Where were your parents from?

Were they from Europe, India, South America? Mexico? Asia?
 
Did who they were shape who you are?
 
What type of work did they do?  Are you in a related business?
 
My mother was born in Brooklyn, New York but the family moved to Los Angeles when she was eight.  She went to Los Angeles Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights along with Golden Gloves Art Aragon.
 
My mother never worked a real job.  She did work in my grandparents delicattesen market in Boyle Heights.  That's where she met my father... over a pickle barrel.

She stayed home and cooked our meals.  The four of us sat down at the dinner table to eat our meals.  It wasn't until years later when dad had to work late hours that our dinner meals moved to the den in front of the TV.  Something was definitely missing with Dad not being there.
 
My father was a Holocaust Survivor from Radom, Poland.  His father survived as did his older brother.
 
Somehow being a child of a Holocaust Survivor changes you.  You are treated differently and you act differently.
 
My father's first job when he got here was a tailer in the movie industry.  He worked for Adrien's taylor to the stars of MGM.  While doing that he sold Electrolux vacuums door to door to make a living.  He saved enough to be able to buy a store which is still in exhistance today.  The girl in the family got screwed in the deal when my brother and a stranger who worked for my dad got the business.  Girls are supposed to marry men who already have jobs.  (I'm on my meds right now...
can you tel?  Are they working?)
 
So I was molded by my parents.  I learned the want to cook from my mother and her father who had the store.  He had worked in hotel restaurants prior to buying his store. 
 
I bought my store because of my father.  I have the nature to sell and enjoy talking to people.  Selling barbecue grills combines both loves.
 
Did what your parents do make you who you are today?
 
My grandparents had thick accents and I'm told my father did as well.  I never heard his.  I don't believed I have any.
 
So why are you who you are now?  Why do you do what you do? 
What shaped your life?
 
I'm unemployed because the bossman who bought my business from me is now saving a lot of money by not paying me while his business sinks in to a deeper hole due to mismanagement.  He let go of the person who cared about that store... he never sets foot inside of it.  I just find it strange.
 
Anyone in the Los Angeles area want to hire me for a decent salary?  Put the feelers out there!  I need a job!  This is me activily trying to find work.
 
I want to heat about all of you.  Why are you doing what you do!
 
Next....
 
Edited because I always spell tailer incorrectly when I know the difference.

My Mother was from Jersey City, her father was Woodrow Wilson's Chief of staff when he was Governor of New Jersey, Joseph P. Tumulty. He became Secretary to the President when Wilson was elected and served all 8 years. My Mother went to college for 2 years as many women did back then, she married my Father who was finishing his Medical residency at Georgetown University. He became a very prominent Surgeon in DCfor many years. He came from Johnstown Pa. a prominent family, with various businesses.
My Father could raise one eyebrow, and freeze you in place. Yeow!! 100% Irish!

My Mother was from Harbor Beach, Michigan. Her parents, however, were--Dad-Germany, Mom-Ireland.
Great Grandpa's family came over on a boat to escape the Kaiser Wilhelm.They were sponsored by a man in Michigan who sold them forast land for 100 dollars in the late 1800s. Grandpa and his siblings were all born in Michigan. They had a successful lumber business, of which one of the ships they used to transport wood was unearthed in the harbor of Sheboygan Wi. I lived in Sheboygan, never having known this ship, until my Uncle came to visit and he was amazed that the "Lottie Mae" was there.
The Irish side of Mom's family is little known.
My Dad's family is goofy, although I am incredibly close to my cousins. We are in the process of tracing that side of the family, though nothing of interest has come up.The only fun note is the lead singer of Iron Butterfly, who sang "Indagodadovida(sp)" was our father's cousin's son.

Interesting!
 
I found out that my grandfather, George who always claimed February 22 as his birthday was really born on March 15, the same day as my other grandfather.  He always wanted to share George Washington's birthday.  I didn't know this until after his death.
 
My grandparents on my mother's side were from Grandfather - Poland (Austria at times) and grandmother in Vienna.
 
My father's parents were both from Poland.
 

My father grew up and lived in central PA, Vietnam vet and heavy equipment operator, he died in 2005. Mom grew up and still lives in central NY, she's worked with the developmentally disabled after raising 6 kids, and now does social work for her county. I followed in my maternal grandfather's footsteps for a while and studid to be a funeral director, but got out of it and am now in IT. I think I should have stayed a funeral director sometimes.
 
Both sides of my family have been in America since the Mayflower or shortly after (Irish-German on my dad's side, English/Norman on my mom's). I've been able to trace my lineage back to England/Normandy to at least 1550... I've had ancestors slaughtered by indians in Connecticut in the late 1600's, and another fall into the Hudson River at Hoboken and drown in the early 1700's. I'm also a distant cousin to Norman Rockwell (never met him, but we got invites to the reunions for years, never went), and U.S. Grant is in there somewhere also.

