bornliberal

I like the history period of 15th, 16th and 17th century europe. Anyone else keen on this subject?

Bander wrote:I like the history period of 15th, 16th and 17th century europe. Anyone else keen on this subject?

I wish I could say I was, but I'm doing a lot of reading on more current history within the 20th century. I had 6 uncles who fought in WW II, and they were at places like Anzio, N. Africa, The Bulge, and Omaha, and they never spoke of it. It wasn't until Tom Brokaw's book "The Greatest Generation" hit the book stores, and Saving Private Ryan was released that the two remaining uncles felt validated to speak of the war.

I'm sorry if I changed your subject, Bander, and I do not want to take your thread off topic. But, the period you're speaking of is one I do not possess a lot of knowledge on.

My history interest tends to be personal. I'm very interested in genealogy, so I'm mostly interested in the world surrounding my ancestors. It's fascinating to look up a piece of history, correlate it to an ancestor and be able to imagine your own family there, in that time. Obviously, this works in recent history too (my grandfather was on a tin can in WWII, for example).

Other than that, my history knowledge is either school based or rather obscure (I'm great at Trivial Pursuit, all kinds of worthless info crammed 'tween my ears).

I have studied some of my genealogy. I have ancestors who served in the American Revolution, Civil War, right on up to my father and several uncles who served in WWII. I've traced one branch of my tree back to 1431 Britain. I'd like to do more with the study of my family. I've not done much recently. I'm from several generations of Virginians on both sides so Virginia history is another interest.

My genealogy is all over the place. On one side, I have Ellis Island immigrants from the '10s or '20s (forget the exact year) from Lithuania. Then, scattered back through the intervening centuries, I have other immigrants. The earliest history in America is one of the Jamestown colonists who moved back to England before coming over on the Mayflower. In fact, that family name is one of the "First Families of Virginia."

Militarily, they cover pretty much every war fought in this country, from King Philip to the French Indian war, Revolution to 1812, Civil War and World Wars. Not as much recently though, in my direct line.

Once you get outside the country, though, there's some long term history in England (turns out I'm the 18th or something great-grandson of Geoffrey Chaucer, according to some genealogist)), but not many records in Germany and Lithuania, where most of the non-Britannic family's from. Which is a shame too, because we know very little of my paternal grandfather's line besides a few names, which turn out to be extremely common in Lithuania. Hard to track.

My sirname appears amongst the followers of William I of Britain and was a noble name in Normandy before that. I don't have a direct connection established yet but that's on of the leads I was following before I got ill. My surname also show up in the court of Henri II and Catherine de Medici very prominently so I would like to find if there's a connection there too.

My house mate has his paternal family tree back to about 1615 in Germany but I'm not sure which part. It's been a long time since I've seen his chart.

Bander wrote:My sirname appears amongst the followers of William I of Britain and was a noble name in Normandy before that. I don't have a direct connection established yet but that's on of the leads I was following before I got ill. My surname also show up in the court of Henri II and Catherine de Medici very prominently so I would like to find if there's a connection there too.

My house mate has his paternal family tree back to about 1615 in Germany but I'm not sure which part. It's been a long time since I've seen his chart.

Very cool!

Besides Chaucer, I appear to be basic peasant stock, through and through. Once we got over here, there's some "landed gentry" kind of wealth and power, but that's about the top of it.

Hi

I've looked a trailer for the "2012". I was interested in this theme.
Please advise me a good site on this topic.
And what do you think about the end of the world 2012.

Thanks.