a very common name in India. Besides, I think our family has record of stuff like this somewhere.
My fathers name (and mine) is originally from Italy, a Crusader during the middle ages. I'd put the crest on here but I can't find it without a huge C on it because of the crappy site wanting money. And my mothers maiden name is French, and when traced back, we found we come from a family of Nobles! yay
From digging around a bit on Google, and the fact that my granddad looks at this stuff on a regular basis, I think our coat of arms may be this: Our family was once the Sumner family, but one of my greats stuck an 's' onto the end to distinguish us for some reason. The Latin means 'Among the safest'. Apart from that, I have no clue. If only Ancestry were free. We've been in Lincolnshire for countless generations, though.
I'll give you guys what I do know. My (adoptive) Grandparents were born in November 1940, 3 days apart from each other. My Grandma's dad was born in 1912 and died last December of a heart attack at age 99. He was the last surviving member of his family (I think, his three daughters are still alive). I do know more about my Grandpa, he was also born in 1940, 3 days younger than my Grandma. He is half German, although he is not fluent in the language. He has 5(?) brothers and one sister, some of his brothers have died, I believe he is the youngest, although I am not 100% sure. I do know a helluva lot more about him, but that's more about his life and not his family history, I'll do some digging when I get the chance. Below is the Meier coat of arms, however, their last name is Franzmeier and it was a very common German name (so common, that when they visited Germany back when the Berlin wall was up, they got held at the border for 6 hours!) and when traced back is Meier, or Meyer. EDIT: Geez, there are so many variations of the Meier/Meyer coat of arms that I'm not even sure if this is the right one. Anypony wanna help verify?
I don't know where to go to find good accurate family history... I tried and paid for ancestry.com awhile back, but came up with NOTHING. It was asking me to start putting in historical documents and things. Yes, because when I pay for a ancestry service, I want to be the one putting up the information. All I know is that I have a lot of German and Italian, that's it... yay
Yeah. All I know about my ancestry is that my family were leather workers in Germany before coming to America in the 1850s or 1860s.
I did some digging, and that seems to be the canon coat of arms across the board. I presume the others are branches off from your family.
Sapere Aude "Dare to be Wise" So the "Wise" family (sometimes "Wyse" dependent on preference) were lords of Devonshire in 1066 at the time of Invasion, in the 1600-1800's various members of the family moved to America and New Zealand to escape the unrest in England. Currently residing in Northwest England right now.
My last name is Fry. From what I've gathered, it seems as though some Fry ancestors moved from Britain to Ireland at some point. It's hard to tell whether my family is from the German or Irish side, but going off of what my grandparents have told me, it's German. I've only found info regarding the Irish group, though. There are many recorded Frys landing in America before it was a nation, one of the earliest at 1701 in Virginia. Noteworthy people of the name "Fry" have had occupations such as being in the military (one was a Confederate General in the American Civil War), architects, cooks, artists, or poets. The family crest, if traced back to Germany, is this: The Irish and British versions are different. I'm currently searching for what my family motto, if one exists, is. I haven't turned up anything yet, though. EDIT: Hey, guys, check this out! Apparently, there's an Elizabeth Fry, so maybe, just maybe, one of my (extremely distant) relatives is on the five-pound note! If you're from England, you've probably seen her before. Story of my life.