My mother was from Lincoln, IL, but her mother (Schellpfeffer) and father (Hummel) were both from Germany.  Mother taught in country schools near Lincoln.  My father was one of 13 kids born & raised in Kentucky to a farm family, but turned out to be the only one who didn't end up farming.  All of the kids were taken out of school in the spring and fall in order to help with the planting and harvest, so none of them got much beyond the fourth grade.  The family moved to central Illinois, and my father, having an interest in mechanics, learned how to fix the "new-fangled" automobiles that were just beginning to be manufactured, by working at an auto repair shop in Peoria.  During World War I, he was drafted and sent to Bradley Polytechnic Institute (in Peoria) for training.  When the Army found out about his knowledge of automobile engines, they kept him on to instruct future classes when his group was shipped out.  When the war ended, Bradley asked him to stay on to teach auto mechanics.  He got his high-school equivalency, and went on to get a bachelor's degree and a master's degree., and taught auto mechanics for many years at Bradley (by now Bradley University).  They then asked him to be Registrar, a position he held until he died.

My dad is from Northern Indiana (Fort Wayne area)
My mom is from Southern Indiana (Aurora area)
They met at Purdue and got married right after Dad's graduation. (Mom is older)
 
My Frantz side of the family is mostly Church of the Brethern and as you look back over the generations you see them starting in PA and VA then west to OH then to IN then to IA then to CO and then to CA.  Each place you look into there is a pocket of CotB.  Many of the older generations the family tree divided for a while only to get intertwined at the next spot on the map.
 
I lose the Frantz line in Switzerland in the mid 1400's (church records are impossible to find now due to wars and age)
 
The Scharf (mom's) family line is German from the black forest region, there is some deichmueller's too and gets lost in the mid 1500's.
 
My GGGM (mom's) was English and her line can be traced the farthest back, it gets muddled around 1344, and the links are hard to prove from there, but my uncle (before he passed) was trying to make the connections that would bring the line back to 1100's.
 
My uncle was the family archivist and geneologist, his collections of family related stuff is amazing, it now sits gathering dust in his house in VA.  My cousin and I would love to have his collections and the histories.  Who knows.

My Father's family came to USA in 1769. The first two generations lived in Western PA before relocating to Knox County Ohio in 1800. Six Generations lived in the Centerburg-Sunbury area before my Dad relocated to SoCal during the War (WW II). He passed away in 1946 when I was 4 years old. My headstone is already located in a line with the other five generations buried in the Centerburg,Ohio Cemetery.
 
Mother born in Prague, when it was still part of Austria. (1912). Her family came to Cicero, the Czech suburb of Chicago.  She danced with the Chicago Ballet during the 1928-32 time period. She carried on the communicating with family in the Czech Republic after her mother passed away, and taught me how to continue this legacy today. Our family maintains the links established by my grandparents a hundred years ago...even thru the Nazi and Soviet occupations of the Czech Homeland.
We feel that holding the keys to the family organization is a major gift and give thanks to our forefathers who instilled this desire for communication in us.
  My interest in geneology has really helped in the building of these relationships.

Right here. Native American and proud of it.

I don't know- I was hatched.
 
 
 

 
 
 

NYC

Mom was born in Ok. but moved to Texas at 6 months. She was #7 of 8, #8 was born in Calif. Her parents moved there after WW2 with her and her next oldest, a brother.
 
Dad was born in Texas and lived there for about 7 years. The depression and dust bowl forced them to Calif before WW2, talk about dirt poor, think about Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath.
 
Mom and dad met in high school and lived a street apart. Mom's family was Scots-English and Dad's were German. Both sides lived here for several generations though.
 
Physically I take after my Dad in the face, I look A Lot like him. Mentally I take after my Mom.

Both of my parents were from right here in our small town. Grew up about a mile apart. In fact, the house where my mother and I live now was built by my father from my mother's design, on land given to them as a wedding present from his parents (it was part of the original estate, each one of their three children were given acreage as a wedding present). On my dad's side, our family is one of the names everyone recognizes, and anyone who went to my high school between about 1925 and 1971 was taught biology by my grandmother. She even has an award named after her that is still given out every year. Their families way back a few generations (pre-1800) were from Ireland, England, France and Germany.
 
My dad was taught to be an electrician in the Navy (served on the Intrepid), then went on to become an electrician for the nearest city as well as a primary organizer in the formation of their union (and served as a steward until he retired). My mother wasn't allowed to work while she was married, but afterward she went to school and eventually ended up working in the traffic department of our local Fox affiliate.
 
