Heritage Album - Screwy Genealogy?

Screwy Genealogy?

My family history is not easily traceable (impossible from what I can see without shelling out serious money that I already DON'T have) and I'm curious as to my cultural heritage. My face shape has gotten a lot of the same questions, but I was wondering if anyone who was good at this could give me a good guestimate as to my heritage. My natural hair color was a dark-red, almost brown when I was born and then fell out and grew in white. It darkened over the years and is now, to use a celebrity who's pic is easily accessed for comparison, almost exactly the same shade as David Nykl's hair with some naturally lighter highlights. As for the face shape, it's in these pics: http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n244/amandamarielynn/Me/ I wouldn't rely on the hair color in those (except MAYBE the ones with my hair across my face, but those are touchy because I put black in the underside of my hair) because I processed my hair a LOT in those times. It doesn't have to be scientific, thanks. Thank you. The main reason I was confused, is the fact that Germans and Swedes are supposedly tall people. And while I'm between 5'3" and 5'4", I'm the tallest one. My mom's not even 5'. She's only 4'10", lol. I just figured there was something else in there:-) Does it help if I say that I tend to burn quickly and severely, but then it slightly tans rather than goes back? PPS- This IS an adoptive situation. Not me, but my great-great grandmother stowed away to the US at a young age and learned English through listening. To her dying day, no one ever figured out what language she was speaking as translators claimed it seemed to be a cross between a Scandanavian language and an Eastern European language (as in the From Romania to East Germany, to Croatian, to yada yada yada). It didn't make sense to anyone. To describe her, she had light brown hair, high cheekbones, greenish eyes was in the 5'8" range (okay, I'm not the tallest, thinking of it) and carried herself in a specific manner that I can't really describe. She had that walk until she died when she was in her 90s (I was 9) Oh, and thin noses. My whole family has them.

Public Comments

I would guess Swedish. If you google pics of Swedish people you will see the same face shape as yours in many pics. If not Swedish entirely, maybe some German too? You are not a freak if that is what you are thinking. You are not beautiful (like most of us, LOL!) but pretty and unsual.
the high forehead looks Germanic. my half sisters whole family is that way, same forehead.
Unless you have an adoptive situation, I don't agree that your ancestry should be that hard to find. Ancestry.com is one fee based site that I highly suggest for the census records.. but you CAN often use it free, at your library. The major fact in census records is that from 1850-1930, it gives the place of birth for the person. Starting with 1880, you also have the birth place for the parents (but not the names). With 25+ yrs of research experience, I personally think that appearance is not linked reliably to origin. On the other hand.. using valid documents, you can normally verify where your ancestors actually came from. My advice is that you might work with some of us here, to see what can be done with normal genealogy routes. Obviously, with any unidentifiable ancestor, that is difficult.. but not impossible. http://rwguide.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ Here is a guide that gives you some idea as to the process. It is geared to the US, but the concepts of how to use records, is valid anywhere.
You look Galician to me. Galicians are Poles who have "moon faces" and parts of the region spoke Ukrainian, Lithuanian and a Ruthenian dialect. That could be your mystery language. If you know your grandmother's maiden name or the name she had when she arrived in the US, it wouldn't be hard to find out where she's from. You can email the information to me and I'd be happy to look it up for you.
I'm confused. you are asking us to evaluate your racial background based on some clues about a woman with whom you might share what, 3 percent genes? You don't know anything about your mother or father or their parents or their parents? My unscientific guess is that most of your genetic background is british isles.
Hot Blonde Chocolate - The high forehead means nothing. I have the highest forehead ever, and that's from my father's side, which are 100% English.
You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history. Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department. Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc. Our public library has both www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com free for anyone to use (no library card required). Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers. They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you). A third option is one of the following websites: http://www.searchforancestors.com/... http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739... http://www.usgenweb.com/ http://www.census.gov/ http://www.rootsweb.com/ http://www.ukgenweb.com/ http://www.archives.gov/ http://www.familysearch.org/ http://www.accessgenealogy.com/... http://www.cyndislist.com/ http://www.geni.com/ Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever. Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example. Good luck and have fun! Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article... Then there is the DNA test; if you decide you want to REALLY know where your ancestors came from opt for the DNA test. Besides all the mistakes that officials commonly make, from 10% to 20% of birth certificates list the father wrong; that is, mama was doing the hanky-panky and someone else was the REAL father. That won't show up on the internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA. I used www.familytreedna.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program.
There are different types of people in the same national groups. Not all Germans are tall. My mother had an aunt that people said looked like she stepped out of the Black Forest( it wasn't how she dressed). She was a little over 5'1 and about as wide. She had ancestors from Alsace. There use to be a couple in my home town that had a gift shop and they looked the same way.