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9. Find out who you REALLY are

Find out who you REALLY are

Who would have thought that the origin of an English word about good breeding, lineage and ancestry would be a French bird with big feet?

Apparently, the English word “pedigree” comes from the French ‘pied de grue’ or ‘foot of the crane’, probably because a simply drawn family tree looks a bit like the foot of a bird.

So what about you and me? If we traced back our line to its beginnings, would we find a big-footed French bird or something equally as unexpected and entertaining? Ask Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who traced back his family’s roots and discovered himself to be a descendant of a Turkish refugee!

The history of your family is a great mystery and, like all great mysteries, there are plenty of surprises to be had.


A Crane. (Image from www.itsnature.org)

A few ways to find out a bit more about who you are:

They might know someone with big feetask your grandparents to tell you about your family

Does it mean anything lke born and bred right here?look up the meaning of your surname

Aster iskgo to see a palm reader

Begin at the beggininggo to a genealogy website

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Have you discovered anything? Let us know

Completed Actions

I found out what my name meant (my first and last name) and a bit about where my family originated from.

Zernab
Gloucester
22 June 2011 08:21 PM

I found out my names meaning which is: kind,helpful

Rahima
Salusbury Primary
21 June 2011 05:58 PM

Discovered that my Great-great grandmother was a Kalderash Roma(Jewish gypsy) from Belarus

Karen
Northamptonshire
21 June 2011 11:15 AM

i searched it on the internet

Ayub mohamed
london
20 June 2011 06:12 PM

i found out i was spanish and irishn

george
necton
11 November 2010 11:27 AM

I found out that I have Irish relatives on my Mothers side aswell as possible links to Spain

Aidan Watson
Gloucestershire
18 July 2010 01:55 PM

This is the most important thing. Once you know this, you're free.

Jo
Portugal
09 July 2010 07:31 AM

we refined refuge, read your fact sheet on refugees and identified five facts, watched your you tube videos and songs. some of us found out who we are and of course we all SMILED!

Miss Murray
Ebbw Vale
22 June 2010 09:18 AM

well im a nice person to do this quiz and i like refugeeweek and im donateing some money to u to help people have a better life

gemma black
hove
17 June 2010 11:46 AM

I found out how i really am and i know thet i'm not a refugee because i'm born in america and there are no wors and things like that

Angelina Wilson 3A
Salusbury Primary School London
16 June 2010 06:03 PM

it went well

Jafar Alsalemi
s
16 June 2010 02:10 PM

My surname means "brave bear" and the first recording of the way my surname is spelt was in 1773, 200 years before I was born!

Michelle
London
14 June 2010 03:43 PM

W learnt how to say hello in Italian and Arabic!

michelle
salusbury primary school
14 June 2010 02:04 PM

My mum did our family tree, and found out we are desceneded from Hugenots, the first group to be thought of as refugees and fled France due to religious persecution. I'm glad they found safety in England, otherwise I wouldn't be here!

Juliette
London
14 June 2010 09:58 AM

I have a lot of Romany ancestry,so its like my family are refugees where ever they go.
My mother's maternal grandmother had French Huegenot ancestry so at some point the family had had to flee religious persecution.

Karen Deighton
Northampton
14 June 2010 08:53 AM

We have a map at Centrepoint where all our Head Office staff are putting a pin in the countries that they hail from!

Alice
London
11 June 2010 04:15 PM

My grandparents have traced my family, and although we are all Scots, some of my ancestors had to flee the Clearances. But I looked up my grandparents surnames, and it turns out that Ross might be Welsh and that McWilliam is partly Norman French!

Sarah
Manchester
11 June 2010 11:25 AM

Half of my family have lived in the same few villages in Norfolk and Northampton for centuries. The other half began with Ukranian refugees. My Jewish Ukranian great-grand parents, Solomon Negal and Minerva Sorofsky, were fleeing persecution and settled in Bethnal Green. My father recently found out where they are buried in Plashet Cemetery, East Ham. He had their very dilapidated graves restored, and we went together to place two small stones on their graves, to show we cared, and were pround that we are of their blood and heritage.

Jane Negal Elliott
Herefordshire (UK)
11 June 2010 11:09 AM

My ancestors migrated from Arabia to Uzbekistan, then to Afghanistan, then to Pakistan and India!

Lish
London
11 June 2010 10:31 AM

Apparently I don't exist - yet...

Daleth
Maryport, Cumbria
10 June 2010 05:28 PM

I found out about my surname: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Pascoe

lisa
Oxford
10 June 2010 02:32 PM