Backgrounds...

[lynda]

This is an international site and it is always interesting to me in where people come from and what kind of background they have.....

I am native Texan, raised on a farm about 70 miles SW of Fort Worth. When you think of Texas I am pretty much what most people think of. There was all kinds of animals on the farm and working the land also. The first thing I learned to drive was a tractor at age 5. Help with gardens and fields hauling in hay to the barn. I also learned to shoot a gun at an early age because being in the country we do have snakes and vermin. I started riding horses; I can not remember what age hahaha. I began rodeoing and have won everything from belt buckles, saddles, money, to a horse trailer. I have been lucky enough to have known some world champion cowboys and cowgirls. I also worked for a company that gave me exposer to international horse trainers from all over the world and have worked with some movie and tv shows in outfitting their stars in western attire. Many of the Dallas Cowboys were clients of mine. I do live in the city now and have since my twenties but look back on that farm and wish for the simpler life.

[houstoncougar]

I'm half Polish a quarter French and a quarter Irish. My French side has been traced back to the 1800's when they left France for New France (Quebec). I know that my Irish relatives left Ireland sometime during the Famine for the U.S. and that my Great grandparents came to the U.S. on a ship from Poland .I am what a good friend of mine describes as an industrial broad. lol I grew up in Detroit where everyone was expected to go to work at one of the big 3 (Ford, Chrysler or GM). I wasn't having any of that and left in my early 20's for TEXAS though I have left a few times and traipsed around the states. I am a gypsy at heart and whenever I would get bored or want a change I would move. Nowadays I try and just rearrange my furniture or go on a trip to take the edge off!

[bigglesworth]

Well, I am 3/4 German and 1/4 Heinz fifty seven variety. My German ancestors can be tracked to the 1700's from a town that no longer exists named Huck (no puns please) in the Ukraine. My ancestors were what they called white Russians. (Germans living in Russia)
They eventually migrated to the US sand settled in the Yakima Valley, of Washington State, I was born in Yakima, and moved when I was 2 to a wetter climate, as the doctors said it would be healthier for me (I had a lot of tonsillitis) And doctors didn't know much then either. My parents eventually settled in the Willamette (pronounced Will-am-met) valley and I have been an Oregonian since. I worked for one of the largest Trucking companies for 26 years (Consolidated Freightways) until they cooked the books and we went bankrupt. I raised a son, and a down syndrome daughter by myself and as of to date have two beautiful granddaughters. I am retired and have pursued my joy of ballroom dancing along with some other hobbies.

[laine175]

My mum is Greek Cypriot and my dad was English, my maternal grandmother was adopted so the trail kinda goes cold on mum's side her dad died when she was 4.....my paternal side Londoners born and bred....although my father spent a lot of years in Bargoid in wales with his maternal grandmother as his mother was a nurse in the Queen Alexander core during the war and his father was posted....My mothers family came from a little village called Ardana in Northern Cyprus sadly their home was taken during the turkish invasion and they were given an hour to pack and leave and never got to go back, most of my Cypriot relatives live in Aiya Napa now.

[lynda]

I am finding this really interesting and gives insight into who we are.

[sonia]

These posts are really interesting. I was born and raised in the East End of London and am still living there. My father was English from the Midlands and my mother was born in London but her parents were Jewish who fled the pogroms in Tzarist Russia at the beginning of the 20th century: real 'Fiddler on the Roof' stuff. Apparently my grandfather was going to settle in Canada and my grandmother was all set to join him when he returned saying he didn't like it - so my story could have been quite different. My father was a 'goy' and my grandmother didn't really accept him so we weren't raised in any particular religion. My grandparents mostly spoke Yiddish and both died when I was quite young and I do regret not talking to them more about their experiences.
The area they were from was always referred to as 'White Russia' which apparently is now in Belorusse so Biggles our ancestors may have been neighbours!
Laine - Ayia Napa is one of the party capitals of the world isn't it? And HC I think its the Irish in you that makes you a gypsy - do you know that song 'The Irish Rover'? And Lynda one of my girls 'fell in love' with horses a couple of years ago and is now studying Equine Science at University and has just bought a horse. One of her ambitions is to go to Texas and work with horses there and meet a cowboy or 2 ( or cowgirl of course!)
Thank you to everyone for sharing your stories.

[shortcake]

I was born in Saigon, Vietnam, now Ho Chi Minh City. Left the country with my sister and mother with the help of the US military, people were leaving around the Vietnam War. Even though I was only five years old I do remember the ship and plane that we had to take to get to the camp. We were sponsered by a church group in Duluth, Mn. With my mom, step-father, daughter and sister, we all went back to Ho Chi Minh City to visit family about six years ago. Going back for another visit at the end of March 2011 for three weeks.

[lynda]

Shortcake, I had a friend that also came from Vietnam when very young and she went back to visit met a man there, married, and stayed. So you see never know what will happen.