Quotes About Ancestry

I have no idea what my great-grandparents looked or sounded like, or the great-greats before them, back to caveman days. It's weird to think they were like me once, goofing with friends, mad at their parents, brave, scared, everything. But now they're gone too, and nobody knows or cares. So why do I make myself miserable over things that years from now no one will even care about? If I knew that, maybe I could be happy.

That wasn't your mom in you—that was your dad.

I'm the solution to a two-hundred-year-old

a pesar del aislamiento de nuestras propias vidas, siempre seguimos conectados con nuestros ancestros; nuestros cuerpos guardan los recuerdos de aquellos que nos antecedieron, sea en los rasgos que heredamos o en una disposición que está grabada en nuestras almas.

Nous avons chacun une vieille mère, qui n'est pas forcément notre mère de sang, mais que nous vénérons pour des motifs immémoriaux

If you look back 600 years ago, royals' sole goal was to keep their wealth within the family.

I was born into a very important family in Japan. My grandfather was a descendant of the Emperor, and we were very wealthy.

Knowing that my ancestry had all been quite wealthy and owned their own businesses probably left me with the ambition to replicate what they'd done.

I remember I once went to a nutritionist who said I come from good Russian-Jewish peasant stock, which means I can hold a potato in my body for a week, if need be.

My grandmother was born in Russia, and she came through Poland on her way to America in the early 20s. She moved to Brooklyn.

My mother's Polish; my dad was Irish.

Well, I'm Czech, but Polish, Czech, no matter, it's my name.

About 1900 my parents came to the United States as children from what was then the Polish area of Russia.

My mom is Jamaican and Chinese, and my dad is Polish and African-American, so I had a pretty diverse culinary background to work with.

As I got older, my pops tried to keep me involved with the culture by telling me the stories of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, how he came to America, and about our family back home, because all that side of my family - my aunties, grandparents - is in Africa.

All my forebears worked for a living. My grandfather painted portraits. My mother too. My aunt painted seascapes.

It's part of my DNA as a Portuguese. Like many of my ancestors, there's that need to discover the world - exploration is in my blood.

We might think we don't, but everyone descends from native Brazilians. When Portuguese arrived here, everyone was native Brazilians, so I have that in my blood.

Neither money nor position can atone to me for low birth.

Even the poorest in Israel are looked upon as freemen who have lost their possessions, for they are the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

There are all kinds of historians and scholars who say that Brutus could have been a son of Caesar. That's definitely a possibility. He's a generation younger than Caesar.

The man who has nothing to boast of but his illustrious ancestry is like the potato - the best part under ground.

People ask how could I be so conservative. Well, I was born to people raised in 1889.

When you're looking back at your ancestral history or the cultural context of your identity, it's natural to search for that in the food.