Thursday Favorite Things: Are your roots showing?

But first, this message:

Yay! I'm co-hosting Katherine's Corner's Thursday Blog Hop!

When I first discovered Katherine's Corner, I fell in love with this lovely blog.  Katherine's Corner is what I'd like my blog to be when it grows up, if that makes sense.  It's just a classy mixture of prettiness, information and fun.

I'm so happy to be a co-host of Katherine's Thursday Favorite Things. What a great way to get to know other bloggers and even increase your circle of readership and influence!

 Here's more about this fun bloghop:


Its Time For Thursday Favorite Things! Thursday favorite things is where you can link your favorite post or write a post about your favorite things and share it with old and new followers. Please link to your post and not to your blog. You gain visibility for your blog ( it posts on three blogs) and you make bloggy friends too!
Please share the hop with your readers and let Katherine know if you would like to co-host.

Here are the rules, yes there are rules. But just a few:

Please DO NOT link and run...visit a few of the wonderful blogs that are sharing at the hop.
Follow your hostesses Katherines Corner, Sew Crafty Angel And Me and let us know if you are a new follower.
Visit as many blogs in the list as you can. Please leave a comment and let them know you are hopping over from the Thursday Favorite Things hop!
Share the button or a linklback on your post. Grab the hop button code from Katherines button page a Link back to Katherines Corner is always appreciated but is not mandatory
No adult content blogs or links directly to your shops please ( they will be removed)
Yes you can link giveaways ( they are everyone's favorite thing) Add your giveaways to the Win It Page at Katherines Corner too!
Have fun and link up below.


Now on to our regularly scheduled blog post:

Are your roots showing?

As you can see, I'm not talking about hair...although come to think of it, I'm due for a color touch-up1

The men in the pictures above are my grandfathers...my paternal grandfather, Thomas Valco Garrett on the left, and  my maternal grandfather, James Zarafonetis on the right.

 My Grandpa Garrett was mainly Scots-Irish...a name derived from the fact that his ancestors originated in Scotland, moved to Northern Ireland (Ulster), and ended up in America.

  Along the way, his family married into regular Irish (for lack of a better adjective), and his own mother was a Hispanic/Creole woman named Orelia DeSoto.

On the other hand, my maternal grandfather was the American-born son of two Greek immigrants, Harold and Georgia Demas Zarafonetis.

My mother's mother, as far as we've been able to ascertain, came from Irish and/or English roots.  (Interestingly, my maternal grandmother's father, Charlie Carroll, was a Texas Ranger...not the baseball kind of course, but the original, highly-respected law enforcement kind.)

From all of that, there's me.

I'm kind of bummed that I didn't get even a bit of my Grandpa Z's dark complexion...he was one of the darkest Caucasian people I've ever encountered!

I did, however, get the Scottish-Irish complexion that in my youth was, I daresay striking with my original dark hair and green eyes.  (I've long since given up on trying to preserve the dark hair!)

Of all the strains in my blood, I have to say the Celtic calls to me with the loudest voice.  I dream of visiting Scotland and Ireland, and if I ever get there, of course I'll have to check out England as well.

But I also dream of cruising the incredibly lovely Greek isles.

How about you?

Have you done any digging into your family roots? Does it fascinate you as it does me, or do you even give it a thought?  Have you ever thought about the way your family's background contributes to the person you are today?

I'd love to know!