My family is the most American family you can imagine. When I was a kid, people would ask me"What are you?" as in "Where is your family from?". I never really had an answer. Where other people are African-American, or Jewish, or English, or Irish, I am all of those! I always knew my family was full of mixed marriages, but it really hit home once I started doing genealogy research.

On my father's side - Van Sweringen - we have a Jew marrying a WASP. Before that, there were Quakers marrying into the the family. On my mother's side - Summers - all of my grandparents are what used to be called "high yellow", mixed black and white. I have to go back to 1850 to find the "African woman" as my great grandmother called her. And on the other side, I have yet to find the black Africans or the pure whites.

My son has all this, plus the heritage of the Ceelys, who came from England in the mid-19th century. And there's plenty of Irish, German and Polish thrown in there for good measure.

This site is a work in progress, just as my research is. In fact, it's the kind of thing that could go on forever! So, take a look at what's here. If you hit a spot where I have not uploaded the research yet, e-mail me and I will share what I have.

The Van Sweringens - Holland to Maryland to Beaver County, Pennsylvania to Brooke County, West Virginia to Starke County, Ohio to Allen County, Indiana to Chicago.

The Summers Family - African Americans coming from Humphreys County, Tennessee to Chicago

The Ceelys - England to Queens, New York to Florida

Along with the above names, I also have the following families: Alexander, Archer, Birnbaum, Hurford, Wilcoxen and many other people who are just names as yet.

My Links Page - Links to other sites with the above names or locations.