General Chat

Oh right - no it was my ignorance not your fault:)

Sorry David.. should have just said Scandinavian, his family roots are Norwegian.

Trust you to be unusual, Rox - are the Jamaican and Russian hard to trace? Most of French lines came over before the C17th and there is a bit of info in the records about where they came from and who their parents were but I've never really got anywhere with any of the others.

What's Nordic, Marion?

Like yourself David I have Irish ( southern) ancestors on my mums side. They came here early 1800's some of them settled in Scotland first, then Hull before moving on further along the north east coast. My husbands ancestors are Nordic.

Marion

Lots:-))

I recently found Jamaican ancestory,which I find very Interesting,its very distant but its there and I think its great!
Infact Im intouch with one man who also has the same link he lives In New York.

On my fathers side there is French Canadian blood with a bit of native Indian in there too, that was a very interesting find.
My fathers side also has Russian jewish.

So all in all Im a bit of a melting pot:-))lol

Lynda, I have no idea where you would find out that but would be interesting if you could:)

Maggie, it's funny how these areas, like where my ancestors were in London, were like melting pots (also known as the slums lol) and they seem to have produced some of the most open minded of people who seemed to feel they were all in the same boat regardless of nationality and so on.

Chapel, in Southampton, as I have said is /was a great melting pot. As for immigrants having to live in the worst areas, my family lived in that area for 4 generations, since my g x 3 grandad bought it in 1850. It was a 4 roomed terrace that, when my mum was young, housed a family of 6 upstairs and a family of 4 downstairs!! You either live like that through altruism or poverty!!
Ownership came to an abrupt end when it was bombed in 1936 and grandad was given the princely sum of £6 compensation!!
Grandad worked in the Docks, as did his best mate Stan. Both were injured and both received a pittance from the 'Friendly Society' they both paid in to. Stan was also, like my grandad a member of the Royal & Ancient Order of Buffaloes.
However, my g gran's family made a living in the Chinese laundry down the road.
Colour obviously wasn't a bar, as my grans teacher was black, Stan was in the RAOB (bit like a working mans Masons) and the laundry was really owned by Chinese. The only really poor people in the above scenario were mine!!!

Kay, many Irish came over before 1846. There are tens of thousands in London in 1841 alone - all mine came between c1810 and the 1830s.

David.
Many of the imigrants in the 1800s were IGermans,Polish,mainly Jewish who rolled their sleeves up set up shop and worked for them selves, and worked hard,,,,,,,,,,,,it wasnt till the potato famine that England./US got swarmed with the Irish,,,,but they too like the others mixed only wtih their own,,,,like the Jewish community in Bethnal Green,,it was taken over by tailors &polish bakers,,,,
the Irish sadly didnt have harldy any skills,,,,,,so had to work for other people,,often a hand to mouth existence,,,,,,,,wife and kids in workhouses,,,,,,

Well I call your lot the upper crust then Jac. Mine were all labourers until the advent of the railways when they became railway labourers :)

Jean x.

Mine too Jean - I'm beginning to get an inferiority complex about my tree - English Tailors to a man (and woman) most of them, and I cant thread a needle!

No....My tree is boringly English unless you count the Scots as immigrants.

Jean x.,

I think you can, Kay. The more I read, the easier it is to compare. Reasons for leaving, living in overcrowded areas full of other immigrants from the same backgrounds, doing the crap work for little money that the natives don't want to do, attitudes towards them and everything wrong in society being blamed on them and how they gradually begin to move out of their areas and marry out of their society.

Dont think you can compare past imigrants with the present day,, those were bad time for everyone who came,,,,,,,,,and if you hadnt have money you never got any help from anyone,,,,,,,,,,,,,but even the past ones came to England for a better life,,,we were liberal country then,,1700+1800's.........

Some of mine came from the emerald isle,,,,,,,,coming reportedly from the Armada times,surname is def of Spanish/IIalian origins,,,,

Lol!
Well there is the other story that the name is derived from O'Malley.
I think the Spanish story is much better though!
Plus the O'Malley theory doesn't explain why the name is so popular in Spain.

Oh fgs Pat - all my Irish have names like Sullivan and Connell lol

Oh and I forgot.
I haven't actually traced my Irish side yet, But it is said that my (Irish) surname is originally Spanish-Well Catalan.
The story is that a Spanish ship sank off the coast of Ireland and some sailors got stranded, They then settled in Ireland. Hence the Spanish name in Ireland.

Pat

lol Josie's other grandad:)

That sounds good for me Karen:)

Maggie that must be so interesting - must give you some real insight. I have wondered when looking through censuses sometimes if any of these names belong to black people. I know the US census had colour on it but there would be no clue on ours.

Jac:))

All right Pat, stop showing off now:))

100% English in the main, although my one g g grandma is Irish. As she was born long before the Partition, I suppose she really doesn't count.

I do have one foreigner though, a g grandma who was born in the Black Country, plus another from Birkenhead.