Your family's history

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My mother's family were boring; they just tilled the fields. My father's family came from Celtic countries and got into brawls in the bar and about 10 of his relatives were in the military, and a lot of them fought in wars. Then they lived in a close-knit Irish neighborhood in Montreal in the poor people's projects.

My dads family is from the Scandanavian area of northern europe, big in stature, probally celtic/vikings centries ago... moved to the states in the 1930's.
My moms family, some were cherokees, others were chippewas, some more were canuks who first came to montreal in 1646. Others were from germany.

On my father's side of the family was a lineage of Dutch immigrants to the Staten Island area of New York (in the 1600s). They married Mohawk Indians. Hmmm---blond-headed Indians .

My mother's side of the family has the autism gene. Gee---what a family. I had a cousin in the Athens, Ohio Psychiatric Hospital back in the mid part of the 20th century. I met him once---whoa!---Rainman. He had all these dates memorized with the weather conditons. He had to live with his brother when the hospital funding was cut. There are about 8 in my mother's family that have the autistic traits. And the one lineage traces itself back to Thomas Jefferson. My great great grandmother, who was 1/16 black, was descended from a slave on the Jefferson plantation (the slave had a child by either Thomas Jefferson's father, or his uncle, Field Jefferson).

Well...my father's side of the family is also interesting. There are several there that have been under psychiatric care. My father can multiply four digit numbers in his head faster that one can do it on a calculator. Maybe I got my autism from both sides of my family. I believe my father's math skills could be a savant-like skill.

My mum's family come from Fife in Scotland, which is on the East side. My dad's family come from Ayrshire, on the West side of Scotland. They were all (as far back as I know) farmers and tradesmen. Nothing about either family is particularly interesting.

My ancestors all emigrated to New York from Europe between about 1880 and 1910.

My mother is of pure Italian ancestry. (I am entitled to Italian citizenship in addition to my US citizenship.) My great-great-uncle was Oronzio Maldarelli, a renowned sculptor and professor at Columbia University.

My father's family is of Ashkenazi Jewish ethnicity.

My ancestors have been tradespeople, professionals, merchants, artisans and such. Basically urban skilled laborers and professionals. I guess it is no surprise I do not like the country.

My great grandparents' generation were peasants, my grandparents' generation were factory workers, my parents' generation are middle class, and this generation are procrastinators.

On my mother's side, I'm not sure about my maternal grandmother tbh, but my maternal grandfather is a direct descendant of the Wallace clan (made famous by the movie Braveheart), my middle name is Wallace.

On my father's side, my paternal great-grandfather came to the US from Italy when he was 12. My last name, Iovanne, is the American bastardized version of Giovanni. Also, my paternal grandmother was Acadian. The Acadians were French that intermarried with First Nation in the Nova Scotia area.

My mother's mothers side of the family are of Ashkenazi Jewish ethnicity....

I sort of feel that way too ... like I'm sort of crashing the trajectory of my family.

But then, maybe it's just that I'm more pessimistic - and I live in a different world. In their world you went to school, worked hard and got good grades, got a good job, worked hard, got a good pension and retired, at which point you could stop working hard. Along the way you acquired a nice house, a new car every soft often, a nice holiday every so often, and some nice kids (and eventually, grandkids) who repeated the same cycle you did. And generally, each generation got a little richer and more successful.

It was never really and truly that way but for their time (though I guess my parents' time is still now) there was at least some truth to it.

But in 2009?

Father's side
Coal miners from Belgium, France, and Saarland
Hessian tradespeople
All came to US in 1860s-1880s

Mother's side
English farmers/plantation owners who settled in Virginia and Rhode Island in 1600s
Welsh farmers who came to Pennsylvania in 1600s
Scots-Irish farmers who lived in Virginia/Kentucky in 1700s
Württemberg and Rhineland farmers who came to Illinois in 1860s
Some Native American although haven't identified the tribal group

i dont know half my family, because my mom never met her dad. he bounced when she was born. i guess my family is ok, although ive always felt out of place in a family. like i dont need to be in one or something

What does Ashkenazi stand for, I never heard of it?

From Wikipedia:

Mother side from Portugal, father side Italy.

on my mom's side - they were traditional Jewish people and some of them were very educated and well mannered (engineers and managers)

on my dad's side - my grandpa had like 10 brothers and sisters who grew up during WWII (played with bombshells, collected rifles and ammunition as a hobby, then buried it in the ground for later), one or two might have been executed by the Nazis or the communists. Most of them lived in a village and some managed to move closer to Moscow.

I don't know much about my family's history and such. Only enough to know that I'm a "mutt".
I know we have some Cherokee, and a little Irish.... and that's all I know.