My family is orginally from Ireland. We were the O'Duigenan Clan and were the discendants of Milesius, King of Spain, through the line of his son Heremon. The founder of the family was Maine, ancestor of the Southern Hy Nials, and son of Nial of the Nine Hostages, King of Ireland, A.D. 379. The clan seat was located in the County of Roscommon. The little village of Castlefore, Baile-Coilte-foghair, in County of Leitrim was were we kept a bardic school. The O'Duigenans were the Erenaghs of the Church of Kilronan, in the barony of Boyle, in the County of Roscommon, and were also the chroniclers of the Clan Mulrooney. After the coming of the British we changed our name to Digman and gave up our claims to the thrown to avoid being killed. Later we setteld in the Americas in about 1773 when one on my ancestors, Phillip DeDigman, was listed as a passager on ship from Portsmouth, England. We also have a family member listed as a solider during the Revolution, William Digman, who was conscribed to the Maryland Troops. Some time after that we settled in Virginia. At the time of Civil War my family served on both sides. After the war the grand father who founded my line moved to West Verginia where my famliy stayed till the Depression. Then it was on to Ohio. This is what I know of the modern side. My Great Grandpa was a horse trader and he married a woman named Sara who is my name sake. He went by two names Thomas Benton Annon and Thomas Digman. His mother was Martha Digman and his father was George Washington "Wash" Annon. They never married. Annon is also Irish, but we haven't got the history on that side yet. As my uncle put it Grandpa Annon was a "Quaker and circut rider who spread the word and us". Great Grandpa and Grandma Digman had a son named Ted who is my Grandfather. On my Grandmother's side we are also Irish and a little German, we think. Most of the documents don't exist any more. That side is from Alabama and moved to Ohio during the Depression when my Great Grandfather, Alvin Arlester and his wife Viola Lucille, came here looking for work. They had a daughter named Clina Celest who married Grandpa Ted. Grandpa Ted and Grandma Celest had a daughter named Ruth who married my biological Father, Jeffrey. They also had son, Terry. I have a half brother named Kris through my mother by another man. They divorced when I was two and from then on it was string of one loser after another. My father was almost completely out of the picture my whole childhood. As was normal for most of my family we grew up poor and spent quite alot of time being raised by relatives. As a child since I had nobody who paid attention enough to protect me and my mother and brother had reputation I was ruthlessly bullied for years. At 12 my mom married my Step Dad. This didn't help things. By then my brother was full blown into drugs so I was still mostly ignored. At 20 I moved out and at 21 I met my ex-husband. We had a son named James and divorced before he was 2. After that I was on the same path as my mother with the loser brigade. At 29 I met the man of my dreams, Jay, and we had a son, Gavin. At 33 years old he was killed in a car accident. Now I'm alone again.

My father(deceased) was a French colonialist, My mother is Laotian. From a small village in Xienkhuang province, Laos. Grew up in the aftermath of the Indochina wars. Left when I was 16 after 2 years of school. worked in London, then studied in China and Russia. Have worked all over the world since then. I no longer see myself as having a nationality.

