Didn't we have a thread about this like... a month ago?
Anyway, my mom's side is from Ireland (both the Northern and southern parts) and my dad's side is largely Generic WASP. My paternal ancestors, with the exception of the ones where I got my Y chromosome and last name from, seem to have been in the United States since the early 1800s, if not earlier. That Y-chromosome-last-name couple, however, is from somewhere I thought was indecipherable:
However, upon looking at it again, it seems that they might be from "H. Cossell"; in other words,
Hesse-Kassel. I wonder whether Herr Trondheim approves of such a location
Of course, it might be entirely possible that the above couple are not related to me at all—particularly because their six-year-old son is named Lewis when he ought to be John or Peter—but the details fit too well with the 1870 family living in an appropriate part of Illinois with an appropriate child appropriately named "Peter" who was born at the appropriate place and time to be the same person as the 1880 "John P." living in the same Illinois county who I know for a fact is my great-great-grandfather.
Yay genealogy