# Show us your roots



## TxllxT

This thread is not meant to show the place where you live now, but the place where your folks come from, or the place where your heart is. Of course it is possible that your present place of living = the place where your folks live = the place of your heart.

I will start with the place where both my father and mother were born: the old Hanseatic town of Harderwijk in the centre of Holland.


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## kartikeys

Good Thread.
My roots are from Jammu and Kashmir. 
I don't have the photos currently and I don't 
feel like showing photoshopped internet photos. 
May I recommend a map to go with the photos.


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## TxllxT

kartikeys said:


> Good Thread.
> My roots are from Jammu and Kashmir.
> I don't have the photos currently and I don't
> feel like showing photoshopped internet photos.
> May I recommend a map to go with the photos.


Please show the map or whatever you like...
My Map:


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## Huilunsoittaja

My Mom is from Ingå, Finland, a Finland-Swedish community famous for an old church that dates back to the middle ages. I've visited this church many times over my short life whenever we visited our relatives there:










Part of my mom's (and hence my own) ancestry also comes directly from Sweden from the Dalerna province. They are known for these painted wood horses:










My dad's family was from Joutsa, Finland. Somewhere out in that surrounding forest is a little abandoned log cabin where some forefathers once lived before they moved deeper into the town:










And like my mom, my dad also has ancestry farther away and for him it was in Karelia, where they owned a farm about 50 miles north of St. Petersburg, Russia . The land was appropriated by the Soviet Union during the Winter War and so we will never get it back.

A map:










The farm was located I think in Parikkala on the modern-day border of Finland. That name rings a bell...

And while my distant relatives lived there in 1800s into the early 1900s, Glazunov had his own summer home in a now non-existent place called Merioki (Russian version of _Merijoki_), east of Vyborg (Viipuri). It was approximately in the Äyräpää district. I learned of this last year.

And so we came full circle... Glazunov lived about 25 miles away from my dad's side of the family.

COULD THEY HAVE MET? Nah, my parents don't think so. Especially for them, they probably never traveled more than 5 miles away from their farm.


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## Ingélou

My father came from Dundee (Scotland) & my mother from Burton-on-Trent (English midlands), but when I was a baby of six months old, the family moved to York and that's where I grew up. Floreat Eboracum!










York is where my heart is, and the place that I most identify with.


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## GreenMamba

Vienna, but that's really too far back to trace for my family.

So let's say Chicago. All of my grandparents grew up there. Half Northside, half Southside.


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## TxllxT

You may also just show the place where your heart is. Mostly this happens to be the place where one grew up...


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## Taggart

My parents both grew up in the same town - Mossend in Lanarkshire, on the map it's between Bellshill and Holytown - where I lived until I was 21.










It was built around iron and coal and the population included a large number of Irish immigrants (including my grandparents) and also a strong Lithuanian element.










The local church was designed by Messrs Pugin and Pugin, Westminster ... one of the neatest, most chaste and elegant in this part of the country - according to the Parish website.


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## TxllxT

Taggart said:


> My parents both grew up in the same town - Mossend in Lanarkshire, on the map it's between Bellshill and Holytown - where I lived until I was 21.
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> It was built around iron and coal and the population included a large number of Irish immigrants (including my grandparents) and also a strong Lithuanian element.
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> The local church was designed by Messrs Pugin and Pugin, Westminster ... one of the neatest, most chaste and elegant in this part of the country - according to the Parish website.


Is this mr. Pugin the famous Gothic Revival architect?


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## Guest

Taggart said:


> My parents both grew up in the same town - Mossend in Lanarkshire, on the map it's between Bellshill and Holytown - where I lived until I was 21.
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> It was built around iron and coal and the population included a large number of Irish immigrants (including my grandparents) and also a strong Lithuanian element.
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> The local church was designed by Messrs Pugin and Pugin, Westminster ... one of the neatest, most chaste and elegant in this part of the country - according to the Parish website.


Pugin's Gem is, er, his Gem.


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## Figleaf

My roots? I'll have you know that this hair colour is totally natural! 

I think that all the recent generations of my family are from the east of England. The first place I remember living, and which I therefore think of as home, was Wethersfield in Essex. It was a little bit scruffier in the late 70s and early 80s and very much a backwater; now it's become gentrified and is full of London commuters. The only decent picture I could find was watermarked by a firm of locksmiths in Halstead, so I guess it's still not a very well known place!










