i just found that THE GREAT

is another form of it's original

meanin BUSTINPUNANNI and if

one were to go back and research

these facts BUSTINAPUNANNI

(slight change same name)

leads directly to bein THE GREAT!!!

Bustinapunanni?

smoothcriminal12 said:

Spinlight said:

It's both easier and not easier to find families now. Some families are simply gonna be lost to antiquity, but that's fairly rare. You still had to declare slaves to the census enumeration peeps. Now that we can go as recent as 1940, you can begin to find a trail of breadcrumbs beginning with your grandparents.

Ancestry.com is free for like 2 weeks if you cancel within that time. I recommend people actually check it out and try it. Even with different spellings of surnames, often times you will STILL find all of the variations linked together via the site's software. Census stuff is pretty accurate, though, all things considered.

There were a few "problem" people in my line that I found, but I typically was able to find people adjacent to them in some way. Just takes patience and a little detective action. The Truth Is Out There.

[Edited 4/5/12 14:20pm]

That's true. Do you think it would work for Jamaica though?

As in, like, your grandparents are Jamaican? Yes and no. They had to come here eventually. Unfortunately, as stated, only as late as 1940 can be looked up. However, if your family members passed thru a port, they were enumerated, be they slaves or not, in many cases.

In today's culture, this is the same as the ticket info the airline keeps on record. Same concept. It depends, though. Sometimes if your shit is super complicated, it would take a real live geneaologist to help you out. And even then, some trails go dry. Its disheartening.

LadyLuvSexxy said:

nursev said:

Who Knows? I think for African Americans this is truly a depressing topic-its a topic with a never ending subject. Most of us will never know our real origins and that's sad.

I've been considering doing that swab DNA test and putting myself in a database. Not sure if that would help, though....not for 200+ dollars anyway.

My family acutally did. My cousin and I were heavily researching our family on our Grandmother's side who were supposedly from Portugal. Doing some further research, we found that "Portuguese" could mean anything, and there is a large chunk of our family who "passed" during the late 1800's early 1900's and changed their last name.

I had a Aunt who took the swab, and the results were mixed from White, Black, Native American, even Asian. I had a male cousin who was also swabbed for the African database and was mapped to Guinea-Bissau, which was part of the Portuguese Empire.

KingBAD said:

i just found that THE GREAT

is another form of it's original

meanin BUSTINPUNANNI and if

one were to go back and research

these facts BUSTINAPUNANNI

(slight change same name)

leads directly to bein THE GREAT!!!

Mr Bustinpunnani was of Portuguese descent and he married an English broad named Clitty who just so happened to be the daughter of Sir Edward Dicknasium the fourth, a part-time locksmith and true heir to the throne of England! Bustinpunnani and Clitty produced a son named Honeychile but were unaccepting of his creative nature so they adopted him out to an American boxer named Great Expectations and his wife Frosty.

Anyway honeychile went into the cereal making business as it was a hobby of his dear mother and he was so successful that he changed his name from Honeychile Great Expectations to THEY'RE GREAT in honor of his most popular selling cereal. His son Tony, born of a Welsh prostitute that THEY'RE GREAT had a one-night stand with, changed his name to THE GREAT and inherited his father's business being the sole heir. The rest his history and high fructose corn syrup.

HotGritz said:

KingBAD said:

i just found that THE GREAT

is another form of it's original

meanin BUSTINPUNANNI and if

one were to go back and research

these facts BUSTINAPUNANNI

(slight change same name)

leads directly to bein THE GREAT!!!

Mr Bustinpunnani was of Portuguese descent and he married an English broad named Clitty who just so happened to be the daughter of Sir Edward Dicknasium the fourth, a part-time locksmith and true heir to the throne of England! Bustinpunnani and Clitty produced a son named Honeychile but were unaccepting of his creative nature so they adopted him out to an American boxer named Great Expectations and his wife Frosty.

