This is a family freindly place and there are a number of folks here that are from the same families. So I would guess that many of you understand family ties.

As most of you know I am not a spring chicken and nearing retirement age, but I am still making discoveries. I never meet my paternal grandfather, he died in mining accident in Pennsylvania when my father was 3. My father had only a little information and never kept any records. So my father's family knowledge stopped with his name.

Today my cousin, who does geneology research on my mother's side of the family, found the death certificate from my grandfather's mining accident. It listed his parents names!

After 62 years I know of my great grandparents Andrew and Anna and that they were from Austria / Hungery, maybe Zemplen county.(For years I thought we were Italian because of the spelling, which appears to be wrong.)

Now, if you wish, you can share your families discoveries.
I'll share if find my great great grandparents. But now the search may have to go to Europe.

...fascinating. The whole study of family ties and how far back they can extend honestly amazes me, and the range of stories of how one's ancestors ended up where they did blows my mind.

Well, I'm sure I've shared information like this in earlier posts, but I descend from grandparents on my Mum's side who came to Canada from Europe. Oma (Mum's mum) was German and was born and brought up in Poland; she travelled around Europe until moving to Canada, where she met Papa (Mum's dad) in Vancouver at a friend's party. Papa was from Russia, at the time called the Soviet Union; he came to Canada when he escaped from his country during WWII. They settled down together, remained in Canada for the rest of it, and raised Mum and her younger brother.
Oma was of the merchant middle class, reasonably well-to-do, while Papa had a history of lower-class farming.

Dad's family were descendents of the Russian Protestant mennonites who were forced out of the country during those times, subsequently moving to Canada a few generations ago. Grandma was a child of these immigrants, but Grandpa had been in Canada longer than her. They married and raised Dad as the youngest child of five.
Grandma and Grandpa were also of lower-class farmers.

As for geneology, I know Oma traced her history back through Germany to the 16th century, mostly as merchants (I'm not exactly sure, I should ask about it one day). Papa's surname was changed when he fled from the USSR- we are almost completely certain that there is no way to find it again, leaving a whole portion of history lost forever...

...and Dad's family can be traced fairly far, as the Friesens were a pretty populous name over the centuries.

That leaves me. I guess I have bloodlines largely in Russia (though much of that was diluted through generations in Canada) and Germany. The rest is history!

Well my cousin has found a lot of new information.

Although I knew my grandfather's family were coal miners in Pennsylvania but I just found out he had five brothers and sisters. Found out that my Great great grandfather had imigrated around the same time. So I can now five gernerations back. We will need to find a solid link in Hungary to keep the trace going.