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Family over Generations
Speaker
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I was reading through a history of Tudor and Stuart England last night and the author was looking at historical changes by following different families. Just now I was thinking about my extended family and it occurred to me to do the same thing. So my idea is basically to go back to your grandparents, and list the occupations of everyone in your extended family and where they live, on the off chance it might be interesting. I'm curious to see what gets listed for families from Ohio, Alabama, Yorshire or Queensland where the economy is different than New England, and the difference between generations. So go by generation and list primary occupations and places lived. In our generation don't list occupations unless someone has settled on a career, or it would be an apples to oranges comparison.
My family:
My wife's:
Well that was an interesting excercise for me anyway, even if no one else happens to find it interesting. I don't often think about my family that way.
My family:
Grandparent's generation:
Maternal -
Housewife (NH)
Carpenter (NH)
Paternal -
Machinist/Organic Farmer (MA, NH, ME)
Waitress/Organic Farmer (MA, NH, ME)
Parent's generation:
Maternal -
Warehouse clerk (NH)
Factory worker (NH)
Road worker (NH)
Road worker (NH)
IT Manager (NH, AZ)
Paternal -
Carpenter, Housing Developer (NH, GA)
Carpenter (NH, TX, MA, ME)
Carpenter, Real Estate Appraiser (NH, AZ)
Mentally ill, no occupation (NH)
Gen X/Y
Maternal -
Accountant (NH)
No Career (NH, SC)
No Career (NH, SC)
Factory Worker (NH)
Carpenter (NH)
My family:
No Career (NH, AZ)
No Career (NH)
Paternal:
No Career (NH, CO)
Maternal -
Housewife (NH)
Carpenter (NH)
Paternal -
Machinist/Organic Farmer (MA, NH, ME)
Waitress/Organic Farmer (MA, NH, ME)
Parent's generation:
Maternal -
Warehouse clerk (NH)
Factory worker (NH)
Road worker (NH)
Road worker (NH)
IT Manager (NH, AZ)
Paternal -
Carpenter, Housing Developer (NH, GA)
Carpenter (NH, TX, MA, ME)
Carpenter, Real Estate Appraiser (NH, AZ)
Mentally ill, no occupation (NH)
Gen X/Y
Maternal -
Accountant (NH)
No Career (NH, SC)
No Career (NH, SC)
Factory Worker (NH)
Carpenter (NH)
My family:
No Career (NH, AZ)
No Career (NH)
Paternal:
No Career (NH, CO)
My wife's:
Grandparent's Generation:
Maternal -
Farmer (ME, NH)
Housewife (NH)
Paternal -
Machinist (MA, RI, NH)
Housewife (RI, NH)
Parent's Generation:
Maternal -
Historian (NH)
Farmer (NH)
Farmer (NH)
Maintenance man (NH)
Paternal -
Conservationist (RI, NH)
Lawyer (RI, NH)
Medical administrator (RI, NH)
Gen X/Y:
Maternal -
Esthetician (NH)
Road Worker (NH)
Road Worker (NH)
State Construction Worker (NH)
Waitress (NH)
My Wife -
Housewife/Bookbinder
Paternal -
Salesman - (RI, NH, TX)
Artist (RI, NH, CT)
Software Developer (RI, NH)
Camp Administrator (RI, NH, AZ, CT)
Maternal -
Farmer (ME, NH)
Housewife (NH)
Paternal -
Machinist (MA, RI, NH)
Housewife (RI, NH)
Parent's Generation:
Maternal -
Historian (NH)
Farmer (NH)
Farmer (NH)
Maintenance man (NH)
Paternal -
Conservationist (RI, NH)
Lawyer (RI, NH)
Medical administrator (RI, NH)
Gen X/Y:
Maternal -
Esthetician (NH)
Road Worker (NH)
Road Worker (NH)
State Construction Worker (NH)
Waitress (NH)
My Wife -
Housewife/Bookbinder
Paternal -
Salesman - (RI, NH, TX)
Artist (RI, NH, CT)
Software Developer (RI, NH)
Camp Administrator (RI, NH, AZ, CT)
Well that was an interesting excercise for me anyway, even if no one else happens to find it interesting. I don't often think about my family that way.