Me, I'm a union stagehand (primary training as a lighting tech), and am just reaching the end of my third term as an officer. I guess you'd have to say career-wise, my dad has had a huge influence on me. My mother, on the other hand, taught me to never need anyone to help me succeed and to always be able to provide for myself. Which is how I live  my life.

I'm loving these stories.
 
Somehow, somewhere a good writer come up with a book with some of this.

Mom was a 1st generation Italian-American who spent her early years in NY City's Little Italy before her family moved out to the "suburbs" of Brooklyn. Dad was a 2nd generation German-American who grew up in the then heavily German Ridgewood section of Brooklyn/Queens.
 
My wife is equal parts French, Polish, Hungarian, and Austrian. We needed an Excel spreadsheet to figure out what that makes our kids....

Both my mother & father were born in Mason County West Virginia.  Scot-Irish, Welsh, & mainly German backgrounds.  Almost all of my ancestors were original settlers from the 1790's.  All were farmers, my family had soliders serving from the Revolutionary War to WWII. 
Although, I a proud of all of my ancestors, it is my grandparents & parents that inspire me most.  My grandparents lived through the Depression & WWII- basically subsisting on what they could grow on their farms, selling milk & cream for a few extras; sending their son off the war not knowing if he would come back.  My dad was the son who went off to war, my mom worked for the years he was in the army. 
I am in awe of their courage & fortitude.
 

I could write a goodly amount about my folks and grandparents but there is an awful lot I still am clueless about. 
 
I would suggest to those whose parents and grandparents are still alive that they ask them every unanswered question they have about about their heritage and either write it down carefully or get oral histories.  I wish we have done that in our family.  My mom was born on a ship coming from Poland I believe and my dad was born in the USA.  His parents came here from Italy in 1902 as unmarried 17 year olds who eventually married and settled in Yonkers and raised a large brood.
 
I am probably more a result of my mom than my dad as far as my abilities and talents.  My dad and his dad were carpenters by trade although my dad went to college later in life and became a FHA building inspector in NYC.  My mom also went to college later in life and worked in the Yonkers' school system.  Both my parents always stressed getting a good education as a foundation toward a better life. 

When my grandmother was still living, I gave her one of those cloth bound books with blank pages.  I put different catagories at the top of the pages-childhood memories, school,courtship, marriage,my grandfather's work birth of my father,his childhood, service in WWII, when I was born, etc.  My grandmother took 6 months to put together the book with photos.  It is one of my most valued possesions.  I also gave a similar book to my mother. & she filled it to the brim.
While you still have parents or grandparents make books for them.  In fact, I think I will start a book for my children/grandchildren.

Both my parents came over from Latvia (as kids) during WW2.
 

NYpizzaNut and Claracamille,  you both wrote things that are very important.
 
My father never spoke much of his past, probably trying to shield me to the horrors of his youth.
 
I know more about my mother, but her mother never knew her own father so it stops there.
 
Just last year, or it might be the year before I found a slew of second cousins (once removed) on Geni.com.    Their grandmother and my mother's grandmother were sisters!
 
Seems that an argument between a brother and sister left that side of the family a total secret.   My mother remembers their father, "Cousin Joey" but never spoke of him.
 
I got out the family pictures and that jarred a lot of her memories.  We even had a picture of his marriage.
 
Ask what you can now, because you can't retrieve it later if no one is around that know the answers.
 
I'm now Facebook friends with my new cousins, but they all live on the opposite side of the country. 
 
Also, those two sisters (really three) that make us cousins is as far back as any of us can go.   Somewhere between Vienna and New York all memories were lost.
 
For my mother's last birthday, I took all those old black and white photographs out of the box and put them in a thick album.  She asks me who some of those people are.  Some I know because she told me years ago when she remembered.
 
Also...  If you take or print out photographs,  put names and dates on the back of them!

wanderingjew


I don't know- I was hatched.

THAT WOULD EXPLAIN IT! 

My Grandmothers and Mother were stay at home Mothers. Both my Grandfathers worked in the coal mines in Western PA. One was a mine superintendent and the other down in the mines. During WWII, they both worked 7days a week for 4 years to get the coal out for the war effort. The down in the mines Grandfather rarely saw sunshine for 4 years. He died of Black Lung Disease. My dad was in the Army Air Corps during WWII and worked on a Top Secret Project -Teaching pilots how to use some new fangled thing called Radar!
After the war, he was a Fuller Brush Man, going door to door selling household cleaning products. Then he joined Prudential Insurance Co as a Debit Salesman. He was with them 35 years, going into peoples homes and selling them Nickel insurance policies. He would make the rounds every week to collect the Nickels for the policys. Got to know his customers real well! He sold policys to 98% of the families on his Debit (AKA Route). I guess that was the foundation for my getting into sales. I've been involved in sales and marketing positions all my life, starting at age 14 with magazine sales.