Before they ended up on the Norfolk coast, my Dad's family were French. I don't know where they came from, but the part of France that historically shares our name is around the city of Bourges. After driving through those vast brown prairies of Berry last September, our next stop was the rural eastern department of Haute-Saône, where I hope that future generations of my family will be able to put down roots:


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## SarahNorthman

So my roots....Well I struggle with finding pictures to show you that I like. Anywho me ma was born in Lone Pine California in 1965. I am not even going to attempt to find pictures of it in 65'. It looks to be one of those towns where they say "dont blink or you will miss it." My grandfather used to work for the National Parks....I just hope grandma did not have mom IN the national park.







This is downtown Lone Pine








This is somewhere in the National Park. I chose it because it is just pretty.

My father on the other hand was born in Santa Fe NM in 1955.







This picture is from the Fiesta De Santa Fe taken in front of the La Fonda Hotel in 55'.








A current picture of the same place. However, not during fiesta season. I marvel at the changes over time.

I will not get pictures on my grandparents, but my maternal grandma's family is from Germany...I am not quite sure what part, and my maternal grandfather lived in China until he was 14 I believe and then he and his family moved to San Francisco after WW2 ended. Great grandma was Japanese and Portuguese (she was so pretty!) she had moved from Japan to China during the war to be a translator as she knew Japanese, Chinese, and English. I believe great grandpa Moore's family comes from somewhere in either Scotland or Ireland. I am almost positive it is Scotland though. 
On my paternal side, our family comes from Spain, again I am not sure what part. Grandpa Tony's family is descendant from the Spanish Moors. I do not know much about them, but mom says that they immigrated to Florida (I will have to do some research there). Grandmas family immigrated to what was Mexico at the time and have lived here until and after we became a state in 1912. Lots of Spanish and Mexican on that side.

As for me, there is not much to tell, I was born in Albuquerque New Mexico and raised in Santa Fe New Mexico.


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## SarahNorthman

Huilunsoittaja said:


> My Mom is from Ingå, Finland, a Finland-Swedish community famous for an old church that dates back to the middle ages. I've visited this church many times over my short life whenever we visited our relatives there:
> 
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> Part of my mom's (and hence my own) ancestry also comes directly from Sweden from the Dalerna province. They are known for these painted wood horses:
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> My dad's family was from Joutsa, Finland. Somewhere out in that surrounding forest is a little abandoned log cabin where some forefathers once lived before they moved deeper into the town:
> 
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> And like my mom, my dad also has ancestry farther away and for him it was in Karelia, where they owned a farm about 50 miles north of St. Petersburg, Russia . The land was appropriated by the Soviet Union during the Winter War and so we will never get it back.
> 
> A map:
> 
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> 
> The farm was located I think in Parikkala on the modern-day border of Finland. That name rings a bell...
> 
> And while my distant relatives lived there in 1800s into the early 1900s, Glazunov had his own summer home in a now non-existent place called Merioki (Russian version of _Merijoki_), east of Vyborg (Viipuri). It was approximately in the Äyräpää district. I learned of this last year.
> 
> And so we came full circle... Glazunov lived about 25 miles away from my dad's side of the family.
> 
> COULD THEY HAVE MET? Nah, my parents don't think so. Especially for them, they probably never traveled more than 5 miles away from their farm.


Oh I have always loved those little Swedish horses! I hear they are crazy expensive though.


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## Huilunsoittaja

SarahNorthman said:


> Oh I have always loved those little Swedish horses! I hear they are crazy expensive though.


Maybe some fancy ones are. We got a couple of them in our house here. Maybe one day we'll sell them for antiques ^_^ but they are kinda special so maybe not.


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## Taggart

TxllxT said:


> Is this mr. Pugin the famous Gothic Revival architect?


Nope. The church dates from 1884 so both Augustus and his son E.W. were dead by that time. Just the firm (and the name) but not the man himself.


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## TxllxT

Taggart said:


> Nope. The church dates from 1884 so both Augustus and his son E.W. were dead by that time. Just the firm (and the name) but not the man himself.


I remember from the time that I studied architecture, how this Augustus Pugin instructed all his carpenters to deliver excellent work also in the places that nobody could see (attics etc.): "Remember, God sees everything!" This to great bewilderment of the professor in architectural history.