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Great-great-grandfather: Rabbi
Grandfather: Soldier in German Army in WW2
Granduncle: Gestapo
The only interesting things I know of my own family history is the fact that my mothers mothers parents were colonials in Indonesia, working for a dutch bank. Big old white house with indonesian servants, cooks, gardeners the like. License plates on the island were given out by simple counting, and theirs was " 13 " on a damn nice looking studebaker. They were also a protestant & catholic marriage, which was quite frowned upon.
All of it was lost in the war (only 6 pictures, a watch, and some silver jewelry remains), the parents both died in the interment camps and the children sent to live with distant relatives in the Netherlands. All five brothers emigrated to America (3 to the USA, 2 to Canada), and my grandmother stayed behind because she loved my grandfather.
One source indicated my first two patrilinear ancestors in the US (1630) participated in the slave trade, claiming that their merchant fleet carried among other things slaves from the Indes to Boston. That kinda sucked because although that source indicated it was one of his secondary trades its still slavery and Census records going back to 1790 had indicated none of my ancestors that I've tracked (about 3/4 of my Dad's Dad's side from US records and my Dad's mom records from Canada and Scotland, my mom's side much less but they are more recent immigrants) indicated that none owned slaves. Subsequent research has indicated the father and son almost certainly didn't trade in slaves according to the manifests of the ships and the original research probably assumed given his stops in Boston, the Caribbean and Europe. But its still a little jarring.
My Dad's Dad - Warehouse manager for Gillette in Boston. He was the only guy who was retained during a failed unionization attempt because he had worked with many of the executives during their first year when they were sent down to the docks/warehouse to learn how that worked. (Boston, born in Haverhill Mass)
My Dad's Mom - Cleaned houses to earn money on the side. (Boston, born in Nova Scotia)
My Mom's Dad - Early work on computers, not an engineer or programmer but did a lot of the math/accounting applications for vacuum tube computers (born in Brooklyn, 2nd generation Irish
My Mom's Mom - stay at home Mom for 7 kids (Brooklyn, Long Island, Upstate NY, 1/2 2nd generation Irish)
edit
Also My Father's Father's Father/Mother - owned a big farm in Haverhill Massachusetts that his father had founded when coming down from Vermont. He didn't get along with my grandfather and actually kicked him out at 18 when he complained about working on the farm and put him on a train to Boston for him to live off his own wits. Years later he had to return with my grandmother temporarily during the Great Depression (for a year or two). My grandmother befriended a particular egg laying hen until my grandmother decided to serve it for dinner and didn't tell her until after. They kinda seemed like dicks.
They were also "rock ribbed Republicans," born in the late 1800s. They so opposed FDR and the New Deal that they refused to ever cash a Social Security check. Consequently as they got old and unable to work well they had to sell off piece by piece of the farm to survive, especially when my g-grandmother got osteoporosis and they tried to pay for medical bills. Before she died, she was a suffering bag of flesh who broke her arm after it fell six inches when she waved from bed at my uncle (a little kid at the time) because they couldn't afford any medical care anymore and wouldn't take help. She died in terrible pain and completely impoverished and he soon followed because they were so against the New Deal or any other governmental assistance, and their pride and bad relations with my grandfather meant they refused any help from him or other relatives.
Whenever I hear about political commitment, that story tends to come to mind.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
Grandparents:
Housewife and Famer (IA)
Housewife and Farmer (IA)
Parents/Aunts&Uncles
Secretarial/Retail and Farmer (IA)
Special-needs Assistant and Farmer (IA)
Farmer and Engineer/Farmer (IA)
Housewife and Engineer (IA)
Housewife and Engineer (IA)
Farmer (IA)
Teacher and Farmer (IA)
Seeing some patterns yet? Well, they don't hold anymore. Or at least not entirely.