My family history originates in a legend known to both ancient Europeans and ancient Indians. The Aeneid written by Virgil is the largest epic of ancient Europe. The legend of Aeneas: Aeneas started from a country in Asia with his followers in search of the land of his ancestors. He was to go to a western land where the Tiber river flowed Moved on by destiny, he wandered round the seven seas for many years carrying his home gods (1.31-32). Aeneas' father appeared to him in a vision and warned that the people of Latium are tough and primitive (5.722-734). Later, he passed by the land of Circe, daughter of the Sun. From her palace groaning roars of angry lions resentful at their captivity were heard through the small hours (7.10-20). At last, Aeneas landed at Latium. A strange portend occurred at the court of Latinus, king of the land. The dress of his daughter, Lavinia, appeared to have been set on fire. At an oracle, Latinus was advised not to seek alliance from Latin race and the would be son-in-law shall come from overseas (7.74-100). The ambassadors of Aeneas went to the court of Latinus and offered him regalia of their empire and many embroidered vestments as gifts. Latinus recognized that Aeneas was to become his son-in-law. He promised to give his daughter in marriage to Aeneas annulling her earlier betrothal with Turnus (7.243-273), king of a neighboring land, who was said to have captured many cities in war (12.21-23). Turnus came to know about it and ordered his army commanders to march against Latinus and the new comers (7.465-470). The first to arm his men and enter the war was the irreligious Mezentius, king of Agylla and friend of Turnus (7.647-653). Some fighters on his side wore feline skins. Aeneas traveled to a distant land for war alliance with King Evander, his relative, who ruled on Palatine Hill (8.90-100). Aeneas told him that Daunian people were about to subjugate the whole of Hesperia, and the sea boards of Tuscan and Adriatic (8.146-149). Evander told him that Turnus was menacing them. Also, their neighbors were oppressed by insolent tyranny, damnable massacres and cruel force of Mezentius (8.473-484). Goddess Venus presented to Aeneas divine weapons made by God Vulcan (8.528-536). Two messengers were sent from Latium in quest of Aeneas to bring him back soon (9.226-310). The men of Aeneas at Latium closed up their ranks and stiffened resistance. Turnus went in twice at the thick of the foe, but the whole garrison came running to form up against him and he fled from the battle field (9.788-818). Aeneas returned to Latium. Turnus was made to flee from the battle field (10.657-660). Mezentius dashingly took Turnus' place, but was soon felled by Aeneas (10.689-786). Before dying, Mezentius admitted that he was beset by his own people's bitter hatred (10,904-905). Tiger skin dressed princess Camilla (11.577), with a retinue of female warriors, entered the field (11.653- 659). Seeing her example, Italian women took to poles and stakes to defend their city (11.890-895). Turnus invited Aeneas for a duel to settle who would have Lavinia (12.78-80). While the terms of the truce were being accepted, war broke out again (12.282). Aeneas was wounded by an arrow (12.318-326). His goddess mother, Venus, brought health giving ambrosia and cured his wound (12.411-424). Aeneas raced to the battle field with his men. The men of Turnus took to their heels and fled. Turnus was again made to flee from the battle field (12.450-475). At last, the duel was fought and Turnus was killed. The legend of Sage Bhaavana is preserved in the family books of the weaving caste people among the Andhras in India. Fragments of the legend were said to have been extracted from Markandeya Purana, Brahmanda Purana and Padma Samhita. The following is the selective summary of the legend: In a town near the hill where the sun sets, there was a demon named Kaaluva. He was menacing the Devas (divine people). He was torturing the pious and raping their women. He was assisted by Moolaka, another demon. Further, the Devas were suffering due to lack of woven clothing and a proper religion. When Devas prayed god, they were told that a man will soon be born in his image and he will come to their land to help them. Maharshi Markandeya begot two sons and the younger one was named Bhaavana. Dhumra, daughter of fire god, was the mother of the children. A prophecy was given that Bhaavana would kill the enemies of his brother. Bhaavana became proficient in the arts of war and also in the religious knowledge. He vowed to offer a tiger skin to god. One day, the Devas appeared to him (probably in a dream) and told him that he was destined to reach the land of Devas to get them rid of the demons and to teach them weaving and religion. A sage told Bhaavana that he has to go to a land where the daughter of Sun has kept tigers in captivity, and that she would marry him. Bhaavana wandered over seven seas and many lands in search of tigers. Finally, he reached a land called Arca and met the daughter of Sun named