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## Art Rock

It's an interesting question, because it made me realize that I really don't have any roots. I have lived in 9 cities/villages, none of them have made a lasting impression to call it roots.


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## SixFootScowl

My family name goes back to Austria, but my roots are firmly in Detroit, 
Michigan, which is where I was born.


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## drpraetorus

So, I am Utah born and bred This is where my heart is. 













I was born in Salt Lake City, the State Capitol.



















Currently I live in the suburb of West Valley. It along with Salt Lake City and several other towns are in the Salt Lake Valley. The Great Salt Lake is on the Northwest side of the Valley. My ties to Utah go back to the Mormon pioneers of 1847. Going further back on my mothers side I have an ancestor who came with the Pilgrims in the Mayflower in 1622. My O'Connor ancestor was here by about 1760 but I have not been able to get him back to Ireland because of lack of records.


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## SarahNorthman

drpraetorus said:


> So, I am Utah born and bred This is where my heart is.
> View attachment 85716
> View attachment 85717
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> I was born in Salt Lake City, the State Capitol.
> View attachment 85718
> View attachment 85719
> View attachment 85720
> 
> Currently I live in the suburb of West Valley. It along with Salt Lake City and several other towns are in the Salt Lake Valley. The Great Salt Lake is on the Northwest side of the Valley. My ties to Utah go back to the Mormon pioneers of 1847. Going further back on my mothers side I have an ancestor who came with the Pilgrims in the Mayflower in 1622. My O'Connor ancestor was here by about 1760 but I have not been able to get him back to Ireland because of lack of records.


Ah good ol Utah and hello there catty-corner neighbor! I have yet to visit Salt Lake. It is on my list though! I have only ever been to see the arches. Apparently mom prefers to take us to the desert.


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## Sloe

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Part of my mom's (and hence my own) ancestry also comes directly from Sweden from the Dalerna province. They are known for these painted wood horses:


Just saying that is a map of the counties not the provinces.

This is a map of the provinces:










I come from Bohuslän which is named after this fortress:


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## Ukko

My father's family has lived in southern Vermont for several generations; my mother's I don't know about beyond her parents. The Boutwell _name_ and its derivatives has about the same history as my father's, dating backwards to Boston, England, and a thousand years ago to Flanders. Commoners always.


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## Huilunsoittaja

Sloe said:


> Just saying that is a map of the counties not the provinces.


Yeah I see, I didn't look up the technical terms for those... areas of land.


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## TurnaboutVox

I traced one thread of my mother's family and one of my father's to adjacent parishes on the Aberdeenshire - Banffshire border near the village of Aberchirder (known locally as Foggieloan) near the river Deveron. My paternal grandfather's ancestors rose to the exalted rank of tenant farmer in one early 19th century generation, but the next generation found work on the railways and moved first to Inverurie (a small town) and thence to Aberdeen.

My mother has traced her mother's family into various parts of Deeside (the Aberdeen Dee), and her father's to the Banff / Macduff area of the Moray Firth coast. Family names would suggest origins in Scandinavia, the Scottish Highlands and the South West Scotland. I think it's safe to say they were all peasants of one degree or another until education intervened in the mid 20th century.

I was born in Edinburgh when my father was studying there, grew up in Aberdeen, moved to Glasgow as a young adult, then across the border to Manchester and for the past 20 years we've settled in Preston. There were various diversions in between lasting less than 3-4 months. We are now considering whether to return to Scotland on my retirement, which is not imminent but is not far off either. The question of where my roots are is a very good one as I have been away more than half my life from Scotland, and I have children who are culturally English.

A 'root' - where I grew up:


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## Abraham Lincoln




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## Pugg

I am from *Rotterdam*, my mother was born there also .








My dad was born in *Manchester.* U.K.








And my partner and myself bought my parents house, almost similar too this one, just one street behind us.








I can safely say: these are my roots.:tiphat:


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## SarahNorthman

Pugg said:


> I am from *Rotterdam*, my mother was born there also .
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> My dad was born in *Manchester.* U.K.
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> And my partner and myself bought my parents house, almost similar too this one, just one street behind us.
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> I can safely say: these are my roots.:tiphat:


I do like that house. It is unique looking. At least to someone who comes from a part of the world where houses look nothing like it.


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## Xenakiboy

Abraham Lincoln said:


>


Beautiful! I've always wanted to go there!!


