Mom has a rocker, built in the 1820’s or 30’s, that has been passed from mother to daughter all of whom, until my generation, shared one of their names, either middle or first. My neice will probably have it after it turns 200. I’m pleased as punch. Maybe she’ll decide to restore the name - not for love of the chair, but for remembering mothers in what’s often a mans world.
I love these stories!! So here is part of our stories: When Mr. Ellebud and I got married I will say the the whole family were less then pleased. I am a secular Jew…but a Jew, as are our children. We were visiting the in laws and my mil wanted to impress me with their lineage.
Does everyone know that Mr. Ellebud is 140 (right after his brother) in line for the throne of England? Sounds cool. But before I started learning the wave I just said that the honor was interesting, but we weren’t giving up our day jobs.
Twelve years later fil admitted that both his parent were, unfortunately Jewish. That was a good thing…I was tired of wearing my tiara to Gelsons.
two branches, in 1738. Of course, we weren’t the US yet.
What do you mean by “wearing your tiara to Gelsons”? What’s Gelsons?
@bevhills, so your MIL married a Jew. Why should she care that you are a Jew also? Was she in denial?
Gelsons is a market. And wearing a tiara there was a facetious take on my mil’s brag that we (or they) were members of the royal family. In fact fil was born a Jew. Not an auspicious beginning for a fight for throne.
My fil denied that he was born a Jew. He hated Jewish women. (If he had psychotherapy I can’t imagine the work that they would have done on mother issues) Mr. Ellebud was raised Episcopalian. We discussed religion before we were married and Mr. Ellebud made the point that he was a lousy Christian, so the kids would be raised Jewish.
Oh, and an fyi, mil born and raised Catholic. She hated the church as well. But hated Jews as well.
Ah, ok. It must be one of those So Cal things that So Cal people assume everyone knows! My friend from LA talks about “Thomas Guides” (local maps) and was stunned to hear that none of us knew what she was talking about - that it was only a CA thing. Maybe that’s the same thing!
As a Cali person, I thought going to the Wawa was potty talk. ha.
The use of Thomas Guides is so out of date. We had them 10 years ago but threw them all away.
I grew up with Wawa but I wouldn’t use it without explaining it - wouldn’t assume everyone knows it!
But Thomas Guides were the best, before GPS and smart phones.
Thomas guides! We had them in our first family car in WA! Mr B bought them first at Price then at Price Costsco then at Costco - religiously, every year. Because, you know, there was so much construction going on… That was our Google maps app equivalent back then. 
I had no idea they were a West Coast phenomenon.
My friend moderates focus groups. She kept using the expression Thomas Guides and all of us in the back room - from NYC, Boston and Chicago - had never heard of them. We had to Wikipedia and tell her she had to stop using it! She too had no idea it was regional.
^ We used something similar here in the DC area (before GPS), but they were known as ADC maps.
Mom’s family-- 1620 on the Mayflower. Members of her family have lived in the same small town in Maine since the 1780’s.
Dad’s family-- don’t really know for sure. The best part is that I grew up thinking I had Scottish heritage. But as my uncle did research, it appears that we are German. When my uncle asked my Grandfather about it the response was “I didn’t want to German during the War (WW I).”
I’m sorry. Yes, on the west side of the country assume that you know our lives, stores and cultural references. The term flyover country doesn’t come from outer space. I remember Thomas Guides. I am flummoxed that they weren’t everywhere.
True story: I took my daughters to New York several years ago for a girls’ vacation. We were looking for a place to eat . I asked some officers for a rec and they didn’t know because they worked in the Bronx. A boy and girl in school uniforms asked us if they could help. They did…and the girl turned to my youngest and said she had gone to a school in west L>A> and thought that she knew my daughter. She did. They shared good friends, and this girl had seen my daughter for several years. So what we assume…isn’t reality.
Sorry. As far as my husband’s claim to the throne of England…not so much.
One of the byproducts of researching my family history that I most appreciate is the fact that it’s greatly helped me to date, place, identify people in, and put in historical context, the hundreds of family photographs that I have from my parents, some of them dating back as far as 1859. (When my mother’s parents finally got out of Germany in June 1941, one of the few things they were allowed to take with them was a small suitcase full of photos, family documents, etc.) See my contribution to this Jezebel thread from a couple of days ago, asking people to post old photos of their families on summer holidays:
http://pictorial.jezebel.com/my-maternal-grandfather-age-12-with-his-parents-and-y-1715510631
(The photos can be enlarged by clicking on the plus sign in their upper left-hand corner.)
DH’s favorite old pic was always an old relative and wife dressed up, the man holding up a piglet. He thought the family humor might trace back in that direction.
@DonnaL and @lookingforward Photos are the best, aren’t they?!! My kid’s eyes glaze over when I talk about genealogy but when the photos come out, it’s a different story.