Have You Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

[Daneboy]

I've always thought of north americans as being for the most part very mobile.

Although I know people who still llive in the home they grew up in, in the same hometown, who have moved away and then come back near home to raise their family.

Some people want to run away from home to a completely different life (me) and never really come home again.

They may trade a suburban life for a city life and then go back to suburbia when they raise kids.

There are a varied amount of choices

Some when they retire hit the road in their rv, or move to a different state (warmer?) or another country.

What is your history and your plans for the future....

I guess I'm just curious about who you are out there...

 

[Zipper]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

Apart from a year in Australia in 1978 and the first 2 years of my teaching career this apple has lived within 25 km of where it budded in 1943.

The mother tree, sprouted in 1919 in the familial home, is still there. I visit her a couple of times a week and still garden the same flower beds I started decades ago.

#1 son lives within minutes  but #2 son is in Vancouver .

 

[unclemick]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

Well:

Father settled down outside Brooklyn after WWII - greater Portland, OR.

Me - aerospace engineer. Sister married a mining engineer and her kids -career Navy.

We did the camper thing during work/early ER. Last few 5 before Katrina - hanging around the fish camp was just ducky.

Katrina - 1000 miles north/house and burb thing. Hanging around is fine - so far.

heh heh heh - ok so did a winter cruise(Mexico). That's not really traveling - is it?

Oops! 45th high school reunion this month - WA state 'The Highlanders' Go Scoties!!! I'll be there.

 

[Martha]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

Greg and I both live 5 blocks from the hospital in which we both were born.

 

[Outtahere]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

My dad built a house next to my grand parents, I now own my grandparents house and do not plan on moving and dad is still there in the house next to me. This apple didn't roll very far and doesn't plan on leaving LOL.

 

[justin]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

I've lived in the same area for all but 4 years of my life when I was very young. Parents still live accross town, but I bought a house in the same neighborhood where I lived when I was 4.

Wife , her parents and all her siblings live within 5 miles of each other now. (Although they were born 10000 miles away from here).

No plans to move before the kids are grown and out of the house (at least 18-22 years). Free babysitting by doting grandparents!

 

[SteveR]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

My parents moved 23 times in their married lives.

I have moved about 20 times; DW has moved over 30 so far. We were not military so the moves were for many different reasons.

Most of my family has lived and died in the same part of the country for over 200 years. I currently live 1500 miles from that area. DW is about 1000 miles from "home". Her other siblings and their families all live within 30 miles of each other.

I guess we have fallen furthest from the "tree".

We have no plans on moving back near either of our families (opposite sides of the country anyway) so we are currently entrenched with our current kids and their kids for now. Once they all move away who knows?

 

[peggy]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

I have lived all of my life in Las Vegas. In fact, I've only had four addresses in nearly 40 years (it would've been three, but we had to rent for a brief while during the construction of our current home).

That said, I've been ready to get the heck outta Dodge for the last few years. Las Vegas has changed a lot during my lifetime, but for all that we're a big city now (valley population around 2 million, as per the last census), we don't have things that big cities are supposed to have. Given the realities of infrastructure, we're not likely to ever have them.

So I'm tired of this in-between stage, and I want to move to a place that's either a big city with all the big city amenities, or a smaller city with no pretensions of being big and dandified.

 

[unclemick]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

Hmmm

30 years New Orleans - my longest stretch in one place. After the wedding(nephew) this weekend - nearest relatives will be in Kansas City.

heh heh heh

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

this apple rolled with the tree. first we were in jersey, then st. croix, then to florida where my grandparents lived. my brother has lived near us for about 15 years now. since moving here, a 1st cousin & two 2nd cousins have moved within miles of us so i guess we brought along a few extra apples.

i'm 49 & i've yet to run away from home. as the tree dies, i'm considering digging up my own roots to see who else has been growing on other lands. i'm not sure yet how i'll feel about that, but i suspect i'll like them apples.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