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## clavichorder

My last name comes from some German folks that settled in Pennsylvania in the 1600s(I think my ancestors remained there until the mid 18th century), probably for religious reasons though I can't be sure. My mother's maiden name comes from a more recent Irish immigration in the second half of the 19th century. Both of these families found themselves in Iowa and have coexisted there for maybe a century and a half. There are English and German roots on my maternal grandmother's side that I don't know much about, and there are Scottish, as well as German and English roots on my paternal grandmother's side. 

I really haven't been able to keep track of it all and add it up, so it may suffice to estimate. From what I've learned from my father and my mother's mother over the years, just under half of my ancestry is of continental and german speaking europeans, around a third from Ireland and Scotland(probably more Irish), and the remaining 'somewhat under a quarter'(?) is English. Lower them all by anywhere from 2-10 percent to accommodate unknown ancestries* SINCE my forefathers have been at it in the new world. Things move around in Europe a lot too: for example the very same Irish maiden name of my mother actually has nordic origins and to some degree, this is likely ancestry, not just a case of adopting an introduced name.

I actually did a genetic test but didn't take it as far as I could have. It seemed that a larger part of my ancestry was finding it's way back to the Italian peninsula (in more ancient times, but not terribly so) than I thought. Maybe I have a Roman or even Etruscan ancestor? I certainly have Germanic/Nordic ancestors and probably Celtic/Gaul ancestors and it seems that going further back(according to the map thingy), even older ancestor found their ways to Europe both across the Gibraltar, from the Middle East, and from the much older Scandinavia and Ireland. 

It's insanely complicated with most of us, sometimes more than is even guessed at, within a span of maybe 3000 thousand years(which is what I ultimately went to in the above...).

And now look at what could be! I am maybe building a connection with the Spanish speaking world through both organic life developments and my own possibly willful choices. Chances are, that whether I marry and have children with a natively Spanish speaking woman or not, the children(that I honestly hope to one day have) will be at least somewhat more diverse in ancestry than myself, if not very much so. But that's something that I hope not to be at all planned!

*It's at least realistic possibility for there to be recently(within new world-european settling history) non european ancestry in that mix. Native american perhaps more likely than african due to us being in the north and maintaining rural existence till the beginning of the 20th century. I don't know how likely eastern european farm communities(Czech or Polish), other early european settler stalk(french, spanish, portuguese, dutch), the largely scandinavian stalk of nearby Minnesota, are to have mixed with any of my various familial lines. Farming communities were traditionally fairly insular within their own 'ethnic groups' but maybe some more mixed up city folk came back and added to the mix? Maybe someone was unusually bold? Maybe things were at times more chaotic and open in these communities than I think? You never know.


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## clavichorder

I would like to add that from ages 0-nearly 6, I lived in Arlington Virginia outside Washington D.C. and it will forever be a big part of me. So will the well remembered 2 and a half years I lived in Des Moines, Iowa before moving to the Pacific Northwest. The early years in D.C. exposed me to much of latin american culture and more on a daily basis, because I spent many of my waking hours at a day care. The most important teachers/caretakers were a Bolivian woman and an African woman(can't remember the nationality). I heard Spanish all the time and apparently understood some things that were said to me, though that was certainly forgotten and I've learned and relearned most of what I know recently. I was also often uncomfortable in that day care, but nonetheless it was deeply memorable as was the neighborhood I lived it. The environment there and in Iowa have always been more comfortable to me than the Pacific Northwest, even now. The Pacific Northwest has an adventurous soul about it's countryside, it's vegetation, etc, that has often challenged me in the best of ways and it becomes more homelike after I have returned from many less familiar places in the world. The ferns and conifers, the mountains and volcanoes, the cold seawater inlets, the cool invertebrate animals in the tide pools, etc, have been a source of a silly but real pride. It comes out more when on a vacation or in a stay abroad, I talk to others about it who aren't from here. 

One last thing: my grandmother has a cabin in Minnesota as well as my aunt and uncle. My grandfather and step grandmother also used to live in Florida. And my uncle's family lived in Chicago. The regularity with which I have visited or in the case of Minnesota, continue to visit, makes them personally important. Now I can add two locations in Spain to that thanks to connection to a family and my own rich experience of several months' residence: respectively Catalonia and Salamanca.


