One of the things I really love to do is find ways to visualize data. I do this for mundane things in my everyday life, and this compulsion has carried over to my work in genealogy. Recently I decided to make a table of my ancestral origins. This is the result:
Country | Region | City | Surname(s) | Immigrant(s) | Date | % |
Italy | Calabria | Gioiosa Ionica | Loccisano, Sfara | Vincent Loccisano | 1939 | 25.0% |
Italy | Calabria | Cardinale | De Fazio, Rotiroti | Elizabeth De Fazio | 1926 | 25.0% |
Germany | Hesse | Angersbach | Miller/Möller, Eifert | Conrad Miller & Maria Eifert | 1882-1887 | 12.5% |
Germany | Prussia, Posen | Pogorzela | Pritz, Zuelke | Louis Pritz | 1892 | 12.5% |
United States | NJ/PA | Phillipsburg/ Easton | Sauder, Barnett | 5.5% | ||
United States | PA | North Whitehall | Mertz, Boyer, Klotz | 4.7% | ||
United States | PA | Lynn | Schmidt, unk. | 3.5% | ||
Germany | Württemberg | Gerard | Catherine Gerard | 1816 | 3.1% | |
Germany | Palatinate | Dielkirchen | Benner, Stoller | Valentine Benner | 1856 | 3.1% |
Germany | Württemberg | Stehley/Stähle | Jacob Stehley | 1814 | 1.6% | |
Germany | Moyer/Meyer | Wilhelm Meyer | 1740-1760 | 1.2% | ||
Germany | Trittenbach/ Drittenbach | Johann Michael Drittenbach | 1749 | 0.8% | ||
United States | PA | Heidelberg | Delong | 0.8% | ||
Germany | Alsace | Oberbetchdorf | Kressley/ Grässel | Jacob Grässel | 1754 | 0.4% |
Germany | Palatinate | Neff | Anna Neff | 1730-1760 | 0.4% |
My goal here was to account for every immigration event in my family tree, and to determine the percentage of my ancestry tied to each event. Of course I couldn't pin down every immigrant, so I simply listed the U.S. region of the relevant family branch.
So I am 50% Italian. I've traced about 35% of my ancestors to Germany, or at least to areas that were culturally German, via nine separate immigration events, which I think is amazing. The remaining 15% of my heritage is unaccounted for, but based on last names and locations in eastern Pa., I suspect it is mostly German as well.
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