Question

[Dustparticle]

 

 
 I did some reading and it seems like French Canadian and French (from France) are different. I know I’m French Canadian on my dad side and I just find out that my gg granddad on my mom side came from France. So, does this mean I’m French and Canadian French?

 

Thanks

[jdcarlson]

Many years ago (before personal computers and the internet - back when you had to find paper documents and/or inscriptions on tombstones) my mother embarked on an extensive project of genealogy for the family. 

 

She traced her side of the family back to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 when William (from Normandy - aka William the Conqueror) defeated Harold Godwinson (from northern England) and took over kingship of England. She found ancestors on both sides of that battle.

 

I also have ancestors through her side of the family on both sides of the American Revolutionary War, and the War Between the States.

 

The first member of our family to come to North America was a French Huguenot named Pierre Billou (there have been several variations on spelling of the family name - Billou, Baylou, Baljou, Billoux, and others) on the ship St. John Baptiste that sailed from Amsterdam, Holland, to New Amsterdam, New York, in 1651. He moved from France to Holland to escape the Catholic church. When Spain conquered Holland, he had to leave, thus his trip to North America. 

 

On my father's side, they were ethnic Swedes living on a group of islands between Sweden and Finland, known collectively as Auland, where the Baltic Sea becomes the Gulf of Finland. For centuries there were "on-going discussions" between Sweden and Finland as to whom these islands belonged. Shortly before 1900 the Finnish Army landed a whole division of troops on the archipelago and announced there would be a conscription of males for the Finnish army. As an ethnic Swede, my grandfather did not want to be in the Finnish army. He took a job as a deck hand on a "tramp steamer" and "jumped ship" when it got to New York. Apparently he knew of some Swedes living in the upper peninsula of Michigan, so he made his way to Iron Mountain, Michigan, and got a job in the iron mines. My paternal grandmother followed him to the U.S. a year later. Apparently their relationship was serious. They got married and had 11 children.

 

Originally he spelled his name Helmut Karlsson. He anglicized it to Carlson when he got to Michigan. Tracing family history in Scandinavian countries gets difficult because of the Scandinavian habit of names. My father (Robert Carlson) would have been Robert Helmutson. I would have been James Robertson. My son would be Kevin Jamesson, My grandsons would be Trevor Kevinson and Bryce Kevinson. My mother's research on my father's side did not go back many generations because of this habit of names. The most unusual one I remember was a lady named Erica Johnsdotter (or Johnsdaughter).

 

I have ancestors from all over northern Europe.

 

I like to think of myself as one of Jehovah's people.

 

Thanks,

 

Jim