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## GioCar

My father's family from Milan










My mother was born in Milan as well, but her family came from Lavin (now Zernez), a small village in the Swiss canton of Graubünden


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## TxllxT

Abraham Lincoln said:


>


Sorry for you to have rooted yourself out, just in order to show it on TC


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## dieter

My father was born in Glachau, near Leipzig. His father was born in Essen, his mother was born in Breslau. She boasted that she was descended from Polish aristocracy on her mother's side. I am (happily ) married to a Polish woman whose parents were born in Lodz, and I report that I have yet to meet a Pole not descended from Polish aristocracy.
My mother was an ethnic German born in Werschetz ( Vrsac) Northern Serbia. Her ancestors came from Der Schwartzwald and Alsace in Maria Teresa's reign.
I was born in Klagenfurt, Austria. My parents moved to the Pfaltz in 1952, then migrated to Australia in 1956. I am an Australian citizen but in my heart and head I am German. And proud of it.
Our daughter, Hannah, has a hyphenated Polish German name. I'm even more proud of that.


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## SiegendesLicht

Nice. I come from Minsk, Belarus. Lived here all my life (well, almost) and so has my mother. My father comes from Moscow and his ancestors from the region of Pskov, Russia. That's what my place sometimes looks like:









That picture may seem somewhat bleak, but I actually love weather like that! But where my heart really is, is Hamburg









and the coast of North Germany









And when I marry my German fiance, and move in to his place, I will be one proud German as well, you can be sure of that 

The said fiance is one quarter Swedish and has a couple of those painted wood horses from Dalarna at home too.


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## Headphone Hermit

Figleaf said:


> My roots? I'll have you know that this hair colour is totally natural!


That was my reaction too - a gentleman simply *wouldn't* ask (or even supply a comment :lol: )


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## TxllxT

Headphone Hermit said:


> That was my reaction too - a gentleman simply *wouldn't* ask (or even supply a comment :lol: )


http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=root

No roots please, we're British....


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## Headphone Hermit

TxllxT said:


> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=root
> 
> No roots please, we're British....


Well, I'm shocked - I have never heard these interpretations - honestly!


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## drpraetorus

SarahNorthman said:


> Ah good ol Utah and hello there catty-corner neighbor! I have yet to visit Salt Lake. It is on my list though! I have only ever been to see the arches. Apparently mom prefers to take us to the desert.


Yeah, north Utah Doesn't have all the dessert rock formation and landscapes as the south. But we do have lots of dessert, or "Dry Steppe" as the geographers would put it. But if your dying of thirst it doesn't make much difference if it a true dessert or a dry steppe. You ought to come north and visit Salt Lake and the mountains here. If you come in the fall/winter you could catch a concert of the Utah Symphony or the Utah Opera. The Mormon Tabernacle has daily organ recitals. 







The Salt Lake Valley






The Mormon Tabernacle organ







Utah Symphony







Kings Peak, the highest point in Utah 13,534 feet (4,125 m)


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## Vaneyes




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## clavichorder

TxllxT said:


> Sorry for you to have rooted yourself out, just in order to show it on TC


It looks painful and possibly life threatening, except those are some strong looking roots.


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## Guest

Headphone Hermit said:


> Well, I'm shocked - I have never heard these interpretations - honestly!


I only knew through reading the (unreliable) memoirs of Clive James.


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## TxllxT

Vaneyes said:


>


Makes me get the taste of Russian Borscht soup.


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## SixFootScowl

Closest I have come to having literal roots:


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## SarahNorthman

drpraetorus said:


> Yeah, north Utah Doesn't have all the dessert rock formation and landscapes as the south. But we do have lots of dessert, or "Dry Steppe" as the geographers would put it. But if your dying of thirst it doesn't make much difference if it a true dessert or a dry steppe. You ought to come north and visit Salt Lake and the mountains here. If you come in the fall/winter you could catch a concert of the Utah Symphony or the Utah Opera. The Mormon Tabernacle has daily organ recitals.
> View attachment 85742
> 
> The Salt Lake Valley
> View attachment 85743
> The Mormon Tabernacle organ
> View attachment 85744
> 
> Utah Symphony
> View attachment 85745
> 
> Kings Peak, the highest point in Utah 13,534 feet (4,125 m)


I have heard a lot of wonderful things about the Utah symphony and Opera. I am curious.


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## clavichorder

I summited this extraordinary volcano nearly 4 years ago. It is one of the things that makes me feel fortunate that I have lived here.








