I can no longer mock the Irish. FML

[Tonitrus]

You seriously have to work with me on those things, Tonitrus.  IMMA THROWING BUT YOU AINT A-SWINGIN SON

That's like throwing at a batter who is sleeping in the dugout. 

[Razgovory]

That actually sounds like something CdM would do.

[CountDeMoney]

That's what happens when you dig in at the plate.  Or anywhere else.

[Razgovory]

I had Irish ancestors I believe.  They seemed to have been involved in the same business as my current Italian relatives.

[Barrister]

Belfast?

So you have the Good kind of Irish roots.

<----- 3/8th Good Irish.

[Caliga]

Yes, I suppose I can still: wear orange on St. Patrick's Day.

[Brazen]

In the 18th Century, if he was persecuted it was probably because he was a Presbyterian under the penal laws.

[Cerr]

Yeah he was probably a non-Anglican Protestant.

Read about the United Irishmen Rebellion of 1798 for more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Rebellion_of_1798

[Viking]

I can't mock the irish either since I too have Irish ancestry back in the 1850's.. sorry, 850's I have some ancestors without patronyms with christian first names (almost certainly christian Irish slaves of Viking masters). Apart from that my ancestry consists of "Firstname Firstnamesson, born Iceland" for 30 generations with the exception of one danish woman entering (polluting) my gene pool back in the 17th century.

[Ed Anger]

I have been collecting geneaology crap on and off most of my life, and lately I've been using LOL INTERNETS to fill in some of the gaps.

Without going into too much detail, I have ancestry stemming from the following families in the following locales in Britain and on the Continent:

Busby of (Great?) Tew, Oxfordshire, England
Chateau of Charleville, Champagne, France
Eaton of Llewgoogoogaga (or something like that), Radnorshire, Wales
Harper of Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland
Hausele of Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Leichtweis of Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Lynn of Glanbrücken, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Marjorum of Cheverell, Wiltshire, England
Sheibley of Canton Basel, Switzerland
Watts of Leeds, Maidstone, Kent, England

Somebody has a crop of kraut in their background. 

Mine came from Baden.

[Caliga]

That would be my poor Palatine/Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry.  AFAIK all of them were in Pennsylvania prior to 1750.  Before that they were in England, where the English weren't sure what to do with them because, although there were fellow Protestants, they had no useful skills.   Before that, they were in the Rhineland, Alsace, and Switzerland getting repeatedly raped by French armies under Louis XIV.

[Caliga]

In the 18th Century, if he was persecuted it was probably because he was a Presbyterian under the penal laws.

All I really know from the record is that he was "not a Quaker" when he arrived.

I do happen to know that there were a number of Scots-Irish in Ulster prior to the Revolution who ended up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  My high school was named for Rev. William Tennent, who was one such Scots-Irish Presbyterian.  One of his sons founded Princeton as a Presbyterian seminary originally.

[The Brain]

I recently found out my son is descended from Swedes 

I should have researched the origin of my wife's maiden name.

gz

[garbon]

Ancestry.com has zillions of records in their database from all over.  But you have to pay a bit of money.  But it is a hell of a lot cheaper than getting access to each on its own.  Also simply putting names into Google or Google books can have suprising results to.  So many histories of obscure parts of England are published on google books for free and I found that very useful.

I don't pay for Ancestry.com.  It's a giant ripoff because, like you said, you can easily find most of the same stuff for free.

I've been rather poor at this. I haven't managed to get past my great-great grandfather from DC who went to Stanford.

[Barrister]

I wish I could trace my dad's ancestry back, but you hit a gigantic brick wall as soon as you go to the old country.  WWII was pretty good at destroying all those records in Austria/Poland/Ukraine/wherever...