Mom & Dad are each one of 6 kids that grew up in mid-state SC.  All their sibs and my cousins still live in SC except a couple in NC and GA.  I live 5 min from Mom and Dad (handy since he had a heart cath and stent put in about an hour ago--doing great!).  
My sibs all live in Charleston.  DH has family in NC and TN.  
We always assumed it was a "southern thing" to stay close to family so we don't miss those reunions at the chuch parish hall, with homemade fried chicken, rice pilau, mac and cheese, various pies and coconut cake, and gallons of sweet tea.  Mmmmmmmmm  
Sarah

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

Interesting article I read last week (but cant find now) related to this. Bunch of guys revisited the genetic history of the human race, factoring in that most people dont move far from where they're born, but some are very persistent travellers. Coupled that with the idea that many people never have children and some have a whole lot, and there is strong correlation between broad travel and parenting many children.

Their bottom line was that they believed that a lot of family trees died out, that there are a lot of common ancestors, and that while DNA has proved that humanity originated somewhere in africa, that all of our family trees probably derive from an area of eastern asia and quite possibly all of us are descended from the same person. Since some of the east asians may have invaded all the way to western europe and may have populated pacific islands or even travelled to north and then south america, theres some plausibility to it.

What was most interesting was the strong possibility that couples meeting and marrying at random, particularly couples that had long roots in the same 'mating area' probably have a rather recent common ancestor.

Due to travel, arranged marriages and the frequently observed practice of stealing children during raids and wars, they also determined that its highly likely that every person has lineage that includes if not all, almost all races, creeds, colors and religions.

May be a big fat bunch of hooey or very theoretical, but interesting. A lot of prior genealogical theory presumed anyone was fair game to produce children with anyone, or had much broader factors for the 'mating area' of the average person.

In my case, both sides of my family have two generations that never moved much further than an hours walk from where we were born. A couple of the oddball relatives did move away and when they did, it was pretty dang far. One side comes from canada and the family tree up there is extremely fragmented with multiple sources, the other from England with a very static and predictably localized family tree.

Then after 32 years of always living within a short distance of where I was born, moved across the country. Guess i'm one of those oddball outliers.

My wifes also from a widely fallen nut tree. Mom from minnesota with the tree going back to the viking territory and dad from mexico via new mexico (yep, he was a 'run across the border' guy).

 

[Sarah in SC]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

I think maybe you saw something like the Discovery Channel podcast I just heard, called The Real Eve. It was absolutely fascinating and I highly recommend it. It was hosted by Danny Glover and was released on 6/11.
Sarah

Host Danny Glover traces the incredible expansion of modern humans throughout the world and reveals the shared genetic heritage that links every living person on earth.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

Saw that. This was subsequent research.

The upshot was that the average white western european christian could be sitting in a bar (pick any ten variety people from around the world with different skin colors, beliefs and whatnot) and they would probably mostly if not all share a common ancestor a LOT closer to them on the family tree than they'd believe.

Ah hah...just needed the right combination of keywords.

Here it is:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060701/ap_on_sc/brotherhood_of_man

 

[SteveR]

Re: Are You An Apple That Has Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Tree?

Speaking of sharing genes......

Here in Utopia Utah, there was so much "inter breeding" because of the isolation of the area and the desire to not inter-mix either with other races or even other religons, that there are a significant number of genetic birth defects that have been created as a result. You see a lot of people here with abnormalities caused by birth defects. I would think the gene pool for some areas of the state would be so similar that one could almost be marrying your own sister.

The major cities have less of a problem due to migration from other areas of the world but the gene pool is still rather "pure" in some circles.

I am happy to be mostly mongrel.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Re: Have You Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Fruit Tree?

Thing is, the ability to travel at will is a relatively new thing...what...one or two generations? Prior to that, even big cities saw fairly controlled migration.

According to the article above, we're all cousins of some form or other.

 

[WanderALot]

Re: Have You Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Fruit Tree?

