Our Family: Where In The World Are We From?

Riddle: What sits in a corner while traveling all over the world?

Note: In this entry I'm speaking to our grandchildren about one-half of their ancestors -- their mother's.
To our daughters: this is your complete ancestry.

In Grampy's and my native state of Maine, tourists are spoken of as 'from away', meaning not having had the good sense to be born in Maine. Well, we've always said that most of our ancestors were Mainiacs (the more politically correct term used today is "Mainers"), so let's have a look at these hardy souls.

Having landed in MA, NH or southern ME, our ancestors didn't migrate west for richer soil and milder weather, no -- they went north! This pretty much describes their stubborn, independent attitude toward life. Some even did a sort of reverse migration, going north from Cape Cod (Nickerson) and Marblehead (Bubier) to Canada, then back into Maine.

More than three-quarters of our grandchildren's ancestors lived in New England, though only son-in-law D adds many from VT, RI and CT. Expanding to all of North America, we include the maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with son-in-law B adding Prince Edward Island (Strangman). The last quarter of your ancestors is Great-Grammy's NJ/NY ancestry, which we'll talk about later, as they are 'from away', meaning foreign to New Englanders.

Let's look at 7th generations back, starting with our grandchildren. This is a generation past Grampy's and my great-grandparents. He remembers his great-grandmother Pike as "a little old lady in bed", who died in 1960 at age 92. All of his side of the family were born in North America -- 16 in New England and 4 in Nova Scotia (Curry, Lunn, Jessome and Morgan). (Grampy has extras because of adoptions, and we follow both lines.)

My father's side were in far northern ME on the Canadian border. One (Nickerson) was born in ME, 4 in New Brunswick (Bubar, Hill, MacDougal -- son of a Scottish soldier, Fitzherbert -- granddaughter of an English soldier, both sent here in the British military), one (Cunningham) from Ireland and 2 (Fisher and Kent) from England.

Conclusion #1:
You have ancestors from each country in the British Isles.



On your mother's side, over 3/4 of your ancestors are British. Going back 14 generations, we add Wales (Lewis). 12 generations back we add the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey (Bubier), to complete all of the British Isles.





Now, on your Great-Grammy Dorothy (Trout) Nickerson's side, 7 generations back all of your ancestors were born in New Jersey, nearly all in Hunterdon County. Four (Trout, Bellis, Apgar and Lance) trace back to Germany, two (Hall and Hixson) to England, one (Lee) to Scotland, and one (Van Doren) to the Netherlands.

Conclusion #2:
Through your mothers, your ethnic heritage is American.
All but 3 of your 7th generation ancestors were born in North America (1 from Ireland and a married couple from England).

Conclusion #3:
Your mothers pedigree charts show that most of your ancestors immigrated 14 generations ago.

"How will our children know who they are if they don't know where they come from?" - John Steinbeck

Riddle answer: A stamp