~6 months now. That's what happens when you leave your parents' basement... you meet people.

After looking into my family tree I was stuck after reaching some guy named Gork. But, I'm pretty convinced that we are all inbred and related to each other anyway.

My fathers family history is mixed. My great great grandfather was mexican, my great grandfather married a part native american/mexican, my granfather married a woman who was a 1/4 native american and the rest mexican. NOBODY can honestly trace what type of native american in either case. My original family name should have been Hernandez but my great great grandfather had such a bad reputation that his son took his mothers maiden name, hence my name today. This also makes it tough to trace. My moms side is secretive at best but I do know that it's mostly from a strong german descent from my grandfathers side...german enough that he was ashamed to mention some of his families past while they were in Germany. There was also a name change in there somewhere. :( My grandmother called herself Heinz 57 because she was some sort of mix of dutch, welsh, irish, german and who knows what else. It's all pretty interesting to me but the real details are mysterious and secretive so there's not a lot to go on other than hand me down stories. One interesting story is that my great great grandfather road with Pancho Villa, thus causing his son to change his name later on. My grandfather was an official Texas Ranger (non-baseball,lol) and helped with translating when they would apprehend those who didn't speak english. I have a kick-@ss picture of him in his uniform with his rifle and side-arm in hand. So I guess when it comes down to it I'm basically a mexi-germerican . ;)

Family tree stuff is very interesting to me. I got into it in 5th grade and found out alot while I had 4 great grandmothers left. My wife picked it up about 10 years ago and has found tons of links on the net. She first got a program called Family Tree Maker and got a lot of connections. She is on Reunion now and has traced both of our side way back.

I had to do a family tree project in 10th grade. I'll never forget it. We had to create the actual tree itself, right, and then we had to write a report about the tree with more detail about our families, where they were from, and all that.

So I started out writing how my ancestors came over in whatever year, and I used their family name, and off in the margin in big red letters my teacher writes "THIS IS NOT THE NAME YOU IDENTIFIED THEM BY ON YOUR TREE. -10"

Then in the next paragraph I talked about how they changed their name when they came over, which is the name I used on the actual tree portion of the project. In the margin, my teacher writes:

"OH. SORRY. +10"

That is pretty cool that you were able to go back that far. The story on my surname is that it was given to my great-great grandfather by the king of Sweden. Something about needing to be able to tell all the Svens and Svenson's (Eric/Ericson) apart when they joined the military.

100 % German

My wife has researched my side of the family a bit. She knows the details but this is the little bits that I know...

On my Dad's side my grandfather was the son of Norwegian immigrants. I believe his mother was from a family of Banat Swabians who had moved en masse to North Dakota during some of the pre War War I ethnic cleansing by the Magyar. I know my wife has traced both sides back a bit further but I don't know how far or to whom.

On my mother's side she was the daughter of german jew and a german. What has survived from the holocaust is a few papers indicating both families were fairly wealthy and that my grandmother was a physician (pretty rare for a woman in pre WWII Europe.) Again, I know my wife has taken the lineage further back, but it's not really an interest of mine so I don't know how far.

I know my gggrandfather came over from Sweden in the 1860's. I have been doing extensive research on my family history for the last two months. I realize it's not for some people, but for me it's like a treasure hunt. You never know where it's going to lead you.

I'm related to Sgt. York. I'm also related to Michael York. :D

I'm related to G.W.

With all the name changes its surprising you aren't a serial killer!

The Norwegian side of my family would be hard to trace, as with many of that nationality their last name was changed to Moe when they moved to the US.

my grandmother has traced our family history back to the 16th cen.

I live in Arkansas and went to KSU. Mine's just a stick, no branches.

No wonder you're such a deutsche.