Anyway honeychile went into the cereal making business as it was a hobby of his dear mother and he was so successful that he changed his name from Honeychile Great Expectations to THEY'RE GREAT in honor of his most popular selling cereal. His son Tony, born of a Welsh prostitute that THEY'RE GREAT had a one-night stand with, changed his name to THE GREAT and inherited his father's business being the sole heir. The rest his history and high fructose corn syrup.

that is such a crock of (wait a minit, that shit is FUNNY)

November said:

LadyLuvSexxy said:

I've been considering doing that swab DNA test and putting myself in a database. Not sure if that would help, though....not for 200+ dollars anyway.

My family acutally did. My cousin and I were heavily researching our family on our Grandmother's side who were supposedly from Portugal. Doing some further research, we found that "Portuguese" could mean anything, and there is a large chunk of our family who "passed" during the late 1800's early 1900's and changed their last name.

I had a Aunt who took the swab, and the results were mixed from White, Black, Native American, even Asian. I had a male cousin who was also swabbed for the African database and was mapped to Guinea-Bissau, which was part of the Portuguese Empire.

AARRGH!! Now I wanna do it. I was watching a show on a local PBS station with a bunch of high school girls who had theirs done. Pricey as it is, I guess I could get it as a Christmas gift or something. I can look at myself and tell i've got a lot of mixture in here. I know the African part is going to be in the 90s, but I want the other breakdowns just to know.

Spinlight said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

That's true. Do you think it would work for Jamaica though?

As in, like, your grandparents are Jamaican? Yes and no. They had to come here eventually. Unfortunately, as stated, only as late as 1940 can be looked up. However, if your family members passed thru a port, they were enumerated, be they slaves or not, in many cases.

In today's culture, this is the same as the ticket info the airline keeps on record. Same concept. It depends, though. Sometimes if your shit is super complicated, it would take a real live geneaologist to help you out. And even then, some trails go dry. Its disheartening.

My grandparents left my Dad and his siblings in Jamaica with family as they went and immigrated to Canada. After getting in they brought all of them over (after lying to the government saying that they had no children.)

So both my grandparents and my Dad are immigrants to Canada. So perhaps there are records lying around.

Timmy84 said:

Earlier today, I read somewhere that Whitney Houston's ancestry wasn't part Native American and Dutch as was speculated but only African American with Scottish descent. I began to look up where certain surnames come from and I got that the names "Houston" and "Drinkard" are both Scottish. I wonder if your surname tells you where some of your ancestors come from...

Depends.

If you're black it could just be about slave ownership - slaves had to take the last names of their owners. That is, unless some stuff went on and you're related by blood to those slaveowners in which case then yeah it might give you an idea of your ancestry.

To some extent my tree on my mother's side is an example of this. I was always told (like a lot of African Americans) that there was Native American somewhere - Choctaw, to be specific but a few years ago one of my uncles started digging around and didn't find any, but he did find blood links to a governor from the South who was Scottish.

Although too, people do change their names and have in the past too obviously, for various reasons. So if you have an Irish last name it doesn't necessarily guarantee that you're Irish - maybe an ancestor needed to change his name for whatever reasons and happened to pick an Irish one when he was really Italian or something.

Spinlight said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

Slavery and whatnot.

Besides that, I'd probably never be able to find my family.

It's both easier and not easier to find families now. Some families are simply gonna be lost to antiquity, but that's fairly rare. You still had to declare slaves to the census enumeration peeps. Now that we can go as recent as 1940, you can begin to find a trail of breadcrumbs beginning with your grandparents.

Ancestry.com is free for like 2 weeks if you cancel within that time. I recommend people actually check it out and try it. Even with different spellings of surnames, often times you will STILL find all of the variations linked together via the site's software. Census stuff is pretty accurate, though, all things considered.

There were a few "problem" people in my line that I found, but I typically was able to find people adjacent to them in some way. Just takes patience and a little detective action. The Truth Is Out There.