Bhadra. Her body was bright like thunder bolt and her eyes resembled petals of a blue lotus. Earlier, a sage told her mother that a hero would come to their land and marry her daughter. Bhadra recognized in Bhaavana the man who was to become her husband. Bhaavana asked her to give him a tiger. She told that she would give one of her tigers if he would marry her. He told her that he has to fulfill his vow first. (In Hindu religion, fulfilling a religious vow is more important than pleasures of married life). He took the tiger and left. After some time, Bhadra has sent two messengers to Bhaavana that he should return to her without further delay. Bhaavana goes to her land accompanied by his people. The marriage of Bhaavana and Bhadra was performed on a grand scale. Kaaluva was told that the Devas were leading a happy life after being taught weaving and religion by Bhaavana. The demon challenged the bravery of Bhaavana and declared war. The warriors of Kaaluva could not stand against Bhaavana and his people, and started fleeing from the battle field. Kaaluva tried to stop them threatening death to those who flee. Bhaavana tried to kill Kaaluva four times in duel fights, but he escaped death every time. A fierce battle ensued and Bhaavana was wounded by Kaaluva. Goddess Rama, foremother of Bhaavana, brought ambrosia and cured his wound. Bhaavana traveled to a distant land for war alliance with his brother. Many gods presented divine weapons to Bhaavana. Bhadra entered the battle field with a retinue of tigers. Bhaavana hurled his divine weapon and killed Kaaluva. Hearing the news, demon Moolaka came to the battle field and soon fell at the hands of Bhaavana. Bhaavana became the divine ancestor of weaving castes in the Andhras. The name of the hero in the Indian legend is Bhaavana in Sanskrit, and Baapaniaya in Telugu. The Telugu name may have been interpreted in the ancient Italian manuscripts as Baba Aaniaya. Aeneas was referred to as father Aeneas at some places in the Aeneid (5.348). In the family books, Bhadra has many names. Laavanya Lata is one given in the list of her names. The name Lavinia daughter of Latinus of the ancient Italian legends may obviously have been interpreted as Lavanya Lata by the ancient Indians. Many cognate words have formed due to the interaction in ancient times. Some are given below. The second one is a Telugu word having the same meaning which is being used for more than a 2000 years: attic - attaca. asset - aasti. beat - baadu. boat - padava. bore - boriya. boy - abbayi. cavity - guvta. cattle - goddulu. cheek - chekku. chin - chunbu. cut - kota. dull - deela. elope - lepuka. fat - boddu. foundation - punaadi. gale - gaali. lace - allica. link - lanke. mask - musugu. master - mestri. mead - metha. mouth - moothi. mud - matti. murky - muriki. nerve - narav. oath - ottu. pale - paali. pan - penam. pap - pappa. piece - pisaru. put - pettu. site - chotu. short - chiruta. show - choopu. slice - cheelchu. suck - cheeku. surprise - achcheraparachu. sweat - chewata. theft - thoepidi thick - dukka. thread - thraadu. value - viluva. veil - valle. vomit - vaamthi. upon - paina. with - waththa. wonder - winta. yean - yeenu. (1) The god of love in Telugu literature is called Kaamudu, the word is cognate with Cupid. (2) In some old European drawings, the Cupid is shown wearing blind-folds. Gamta, a word which is cognate with Cupid, means 'blind-folds' in Telugu. (3) Cupid is shown shooting arrows in to hearts of persons to generate love. The ancient texts of India say that heart is the seat of love. Gumde, a word which is cognate with Cupid, means 'heart' in Telugu. (4) Cupid is described as a small child. Gumta, a word which is cognate with Cupid, means 'a small child' in Telugu. The Rig Veda, which is now accepted to be 8000 years old, mentions ships with 100 oars. The Buddhist Jataka stories wrote about large Indian ships carrying seven hundred people. They went around the world many a times. Aithereya Brahmana, which is a part of the Vedas, mentions Telugu people as one of the earliest tribes. History says that Telugu King Samudra Gupta went around the world several times. http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Seafaring_in_Ancient_India.htm

I have done a great deal of research into the lineage of myself and my parents. I am a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, because my Grandfather was an original enrollee back in the 1800's. His Grandmother was part of the forced relocation of the majority of the Choctaw people on what is now known as the Trail of Tears. She had been an interpreter of the Choctaw Language for the US Government. Great-Great Grandmother lived with the family until my Mother was nearly 12 years old. My Grandfather was the youngest of 12 children. His Mother was the third wife of his father, and all the children of the other two wives (8)lived in the complex of three houses, with his Mom as the "Big Momma" of the entire family. He married a relative of the family of former President Bill Clinton's mother from