Both DW and I have moved a LOT. My mom used to work for the UN and so she was posted to different countries and since he made more than my finance/accountant Dad, they just picked up and moved.
I was born in India, lived there for 5 years, moved to Zambia for 6 years before finally coming to the US. My mom's next assignment was supposed to be Brasil. They figured that moving me yet another time would be too hard (only-child and all) so she quit the UN and took up a professorship position in SoCal.

The long I attended any school before college was 3 years in SoCal. I think I calculated that I had been to 7 schools over 12 years (in 3 continents no less!) I remember always envying my friends who have known each other since kindergarten.

DW's Dad worked for the railroad so she's moved from Oregon, Kansas, Minnesota, Texas and finally to CA. This is probably one reason that both of us love to travel.

 

[SteveR]

Re: Have You Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Fruit Tree?

Thing is, the ability to travel at will is a relatively new thing...what...one or two generations?  Prior to that, even big cities saw fairly controlled migration....

I have been doing some genealogical work on my family tree.  I have a great-great-great grandfather that was born in MA in 1820...married in MA..had 5 kids...then moved to IL...marrried again (original wife died)...had 4 more kids...moved to MO....then back to IL where he died in the 1870s.  Prior to that his family all seems to have been in the same area of MA for at least 150 years.  

Another side of the family came from England where they were in the same town for over 300 years...at least as far back as the records go...likely even longer.  Society was based more on agriculture and farms were handed down from father to son over generations.  Taxation, wars, weather changes, famine, and the Industrial Revolution changed that to a great degree.   Nearly all my early family (1600-1700) came from England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales to the US and migrated west as the country expanded westward.  It is very interesting to see the individual family migrations from MA or NC or NY west to PA, OH, KY, then to IL, MO, WY, and CA.  Maybe being nomadic is genetic.  

 

[Gumby]

Re: Have You Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Fruit Tree?

..

 

[Dawg52]

Re: Have You Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Fruit Tree?

I live in the same small town(population of 40k) I was born in. Never planned to return but a buddy I went to college with hooked me up with his Dad's business so here I am. Worked out ok financially and I do like living here. But plan to start seeing the country next year upon retirement. 

 

[Zipper]

Re: Have You Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Fruit Tree?

The Zipper patriarchal line and surname dates back to 1840 when my grandfather's grandfather was born on a boat from Germany.

They settled in the Niagara region of Ontario. My Grandfather and father worked on Railways running through St. Thomas.

The matiarchal line has a Scottish surname and has been in ON for 200+ years.

Up until about 1900 the border was not a factor and Canadian and American citizens pretty well crossed at will.

In 1900 Detroit had a population of ~ 400 000 and we know what has happened since then!

Mrs. Zipper on the other hand has had a more recent NA history.

She emigrated as a child from England with her parents and sister in 1952. Her Aunts however took a different track and married Americans ending up in Napa and Albuquerque.

We see them every few years in Vegas.

 

[laurence]

Re: Have You Fallen Near Or Far From The Family Fruit Tree?

So Gengis Khan could be looking down on us saying, "Who's your Daddy?!"

 

[VoyT]

My maternal grandparents came to the US. Midwest from Eastern Europe, first to Ohio, then to Indiana. ... most of the children stayed in Indiana, tho a couple headed to Michigan. The next couple of generations are a bit more spread out. As for me, I'm still in Indiana.

DH's grandparents came from E. Europe and settled on the East Coast. Most of his family is there ... he must be the outsider since he went to school in the Midwest, then lived in the the SW and the South for a while before landing in Indiana.

 

[bpp]

About 8,000 miles away, or 10 time zones. No plan to go back.

 

[LOL!]

Military brat here. Moved around alot while young. Went to college "far away, as far away as I could get." After college went to Europe. Siblings spread out over 7 states, but all settled in for the duration. I've been in the same job and house for the last 12 years. Nearest relatives are at least 3 states away.