Self/Wife/Brothers/Sisters/Cousins
Teacher/Secretarial and College Professor (IN)
Professional Musician and Professional Musician/College Professor (MN)
Secretarial and Engineer (IA)
Nurse and Factory Worker (IA)
Engineer and Engineer (IA)
Housewife and Pharmacist (IA)
Accountant and Factory Worker (IA)
Grandparents:
P: Unknown and Unknown (TX/WV)
M: Police Officer and Hair Stylist (LA)
Parents/Aunts & Uncles
M: Retail (LA)
M: Unemployed (NY)
M: Drug Dealer (LA)
M: Mentally handicapped/Physical Labor (LA)
P: Electrical Engineer (TX)
P x 2-3??: Unknown (??)
Brothers/Sisters/Cousins
B: Military (CA)
S: 4th Grade! (TX)
C: Manual Labor (NY)
C: Prison (LA)
C: ??? (LA)
C: Waitress (LA)
C: ???/Prison (LA)
C: ???/Prison (NY)
C: Pharmacist (LA)
C: ???/College (LA)
I'd say about half of those cousins who aren't already in prison are headed there. I'm the first person in my lineage to graduate from college with more than an associates degree.
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
Maternal Grandparents
Grandfather - Farmer
Grandmother - English Teacher (Grade School)
Maternal Aunts/Uncles
Light Industry (Textiles)
Government Worker
Paternal Grandparents
Oil Field Worker
Housewife
Paternal Aunts/Uncles
Architect
Housewife
Welder
Housewife
Oil Field Worker
English Teacher (High School)
Parents
Oil Field Worker
Social Worker
My Generation
Bank Tech Worker
Student
Student
Geologist
Pharmacist (well, still in pharmacy school)
Police Dispatcher
Archaeologist
Dental School Student (Actually a 2nd cousin but we're fairly close)
Med School student (Above cousin's sibling)
A couple of little kids who are still in grade school
OP works for ACORN.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Father's side:
Father - Podiatrist (MI, VA)
Grandfather - Navy Communications, AT&T (OH, MI)
Grandmother - Telephone switchboard operator (MI)
Mother's side:
Mother - Corporate Insurance (OH, MI, VA)
Grandfather - Not sure exactly, but he was loaded and knew a lot of 50s and 60s TV personalities (OH, MI)
Grandmother - No idea, but she spent all Grandpa's money after he died, so I'm going to guess unemployed (OH, MI)
Uncle - Musician, Homeland Security (MI)
Aunt - General Motors, various retail (MI)
My Generation
Me - Chef, IT and QC for an Autoparts Wholesaler (MI, VA)
Sister - High School English Teacher (VA)
Brother - Auto Mechanic (VA)
Cousin - Freight Truck Driver (like CDL) (MI)
I can trace my lineage to Charlemagne. He's my ancestor several times over varying how many generations and through multiple paths though the English gentry to early New England settlers.
If you're primarily white, you almost certainly can too. Do the math. My closest relationship to him is 38 generations, he was alive in the 8th century. Over 38 generations you have:
2^38= 274 877 906 944 ancestors
That far exceeds the number of people not only alive in the 700s but over the entire history of the species. Even if we pretend Charlemagne and his descendants don't have an advantage in child birth/survival, there were something like 30,000,000 people in Europe at the time. The entire world population was something in the range of 100-200 million.
So if one has European ancestry, one is almost certainly descended from Charlemagne. Similar analysis has been done in Ireland, Mongolia, Scandinavia, etc where there's strong evidence that large majorities can trace their ancestry at least in part to a single person, often theorized to be a famous national figure (Genghis Kahn, Niall of the Nine Hostages, etc)
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
Especially if said historical figure never had children. =P
GF - Engineer for US Steel (IN)
GM - None afaik (IN, FL now)
M Grandparents:
GF - Don't know, he died young, think he did state-side radio stuff for the military in WWII (PA)
GM - Don't know, been retired (PA)
Aunt (Mom's side)- Shipping, Unemployed (OH)
Aunt (Dad's side) - Liberal hippy college professor, also married to one. I forget which state they're in now, they spend some time in Europe.