And I wish I got out to this beautiful archipelago at the northwest corner, more often. It's the place for orca sitings too.


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## aleazk

I know that two of my great-grandfathers came from Pamplona, Spain.

Yay bulls, Hemingway!










Some years ago, and surfing the internet, I found a hill (and even a small village) in the Basque Country named as my surname: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascarat


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## clavichorder

^I went to the smaller and less dangerous one in Cuidad Rodrigo. I actually got injured by a bull. That's a longer story that I haven't shared here, but I'm still alive! I might not be if it happened at Pamplona. I wish I had gotten up to basque country though.


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## DeepR

I'm from the Dutch town of Vlissingen, place of birth of famous sea admiral Michiel de Ruyter


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## senza sordino

View attachment 85792


On my birth certificate it says Wimbledon. I'm from London, my parents are from London, their parents, and their parents all from London. I don't know how far back to go before we find relatives who weren't from London. I now live on the west coast of Canada.

View attachment 85793

My London of 1965 when I entered this world.

View attachment 85795


View attachment 85796


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## Morimur

'Nuff said.


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## Xenakiboy

Here's my roots:









:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## SixFootScowl

I like this root:


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## Xenakiboy

If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway, that's the best.
Get your kicks on Route 66.

It winds from Chicago to L.A.
More than 2000 miles all the way,
Get your kicks on Route 66.

Now you go through Saint Louie,
And Joplin, Missouri,
And Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty, you'll see...
Amarillo...
Gallup, New Mexico,
Flagstaff, Arizona,
Don't forget Winona,
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino.

Won't you get hip to this timely tip
When you make that California trip?
Get your kicks on Route 66.

Won't you get hip to this timely tip
When you make that California trip?
Get your kicks on Route 66...
Get your kicks on Route 66...
Get your kicks on Route 66!


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## clavichorder

Morimur said:


> 'Nuff said.


That must be you, the nearest one to the egg cell. Quite an accomplishment.


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## superhorn

I don't have any photos of it , but my maternal grandmother was born in the southwestern Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi at a time when it belonged to the Austro-Hungarian empire . This was in 1888 and she died in 1967 in New York where she had lived since she was a child and where my parents were born .
Later , Chernivtsi became part of Romania , eventually becoming a part of Ukraine under the Soviets .
The region is known as Bukovina, named after the many beech trees there . When my grandmother was born , it was called Czernowitz , the German equivalent . 
The region was inhabited by a mixture of Ukrainians, Russians, Jews and ethnic Romanians , as it lies close to the Romanian border . Anna Phau, was the only one of my grandparents who lived long enough for me to know . She spoke German, Yiddish as a Jewish woman, Russian and Romanian !
I don't know exactly where my other grandparents came from, but they were all Russian and Ukrainian Jews . I've seen some old photos of Chernivtsi on youtube, though . It'd a city with a rich and colorful history .


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## Richannes Wrahms

Whence I came
I do not know
Where to go
I can but guess
For when I'm whole
the paths are many,
yet if there's one
I've got two shadows.


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## Morimur

clavichorder said:


> That must be you, the nearest one to the egg cell. Quite an accomplishment.


That's right, I beat all those other mofos! Look at me now, I am a . . . graphic designer.


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## Xenakiboy

I thought I had lost my roots for a second...there they are:









:clap:


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## georgedelorean

Though I don't have any pictures to show you off the moment, I can tell you about where I am/come from, where my parents are from, and what I understand my roots to be from. I was born and still live in Salt Lake City, Utah. My mom is from Chicago,though she grew up in one of its suburbs called Wheaton. My dad is from Beloit, Wisconsin, though he also grew up in the town directly across the border from it which is Rockton, Illinois. My sister was born in Chicago, though my parents moved to Salt Lake about a month after she was born. My family had lived in the Midwestern US for many generations, in addition to both the East and South on my mom's side. 

I was the first ever in my family's history to be born west of the Mississippi, and in a Western state to boot. I'm related to two signers of the Declaration of Independence, including Charles Carroll, the only Catholic one, in addition to a Catholic on the Mayflower. I've also been told that I'm related to at least one, if not two US presidents, though I forget who. As for further back in my lineage, I have English, Irish, Dutch, Swiss, French, Italian, German, and Navajo ancestry. Hope that provides the answers you wanted for your topic.


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