This is not a political post, I prefer to keep my politics and religion (lack thereof) to myself, but, just out of interest, I am wondering how many of us are able to trace our family roots back to immigrants or political refugees.
My grandmother's maiden name was Le May, french in origin, and my sister has been able to trace the Le May family back to when they came to the UK as Huguenots to escape persecution from the French authorities. They were silk weavers, and lived, sometimes 10 or more family members in one room, in the East End of London for many generations.
GM knows that one of his father's predecessors made their way from Ireland to Liverpool, probably to escape the great Irish potato famine.
These are known connections, there may be, and probably are, others.
So we are both descendents of immigrants and grateful to this country for accepting them.
3 comments:
Dear Joy
A very pertinent post. I am descended from the French on my mum's side and I think from Scottish family on my Dad's side.
I think there are probably a lot of people in the UK who have ancestors who came from other parts of the world.
Best wishes
Ellie
My late partner's paternal grandfather was born in Ireland but, because so many of the Irish records were destroyed by fire, I haven't been able to trace back to earlier generations to see if that's where they originated from. My own family has always been in England.
You only have to look at the early census records to see how many residents of the UK originated from other countries.
My mums side I believe have gone back to show Scottish desent and my dads side Norwegian! You can almost guarantee I believe that everyone has immigrants in their blood line, I mean it's a tiny island and had to be populated in the very beginning and probably by..immigrants !
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