Tuesday, June 15, 2004, 08:44 GMT
Damian, perhaps I should have said, "that's my story and I'm sticking to it" :-)
Seriously though, yes, a majority of the research I did was not research at all, but gathering of information from the internet. I found two cousins (one from mom's side of family, the other from dad's side). I was also surprised at how far back my dad's side goes back; 1600s America and 1530s England! My great-grandfather's father was from Nova Scotia, Canada, and from I have guessed, he was the descendent of the American Colonials who stayed loyal to the crown during and after the American Revolutionary War.
Other than that, I can trace about 3/4 of my ancestors to Europe, and the other 1/4 were simply white Americans. However, I could have African or Native American ancestry, but that would be very far back in my family tree (the closest ancestor to me would be 3 generations from me [great-great-great-grandparent]).
I have heard of an American women who had an operation and woke up speaking in a British accent; it was on the local news as a matter of fact! But the first thing I thought was "what a horrible accent by an American trying to fake a British accent." It was really horrible, and her accent was not an accent found in Britain; it was like she watched too many British films and sort of mish-mashed accents together to create hers, but she forgot to take out the American element to her accent.
Seriously though, yes, a majority of the research I did was not research at all, but gathering of information from the internet. I found two cousins (one from mom's side of family, the other from dad's side). I was also surprised at how far back my dad's side goes back; 1600s America and 1530s England! My great-grandfather's father was from Nova Scotia, Canada, and from I have guessed, he was the descendent of the American Colonials who stayed loyal to the crown during and after the American Revolutionary War.
Other than that, I can trace about 3/4 of my ancestors to Europe, and the other 1/4 were simply white Americans. However, I could have African or Native American ancestry, but that would be very far back in my family tree (the closest ancestor to me would be 3 generations from me [great-great-great-grandparent]).
I have heard of an American women who had an operation and woke up speaking in a British accent; it was on the local news as a matter of fact! But the first thing I thought was "what a horrible accent by an American trying to fake a British accent." It was really horrible, and her accent was not an accent found in Britain; it was like she watched too many British films and sort of mish-mashed accents together to create hers, but she forgot to take out the American element to her accent.