Monday Mailbox #3
This week’s Monday mailbox question:
Dear Tony.
What countries did your ancestors come from?
I have to admit that I do not know a great deal about my heritage other than my immediate family. I can’t pinpoint towns and stuff. And I can’t give you what fraction of this or what ratio of that. But I can give a pretty general answer. Basically my ancestry is Scots-Irish, like a lot of people in the southeast, with a heavy Welsh influence and what I think is probably a decent-sized dose of Cherokee.
The Welsh is from my father’s side, and I know that my last name is Welsh. The Scots-Irish and the Cherokee come from my mother’s side. My granddaddy was not full Cherokee or anything like that, but it comes through his line. I look like younger pictures of him and people have often told me that they can see Cherokee in me. Primarily because of my structure and coloring. It really shows up when I’m tanned, which I do pretty easily. (I wonder if Cherokees have big dongs.)
I’m pretty sure that there was nothing but Scot-Irish on Granny’s side because she descends from a long line of aristocrats. (She’d be a very wealthy woman had she married someone other than my grandaddy.) I’m pretty sure that they were not the types of people who would mix.
Whatever the ingredients used to bake this cake, I’m afraid it’s going to be the last. My father had no brothers (only sisters), so I have no cousins to share our name. I’m pretty much the end of the line. It’s a pretty common name, so it’s not like it’s going to die out. I just won’t be contributing to the flock. Lord knows there have been chances for it to happen, but I always managed to dodge that bullet.
Have a Monday Mailbox question? E-mail me.
January 15th, 2007 at 12:42 am
Oh the last of the blood lines. That’s gotta be some pressure on the shoulders. Luckily my family believed in having TONS and TONS of kids so I have many cousins with my last name that will carry on the name.
January 15th, 2007 at 1:09 am
I’m my fathers only son
My dad’s only brother is gay and my father is in a wheelchair for life.. so this bloodline isn’t going anywhere either…
Although I wish I had fucked up in high school and got someone pregnant. As bad as that might sound.
January 15th, 2007 at 9:52 am
I’m 1/4 welsh, 1/4 scottish, 1/4 portuguese & 1/4 barbadian- and that’s only the ones my grandparents admitted to and that I found examining records kept on Gov’s Island. I love all the parts of me.
Next Weeks Question: How’d you get your DNA in my peanut butter, Grandpa?
January 15th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Gee. I wonder if you have enough Native American in you to be considered a minority. Then you would be eligible for lots of equal opportunity things. Cherokee, huh? That’s hot. Granny must have married your grandaddy for some reason if not for money. For love certainly and maybe for his big you know what. She’ s a woman with a good head on her shoulders.
January 15th, 2007 at 11:28 am
I suspect your grandpa was a mountain man, and being a “fancy” person…your granny probably married him for the furs: fox, beaver, muskrat…
Your recipe might be lost, but its result is…TERRIFIC!
January 15th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
wow - interesting, we’re almost the same “recipe”: I’m Irish/ Scots/timy bit French & also Cherokee. Both Parent’s families from Tennessee, then moved to Missouri. I was born & raised in Arizona………
January 15th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
You didn’t get that third leg from the Cherokee people. Thats a welsh thing but I think you got a double dose. Lordy Lordy !
January 16th, 2007 at 10:53 am
we have more and more in common! german, czech, irish, welsh, and american indian…cherokee.
January 16th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I’ve always found it a bit strange that americans always manage to mention where their ancestors came from, and several generations back, too. I haven’t noticed similar thing with canadians… (for example, in the personals ads)
January 16th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
I think my Mom must be indian. Her name is Peggy Sioux.
Yeah, I know.
pretty dumb.
January 19th, 2007 at 12:17 am
And what kind of ‘bullets’ were those that you were dodging?!
HEHEHE!
Well, you can’t be all bad if you have some Irish in you like I do.