Mom - Journalism/Paralegal, currently not working (VA)
Dad - Mining Engineer/Cost Analyst Consultant (VA)
Cousin (Dad side) - Art/Theater
Sister - Contracts Management or some such thing (VA)
Me - Software Engineer (VA)
Mom: uh nothing I guess PA
Dad's mom: homemaker Israel
Dad's dad: shipworker Israel
Mom's mom: homemaker PA
Mom's dad: police officer PA, NJ
That's all I know.
Maternal
Grandfather: Priest (Eastern Orthodox). This is the only one I know anything about in this generation. (Albania)
Grandparents
Paternal
Soldier, Real Estate Agent (Ireland, CT)
Housewife (Ireland, CT)
Mechanic (Ireland, CT)
Secretary (Ireland, CT)
Maternal
Soldier, Barber (Albania, MA)
Bank Teller, Hairdresser (Albania, MA) [They cut my hair until I was 8 or 9 years old.]
Lawyer (maritime law) (Albania, MA, CT)
Bartender, mechanic (Albania, MA)
Postal worker (Albania, MA)
Housewife (Albania, MA, NY, MA)
Parents
Paternal
Construction worker (log cabins), farm worker, rigger, cemetery maintenance worker (CT)
unsure, works for Nabisco (CT)
unsure, works from home, does graphic design stuff? (CT, VT)
Maternal
Teacher, K-4 (MA, CT)
Small business owner (wine store) (MA, NC)
no idea what his actual job title is, worked for DARPA, taught at Duke, works at the MIT hospital (MA, TX, VA, MA)
Thanks for starting this thread, Speaker--I forgot that I have my grandfather's birth certificate somewhere for applying for Irish citizenship. 8-)
So apparently some time in the late 17-somethings (I'm thinking 1790s?) my grandpa's ancestors got kicked out of Scotland and hopped on a boat that wrecked off the coast of PEI, so they settled there. I'm pretty sure everyone was a farmer up until my grandpa, who did a bunch of jobs until he moved to Ontario and met my grandma and got a job at the mill.
So, on my mom's side:
Great Grandpa: farmer (PEI)
Grandpa: worked at a paper mill (Ontario)
Great Grandpa: not sure, but I know he served in WWI and II
Grandma: housewife?
Uncle: worked at a chemical plant
Aunt: works for a book distributor
Uncle: was a firefighter, then fire chief, and had something to do with safety at the mill
Mom: nursery school teacher
Uncle: works for electrical supply company (Manitoba)
Aunt: can't remember
Aunt: social worker
On my dad's side..
Great grandpa: probably farmer? (Italy)
Grandpa: not sure, think he worked for the mill (Ontario)
Grandma: tailor?
Aunt: Hairdresser
Dad: repairs phone/broadband lines
Uncle: respiratory technician (Saudi Arabia... then the UAE... pretty much travels all over the middle east now)
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
Maternal-
GM (1913-2006) Secretary (PA)
GF (1914-1998) Naval Civil Engineer(PA)
Paternal-
(192?-1997) Schoolteacher (PA)
(192?-1976?) Corner Store Owner (PA)
Parents
Maternal-
Mother (1954-?)
Pediatric Nurse (PA)
Women's Center Administrator (DE)
Pediatric Nurse for Special Needs DayCare (DE)
Personal Nurse for Special Needs Child (DE)
Uncle #1 (1941- ?)
Organ Repair (PA)
Photography developer (PA)
Uncle #2 (1947- ?)
Accountant (PA)
Paternal-
Father (1955- ?)
Psychiatric Ward Orderly (PA)
Operating Room Nurse (PA)
Emergency Room Nurse (PA)
Hospital Nurse (DE)
Nurse Practitioner Family Clinic (MD)
Nurse Practitioner Cardiologists Office (MD)
Aunt (1957- ?)
Housewife (PA)
Gen X/Y
Self (1981-?)
Grocery Store Cashier (NJ)
Theatre Technician (NJ)
411 Operator (ME)
Sales Associate (ME)
Brother (1985- ?)
