Aren't we all immigrants, one way or another? What is your story.

My grandfather's mother was French catholic but living in Ireland at the time of the potato famine so came to England where she met her Irish catholic husband who had also recently left Ireland. She had three daughters and two sons but died in childbirth. Her husband committed suicide and was discovered by my grandfather, his eldest son. My grandfather met and married my nan, Edith Smith, who was English through and through.

My fathers family were also in Ireland during the potato famine but didn't suffer as they were well-connected protestants. They eventually settled in Birmingham making galvanised buckets etc.

My husband's paternal family were farmers around Bristol and had family connections in South Wales. His mother's family came from Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

I gave noticed, up to now, quite a few people seem to gave their roots in the East Midlands.

Oops!! Sorry!!

I also noticed, kitty that a number of us mentioned Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. My granny left a detailed family tree and most of the members of the family married within the counties of Leicester and Rutland, so I probably have distant relatives thereabouts. GGGF was a 'surgeon of Loughborough' and there are ancestral graves in several villages.

I'm quite surprised how often the East Midlands have been mentioned. There was a very interesting series by the historian Michael Woods called The History of England centred on Kibworth Beauchamp (always a tricky one to pronounce!), Kibworth Harcourt and Smeeton Westerby. I think it was on the BBC a couple of years ago.

On my mother's side we are Dubliners for generations. My father was born in Glasgow to Scottish born parents, however all of his grandparents were from Ireland. He met and married my mother in Dublin. I live in Scotland as my parents moved here when I was a child so that my father could get work having become unemployed. They moved back to Dublin in 1979, all of my siblings moved to England, so I'm on my tod here.

Anno we live three miles from Loughborough but, until we moved here twenty years ago, lived in the middle of the town to be close to the children's schools.

Mamadroit one of my brothers lives just outside Kibworth Beauchamp and we hd our wedding reception in an hotel there.

I was born in Cardiff but when I visit people do not think I am welsh.
My father was working there at the time but we left about 6 weeks after to live in Birmingham.
Even in my school years none of my teachers thought I was from the Midlands. I did work in London for 35 years but nobody thinks I am a Londoner.
Somebody did a family tree which went back to the 1700's
In some ways I think there are doubts with regards to it being accurate as the main family lived in Edinburgh at the time.
One relative was described as a farm labourer and died in London and another who had the same occupation died in Devon.
At that time farm labourers did not tend to travel that far.
Oddly somebody thought I was from Luton the other day.
I lived in Harpenden for 11 years which is only a few miles away.

Frank

No

Isn't it intriguing, kitty. My great-grandmother's family name was Lowe and I am sure there must be some relatives left in that part of Leicestershire, though I think she had only sisters. Great grandfather's family was Noble and there's a big family tomb in the village of Frolesworth. When we lived in Hinckley, exH did a series of country walks for Radio Leicester and found possible forebears in a number of churchyards.

anno when we lived in Loughborough, our next door neighbour had a been a Lowe before her marriage. Her family were Plymouth Brethren and also owned a fabulous antigue shop near the old Manor House. She showed me a fabulous huge chest of 'medicines' that she said had belonged to a relative who had been a doctor!

I love interconnections. When my son went to University in Sheffield the boy in the next room to him had the same name as my maiden name. Matt told him that my great grandfather had come from Ireland and owned a factory making galvanised buckets. He told his father, who said that so had his great, great uncle!

You are funny, petallus!

If we were ALL immigrants the word immigrants would be meaningless. I suppose we could say 'recent immigrants'.

As far back as I know my direct ancestors are all British but a thousand years ago, who knows?

Quite.

I am from Leicester and proud of it!

'British' - pre-Roman, pre-Saxon invasions. Celtic tribes, forced westward by the invaders and ancestors of the Welsh and Cornish as well as some Scottish 'tribes'. I guess most of us would have some 'British' blood from way back.

Kittylester was the antique shop near to the parish church in Loughborough?
The one that used to have foxes in red suits sitting in the chairs.

We used to have to take my eldest (now 32) to see the foxes every time we visited the town.

Diverging a bit - nice to see Leicester and Loughborough people here. My first home in the UK was SW London, Isleworth first, then Roehampton and Putney. Later we spent 5 years in Stoke and Newcastle-u-Lyme. And finally about 35 years in East Leicester- Oadby, Bushby and Scraptoft. I taught at many schools in Leicester and our girls grew up there- and finally taught in Loughborough for about 10 years.

Loved our time in Leicester - the place has something very very special. And the Leics countryside, from the granit villages and hills of the NW, to the rolling hills and mellow stone villages of the East and Rutland- were amazing. We still have a flat in Market Harborough and love to visit often. Leicester and Leicestershire are much maligned by our friends South of Watford

... having done my (mod langs) teaching degree at Scraptoft College as a mature student, the very last batch - just around the corner from where we lived, which was very convenient with 2 small children.

I know every bit of East Leicestershire, I'm happy to say, thanks to my love of walking and my interest in wildlife and archeology.

That is the one! Mamardoit They are still there but not all in the windows now as the younger members of the family are trying to move things forward a bit.

Whereabouts are you from nellie?

I wish I knew.

As I've mentioned on a thread before, I was about 16 before I suddenly thought to myself, 'Who's my grandad then'. I've always been a slow learner.

I wrote to my Grandmother and she died before she got the letter, I left it alone. I had my daughter and thought I would try again. I decided to ask my Great Aunt and b----r me she went into Devizes hospital and bless her she too past away. Whilst I was at the hospital another cousin of my fathers came to visit so I asked her.

I had to laugh. She said to me "Well my love, you have to remember the Canadian Army were barracked in Devises during the war".

Such an interesting thread! My mother's family was reasonably straightforward, her mother's family were from suffolk but spent some years living in Antwerp after her mother died (why???) Her father's family came from North Devon. Apparently his mother came from the Big House and caused a scandal by running away with a fisherman. My father's father was an Irish immigrant and his mother was Scottish.
My husband's grandfather was an Italian immigrant, his mother's family was welsh - she married the son of an Italian in spite of hating Italians, but that's another story
My daughter is married to an American (now British citizen) and my son's girlfriend is Hungarian - we're our own little United Nations!

There was a great TV programme a few years ago where they traced the DNA of a whole lot of families. Most of them came back as British with perhaps some European blood mixed in, but one Lady of the Manor went absolutely ballistic. Her DNA had come back as including Romany Gypsy DNA! She was going to sue the producers because her blood was pure English back to 1066 and beyond. Personally I would have been thrilled to have a result like that! Was it a torrid affair between the Lady and a local Gypsy hunk - or perhaps the Lord had been unable to provide an heir and she had had to look elsewhere. So much more interesting than knowing who everyone was

Paternal grandfather Maltese, Two of my paternal grandmother's brothers married French women and settled in France as did my father's sister, I have five French cousins. My maternal grandmother was half Irish, My maternal great grandfather was French I think, but came from Alsace so could have been German when he was born, his mother, my great great grandmother was from La Rochelle and I think was French protestant. The rest of the family were from England but hailed from various different parts, one line from Devon, one from Kent, one from Great Malvern, another from Berkshire. Personally I love being a mixture.

If you are considering paying for genome testing then you should read this rather long blog about the weakness of the science behind it.
http://www.dcscience.net/?p=5718