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During the exploration of my genealogy I have encountered ancestors whose primary language was not mine. Of course most genealogists expect to find ancestors that spoke a different language. Nonetheless, I was surprised to learn of the languages.
I knew very little about my genealogy when I started. And the little bit that I did know turned out to be wrong. On the Garrison side of my tree I quickly discovered that my maternal grandmother was primarily descended from England. Digging a little further I soon found a strong German connection. Family gatherings must have been interesting with the strong accents of England and Germany at the table.
My maternal grandfather, Charles Garrison, was of “Dutch” descent. In fact, his death certificate listed his parent’s nationality as “Dutch”. However, my ancestors were not from Holland. They were in fact Pennsylvania Dutch; Mennonites by religion. Most of my Grandfather’s maternal ancestors arrived in western (now central) Pennsylvania from Germany during the 1700s. That part of Pennsylvania had a strong German influence; so strong that several probate records are written in German! Being naive, I had assumed the “official” language of the counties to be English. One 5th-great grandfather — whose will was written in German — had a German father and French mother, making English his third language!
The Crosby side of my tree was mostly English speakers. Most came to the new world in the early- to mid- 1600s and all settled in what would be eventually called New England. Shortly before the American Revolution several of my ancestors left Massachusetts and settled in Nova Scotia. Although my folk were English speakers, they soon mixed with people that migrated from Scotland. This co-mingling of the nationalities was already known by me. However, what was not known was that my paternal grandmother, a woman that I actually remember, spoke Gaelic. In fact, on a Canadian census the “primary language spoken at home” was listed as Gaelic! That, was unexpected.
My paternal ancestors, as I said, were from England. Thanks to a couple genealogy books (published in the early 1900s) I was able to locate probate records dating to the 1600s. I have found that the British keep excellent records. However, due to the influence of the Church of England, most of the wills are written in Latin. Hand-written Latin, written with a quill pen, is not easy to transcribe. It is also likely that the early Crosbys, who were landed gentry, spoke Latin to some extent. Given their nearness to France, they were probably also versed in conversational French.
After years of research I don’t know what I thought I would find, when I began my research, with regard to languages spoke. Growing-up, I was told my nationality was “Scottish, Irish and English” (in that order). Well, somewhere along the line somebody forget to mention German. I now believe I am equally as German as I am English, then Scottish — but not Irish. So far I have failed to find a single ancestor of Irish descent (i.e. born in Ireland). But who knows what my future research will reveal!