[Edited 4/5/12 14:20pm]

Actually that site is still a crapshoot if...your relatives names were spelled wrong in the census (which my maternal grandmother's, was - wrong middle initial too, almost didn't find her).

LadyLuvSexxy said:

November said:

My family acutally did. My cousin and I were heavily researching our family on our Grandmother's side who were supposedly from Portugal. Doing some further research, we found that "Portuguese" could mean anything, and there is a large chunk of our family who "passed" during the late 1800's early 1900's and changed their last name.

I had a Aunt who took the swab, and the results were mixed from White, Black, Native American, even Asian. I had a male cousin who was also swabbed for the African database and was mapped to Guinea-Bissau, which was part of the Portuguese Empire.

AARRGH!! Now I wanna do it. I was watching a show on a local PBS station with a bunch of high school girls who had theirs done. Pricey as it is, I guess I could get it as a Christmas gift or something. I can look at myself and tell i've got a lot of mixture in here. I know the African part is going to be in the 90s, but I want the other breakdowns just to know.

I thought about one day having this done too (to fill in the gaps) but eventually nixed the idea. I have just enough conspiracy-theorist in me to find it strange that suddenly all these 'services' are cropping up offering to analyze and 'store' African and African-American DNA...

Dren5 said:

Timmy84 said:

Earlier today, I read somewhere that Whitney Houston's ancestry wasn't part Native American and Dutch as was speculated but only African American with Scottish descent. I began to look up where certain surnames come from and I got that the names "Houston" and "Drinkard" are both Scottish. I wonder if your surname tells you where some of your ancestors come from...

Depends.

If you're black it could just be about slave ownership - slaves had to take the last names of their owners. That is, unless some stuff went on and you're related by blood to those slaveowners in which case then yeah it might give you an idea of your ancestry.

To some extent my tree on my mother's side is an example of this. I was always told (like a lot of African Americans) that there was Native American somewhere - Choctaw, to be specific but a few years ago one of my uncles started digging around and didn't find any, but he did find blood links to a governor from the South who was Scottish.

Although too, people do change their names and have in the past too obviously, for various reasons. So if you have an Irish last name it doesn't necessarily guarantee that you're Irish - maybe an ancestor needed to change his name for whatever reasons and happened to pick an Irish one when he was really Italian or something.

True but looking at both my parents, I think whoever my ancestors were screwed other people in my lineage. My family's a melting pot of racial complexions: dark, light, brown, red (another name for light-skinned blacks), damn near white lol

it tells me that a name does not define u

roses can grow from shit!!!

ThisOne said:

it tells me that a name does not define u

roses can grow from shit!!!

Of course.

I doubt anyone here was implying that a person's ultimate value and potential are determined by their ancestry.

Timmy84 said:

Dren5 said:

Depends.

If you're black it could just be about slave ownership - slaves had to take the last names of their owners. That is, unless some stuff went on and you're related by blood to those slaveowners in which case then yeah it might give you an idea of your ancestry.

To some extent my tree on my mother's side is an example of this. I was always told (like a lot of African Americans) that there was Native American somewhere - Choctaw, to be specific but a few years ago one of my uncles started digging around and didn't find any, but he did find blood links to a governor from the South who was Scottish.

Although too, people do change their names and have in the past too obviously, for various reasons. So if you have an Irish last name it doesn't necessarily guarantee that you're Irish - maybe an ancestor needed to change his name for whatever reasons and happened to pick an Irish one when he was really Italian or something.

True but looking at both my parents, I think whoever my ancestors were screwed other people in my lineage. My family's a melting pot of racial complexions: dark, light, brown, red (another name for light-skinned blacks), damn near white lol

You know what, I think that's true of the vast majority of African-American families; mine is the same. My younger sister and brother are pretty damn fair-skinned compared to me even though we have the same mother, same father.