Arkansas. They left Oklahoma when my Mother was 12 years old on their way to California, with several other families, all members of their church. My Mom and her sister made quilts to sell along the way to help with expenses, and worked as housekeepers in the churches that put them up during the journey. When they reached a beautiful valley in Colorado, along the Gunnison River, Grandpa said, this is as far as we go. He became one of the founding members of a small town there. My Mom eventually married the son of another family. Mom had run away from home with another man. She decided she didn't want to live with his family, and went to California, where the rest of the church members had eventually settled. One day Mom was walking down a street in San Francisco, when a sailor said, "Don't I know you from somewhere?" It was a boy from back home, and they got married the next day. They had to drive all the way to Las Vegas to get married, because she needed to get divorced from her first husband, and Las Vegas was famous for quickie divorces. I followed my Father's history all the way back to the 1700's trying to find when his family first came to the "new world", but I lost the thread. I did find that his Mormon family included a unique marriage arrangement. His Grandmother was married to the same man her own Mother was married to, at the same time, and he had several other wives. My Dad is also a direct cousin of Walt Disney. My Dad's mother married a church man she met when she was 16. He was 21 at the time, but he waited for her to turn 18 before they married. He was a Mormon minister, and she played the organ in the church. They had 5 sons, and my Dad was the oldest. All of my Grandparents lived well into the late 80's, and one passed when she was 97. There are a lot more stories that I know, but I think you get the idea.

-------minorly edited due to a massive misstatement and edited again in December for clarity. Telling my history would be difficult because nobody knows about us. I am 3/4 blooded Romani, which is one hell of a story in itself, seeing as how my parents were from Romania. Before anyone asks, Romania is a country, Romani is an ethnicity. Romani come from all over and, regardless of where we live, we are Romani. I usually use the Romani word for "Clan" (Vitsa) and other such words but I am not going to because that can be confusing. To know the full history, you would have to go back a thousand years but recent history includes slavery for my ancestors (some of them were slaves in Romania, we do not know how many... part of my ancestry is from one of the hugest Natsia that were the main ones enslaved). My paternal grandmother was disowned by her Clan for marrying my grandfather because he was Gadjo (non Romani). This is sad because he was a grand man, standing up for my mother and father and ALL of my people. I am immensely proud of my grandfather who took it upon himself to do things like educate my father to the point where he spoke 6 languages, later going on to get his BA when they escaped Romania, when Romani children are denied an education in Gadje society or shoved in schools for mentally disabled. I do not remember how old my father told me that they reached but it was not terribly old, nor terribly young. My grandmother died younger than my grandfather. My grandmother's family was killed in Holocaust. Romani families do not just vanish and they left on their travels a bit before the Holocaust. They were never seen again... any of them. The rest of the family lived, having hidden in the foothills of Romania. They were lucky, some 80% of my people were slaughtered. My paternal grandfather's family originated from Poland and, many centuries before now, immigrated to Romania. It was so long ago that I did not learn any Polish identity from my father. The only legacy from Poland I have is my last name, which is Polish. I do know the history of my grandfather's family but that would be long to type out. He was an only child and I have not yet been able to find his parents. My father did a family tree for us but it was stolen along with everything else I had from him in the 80's. I am a little leery of telling the name of my mother's Clan so I am going to leave that out. Regardless, they are VERY traditional. So you can understand, traditional Romani are VERY distrusting of Gadje and "halfbreeds" almost never have a chance of marrying into such a family. Also, marriages are, by tradition, arranged marriages. So, my 3/4 blooded self is quite unusual considering that my parents were from the 'old country', my father was a "halfbreed", and their marriage was NOT arranged. Prearranged marriages were the rule, not the exception, back then. Still, to this day, that is the "norm" in traditional Clans. My mother had not had her marriage arranged yet. All of her sisters had already had theirs arranged but not my mother. She was being "saved" for some reason. My father told me that she was the most beautiful of the chavvies as well as the most intelligent. Of