No Career (DE)
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
Grandpa: South Korean Soldier (he served in the Korean war and was a full colonel by the time he left)
Construction (not sure what his position was in construction)
Grandma: Housewife
Grandparents on my dad's side (all are PA):
Grandpa: Airman in the U.S. Army Air Corp (served in WWII in Europe)
Steel mill worker
Grandma: Housewife and Babysitter
The following are all PA:
Mom: Factory Worker
Dry Cleaner's employee
Dad: U.S. Soldier (Army Security Agency)
Computer programmer (other stuff involved as well)
Retail worker (until he finds a better job)
Brother: Teacher
Myself: College Student and retail worker
I don't know exactly what my uncles and aunts do for a living or where they all live so I can't really say much there. I don't know much about my great-grandparents other than the fact that my (dad's side) grandma's parents were farmers and great-grandparents on my mom's side were most likely farmers as well.
Your math is a little fuzzy. The 2^38 assumes that that every descendent of Charlemagne creates a unique family, which is almost certainly false. Consider the degenerate case. Charlemagne has two kids, male and female. His kids fuck each other and produce two kids, male and female. Those kids do the same and so on and so forth. Now, this obviously didn't happen.
However, considering that Charlemagne was royalty and royal lines tended to be kept rather guarded, I imagine if you had an actual family tree of Charlemagne's descendants, it'd look more like an obelisk than a tree. At the top, it would fan out to some critical width and then it would more or less become a mess of intermarriages within the greater family tree. Now, obviously, there will be some leaks out along the way and after the age of royalty died, it would probably spread out much more naturally. However, I somewhat doubt that everyone in Europe can trace their lineage back to Charlemagne.
Probably the Highland Clearances. Basically the Scots leased their ancestral land from the nobility but these landowners realized they could get more cash using it other ways (even just sticking sheep on an island and leaving them alone except a few times a year) and kicked all the Scots out to the New World/Australia.
Well for one thing the assumption that royals only marry into royals is generally not true. For instance, using my family background as an example
John's mother was Eleanor Brandon (-1480) daughter of Sir William Brandon. So we've got one class drop as a secondary daughter goes from knighthood to gentry.
Eleanor Brandon's mother was Elizabeth of Wingfield (-1497), daughter of John of Wingfield a landed noble so that's another class drop. His grandfather-in-law was the 11th Earl of Surrey so we've got another class jump from Earl to Lord. His wife was Eleanor of Lancaster, great granddaughter of King Henry III.
So we've got eight generations from non-nobility (John Glemham) to royalty (Henry III). And those cases are of orderly marriage, not illegitimate childbirth.
The odds of any one of your 2^38 ancestors not being any one particular ancestor of the 20,000,000 in Europe (if we assume European ancestry) if any individual was as likely to bear descendants is the almost certain (20M-1)/20M or 0.99999995. But 0.99999995 ^ 274,877,906,944 is so close to 0 as to make no difference. And Charles the Great we know did leave (many) descendants, unlike many other childless individuals in Europe. The math gets a bit more complicated when you account for generational variations (he's my 38th, 39th, 40th, 41st, etc grandfather) but that actually just makes it less likely that you don't have him as an ancestor.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
Grandfather - Farmer, Jamaica, WI
Grandmother - Housewife, Jamaica, WI
Paternal Grandparents:
Grandma - Seamstress, St. Vincent, WI
Grandpa - unknown (took off after spawning), St. Vincent, WI
Mother's Generation:
Mother - Accounting Clerk/Housewife, Montreal/Sudbury/Saskatchewan, Canada, and Washington, DC, USA
Aunt - Accountant, PA, USA, and St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
Uncle - Electrician, Toronto, CA
Uncle - Mechanic/Driver, NY, NY
Uncle - Accountant, IL/TX/GA
Uncle - Construction Worker, Edmonton, AB/Kelowna, BC
Father's Generation:
Father - Dentist, SK
Nothing else of interest to note, except that there is a monument in Kingston, JA to a slavemaster who happens to have our family name. Nobody's done the genealogy work to prove we're descended from him AFAIK, but we're pretty certain of it.