When there's multiple ethnicities in a gene pool, it's a crapshoot, you never know what you're going to 'get'. Which is why the casting on "The Cosby Show" didn't seem all that implausible to me.

My dad's nickname among his family is "Red" lol.

Absolutely no proof of this, but I've been wondering for years now if there isn't some East Asian ancestry on my dad's side... over the years I've seen a lot of older Asian men who vaguely resemble my dad physically in some ways and once years ago an Asian guy stopped my younger sister and asked about her background and if she had any Asian blood.

[Edited 4/6/12 20:09pm]

Dren5 said:

ThisOne said:

it tells me that a name does not define u

roses can grow from shit!!!

Of course.

I doubt anyone here was implying that a person's ultimate value and potential are determined by their ancestry.

I wasn't even implying that at all.

ANY 1 MYND LOOKIN UP DARLING FOR ME? THANKS N ADVANCE.........

Timmy84 said:

Dren5 said:

Of course.

I doubt anyone here was implying that a person's ultimate value and potential are determined by their ancestry.

I wasn't even implying that at all.

i know ~ i was just giving my thoughts on the subject

ThisOne said:

Timmy84 said:

I wasn't even implying that at all.

i know ~ i was just giving my thoughts on the subject

Why'd you click on the thread and post in the first place if you think the subject is pointless anyway, if not because you assumed something about the reason for this thread and came in to 'enlighten' everybody?

That aside -

Timmy, there's other ways to 'get around' the Ancestry dot com fee, I just remembered it a few hours ago. Some city libraries let you access those same sites for free.

Even try your library system's official website and sign in with your library card and look around, because sometimes they'll let you access those sites from home for free and you can save a trip out there in the first place.

Dren5 said:

ThisOne said:

i know ~ i was just giving my thoughts on the subject

Why'd you click on the thread and post in the first place if you think the subject is pointless anyway, if not because you assumed something about the reason for this thread and came in to 'enlighten' everybody?

That aside -

Timmy, there's other ways to 'get around' the Ancestry dot com fee, I just remembered it a few hours ago. Some city libraries let you access those same sites for free.

Even try your library system's official website and sign in with your library card and look around, because sometimes they'll let you access those sites from home for free and you can save a trip out there in the first place.

because the question was what your surname tells YOU... and thats how i feel about it

im actually considering changing my surname ~ what do u think of Nelson???

is it from good deep roots?????

ThisOne said:

Dren5 said:

Why'd you click on the thread and post in the first place if you think the subject is pointless anyway, if not because you assumed something about the reason for this thread and came in to 'enlighten' everybody?

That aside -

Timmy, there's other ways to 'get around' the Ancestry dot com fee, I just remembered it a few hours ago. Some city libraries let you access those same sites for free.

Even try your library system's official website and sign in with your library card and look around, because sometimes they'll let you access those sites from home for free and you can save a trip out there in the first place.

because the question was what your surname tells YOU... and thats how i feel about it

im actually considering changing my surname ~ what do u think of Nelson???

is it from good deep roots?????

Nice try.

Well, not really - it's also obvious in...the original post...that the subject is genealogy.

No one ever asked anything about whether a name was 'good' or from 'deep' roots. No one placed a value judgment on the subject but YOU.

...Everyone else just wanted to know if you can get a clue on where to start family tree research, based on the origins of a particular name.

YOU projected that issue into all this when it was never there in the first place - which says more about your own personal prejudices, issues and biases around this subject than it does anyone elses.

And - Nelson? Go for it, have fun. Prince is a cutie; slap him on that round ass for me good one time.

Dren5 said:

ThisOne said:

because the question was what your surname tells YOU... and thats how i feel about it

im actually considering changing my surname ~ what do u think of Nelson???

is it from good deep roots?????

Nice try.

Well, not really - it's also obvious in...the original post...that the subject is genealogy.

No one ever asked anything about whether a name was 'good' or from 'deep' roots. No one placed a value judgment on the subject but YOU.

