Your roots

I thought it might be fun to hear about the origins of people families, as I'm a big fan of family history/genealogy.  Pick the line of your family you're most familiar with and do a show/tell as far back as you can go.  One of my lines goes like this....

My Dad was born and raised in a very poor Saint Paul neighborhood known then and now as "Frogtown."  With no welfare state during the depression they went hungry quite often, they went shoeless often, they passed clothes down from one to the next.  Luckily with 7 brothers nothing went to waste.  Somehow, despite dire living conditions and an often absent father, they had a wonderful childhood.  Grandma was a strong woman who kept sh*t together. 
Grandpa with my 3 eldest uncles in 1930 Frogtown:







My great grandparents lived in a small farming community not far from here.  They ran a general store there. 
Grandpa with his brothers in about 1915: 








My great-grandparents family in front of their store, about 1905.




Share some of your pics if you wish, or stories.

That's a cool story Logan....I can vouch you find out lots of weird things when you start digging into the past.....have you ever had the urge to start researching it?

thellama73 wrote: Finnforest wrote: That's a cool story Logan....I can vouch you find out lots of weird things when you start digging into the past.....have you ever had the urge to start researching it? My mom has put in a lot of time and effort researching the family's history (or her side of it anyway) and it has been pretty fruitless. My heritage is extremely diverse and apparently has roots in Scotland, France, Germany, and probably a little bit of Natiev American, although that is unprovable.

I think what really energizes people to start digging is photos.  At some point in our lives, someone dies and we will inherit a box of photos like I've posted below.  When you start really studying them closely, it can ignite a strong desire to learn about the people in them.  That's what happened to me.  Once you get into it, it's very rewarding.

One day a few centuries ago my father's ancestors came from Spain to what now is Ecuador. Then, eventually, my grandfather was born bearing the same exact name that my father and I also have (Teodoro Jose Gomez de la Torre). My grandfather, whom I never met since he dies before I was born, was a man of arts and show business, running the city's most important theater and dealing with people in high arts, in opera, in theater. But things went downhill and from richness he fell to poverty. My father, the youngest of 5 children, was the only one who had to suffer through this poverty. He became an artist, a painter, and also somewhat of a pioneer filmmaking (in my country of origin whose film industry is less than 40 years old, if we can call it an industry). Eventually, he had a very idiotic son who ended up living in Florida and visiting progarchives regularly. 

Cool Teo, do you have a photo of your Grandpa?

My family background is German and I'm barely aware of it.

My great grandmother about 1890.  This photo was given to me by an 80 year old woman I'd never met....it had been in a box of photos given to her in 1965 by her husband's cousin, whose mother was the sister of my my great grandma pictured here.  Had I not went on a serious detective hunt I'd never have this part of my past.  My Dad had almost no photos or info about our ancestors.  I have tons of photos and information obtained by tracking down strangers from other lines of my great grandparents family....2nd and 3rd cousins or whatever that makes em.....We compared notes and photos and be shocked to see we both had ones that were precious to the other. 

This is what I did with my spare time for a couple years, before I heard Quella Vecchia Locanda. 

Cool stuff.  I had traced my fathers side back to the 1600s somewhere in Saint Paul's Church area in London, England. My mother's side got a little muddy, but I did find that one of her ancestors was an aide to Stonewall Jackson during the Civil War (somewhere I have a photo of him).  Makes sense as most of them were in Virginia.

Interesting stories. I’d love to hear more about the wolves, Ian.

I’ve been told that my family (on the paternal side) can be traced back to the 17th century when one of my ancestors moved from Denmark to Norway. The earliest one I can find, however, is Niels Hagerup (1729-89). The most interesting person in my family tree is probably my grandmother, the poet Inger Hagerup:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inger_Hagerup

She and her spouse Anders Hagerup had two sons who both became writers, Helge (my father: http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helge_Hagerup - only in Norwegian, I’m afraid, and the pic was taken while I was a toddler) and Klaus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Hagerup).

My childhood was a bit chaotic: periods without any money at all, periods with lots of money (especially when my father had sold a play), writers, actors/actresses, artists and other misfits who frequented our home, rather unhealthy amounts of alcohol … and an ugly divorce.

My father had five children. Three with my mother: My brother Henning (literary critic, translator), me (translator/musician) and my sister Linde (writer).

He married again and had two sons: Bendik (composer) and Simen (writer). So we’re all misfits. Three of us live abroad; I live in Greece, Bendik in Belgium and Simen in Germany.

No, we don’t arrange reunions. The last time we all met was in my father’s funeral, four years ago. But I’ve seen nearly all of them since then (the exception is Bendik; if I had the money, I would visit him in Gent). Simen came here in October with his girlfriend and two sons I had never met before (they’re only 3 1/2 and 2 years old). Simen’s mother came too – a cool 69 years old woman who looks like a witch and acts like a witch but in reality is a teacher and a very nice person.

I will definitely meet Henning next year (he plans to come and visit us), and hopefully my financial situation will allow me to go to Norway.