course, my father was deeply in love with her. :) My father had requested permission to court my mother and was, not surprisingly, flat out denied. Well, my father was walking around and saw a Romani family being attacked by some local hoods (the family was on their travels). He jumped into the fight and, with the males of the family, beat off the hoods. He looked at them, they looked at him, and burst out laughing. It turned out that was my mother's family. He was granted permission to court her and then was put through the usual trials and tribulations of any suitor, including the chaperoning. During courtship, the biggest, baddest male in the family or Clan chaperones the couple. As you can guess, they were wed. They jumped the broom, had their hands tied with silken cords, broke bread, the whole shebang. In '60 (I think it was) they escaped to Canada ("moved" is an understatement) so their child could have a good life. It had taken them a bit to get out of Communist Romania... that was one hell of a story and an understatement. It took them about a decade to prepare their escape. Romani are treated very badly in Romania. My mother died in childbirth. Her pregnancy was perfect... she should not have died. My father swore, to his dying day, that it was because she was Romani and did not get proper care. That might be so, it might not. It is common in EU. He refused to go to the doctor himself because of his beliefs. I have tried to get her chart but the hospital where I was born does not exist now even if I could find out the truth. In the late '60's, my father and I moved to America. I do not remember what he did to get us citizenship but I know that he, himself, had educated himself so well in American history and civics, just like my parents educated themselves in Canadian history and civics, that he had comparatively little problems. He passed when I was barely 18, cancer ridden. I have had two severe head traumas since then and most of my memory is gone... I have even forgotten most of the Chib. I had been conversational in it when he passed. I just recently have been put back in touch with my mother's Clan and am fully accepted and have my Clan name (very rare for American Romani separated from their Clan and even rarer for "didikai"). No, I am not telling what it is. I have no siblings... my father never recovered from my mother's passing. Well that is how I came to be. :)

My father was a Catholic, he grew up in Germany. My mother is of Jewish heritage... this would really piss off Adolph.

My mother's lines were almost all out of their homeland, in various parts of the British Isles, by the mid 1800s. Four maybe five of these were convicts, sent to New South Wales for crimes such as petty larceny, stealing silks, stealing a pig. One, however, was a repeater, a Scot with a history of court appearances from age 7. Some of the others of mum's line were free settlers, one was a Chilean muleteer, brought to Australia to deliver supplies to outlying settlements in the Peel Valley NSW. THe last of mum's line arrived in 1890. They were the black sheep of two very wealthy Bristol families, who had lost their money and become....actors! Their family almost certainly paid for their voyage as far away from home as possible! (the performance gene is still around 6 generations later.) Prior to that,this family had built up wealth in the sugar industry which, sadly, was linked to the slave trade. However, many of the succeeding generations had thrown in their lot and their monetary support with William WIlberforce, destroying the trade which had made their ancestors' fortunes. At least one line was noble, and linked back to most of the famous families of British History, and ultimately to the Plantagenets, the Normans, and back to Charlemagne. The line of Philippa of Hainault, queen to Edward III, goes back to Byzantium and then follows the Silk Road east to Xian in China in the 4th century. (These lines are held by all Europeans somewhere on their family trees, and are by no means unique. What is special is being able to prove it.) Dad's family were also wanderers, but as soldiers in the British Army. One fought in the Peninsular wars as a drummer boy, somehow survived (drummerboys, at the front of the army had poor life expectancy), joined the army itself and fought at the Battle of Quatre Bras, which preceeded Waterloo. For this he received the Waterloo Medal. Both he, and a number of others, ended up in New Zealand.He came as part of an foiled attempt by the French to take NZ over. He and his family settled there,anyway. The others came in a number of regiments known as the Fencibles, who defended British settlements during the Maori Wars. The last of Dad's lines arrived in the late 1800s as Free settlers, and in 1912 (his paternal line). One of his paternal lines is also an interesting one: it is the Langtons of Langton by Partney Lincolnshire, which has held the same manor since c 1100. There are so many interesting stories and mysteries in this family. I love being part of it.