...Everyone else just wanted to know if you can get a clue on where to start family tree research, based on the origins of a particular name.

YOU projected that issue into all this when it was never there in the first place - which says more about your own personal prejudices, issues and biases around this subject than it does anyone elses.

And - Nelson? Go for it, have fun. Prince is a cutie; slap him on that round ass for me good one time.

thats your interpretation so ok fine

i'm happy 2nite ~ had fun shopping so i really dont care

anyway what ever

Anyways... back on topic, guys, huh?

I am not related to anyone with my last name past my dad (who took his stepdad's name)

But it's so uncommon that random people with the same last names as me are friending me on facebook.

NDRU said:

I am not related to anyone with my last name past my dad (who took his stepdad's name)

But it's so uncommon that random people with the same last names as me are friending me on facebook.

I got someone named Douglas with the last name of my dad friending me on Facebook but I hardly know who he is. Apparently my aunts friended him too.

Timmy84 said:

Anyways... back on topic, guys, huh?

Sorry Timmy

anyway i once knew a retired couple that did this, they worked out a persons family tree - all the way down 2 the roots!!!

they even went as far as visiting remote country side grave yards tracing back to the early convict settlement in Australia.

And they published a book on the gravesites they visited, the old guy died a few years ago, he was a very nice person, i worked with him years ago b4 he retired, he had lots of interesting stories

he offered 2 do mine ~ but i said no thanks

chocolate1 said:

My Dad grew up on a [plantation] in South Carolina. I'm sure our last name has had an interesting journey from its origin to how it became our family's name.

One day I will try to trace it...

I wouldn't even know where to begin with my Mom's family.

Which part of SC is your family from?

jone70 said:

chocolate1 said:

When I was working at a small private school, the Executive Director got the bright idea to take a "staff building" trip to Ellis Island.

I was called into his office because I had said that I wasn't going. He wanted to know why...

I told him that I wasn't interested in it because I'm pretty sure my ancestors didn't go thru Ellis Island, they were tossed up on the shore.

He didn't press the issue anymore.

People are really clueless sometimes. I would have loved to have seen the look on his face when you told him why you weren't going!

I remember this asshole teacher had the children do a project on immigration. Claiming everyone came from somewhere. My girl argued with her and came home and told me about it. I talked to my daughter and told her not to do it, and to tell the idiot teacher to call me. I told the teacher about how ignorant she was. She had the gall to suggest my daughter invent something, I basically told her to kiss my backside. We are not immigrants, and her poor selection of a project means my daughter is excused from the work. Our other heritage is Native American....a local nation, so we are where we belong.....

smoothcriminal12 said:

Spinlight said:

It's both easier and not easier to find families now. Some families are simply gonna be lost to antiquity, but that's fairly rare. You still had to declare slaves to the census enumeration peeps. Now that we can go as recent as 1940, you can begin to find a trail of breadcrumbs beginning with your grandparents.

Ancestry.com is free for like 2 weeks if you cancel within that time. I recommend people actually check it out and try it. Even with different spellings of surnames, often times you will STILL find all of the variations linked together via the site's software. Census stuff is pretty accurate, though, all things considered.

There were a few "problem" people in my line that I found, but I typically was able to find people adjacent to them in some way. Just takes patience and a little detective action. The Truth Is Out There.

[Edited 4/5/12 14:20pm]

That's true. Do you think it would work for Jamaica though?

Jamaican or African American--same ship, different stops

I did the cotton swab at AncestrybyDNA.com & AfricanAncestry.com. My admixture is 64% Sub-Saharan African, 18% European, 16% Indigenous American & 2% Asian. Paternal ancestry is from Ghana, maternal from Senegal.

As for tracing my 'roots', my problem is I don't know who my maternal grandfather is. My late mother had a stepfather, but she never talked about her biological father. So I'm stuck. I have family out there that I'll never meet.

[Edited 4/7/12 23:19pm]